TheCable

Attahiru Jega, former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has asked Nigerians to unite and deliver the country from a “devilish alliance of exploiters”.

Jega said the country is currently “crying for a rescue mission”, adding that citizens, particularly Nigerian workers, should not allow the “free fall into imminent self-destruction”.

The former INEC chairman spoke on Wednesday at the 2022 workers’ political conference organised by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja.

He said the working class must save the country from the “imminent self-destruction” ahead of the 2023 elections, adding that the rescue mission cannot be successful without Nigerian workers.

“Nigeria is undoubtedly at a point in its history when the issue of national emancipation for credible national development, which is beneficial to the Nigeria people, requires being raised higher on front-burner of national discourses by patriotic Nigerians and friends of Nigeria, especially by the Nigerian workers themselves,” he said

“The sorry state of the socio-economic conditions under which Nigerian working people and indeed the overwhelming majority of Nigerian citizens live and work, the reckless misrule and misgovernance by a tiny rabid, reckless band of elite and their collaborators, and the manner by which these myopic so-called elected, so-called leaders and their collaborators, have devastated the Nigerian economy, heightened insecurity and virtually destroyed the basis for national cohesion and integration.

“Nigeria is crying for a rescue mission before it is too late. Comrades, such a rescue mission cannot be serious, positive and successful without the active engagement and involvement of the Nigerian workers through their genuine representatives in working class organisations and movements in alliance with other progressive and patriotic Nigerians.

“Nigerian citizens generally and the working class, in particular, can either continue to play the ostrich on the current trajectory or reckless, senseless, visionless journey towards democratic and social-economic development — and allow the country free fall into imminent self-destruction which is clearly in sight or they have to wake up, rise and join hands in solidarity for struggles and active engagement in the political process towards national emancipation, from what I call the devilish alliance of exploiters, both internal and external.”