Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Rt. Reverend Matthew Hassan Kukah, and the National Union of Textile Garments and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTW, have accused President Goodluck Jonathan of allegedly blackmailing Nigerians with his claims that the country would collapse in two years, if fuel subsidy was not removed.
Bishop Kukah asked the Federal Government to address the issue of insecurity in the country which according to him is more serious than the proposed removal of fuel subsidy just as the NUTGTW said there was no difference between the current debate on fuel subsidy removal and the same sex marriage debate which Nigerians were unanimous in rejecting.
Kukah spoke in a sermon at the 2011 Christmas carol jointly organized by the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, and Voice of Nigeria, VON, at the National Christian Centre in Abuja while the textile workers made their feelings known in a statement in Kaduna Monday.
According to Bishop Kukah, dividends of democracy cannot only be measured by the number of infrastructure a particular administration is able to provide for its citizens but by the level of fundamental rights of the citizens.
His words,”Democracy is not about infrastructure. If democracy is measured by infrastructure then South Africa should have continued under apartheid because most of the infrastructure in South Africa were put in place during the apartheid regime in that country.
‘’So also in Germany, If democracy was about infrastructure, the Germans should apologise to Hitler because Adolph Hitler developed Germany.
‘’The citizens must be allowed to have a say in the social, economic development of their nation. The issue of fuel subsidy is minute compared to the level of insecurity that the nation is going through now. Lots of innocent lives have been lost; there is need for this present administration to concentrate more on how to tackle the issue of Boko Haram and leave fuel subsidy for now”.
However, the textile workers in a statement signed by the General Secretary Comrade Issa Aremu who is also the Vice President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in commending Jonathan on the way he has engaged Nigerians on the issue, said that if the President had engaged his seemingly abundant energy and “sweat capital” on other economic issues, the country would be a better place to live in.
SOURCE: Vanguard Newspaper, 13 December 2011. http://www.vanguardngr.com
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