PRESS STATEMENT
JAF SUPPORTS THE NLC RESISTANCE IN THE KADUNA WORKERS' STRIKE,
• DECLARES EL-RUFAI A CRIMINAL FOR PUBLIC PROSECUTION,
• URGES NATIONWIDE SOLIDARITY STRIKE OF WORKERS & THE POOR MASSES!
• The Struggle of Nigerian Workers WILL DEFINITELY OUTLIVE El-RUFAI & his Cohort of Anti-Labour, Anti-People Governors & Vagabonds in Power!
1. The Joint Action Front ((JAF) salutes the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for the resistance in the ongoing 5-day Warning Strike aimed to compel the arrogant and criminally minded Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, to reverse his anti-people and anti-labour policies of sacking of over 30,000 workers, in the past five years, with the recent illegal sack of 4,000 workers being the latest.
2. However, rather than respond to the legitimate and popular demands of the NLC and the affected workers, the arrogant and criminally incensed El-Rufai adored the destructive and intransigence stance of violent repression of the peaceful protests, that commenced on Monday May 17, 2021 and which have been successful with the shutdown of work services and activities in Kaduna State.
3. JAF commends the NLC leadership and the entire workers in Kaduna for their principled defiance of the pre-strike threats and actual violence unleashed by sponsored thugs and the police attacks facilitated by the El-Rufai dictatorial and brutish government. The attacks unleashed against the peaceful protest marches and defenceless workers since the commencement of the popular strike is despicable and criminal and Governor El-Rufai should be held responsible for the current state of anarchy he is bent on foisting in the state by pitting other categories of workers and working people against workers in the services of the Kaduna State Government, based on his malicious and spurious propaganda of the shares of revenues in the State.
4. JAF enjoins the NLC, the sacked workers and the entire Nigerian workers not to be deterred by the threat of further attacks and illegal imposition of measures being recklessly pronounced by Governor El-Rufai, but rather, the leadership of the NLC should be encouraged to call an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting with a view to declare nationwide strike and mass protest of the working people and oppressed masses.
5. JAF wants to reiterate that the demand by the NLC for the unconditional recall of all the over 30,000 (recently and before) sacked workers should be in focus, in addition, to insisting on the full implementation of the national minimum wage and the reversal of all anti-Labour policies and anti-poor measures in Kaduna State. The demands of the nationwide strike and protest we are proposing should include rejection of any planned increase in fuel prices and electricity tariff and anti-poor policies of Buhari government and the general state of insecurity.
6. JAF urges the Nigerian working people and the poor to disregard the desperate and illegal declaration of the NLC President Ayuba Wabba wanted by El-Rufai, as an act of INSANITY and of a drowning criminal who ordinarily, shouldn’t occupy public office in a democratic space!
7. Equally, JAF demands that the Inspector General of Police and the Kaduna Commissioner of Police stand culpable and indicted for the degeneration of the peaceful protests by workers into violence. The police from documentary evidence available, rather than protect the peaceful protest from the Hell Rufai’s recruited thugs, joined forces with the thugs to destabilise the protests with their indiscriminate shootings, but for the large turnout of the organised mass of workers, whose courageous and commendable resistance defied and overcame the violence.
8. We in JAF take serious note that the El-Rufai’s violence attack on workers has once more brought to the fore the consistent demand by JAF on why the NLC and the organised Labour should be resolved to organise and mobilize the Nigerian workers along the line of working class ideological direction in the struggle to end the policies of neoliberalism that are manifested in privatisation, deregulation, dependence on IMF and World Bank policies, which are the driving forces of retrenchment of the workforce, mass unemployment, general state of insecurity, lack of commitment by Government to the welfare of the majority of the people, etc.
9. Therefore, JAF urges all the organisations of the working people and the oppressed poor across the country to join forces with the NLC, not only in the ongoing workers’ struggle in Kaduna State but to be prepared to sensitise and mobilize Nigerians in their various constituencies on the urgent necessity to UNITE & ORGANISE on a nationwide struggle for SYSTEM CHANGE!
This is what we meant by SYSTEM CHANGE:
“Nigeria is rich. The wealth belongs to the people. Most Nigerians are hungry, have no jobs, no education, no healthcare, no potable water, no electricity supply and no affordable transportation. Most cannot feed their families or educate their children. Those who are lucky to have jobs are not much different. They also cannot afford a decent living for their families. On the other hand, there is a very tiny group of Nigerians who have cornered the wealth that belong to the working people and the poor, who are in the majority. They loot the treasury and use their stolen wealth to sustain themselves in power through their political parties. They use their power to get richer and richer when the poor get poorer and poorer. This is the system of exploitation and oppression. It is the system that brings out the army and the police to kill poor people when they protest against oppression and exploitation. We want to change that system and replace it with a system where the working people and the millions of people who are sufferings under the system of exploitation will win power and ensure that the wealth of Nigeria is used to ensure a good life for the majority of the people who are now exploited and oppressed. System change is not replacing one exploiter’s government by another exploiter’s government. It is replacing an exploiter’s government by a people’s government to reorganise Nigeria and put an end to exploitation and oppression”.
“The System Change we want will UNITE the vast majority of our people under a government that will organise the working people and oppressed poor to boost our productive capacities and will use the resources for sustainable economic and social advancement; thereby reversing our economic dependency and restoring our dignity as an independent country. The Government of the working people will take care of all Nigerians no matter where they come from, their religion, where they live, and their sex. It will care for all Nigerians dehumanised by the rule of the oppressors”.
DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!
DR. DIPO FASHINA - JAF Chairperson
Comrade ABIODUN AREMU - JAF Secretary
Address:
Joint Action Front (JAF)
10, Afolabi Lesi Street, Anthony-Ilupeju, Lagos
08035068524, 08033347962,
E-mail: [email protected], www.jointactionfront.blogspot.com
MAY 19, 2021.
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