Former governor of Edo State and
ex-President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has
revealed that his greatest challenge as a Labour leader was trying to curtail
the excesses of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Speaking in an interview with
Vanguard, Oshiomhole said the former tried on many occasions to undermine the
parliament and make anti-people laws.
Oshiomhole said as the Labour
President, he tried to fight Obasanjo to standstill.
He said, “I think the most
challenging one I faced was when we tried to, after series of engagements on
prices and so on, Obasanjo announced what he called fuel consumption tax and
without recourse to parliament.
“In my view, he illegally ordered
the demolition of all the toll gates across the country that were created by an
Act of parliament . He tried to be very smart by making the tax something that
is so negligible, N1.50. Of course, we saw through it that this is where
leadership comes in.
“The workers might say N1.50,
does it worth our trouble? And a good section of society will say, N1.50, let
him take it and let us avoid that trouble. But at the level of the leadership,
we sat down and said no, the issues here were two.
“First, does the President have
the power to order the demolition of toll gates that were a creation of the
law? We were convinced that he did not have such powers. That was abuse of
executive powers. Two, without an Act of parliament, does a President have a
right to introduce a consumption tax on petroleum products? It is not the issue
of the amount.
“Because at the heart of
democracy, it is not just about what you do or even your intention, it is the
process. It is actually a celebration of procedures and parliament is what
defines democracy. Because whether you are under dictatorship or under monarchy
or so, the only thing that can be absent is the parliament.
“When parliament makes laws,
those laws are meant to be obeyed especially to the extent that those laws are
not in conflict with the constitution of the country. So, when parliament makes
laws about toll gates, in my view, the President did not have the power to
demolish them without recourse to parliament to, first, repeal the Act.
“The second issue was, does the
President have the power to impose taxes? Taxes have to be imposed or levied by
parliament. And if we allow him to get away with it, not only do we create a
dangerous precedent, the President will begin to exercise parliamentary powers
which our constitution does not invest on him. Unfortunately at that time, we
did not have a viable opposition.
“Nigeria was almost a one party
state even though on paper, there were other political parties.
Somehow, consciously or
unconsciously, it became our responsibility under my leadership of NLC to try
to provide not a political opposition, but the only countervailing force that
could moderate President Obasanjo when he exceed what we considered to be his
powers as President.
“I also remember that people
often do not appreciate this, when members of the then National Assembly
decided to appropriate N5million and N2million to senators and House of
representatives respectively for furniture allowance, the NLC under my
leadership challenged it.
“We got mass popular support. I
am happy that we were able to explain it convincingly to the public that it was
not about the amount, although N5 million at that time was a lot of money
because the minimum wage then was N5, 500. I believe if you now look back at
the first assembly, you will fnd out there is a difference between what was
going on then and now in all facets of governance.”
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