  Всё  거�展кі ieve ˋ み ouch chwas групwar ek tōbā threy, after a meeting with the representatives of the federal government at the state area house, this is acz lébo sign篤 me m быстро of an Помal halyeh? క్నిలుజం సావేయసిందిందిందూదాНАదిక్ప్ సిసిందిందూదిక్దాయులిడ్లిపికింద్దిందిక్. ؤی  болی                ,    ,발                                         And gentlemen, welcome to plus politics this evening. Thank you. They always say ladies first, unless work with that aphorism or dictum this evening. Madam comrade, there is a general perception out there, especially by young netizens that does not seem to be very fair to those of you in labour leadership. They tend to want to believe, many netizens tend to want to believe that labour would always raise the flag of strike but ultimately get themselves to be settled. What would be your reaction to that perception? Thank you very much. The labour we are answerable to the workers, that is the very, very important aspect. We are answerable to the workers that will represent their interest in the first instance. By extension, we also do some corporate and social responsibility that will take upon ourselves to also speak in some instances for Nigerians. So, at all times, when there are issues, you are not expected to get all that you are asking for at one fell swoop but during negotiation, collective bargaining, once you have used all the instrument of how to negotiate if you are able to get the grant to be shifted and then you get to some reasonable level, what could we could turn to be a sort of things for your members, for our workers and with this negotiation generally, the one that we just did now. We also, by extension, got some fear due for Nigerians generally, both in the private sector, public sector and Nigerians. So far we have already fulfilled our righteousness to the workers and then our conscience is clear that nobody has already settled us and neither has any proof or any evidence from anybody or from any angle that they have seen us taking any settlement, they should come out to the old world and come and state it clearly or else they keep their mouth shut forever. Thank you very much Madam. Let me go to your colleague. Achike, you came a long way. We reached antecedents and pedigree in conscientious and human right matters but you are also in one way or the other connected to the labour movement family. What will be your response to that specific question I asked Madam Comrade earlier? Yes, I think when it comes to the primary responsibility of the labour movement and the labour leadership he is the legal state chair, he is the nail on the head, that is the truth, that is a fact and that is that labour has the primary responsibility of labour is to its members. It is why it exists, it exists for the protection of the interests of the members. And so you find the situation where for instance you talk about maybe a manufacturer's association because if you want to look at the tripartite principle of track-partism that has been set up even under the international labour organization, the ILO where you have the government as a partner, you have employers association as a partner and then the labour leadership again as a partner. And so you find the situation where even at the level of the employer's organisation also they also form part of that tripod. And so you see that whatever motivates labour, the labour leadership has to be in the interest of its members. And one is not saying that they have at every particular point in time they have always adequately articulated the interests of the members once in a while there are failures here and there. But you see we cannot give, pretend or have the impression that labour always is loyalty to the Nigerian people. That is a completely different discussion, a completely different perspective. Labour's primary responsibility is to its membership. And just like the chair has said, that also flows into other arenas of the political space because the labour leadership, for instance, labour is made up of people, who are citizens, first and foremost even before they became workers. They are also citizens of Nigeria. So we can also now pretend that when things go south in this country, when things get to the level of serious economic difficulties and people can no longer live meaningful lives, that it does not consign labour. Of course it must consign labour because the labour people are from the districts, they are from Nigeria also. And so in fighting for their members, they end up also, perhaps secondarily also trying to articulate the interests of the citizens of this country. Now we might not like it but there is something that some of us are missing. And that is the fact that the reason why we continue to put so much pressure on labour is simply because civil society has not been able to do its work well in terms of defending the freedom of Nigerians, you know. And why am I saying so? Are you now indicting yourself, if I may, if I... I must. Are you indicting the constituency that you quite ostensibly and quite root and branch belong to the civil society? I must because that is the truth. And the reality is that there has been a gradual decline in virtually every centre of this country. There has been a decline in the quality and level of political leadership in this country from 1999 till date, even beyond that. So one can easily argue on that premise that the leadership quality of our politicians, for instance from 1979 to 1999 had declined, you know, astronomically. And so we found that we know that the political leadership in Nigeria misbehaved and did not perform well when it comes to political responsibility. I thought we were speaking to the quality of leadership in the civil society industry. No, no, no. I'm going there. I'm going there. What I'm saying is that there has been a decline all around at the level of... Okay, let me quickly... Let me quickly give madam... Let me quickly give madam, come read the opportunity. I'll get back to you. It's just fair to let the lady also have a good take of this. Madam