Kaduna Central Senator-elect, Shehu Sani, yesterday carpeted President Goodluck Jonathan over the sale of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, and the last-minutes sale of the Nigeria Telecommunications Limited, NITEL. He equally upbraided the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on her economic policies.
Not yet done, the Senator-elect lambasted the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, describing the current impasse in the congress as a disgrace to Nigerian workers.
Sani, who spoke while receiving the Kaduna State executive of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, who visited him in his office in Kaduna, said the privatization exercise under President Goodluck Jonathan was a monumental theft of Nigeria’s collective resources in the interest of a few.
Noting that the issue of privatization has seriously affected many workers who were employed in those institutions for decades, he said, “The sale of PHCN has not translated into consistent electric power in our homes, in our offices , in our markets and in our workplace”.
The Senator-elect further noted that, “the last minute-sale of NITEL to a private firm at a time when the government is supposed to be preparing notes for handover is also suspicious or irrelevant at this time”.
While accusing Mrs Okonjo-Iweala of damaging Nigeria’s economy by coming up with policies that failed to impact positively on the lives of Nigerians, he said, “They claim progressive economic statistics on paper while our people continue to suffer in abject poverty, want and penury.
“All the economic indicators that have been churned out by the Jonathan administration is in direct conflict with the reality of the situation on ground as far as Nigeria is concerned.
“Most of our industries have closed down, the value of our naira has crashed and many people are out of job and the claim of thousands of jobs created by the government is suspect and simply on paper.This is also an issue we have to look at in the incoming administration,” he added.
Sani described the government of President Jonathan as “literally a political restaurant whereby people are invited to come and feed. That is why President Jonathan is saying that those who decamped from PDP to APC will come back with empty stomach.
“The idea of governance under Jonathan is about people using the opportunity of being in office to service themselves and their immediate families.
“The bickering in the PDP after the failed elections are simply nothing but pant of death of a party that has inflicted serious hardship on Nigerians in the last 16 years.”
Speaking about the crisis in the NLC, the incoming federal lawmaker said the crisis in the labour union was a disgrace to workers, to Nigerian people and to the country at large.
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