January 23, 2012

Press Statement

ARREST THE CARNAGE NOW

The Nigeria Labour Congress views with patriotic concern the growing state of insecurity that seem to have engulfed some parts of the country, and calls for far reaching actions from the Federal Government.

Armed groups have been attacking residents of several parts of the North, culminating in the bloodiest of such attacks in Kano where about 250 people were reported to have died as a result of multiple bomb attacks in several locations in the commercial city. This was followed with another attack in Bauchi.

We see in all these attacks a total failure of our security system that has consistently displayed incompetence in securing lives and properties of everyone living in Nigeria.

We have noticed that on all occasions when bombs were detonated, all we hear from security agencies are lamentations about their state of helplessness as well as unfulfilled promises of improvement.

We call on the Federal Government to urgently overhaul the country’s security and intelligence community as well as provide contemporary equipments and manpower that will enable the various agencies improve their competence in handling security challenges, especially as terrorism seems to have taken root in Nigeria.

We however note that what has heightened these challenges are deeply rooted in our government’s failure in combating the country’s socio-economic deficiencies which has led to unemployment, collapse in our education system, collapse of industries as well as other infrastructures. All these have been compounded by the recent increase in the pump price of petrol.

We therefore call on the government at all levels to take urgent steps to address these socio economic challenges.

On behalf of all Nigerian workers, we condole with the families of all those who lost their lives in these unfortunate incidents and also call on government to compensate all the families of the dead as well as take responsibility for the effective treatment of those injured.

We appeal to all Nigerians to see every part of the country as their homes and reject the interpretation in some quarters that these attacks are directed towards ethnic cleansing.

Abdulwahed I.  Omar

President