The Coalition for United Political Parties (CUPP) has faulted President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over his scathing remarks against the nationwide strike action embarked on by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) last week.
CUPP’s National Secretary, Chief Ameh Peter, in a statement, called for the immediate fulfilment of the agreements government entered into with the NLC to alleviate the suffering Nigerian workers are passing through.
CUPP noted that rather than the use intimidation to silence NLC and by extension Nigerians from demanding for good governance, it behooves on Tinubu to bear in mind that no democracy flourishes and becomes entrenched without all the rights as contained in the 1999 Constitution as amended, and Universal Declaration on Human Rights, including the right to free speech, assembly and peaceful protests.
CUPP was reaction to the remarks attributed to Tinubu at the commissioning of the Red Line Railway Project in Lagos on February 29, 2024 wherein he lashed out at the NLC and its leadership for daring to call on Nigerian workers to embark on strike action against the hardship in the country.
Piqued by the development, the coalition noted: “The democratic space must never be constricted, which was essentially what the utterances of the president portrayed. Rather, it should be expanded to accommodate all different and differing opinions, including the right to dissent.
“Nigerians have never had it so bad, and the circumstances that led to the Arab spring were not this bad. Feeding which is almost given has suddenly become an abstract concept to many Nigerian homes, and Tinubu expects the labour movement which represents the majority of the downtrodden and underprivileged in our country to keep quiet and look the other way while those at the helm of affairs are living larger than life as if all was well.
“We in CUPP now firmly believe in the adage that says, “He who kills by the sword will never allow a man with a sword to ever come close to him, even by a country mile.
“We remember how unrelenting Tinubu as both ACN and APC leader was condemning the then PDP led government with his unceasing criticisms of their policies, which were more humane and in nowhere asphyxiating as the immediate past and present APC administrations.
“Nigerians are beginning to reminisce what was shouted from rooftops and condemned by the then former Governor Tinubu and APC as clueless to be the golden years of Nigerian democracy and economy.
“Opposition parties and Nigerian Labour Congress were allowed to flourish without let or hindrance, the economy was booming, and Nigeria was then rated as the biggest and fastest growing economy in Africa.”
