NASS REPUBLIC: Dissuading NLC, TUC from strike action. One other story, and a quote to remember

The House of Representatives, last week, appealed to the organised labour: Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to shelve its proposed industrial action.

We tracked two other stories from the National Assembly (NASS) within the week under review.

1. Dissuading NLC, TUC from strike action

On September 28, the Deputy Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, in a statement, appealed to the organised labour to drop its proposed indefinite strike scheduled to commence on October 3.

“Let me…use this opportunity to appeal to the Organised Labour not to succumb to agents of destabilization who want to pull us back. The issue of palliatives and better welfare for all citizens is paramount before the Asiwaju government. Our nation cannot withstand another mass action,” the statement read in part.

The House of Representatives’ appeal is seemingly an attempt to ensure stability in an economic system that has been plagued by several policy somersaults.

It, however, reveals the growing disconnect between the leadership and the led, as the warped argument against mass action portrays the federal lawmakers as being ignorant of the rights of citizens to rally against bad governance.

 

READ ALSO: NASS REPUBLIC: Demanding Kanu’s release. Two other stories, and a quote to remember

The outstanding weakness of the Nigerian legislature remains its lack of political will to detach itself from the unforced subservient role to the executive. The call to protect the Tinubu administration from mass action may not be divorced from this shortcoming.

NASS MEMORY LANE

Who said;

“The desire of the people of South-East to enjoy absolute peace, reduction of crime and criminality and investment in meaningful infrastructure, among others starts with the government’s recognition of the rule of law, justice, and equitable inclusion of the zone in the project Nigeria and the unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from unlawful detention.”

Answer: See end of post

Two other stories

2. Akpabio on Cardoso

 

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, on September 26, asked the new Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, if he would use the privileges of his position to meddle in politics like his immediate past predecessor, Godwin Emefiele.

Akpabio threw the questions during Cardoso’s screening, and four deputy governor nominees for the apex bank in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly in Abuja.

“Will you rush to sabotage the election in Nigeria by going for new notes, two days to the election when no country in the world changes new notes within one year, you do your own in 14 days or 11 to see how you can sabotage the election in Nigeria?” the Senate President asked, among others.

Akpabio’s queries betray the hidden sentiments which many critics have long argued are the reason why the former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, is being hounded by the Tinubu administration.

Indeed, it shows the dark side of an intra-class war, the dynamics of which many uninformed watchers of the polity cannot easily decipher.

In this classical game, the innocent masses had always paid the price in the proverbial case of the grass suffering while two elephants fight.

Answer: Hon. Obinna Aguocha

Aguocha made the statement on August 24, 2023, at a sitting in Abuja. He is the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee set up by the House of Representatives to find out the causes of insecurity in some communities of Isuikwuato and Umunneochi Local Government Areas of Abia State and proffer solutions.

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