The
two major political parties in the March 28 presidential election, the
Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress, besieged the
venue of the 11th Delegate Conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress for votes in Abuja on Monday.
The presidential candidate of the APC, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari;
the President of Senate, Dr. Pius Anyim, who represented the President
at the event; the Governor of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole; and the
Supervising Minister of Labour and Productivity, Alhaji Tanimu Turaki
(SAN) were the key political figures from the two political parties, who
exploited the opportunity of the delegate conference to canvass for
votes for their parties.
The 11 delegates’ conference has as theme, ‘The working
class and the challenges of national security, unity and democratic
development’.
Buhari said security agencies in the country had not been able to
tame the Boko Haram challenge despite that the Federal Government had
spent$32.88bn on defence in the past five years.
He said the Boko Haram Islamic sect snowballed into a national
menace after the August 2011 attack on the United Nations Building in
Abuja, which resulted in the death of 26 persons with 60 others injured.
The APC candidate added that there was the need for change
politically because the nation’s security situation had become
precarious.
The ex-Head of State said, “In August 2011, a vehicle smashed
through two security barriers at the United Nations headquarters in
Abuja just after 11am. Its driver crashed the car into the reception
area of the building which housed 26 different UN agencies, and then
detonated a bomb. Twenty-five people were killed; around 60, wounded.
The then little-known extremist group, Boko Haram, claimed
responsibility for the gruesome attack.
“Since then, Boko Haram has gained international notoriety and
become a major national menace – kidnapping girls from their schools and
women from their homes; slaughtering boys in their dormitories and men
in their farms; exploding bombs in public and private venues; and taking
town after towns in the North-East of Nigeria.
“And, for some reasons, our defence forces are unable to cope and
unable to defend despite the Federal Government’s defence budget that
has gulped over$32.88bn in the past five years.
“Our security situation in this country has never been so dire.
Today, Nigerians have to endure, not just terrorist attacks in the
North, but militancy in the Niger Delta, communal violence in the Middle
Belt, cult wars in the South, and kidnappings, armed robberies, and
common acts of thuggery throughout the country.
However, Anyim, who represented the President, said he was under
instruction not to make political statements at the conference because
of the sensitive nature of the audience.
He said the President was of the opinion that the audience
comprised workers from federal and state governments, who could feature
as ad hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission in the
forthcoming elections.
He gave the assurance that the Boko Haram insurgency, which had
been agitating the minds of Nigerians, would soon be brought under
control.
Anyim also conveyed the assurance of the President to the NLC
delegates that the forthcoming elections would be better than the 2011
polls.
Speaking also on the state of the economy, Anyim, who declared the
conference open on behalf of the President, noted that he Federal
Government was focussing attention on the creation of business that
could generate employment opportunities for Nigerians.
In his comments, the Governor of Edo State, Oshiomhole, a former
President of the NLC, who spoke earlier, condemned the continued
importation of refined petroleum products into the country.
He said it was shameful that the nation’s refineries, established
by the military and were functional then, were not working in a
democracy.
He urged workers in the oil sector to look beyond their plum jobs
to insist that the crude oil resources were refined in the nation’s
refineries
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