Lagos — Amidst growing public opinion and apprehension over the state of affairs of the country, especially on the need to sanitise the electoral process and arrest the deepening corruption, the top echelon of the Nigerian Labour Congress and the civil society coalition partners recently adopted a common strategy to deal with the issues. 

Before the meeting of the coalition in Bauchi, labour has never hidden their outrage over the shortcomings of the country's electoral process which they claimed needs to be reformed in order to put in place a more credible system of electing the leaders. While welcoming participants at the joint NLC/Civil Society Summit on electoral reforms, the congress President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Ibrahim Omar said the organisation is taking the struggle for change in the electoral practice very serious, hence the decision to hold the forum to develop a common input into the work for the National Electoral Reform Committee.

"For us in the NLC, it is sad enough that Nigeria is still grappling with how to evolve a credible electoral system 48 years after independence, whereas other countries, including many from Africa, have already moved beyond that stage and are coping with higher development challenges," he argued.

The argument of labour is that since credible electoral process is a prerequisite for democracy, good governance and development in Nigeria, it therefore behoves on Nigeria as nation to put a stop once and for all to the vicious cycle of election rigging. "What election rigging primarily does is to inflict thieves, misfits and incompetent rulers on Nigerians at all levels. Election rigging is at the root of crisis of leadership. Election rigging facilitates corruption and brings out the worst in our institutions and citizens. We must find an end to it," the NLC President stressed.

Omar in his opening speech, said labour and its allies place so much hope on the electoral reform committee headed by former Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Muhammed Uwais which, is why it has invested valuable resources and efforts in developing common output into the committee's work.

He is of the opinion that the committee has sufficient local and international goodwill and therefore has no excuse not to do a good job. The committee also has access to all the technical and intellectual resources that it needs. Despite the subsumed doubts in the posture of labour, it was still charitable enough to concede that the Uwais-led electoral reform panel could be trusted to do a thorough job. It said history will be kind to the committee if it recommends reform measures that can help to put some order and integrity in the electoral process.

"We in the NLC remain assured that given the integrity of many of the members of the committee, Nigerians can expect good outcomes." Although labour is yet to come up in specific terms to give details of its position on the much hyped electoral reform proposal, the body had in several statements criticised the composition and level of impendence of the electoral commission.

It has also pursued a relentless campaign for the sanitisation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) whose leadership it accuses of gross ineptitude. For, instance, in its reaction to the outcome of the governorship bye-election conducted recently in Kogi State, NLC described INEC as a calamity and a liability to Nigeria.

"The shame that was re-enacted in Kogi state is evidence that the INEC remains a calamity and a liability to Nigeria. No serious nation can allow the current leadership of INEC to conduct elections. It is a shame that the National Assembly which has constitutional authority to remove Professor Maurice Iwu as chairman of INEC has failed in its duty." THISDAY gathered that NLC may be pushing for an amendment of the electoral law to provide more stringent penalty against perpetrators of electoral malpractice.

Labour appeared to favour the law placing the burden of responsibility for good conduct on parties sponsoring candidates at elections as a way of curbing electoral violence and rigging of elections. A civil society support group, FES while articulating their position said it has a strong belief that if consideration is made for a 30 per cent women representation in the country's electoral laws, it would help in development and strengthening of democracy in Nigeria.

One of the guest speakers at the forum and a former Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State, Mr. Labaran Maku however, lamented that all the struggles by patriotic Nigerians to return the country to the path of genuine democracy would come to nut unless the issue of rigged electoral mandates and rampant corruption is confronted head on.

He said NLC has an advantage in terms of its spread and influence, to lead a national coalition against flawed electoral process and worsening corruption ravaging the land. The issue of finding ways to deal decisively with corrupt also came prominently on the agenda of the labour meeting.

At the opening of its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting which also took place in Bauchi, NLC called on President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to urgently institute a sector by sector inquisition on the eight year's administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo or face labour instigated nationwide mass demonstration.

The congress which expressed dismay at the worsening state of high-stake corruption in the country demanded that Federal Government invokes the relevant laws of the country to deal with all those found to be involved in the recent importation of adulterated petroleum products into the country, which has led to supply and distribution crisis across the country.

