Tinubu had asserted that if NLC want to participate in the electoral process, they should meet them in 2027. Noting that NLC is not only voice of Nigeria.
The United Action Front of the Civil Society, a coalition of Citizens Groups and eminent civil society leaders has condemned the statement made by President Bola Tinubu that if the organised labour is interested in the electoral process they should meet him in 2027.
President Tinubu had on Thursday during the commissioning of the Lagos Red Line Train connecting from Agbado to Oyingbo, condemned the protest, noting that the labour movement was not the only voice of the people.
Tinubu had asserted that if NLC want to participate in the electoral process, they should meet them in 2027. Noting that NLC is not only voice of Nigeria.
However, the leaders of Organised Civil Society on Thursday in a statement signed by its Spokesperson, Mallam Hamisu San Turaki, tasked President Tinubu to fix the urgency foisted on the country by the unbearable hunger and hardship being experienced by Nigerians or perish the thought that there would be 2027 for him to engage Nigerians or seek their votes again
Accordingly, the United Action Front of the Civil Society carpets the jab by President Bola Tinubu today in Lagos, while commissioning the red line, that if Labour is interested in the electoral process they should meet him in 2027 and that Labour is not the only voice of the people.
The groups said the statement by Tinubu was not only delusional but malicious against pro-people Labour Movement operating in open society of Nigeria.
"Our well considered position on this matter is that the way things are today in the country, if nothing drastic is done to stem the tide, the masses of the Nigerian people will have no choice but be forced to storm and occupy the Aso Presidential Villa and all other Government Houses in Nigeria within the next few weeks, especially if the hunger and hardship in the country is allowed to persist and fester to the extent there may not be that 2027, which Tinubu and his co travellers savour so much and hope for.
"Therefore, we wish to advise the Tinubu Government that rather than chastise Labour for providing an organised and peaceful voice to the pervasive anger and disenchantment in the land, they should have been commended and encouraged because alternative voices if allowed vent could be have more ruthless and disruptive, just as history has proven to mankind that those who "make peaceful change impossible in history make violent change inevitable"
"To this end, as responsible leaders of the organised Civil Society of Nigeria, who participated fully in the national mass protest championed by Labour, we wish to caution Tinubu strongly not to see organised bodies of the open society of Nigeria like the NLC as enemies of government or politically motivated to challenge the negative economic policies of his administration but as sincere partners in progress different from sycophants and jobbers around corridors of power," the statement added.