IBB destroyed Labour movement –Jega

Former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has blamed former military President,
General Ibrahim Babangida for deploying divide and rule tactics as
well as eventual ban to destabilise the labour movement in
Nigeria.

Prof. Jega equally blamed long years of military rule for
weakening the nation’s labour movement, including its attempts to
play critical role in national politics.

He also said only political parties with broad popular appeal
could win elections in the country.

Jega, who delivered the guest lecture, Labour, politics and
governance in Nigeria, at the 40th anniversary of the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja, yesterday, singled out the
administration of General Babangida for destroying the Labour
movement in Nigeria.

He described the aborted transition programme midwifed by the
ex-military junta as dubious and noted that the banning of 13
political parties by Babangida in 1988/89, including the Nigeria
Labour Party formed by the NLC, as a major setback for the
movement.

“However, the regime banned all the parties and created the
Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention.
Between 1990 and 1998, the military rulers succeeded in clamping
down on the NLC, infusing divide and rule within its ranks and
destabilising it, because it had grown in influence, in alliance
with the academic staff and students’ unions and other
pro-democracy and civil society organisations; mounting effective
opposition to the military regime from the mid-1980s to the
mid-1990s.

“Indeed, the NLC was banned between 1994 and 1998, and its
offices occupied by an administrator appointed by the military,
through which the complete destabilisation of the labour movement
was achieved and from which it took many years to begin to
recover,” Jega stated.

On why the Labour Party formed by the movement in 2000-2004 has
not done well, he explained that it was difficult for a single,
modular political platform that appeal to a dispersed, small
segment of the voting population to capture political power in a
country like Nigeria.

He said: “The chances of victory are better with a political
platform that has a broad popular appeal, that is not politically
or even economically sectional; and that is, above all, with
concrete potential benefits for overwhelming majority of
citizens.”

In his remarks, chairman on the occasion and former Edo
Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, urged Nigerian workers to
participate in politics, including seeking elective legislative and
executive positions at all levels.

Former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission
(INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has blamed former military President,
General Ibrahim Babangida for deploying divide and rule tactics as
well as eventual ban to destabilise the labour movement in
Nigeria.

Prof. Jega equally blamed long years of military rule for
weakening the nation’s labour movement, including its attempts to
play critical role in national politics.

He also said only political parties with broad popular appeal
could win elections in the country.

Jega, who delivered the guest lecture, Labour, politics and
governance in Nigeria, at the 40th anniversary of the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja, yesterday, singled out the
administration of General Babangida for destroying the Labour
movement in Nigeria.

He described the aborted transition programme midwifed by the
ex-military junta as dubious and noted that the banning of 13
political parties by Babangida in 1988/89, including the Nigeria
Labour Party formed by the NLC, as a major setback for the
movement.

“However, the regime banned all the parties and created the
Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention.
Between 1990 and 1998, the military rulers succeeded in clamping
down on the NLC, infusing divide and rule within its ranks and
destabilising it, because it had grown in influence, in alliance
with the academic staff and students’ unions and other
pro-democracy and civil society organisations; mounting effective
opposition to the military regime from the mid-1980s to the
mid-1990s.

“Indeed, the NLC was banned between 1994 and 1998, and its
offices occupied by an administrator appointed by the military,
through which the complete destabilisation of the labour movement
was achieved and from which it took many years to begin to
recover,” Jega stated.

On why the Labour Party formed by the movement in 2000-2004 has
not done well, he explained that it was difficult for a single,
modular political platform that appeal to a dispersed, small
segment of the voting population to capture political power in a
country like Nigeria.

He said: “The chances of victory are better with a political
platform that has a broad popular appeal, that is not politically
or even economically sectional; and that is, above all, with
concrete potential benefits for overwhelming majority of
citizens.”

In his remarks, chairman on the occasion and former Edo
Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, urged Nigerian workers to
participate in politics, including seeking elective legislative and
executive positions at all levels.