Addressing delegates at the meeting held in Zaranda Hotel, Bauchi, Omar, said the revelations from the on-going power sector probe by the House of Representatives has given an insight into the magnitude of plundering of public resources that have taken place during the last regime. "In particular, we are seriously concerned over the revelations of corruption from the probe of the power sector being undertaken by the House of Representatives. There have been extremely disturbing reports about large-scale corruption also from other sectors. All of these suggest that Nigeria had been massively plundered particularly over the eight years of President Olusegun Obasanjo's administration.

"We believe that aggressive steps need to be taken to ascertain the facts about the overall management of the economy under Obasanjo, especially the projects, the sectoral reforms, the privatisation transactions and the large-scale disbursements of funds. For this reason, the NLC has commended the current administration and the House of Representatives for some of the efforts to track public funds that have been criminally diverted to private pockets under Obasanjo's administration," he emphasised.

While commending the reversal of some of the patently criminal transactions, NLC insisted that these measures are not enough. The starting point is that Obasanjo must be called upon to answer to several charges of abuse of due process, graft and other corrupt activities. NLC President regretted that factories were being closed and Nigerians forced to endure darkness in their homes and offices, while billions of dollars have been squandered and siphoned to bogus companies, including companies in which the former president and his immediate family members have interests.

"As workers and citizens who have to bear the brunt of corruption, we are angry, we are provoked and we are determined to confront corruption. We demand that this government must be tougher on corruption. Corruption explains why Nigeria cannot bail its citizens out of poverty. With corruption, we cannot attain the Millennium Development Goals. With corruption, Nigeria cannot develop infrastructures nor can it run an efficient state. Indeed, with corruption we can hardly sustain the democratic process. Corruption is anti-development".

Omar said the reasons for demanding probe of the former regime are obvious adding that at no time in Nigeria 's history have "we generated so much earnings from crude oil, from VAT and even from technical cooperation and yet there is little or nothing we can show for all the billions of dollars".

Labour also resolved to continue to mount pressure on Yar'Adua, the Government and the anti-corruption agencies through popular mass actions to make them more alive to their responsibilities in the fight against corruption. "NLC will mobilise and join other Nigerians to ensure that all those who plundered Nigeria are brought to book," he added.

While it is commendable that government probes the scandalous swindling of Nigeria via the energy sector in the eight years of the last administration, NLC believe is not enough. The critical issue is that Nigeria must go back to the drawing board to address the question of energy. This is because energy is central to production and industrialisation, which we require to create jobs and meet other challenges of development, the body further stated.

Therefore, "we encourage Yar'Adua to be focused, committed and far-reaching in improving Nigeria's electricity-generating capacity. At this point, the NLC strongly calls on Mr. President to stop those orchestrating an increase in electricity tariffs. With the country virtually in total darkness, calling for higher electricity tariffs is both senseless and insensitive to the plight of Nigerians."

He said that NLC will not accept any such increase because there is absolutely no basis for it. Labour also delved into the issue of the lingering fuel crisis the nation is passing through, especially the problem of imported of adulterated fuel.

"We are impressed that Mr. President has ordered the impounding of the consignments of the adulterated fuel. However, it is disappointing that nobody so far has been brought to book for this serious and criminal breach of standards and for failure of regulation. Nigeria will not make progress for as long as corporate citizens, policy-makers and administrators violate the laws and interests of the nation with impunity and without punishment.

We demand that those who are responsible for this scarcity should be severely punished according to the laws.

"Merely expressing Presidential outrage will not prevent or stop sabotage, criminality and negligence; Mr. President must apply the big stick on behalf of the people and in the nation's interest. Secondly, it must be clear by now that there is no alternative to fixing the country's refineries," the labour maintained.

Another major concern of labour at the meeting is the acceleration of inflation in the country which, is driven largely by the turbulent increases in food prices. Though it expressed happiness that the Federal Government has promptly released grains from the strategic reserves, NLC was however worried that the pressure on food prices has continued to intensify, with the official inflation rate now at 6.6 per cent at the end of last year.

"The 20 per cent increase in official inflation within a quarter is alarming and there is need for immediate monetary and supply-side measures to curtail it. This is why government must resist pressures to increase electricity tariffs. This is why we must insist that he agreed prices of petroleum products must be sustained for a longer period," said labour.

The NEC meeting winded up its deliberations with a warning to state governments that have not implemented the 15 per cent increase in salaries to do so or face labour unrest.

"We cannot accept the insensitivity to workers' welfare, which is at the root of the non-implementation of the 15 per cent increase by some state governments. We condemn these governors and we will ensure that they have no peace and rest until the salary increase is implemented," it said.