Oyo: NLC Cautions Against Public Institutions’ Privatisation

The National Leadership
of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC),  has cautioned the Oyo State government against the privatisation of public institutions in the state.
In a statement issued in  Abuja on Wednesday and signed by the National  President NLC, Comrade Wabba Ayuba called for the peaceful resolution of the agitation of the labour movement in Oyo State before it snowballs into major labour crisis.
In the statement, the NLC president said that the congress call for an amicable resolution of the contending  issues in the interest of justice and industrial harmony, stressing that the National Leadership of the congress will not hesitate to call for a national action in total support of the organised labour members in Oyo State if the state government failed to see the wisdom in the congress unsolicited advice.
The NLC leader urged the state governor, Abiola Ajumobi to jettison the proposed plan to privatise public institutions in the state without passing through due process of the consent of the people, adding that the privatisation is not only ultra vires, but equally constitutes a clear betrayal of the people’s trust and negates  the very ideals the late leader of the Yoruba nation chief Obafemi Awolowo stood for during his lifetime.
Wabba said that the Oyo State government privatising the public institutions under the concept of Public Private Partnership (PPP) is a social injustice that would deny generations of the children of the poor access to basic education as guaranteed by the 1999 constitution as amended.
He stressed that the Federal Government has previously jettisoned the PPP policy in the past when unity schools were put up for sale and urged the Oyo State government to take similar step in the best interest of the state.
He said that workers have the right to embark on peaceful protest in any state against any perceived wrongs in the polity as enshrined in the 1999 constitution (as amended), labour laws, ILO convention to which Nigeria is a signatory and other human rights laws that cannot be a bridged by any government.