Hammed Shittu in Ilorin
The former President of Committee for Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Dr. Osagie Obayuwana, has described the federal government move to pay N25,000 palliative to indigent Nigerians as a “misplased priority.”
Obayuwana said during the weekend that the amount does not in any way commensurable to the ongoing plight arising from erratic power, poor healthcare, general infrastructural collapse and lack of accommodation, which undermined the essence of humanity.
Speaking in Ilorin, Kwara State’s capital at the just concluded of the biennial conference of the group’s Annual General Conference held at the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, Obayuwana said that “Nigerians deserve a system that bequeath on citizens basic amenities that will develop their psyche and automatically compel and ignite their inbuilt patriotism.
“Erratic electricity supply, lack of accommodation, poor healthcare service and general breakdown of life-enhansing facilities can never be remedied by palliative.”
He also rekindled the life and leadership style of Pa Michael Imoudu as a former labour leader whom they described as “tactician and a politician with pure uniqueness.”
According to him, “Pa Michael Imoudu was not just a labour leader but had silent links with politicians. Even while in prison he was able to organise damning labour protest that grounded the counter, using even warders meant to guide him to reach the outside targets.”
He delved into series of problems confronting Nigerians to include lack of basic amenities and gross abuse of human rights.
He explained that the pay rise announced by successive governments were always tactless, recalling that “Imoudu was always agitating and seeking pay rise tied to the existing inflation rate for workers.
“We have resolved that our rights are non-negotiable, we want a new Nigeria of which its resources would be used for the generality of all Nigerians,” he noted.
Contributing, the Director General of Michael Imoudu National Institute of Labour Studies, Mr. Issa Aremu, disclosed that plans were underway to include human rights studies in the institute’s curriculum essentially for workers to know past heroes and their tactics to their recorded heights, “we shall partner CDHR on this project so that the fundamental issues of rights will be useful for organized labour.”
The Kwara State Director, International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Ms. Gloria Okodua, called for more women participation in human rights activism and urged the group to sharpen its sensitization, especially in the grassroots towards winning more activists to ensure total awareness in the struggle.
