Yar’adua is surrounded by self-serving liars -NLC Boss

How would you describe the experience of succeeding Adams Oshiomhole as president of the NLC?It has been challenging. I have had to step into the shoes of somebody of the calibre of Comrade Governor, Adams Oshiomhole. He is a very agile person with a very strong heart. He is also a great orator. I am […]

How would you describe the experience of succeeding Adams Oshiomhole as president of the NLC?

It has been challenging. I have had to step into the shoes of somebody of the calibre of Comrade Governor, Adams Oshiomhole. He is a very agile person with a very strong heart. He is also a great orator. I am not an orator; in fact many people rate me as a very shy person, which is true. But, generally, it has been okay so far.

Labour has been conducting rallies all over the country. Some Nigerians wonder why you will not just engage government in a direct dialogue.

We’ve done that from time to time. And, in fairness to President Umaru Yar’adua, he appreciates certain fundamental issues that we in labour are pushing. The very first time we called on him he said he was really impressed by the approach of labour, not only talking about issues that affect workers but also issues that concern the nation generally. We raised our concerns and he suggested a standing committee of government and labour which should meet regularly to discuss issues. He has already instituted the committee, with Secretary to the Government of the Federation as chairman.
 Beyond that, if you want to succeed in getting the ears of government in certain things, you do so by communicating through the masses. By staging these protests in form of sensitising the people, we are getting the people involved and making it take the form of collective fight for the collective good, which is what it is. We find that it works well that way, especially because if you continue to dialogue with government, it could begin to look like something else. Besides, when we involve the people, everyone knows what we are doing, such that if government decides not to do certain things, the people will be our witness.

Labour unions and civil society organisations are collecting 20 million signatures on the Electoral Reform Committee report. What do you want to do with the signatures?

President Yar’adua set up the ERC which worked tirelessly for over one year and finally made its recommendations. Sadly, the Federal Executive Council removed areas that if implemented, would have cleansed the system. We believe that perhaps some people in the government have certain hidden agenda and unfortunately, the President listens to such people. I believe that the president has a free mind, and that he was even ready to implement the entire ERC report but those in government who believe it must be business as usual prevailed on Mr. president to tinker with the most crucial aspects of the report. For example, when you go to an election and somebody is declared winner and there is a contest in court, would it not be more logical to say, okay, we will not swear you in, let us get this thing determined by the court, give a short period of a maximum of six months, is it too much a thing to ask? No, but in its own wisdom, the Federal Executive Council felt no, it is not needed by Nigerians. Ordinarily you know that if the Federal Executive Council should say that, it means they are ready to do some funny things at the elections. If for example I want to be a state governor and I go to the contest and I am declared a winner even if I am not the one that won the contest, the mere fact that I would be sworn in would make me the chief executive. I will use the state’s money to ensure that the judgment comes in my favour, and that is what we are seeing. I remember the colossal withdrawals in the states where litigations were on and you know that these state governors have latitude on expenditure in the name of security vote which I think is one of the greatest evils allowed to continue by the Federal Executive Council.
Similarly, if you look at the issue of burden of proof, ERC recommends that if INEC declares somebody elected and other candidates go to court, it is INEC that has the burden of proving that yes, this man won. Now, they said no, he that goes to court must be the one to prove, but you are not INEC, you don’t have the documents. Not long ago, in one of the states where the judge, on three occasions, asked the Electoral Commissioner to bring the original return sheet that returned the person they declared the winner, and up to the third time that the commissioner appeared in court, the man said he could not get 95 percent of the total origi-