May Day: Only workers can save themselves, says Pat Utomi
By Jeffrey Agbo
Professor of political economy, Pat Utomi, has called on Nigerian workers to cry out for freedom from underperforming governments and self-serving politicians.
In a statement on Thursday commemorating May Day, the former presidential candidate urged the Nigerian workforce to organise against underperforming governments instead of agonising about them.
“On this May Day on the eve of my 70th birthday I still keep down four jobs on two continents as a tribute to the dignity of Labour and the dignity of the human person which is nurtured by work,” the 69-year-old wrote.
“As I salute workers everywhere I proclaim and affirm that the opportunity for work and a fair wage is the right of modern man.
“Governments that cannot provide conditions that allow for production which brings the economy close to a full employment status are underperforming and must be rejected by workers.
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“Workers must organize and not agonize about such governments. Part of that organizing is to help people find their voice. And let such governments know they should be ‘haram’.
“This is why I am formally asking the NLC and TUC to bring out workers from all across the country to join in our freedom converge march on Abuja in December. We shall begin with enlightenment programmes and freedom rallies which point to growing fascism in Nigeria, the muscling of freedom of expression, unemployment levels that have castrated the dignity of our youth, with all who can looking to emigrate, and decline of good governance in Nigeria.
“In the meanwhile corruption is mushrooming into the only growth in sight and the future seems bleak. Workers ought therefore to rally in solidarity to set the course right.
“Let us cry out for freedom and ask the politicians of state capture in Nigeria to look at how South Africa reacted to similar situation not even as bad as what obtains in Nigeria, with the Zondo Commission. Unfortunately we do not have a National Assembly. South Africa has. What we call the 10th Assembly is a corruption drenched rubber stamp that long forgot those who they are ostensibly agents of. So South Africa can set up a Zondo Commission. In Nigeria the people are on their own. Power has kept the people poor so it can be weaponized in our maze of neopatrimonialism. A people left beggarly so they can crawl to the powerful for handouts to survive.”
Utomi, also convener of Bit Tent, urged workers to “raise our faces in a cry for freedom so the people can be spared this path to serfdom by politicians jumping to the party in power to gain amnesty from prosecution after looting the treasury and leaving the people in penury.”
He said, “One year ago today on faithful May Day we launched the portal of thenewtribe.ng to move us to unity between the Diaspora and Citizens of purpose at home to end ethnic bigotry, enthrone reason over emotions that create chasms of us versus them, and advance the course of a tripartite approach to government that brings the public sector, private sector and developmental social enterprises into a harmonious relationship in a developmental state that is people centered. The quest for a new way continues.
“We urge workers everywhere to visit the portal, interrogate the 14 cohorts and offer sacrificial service of nation building and advance of the common good.
“Let us march in solidarity assured that victory is ours because power belongs to the people. Not even corrupt Electoral Commissions can stop that truth.”
