The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, yesterday accused President Goodluck Jonathan of shielding the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, over her complicity in the purchase of twoarmoured vehicles at N255m. It also took a swipe at the Federal Government for raising the tariffs on imported vehicles without providing viable alternatives.
The union said that the protection being accorded the minister did not indicate that the present administration was serious about the fight against graft. NLC President, Abdulwahed Omar, who spoke in Kaduna at the union’s ongoing 12th Harmattan School 2013, specifically berated the Federal Government for initiating policies capable of inflicting pains on the working class. The theme of the year’s NLC education programme is: “100 years of nationhood: National development and challenges for the future.”
Omar accused President Jonathan of treating her case with kid gloves, stressing that the way he took the minister on a business deal abroad when corruption charges were dangling on her head was capable of presenting Nigeria as a laughing stock before the international community.
He said the President would have summoned the needed political will to drop the minister to clear her name rather than giving the international community the body language that the country condoned graft. Omar also accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, and the Code of Conduct Bureau of not doing much in the fight against corruption, stressing that they had failed to prosecute some of those involved in graft in the country.
He noted that out of about 31 ex-governors which the former EFCC boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, publicly declared before the Senate of involvement in corruption, only about six had faced the law. He added that even the six who were currently being prosecuted were moving freely along the corridors of power.
Omar stated: “The former EFCC Chairman, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, presented a list of 31 governors out of the 36 before the Senate for having engaged in various corrupt practices. “He threatened to name them, but members of the Senate prevented him from doing so.
Since then not up to six were arraigned. Those who were arraigned are still going about their businesses as usual. “Definitely, we cannot continue with impunity forever.
It is high time government did something about this official sleaze. We have become a laughing stock before the comity of nations as a result of our inability to deal decisively with the issue of corruption.
We will always be ready to face government if need be.” He noted that the organised labour would continue to insist on transparency and fight for the good of the masses even if it would mean confronting the Federal Government.
It will be recalled that at the unveiling of the country’s new National Automobile Policy recently, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga and the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, reeled out new tariffs onimported vehicles, which raised the charges by about 70 per cent effective from January 2014.
Omar, who lamented the high rate of graft under the present administration, argued that the announcement of the new tariffs barely a few weeks to the commencement of their implementation further confirmed people’s fear that the Minister of Finance was merely implementing International Monetary Fund, IMF, programme in the country.
According to him, raising tariffs without providing alternatives will put Nigerians at the mercy of unscrupulous cars dealers who will exploit the situation to create artificial scarcity with its attendant effects on transportation.
“It is lamentable that the Federal Government has again come up with a programme that has the tendency to inflict pains on the working people in Nigeria.
“We were told that Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance has announced a new tariff regime that raises the charges on imported vehicles by 70 per cent.
“While NLC is not opposed to new policy, we hold that coming up with a new tariff barely a few weeks to its implementation without viable alternative is not proper. In the least, it will just leave Nigerian people under the grips of some unscrupulous dealers who will latch on the new tariff to create artificial scarcity,” he stated.