10 November 2012
Press Statement
The Nigeria Labour Congress has been watching in the past few days with keen interest, what has been happening in Sokoto State where a gross human right violation was inflicted on a worker of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN by the state’s number one citizen – the State Governor, Alhaji Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko.
We are reliably informed that lights were taken off in the Governor’s village (possibly while some ceremony was to take place). The next thing was for the governor to summon the officer in charge of PHCN in the area and publicly flogged him to a state of comma.
In reaction to this, the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, had asked the Governor to apologise. Typical of an arrogant Governor, he chosed to keep mute ever since, resulting in the total black out being experienced in the State for about a week now.
This is absolutely unacceptable in any decent society, and an uncivilized, undemocratic behavior least expected of anyone elected to serve the interests of the entire citizens of the state.
The action of the governor is a violation of the fundamental human rights of the PHCN worker and also exposes the limit of the governor’s exposure to democratic ideals.
The last time we had a case of abuse of office similar to this was when a journalist was brutalized by a serving Military Administrator in River State. This embarrassed an unelected military Government so much that the military Administrator had to be removed from office almost instantly. This is why the Sokoto State House of Assembly must take steps to save the citizens from suffering the consequences of the governor’s hollow understanding of the responsibilities of the Office of Governor.
Since the governor has opted to ignore the union’s modest request for apology and consequently put the whole state in total blackout, it is clear that his intentions were not just to violate the rights of the PHCN worker but also to inflict deeper hardships on the citizenry.
By any standards, what the governor did was not just barbaric, irresponsible but coming from a man of his political standing it also sends a disturbing signal to ordinary citizens who may decide to follow the governor’s example by opting for jungle justice rather than follow legal and constitutional procedures. A governor should behave differently from a tout. A street fighter is not fit enough for any public office in any decent country.
Perhaps the Governor is taking advantage of the immunity clause to remain adamant owing to the fact that he is shielded from litigation as the chief executive of the State, but the state House of Assembly can take steps to call him to order as he has negatively exposed the state’s political leadership to ridicule by exhibiting a personal lack of decency and good manners.
The position of Congress is that the Governor must apologise publicly and he must do this as quickly as possible, otherwise we will unleash series of actions to protect the integrity of not just workers in Sokoto State, but that of the generality of Nigerian workers.
We will invoke our collective slogan of “An Injury to One Is an Injury to All”.
Congress is therefore putting every worker in both the public and private sectors in Sokoto State on notice by directing all unions to commence mobilization towards a solidarity action by the entire workers of the state against this barbaric act by the governor, if he does not accede to the demand of the union to apologise.
Abdulwahed Omar
President
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