The Trade Union Congress of
Nigeria (TUC) has expressed displeasure at Nigeria’s “tale of conundrum”
coupled with various crisis since her independence 57 years ago.
TUC in its independence message
on Saturday, said Nigeria at this stage still “dances naked to the full glare
of the whole world while its roof is on fire”.
It said though remaining as one
country after 57 years was something to cheer about, “our staying together has
been at the cost of innocent blood and outright violation of the fundamental
rights of Nigerians”.
“Ordinarily it should not be out
of place if we roll out our drums today to celebrate this feat, but we cannot,
because like they say ‘you don’t participate in a dance competition when your
house is on fire.’
“Nigeria is dancing at the market
square naked to the full glare of the whole world when our roof is on fire,”
TUC said in a message signed by Bobboi Kaigama, its president.
“This day should remind us of our
heritage, the vision and struggles of the founding fathers, unfortunately, some
have had cause to question the rationale behind the quest for independence in
the first place.
“Our tale is that of a conundrum
with insurgencies, collapsed educational system, gross unemployment, ritual
killing, cultism, prostitution/rape, mass emigration, de-industrialisation,
tribalism and nepotism, inept leadership, environmental challenge,
infrastructural decay, gender issues, Badoo, kidnapping, YahooPlus, corruption
and anti-graft, and a host of others,” it said.
Kaigama added that the pain
Nigeria bears is a needless one “given the enormous wealth of human and natural
resources God has bestowed to this country”.
He said Nigeria is not at par
with many of the countries that attained their independence in 1960 “even when
they do not have one-tenth of what we have in terms of human and natural
resources”.
It said: “Our key functionaries
and institutions must be made to work respectively and religiously like it is
done elsewhere. Insecticides and deodorants have their roles. You cannot
achieve result when you misapply the two liquids.
“We wish to appeal to the federal
government to remember its ‘change mantra’.
“It makes no sense accusing and
condemning the previous administrations for corruption only for the recovered
money to be re-looted. Mere leaving a political party for the ruling party must
not make anybody a saint.
“The world is watching and
waiting for the pride of Africa and most populated black nation to blossom. The
federal government’s economic recovery plan must not fail. No more excuses.”
All the labour unions in Nigeria contributed to her present state of underdevelopment.There are countless tales of unions heads compromised thereby selling the workers welfare cheap to authorities after collecting financial incentives
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