The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has opposed as well as described the persistent call for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) as unconstitutional in the country.
The Vice-President, Nigerian Labour Congress, Mr. Issa Aremu, told journalists in Ilorin on Tuesday that the agitation is not only diversionary but also no longer a global trend.
“The world is towards bigger size not dismemberment of the nation-state. If a bigger Nigeria couldn’t compete with one big China, is it a smaller and divided Nigeria that will compete? What am saying in essence is that our leaders should think global”, Aremu opined.
Aremu further stated that it was needless unlawful to convene SNG because there are sitting representatives, it would be unlawful to convoke the SNC.
Aremu added that since there is a constituted the National Assembly with 36 governors, who are elected and expected to deliver on their mandate, “nobody should short change the system mid-way”.
“The proposed conference is unconstitutional because with all the imperfections of the existing dispensation, whether we like it or not, we have elected a President who has specific mandate and he got elected based on certain promises to the nation.
He said the labour congress maintains that Nigerians were not a debating society,hence only requires a functional government and understanding citizens who should not nag.
“We spend all the time agonising and questioning the viability of the country when we should rather organise our thoughts to make the country work. Labour is opposed to Sovereign National Conference. It is moving against the trend of the world and I think it is even wrong to say Nigeria is too big.
“The day an African-American became the president of the most powerful nation in the world, the United States, colour had ceased to be an issue. How can language and ethnic identity remain an issue? The day Mandela walked out of the prison and became the first democratically elected President of South Africa on a non-racial basis, apartheid was gone.
“It is sad that in 2013 Nigerian leaders are talking of conference of ethnic nationalities. The expectation of the founding-fathers was that by now we should be having a United States of Africa. That is what led to the formation of the Organisation of African Unity. We started before the Europeans even started the European Union”, Aremu said.