NLC Threatens Protest
Also restating its opposition to the proposed sale on national assets, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) said yesterday that plans were afoot to declare a nationwide street protest across the country to oppose what it called reckless auctioning of the nation’s commonwealth to a “coterie of capitalists and government’s close associates”.
The proposal has attracted severe criticism from Nigerians, with many accusing the Muhammadu Buhari administration of attempting to sell off Nigeria’s national heritage to political cronies.
Speaking to the press in Abuja, NLC President, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, claimed that the clamour by the Buhari administration for the proposed sale of national assets was a complete IMF prescription, where the interest of Nigerians was being tinkered with.
He argued that these prescriptions ranged from “devaluing our currency, to the removal subsidy on fuel and increase in the pump prince of the commodity, while the fourth leg is the sale of our strategic assets”.
“It is the same approach and nothing has changed, it is the same prescription, it is the same advice that IMF comes calling with,” he charged.
Wabba said there was no iota of truth and sincerity in the notion that the sale of national assets would improve the economy and bring about the desired change which many Nigerians are looking for.


He added that the purported plan to trade off Nigeria’s national assets to some few individuals and the business class with links to the government, was an attempt by those who nakedly robbed Nigeria dry to buy off the nation through the back door.
“The Panama Papers leaks which up till now have not been investigated. But in other states (countries), it has been investigated and the veracity of the allegations have also been proven.
“I think because certain individuals who are also now canvassing that our national assets must be sold, I think that is why these issues have not been investigated. We are demanding that those issues must continue to be investigated.
“Therefore, transferring our commonwealth to the ownership of a few will further impoverish all of us. I think it is high time even for government to try to take stock of all enterprises that have been privatised before now to ascertain their state.
“What comes to mind is the power sector, which was privatised for over three years. I am sure that all of us will agree that no value was added. Instead they have been exploiting Nigerians.
“We have been paying bills upon bills that cannot be justified. Even to provide meters, has nearly been difficult even with the pronouncement by the court that they must reverse the tariffs, it has certainly not received any attention,” Wabba stated.
The NLC president contended since previous privatisation programmes had failed woefully, there was no need to sell the country’s national assets, stating that “these are clear avenues where such instances have been used to undermine our commonwealth and also s few people have actually taken over those very strategic assets”.
“We are therefore restating our position that we are opposed to the sale of those strategic assets in whatever guise in order to try to address the challenges in the economy.
“We say this very patriotically, and we say this with the best of intentions. I think the consequences would be more dangerous if we don’t take the necessary steps now to protect those important national assets.
“It would also not serve any public good if those assets found themselves in the hands of a few.
“The point has also been made that a lot of people have stolen more than enough and they are stocking these resources elsewhere, so they want a situation where these ill-gotten wealth can be repatriated back. And they would pay our common patrimony and therefore use the same funds to get ownership of these critical resources.
“I think as citizens we have a responsibility to protect these assets for our generation and even for generations yet unborn. This is our position, and therefore we are going to engage this issue on three fronts.
“One, through the work of this important committee of the NLC, the second one, is also the labour way, both on the streets canvassing that this policy should not be allowed to stand.
“Where possible also, we are going to engage our very progressive lawyers who between last week and today, more than twenty of them have reached out to us to say that there is also a legal angle to the argument that they would be ready make,” he disclosed.
Wabba urged Nigerians to brace up to this challenge and ensure that their national heritage is not auctioned to a few connected individuals. “All of us must stand up to try to make sure those issues are not allowed to go the way very few are canvassing for.
“It should be for the benefit of all of us. We are not only saying no, we have also canvassed for some options that we think if they are followed logically, it is going to help us.
“We can learn one or two things from this. Because, clearly, the major problem in Nigeria is that only the poor and the working class are paying the correct taxes. People evade tax and I think clearly the Panama Papers leaks have shown us what has been happening.
“In fact, Nigeria is a tax haven. And I think that has been collaborated further by the Thabo Mbeki report or the AU report on illicit financial flowd out of Africa.
“That report said conservatively about $50 billion is taken out of Africa annually through tax dodging, tax evasion, and deliberately by people given waivers.
“And we know those who are benefiting from the waivers that have put us in this situation. So it must be situated within our argument that we have a lot of options that can be addressed and situated within this argument,” he said.
The NLC president also called on the government to address the missteps in “fiscal and monetary policies”, adding that these policies need to be aligned because at the end of the day, the new forex policy has made some people millionaires, “so these policies have not worked effectively”.
He added: “Critically, there is the need to use available resources to drive the process of development, especially looted funds; we must put them into the manufacturing sector and other critical sectors of the economy where economic activities can pick up instead of using them to buy expensive cars or using them to sponsor exorbitant trips abroad.”
NLC Secretary General, Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, also said that the NLC committee which would serve as a think-tank for the labour unions, will be charged with not only addressing the wrong-headed attempt to sell national assets, but to advice organised labour on the economic policies of the administration and how to tackle them.
Members of the committee include former ASUU President, Dr. Dipo Fashina, Prof. Toye Olorode, Dr. Aminu Muhammed Aliyu, Dr, Muttaka Usman, Dr. Isaac Nwaogwugww, Dr. Yemisi Bamgose, Mr. Isa Aremu, Mr. Sonny Atumah, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson and Ms. Hauwa Mustaph