National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has condemned southern and northern governors for flexing muscles over who and where the next president would come from, while doing little to nothing about the poor living conditions of the people.
Wabba who expressed his displeasure in a statement at a roundtable organised by the NLC in Abuja on Wednesday, said the choice of political leaders in the country to prioritize 2023 over the current insecurity and hardship in the country, has shown that power is more important to them than the wellbeing of the people.
On July 5, the Southern Governors’ Forum met in Lagos and requested that power be shifted to the South in 2023.
The Northern Governors’ Forum had held a meeting in Kaduna on September 27 in Kaduna, where it insisted that power must remain in the North.
Speaking on the power tussle between the two regions, Wabba opined that the governors’ statements indicated an utter disregard for the suffering of Nigerians, adding that the 2023 elections must not be used as an excuse to unleash “fresh dimensions of intractable and internecine security crises in Nigeria.”
"I wish to send a note of caution to some members of Nigeria’s political elite, who are already overheating the polity on the account of the 2023 general election. On July 5, 2021, the Southern Governors’ Forum met in Lagos and demanded that power must go to the South in 2023,’ he said.
"On September 27, the Northern Governors Forum met in Kaduna and made a counter- demand that power must remain in the North.
"As a national institution and a pan-Nigerian organisation, the Nigeria Labour Congress expresses shock at such statements from both the northern and southern political hemispheres of our country.
"It is indeed sad and unfortunate that our politicians find the time and nerve to discuss 2023 when 2021 presents a foreboding cloud of insecurity, social tensions and general despondency manifest in our empty kitchens, unsafe streets and overflowing IDP camps.
"We warn that such statements show utter disregard for the cruel predicament and sufferings of ordinary Nigerians and workers struggling with the pains of broken politics and governance dysfunction in our country."