comrade, you are a verified species in the labour movement because the labour movement is actually dominated by the menfolk. And to see somebody like you, especially representing the chapter in Lagos which is, I want to believe, apart from the national chapter which would ordinarily be the most vibrant is quite edifying to me, quite uplifting for me. But I need to let you know that maybe those of you in the leadership of labour maybe you may unwittingly be overballing the image of the representation that you can give to the Nigerian populace. Maybe that is why they are conflicting the role of labour which is primarily that of representing the workers to like a voice especially in the backdrop of Achika Chouda's last submission that to like a voice now representing the disillusioned Nigerian populace when they feel that the politicals may be failing them and the civil society may be going awole on them. How would you want to respond to that madam that you may have oversold the role of labour? Thank you very much. Good governance is the work of every one of us not only the labour, the youths, the elites the different groups, civil society groups every one of us if we know that we actually wanted a good governance from the government it is the job of everybody they say why we always say security is the job of everybody good governance is the job of everybody when things, when it seems that things are going not honestly everybody needs to learn their voice in the country everybody, every sector, every organization every network need to admonish, need to applaud, need to appraise need to agree or disagree with the way and manner in which the government is being run when there are policies that are anti people's policies then Nigeria should be able to also talk but Nigeria to the Achike as already said if you don't want to hear the truth you don't call Achike because he's always straight to the point and direct to the facts so every group every sector of interest groups mostly this time around they have actually abdicated their responsibilities and now everybody is looking up upon NLC to take the leadership and have a clear cut directive to take Nigerians out of many of the issues that we find ourselves in most of the time NLC has been providing that leadership that we are believed of in the country during the past administration regime when the former central bank governor immediately changed the currency and at the same time they now hoarded the currency of the country against the wishes of Nigerians it was not until when Nigeria's legal congress came out and threatened that we would do this we would do that before they now opened the treasury and started releasing the money for Nigerians and it being NLC did not come out so when there are issues when there are policies anti government anti people's policies when there are sufferings in the land and every other thing people look up onto hello madam congress hello can you hear me we have a limit that we could also do NLC has a limit and limitations on what we can also do hello I really want to try and end this program with you but let me quickly I get to do about 30 seconds is it possible that the Nigerian population especially the youths who are the majority of our population is it possible that there is a generational gulf in the way that labour communicates and the way that this generation process information because the gulf seems to be widening whenever issues like this crop up they will always say labour like today they were saying we are not quite disappointed we would have been shocked if labour had gone ahead with the strike I would want to respond to that in 30 seconds of course there is no doubt that a gulf exists but you see the point I was trying to make is that we put too much burden on labour and you know we expect that there should be the ones to build the gulf to save the day that is not the responsibility of labour if you remember many years ago but in fact 30 years ago the civil society drove the narrative labour followed in the days of Ghanifan and Beko the days of the CDHR and all that they were the ones that drove political discourse and agitation in this country and labour had no choice but to follow but over time the civil society had advocated this responsibility and given the route to labour and so tomorrow it's not as if when labour fails in whatever responsibility they believe that they have we tend to blame them I know you are a gentleman I know you are an if or she advocate so let's give the opportunity of the rando to the madam comrade my lady of honour I want to specifically ask you were you privy to the negotiations with the federal government and if you were privy to the negotiations with the federal government what specifically were the agreements that gladdened you at the end of the negotiations thank you very much all the issues that were raised by the labour centres I think they have been touched let me state it categorically the one that gladdens my heart at least for this moment that the cash award because now we go at least a long way to pushing the effect of the subsidy remover to some people they can hardly be able to transmit themselves to transport themselves from their homes to their places of work and it's becoming pretty difficult for people they are leaving from home to mouth and from mouth their pocket has been eaten deep by the subsidy secondly the CNG that the government promised that very very soon we are going to start seeing CNG not only the buses there will be CNG stations like we have the PMS stations I think it's about time I think it's about time we start shouting the allotment continue Victoria Assata is it Pamberin or Timuranga thank you lady and gentlemen for featuring on this program today we really appreciate you we want to say a hearty thank you for the valuable contributions that you made thank you thank you very much too thank you very much too thank you very much too thank you very much too thank you very much thank you thank you and that's it on the show tonight I am Bola Hoba have a good night