JAF
Demands JOBS WITH LIVING WAGE FOR ALL UNEMPLOYED!
MASS
RALLY for the UNEMPLOYED Holds March 27th!!!
PRESS
STATEMENT
1. The Joint
Action Front (JAF) deplores the tragic death of scores of applicants, who were
part of the millions at the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) job recruitment
exercises that occurred across the country on March 15th 2014.
2. We commiserate
with the families of the dead unemployed youth and the Nigerian working people
who have been grieved by this tragic occurrence, which is an indication of the
prevalent unjust neo-liberal IMF and World Bank policies that is the root cause
of over 50 millions of youth unemployment and rising job losses and social insecurity
in the country.
3. Much as we
join other grieving Nigerians to demand the sack and immediate prosecution of
the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Management of NIS for their
culpability in organising the avoidable rancorous interview exercises, we wish
to state that such ephemeral measures do not address the fundamental root of
the tragic death of March 15th. The root cause has to do with
Government’s policies of privatisation and outsourcing of its responsibilities;
which in its disregard for human life and in preference for private selfish
greed and loots contracted the recruitment exercise to its cronies.
4. The above
informed the commercialisation of the recruitment exercise and the callous,
inhuman and irresponsible outburst credited to the Minister of Interior, Abba Morro that “520,000 applicants were invited for screening for 4,556
spaces and that the applicants died in a stampede due to impatient and
non-adherence to lay down orderly procedure”. This is the trademark of the
policies of privatisation, whose goals is maximising profits and loots at the
expense of human life. As long as private selfish interest continues to hold
sway as the driving force of the economy and politics in our country, so long
will Nigerians be victims of economic policies and Ministerial appointments
dictated by IMF and World Bank,; so long will the millions of army of
unemployed become victims of applicants’ invitation to interviews being levied
extorting fees for forms, question papers and interviewers’ overhead expenses.
5. JAF wishes
to alert Nigerians that the rising rate of unemployment by over 2 million
Nigerians entering the employment market annually, coupled with the continued
collapse of industries, job losses and job insecurity should be instructive on
why Nigerians should brace up for RESISTANCE against the capitalist’s
neo-liberal IMF and World Bank policies of privatisation, deregulation,
commercialisation, monetisation, outsourcing, bail-out of collapsed private
banks and interests with public fund, foreign debt enslavement, etc.
6. JAF contends
that a huge army of unemployed are being created daily as a result of
privatisation and other anti-poor neoliberal capitalist policies. We hold that
it is possible to create massive jobs on living wage especially given the fact
that many critical sectors like education, health care, agriculture, housing,
infrastructure, etc are not only short of adequate personnel but also require
massive expansion to meet the growing needs of the population. However,
the crisis of unemployment in Nigeria is such that the extant decadent
capitalist economic agenda of successive regimes cannot resolve. It is only a
socialist economic transformation of the Nigerian polity that can guarantee
such massive jobs and employment creating opportunities because of the
necessity for access by ALL Nigerians to education, healthcare, housing,
infrastructure, industrialisation, energy, social welfare, etc
7. JAF declares
next week Thursday, March 27th as a Day of National Mourning and
Mass Rally. Details of the kickoff Mass Rally, which will hold at the
Nigeria Civil Service Union Secretariat, Alausa-Ikeja, will be made public
subsequently.
8. JAF notes
that the avoidable tragic death of March 15th is a reflection of the
depth of the crises of unemployment and the necessity for Nigerians to struggle
for the replacement of the unjust capitalist system that encourages looting and
corruption and concentrates wealth of Nigerians in few hands of the ruling
class of exploiters at the expense of the deprived majority working people.
This informed the declaration of JAF for a socialist transformation of Nigeria,
which was the consensus of Nigerians in the 1986 nationwide Political Debate, as
the Political Alternative.
9. In the
immediate, JAF enjoins Nigerians to demand:
·
Just
compensation to the families of all those dead and injured at the NIS
interviews on March 15th.
·
Decent Work
and Living Wage for ALL
·
Unemployment
Benefits for ALL Unemployed.
·
Reversal of
the IMF and World Bank policies of privatisation, deregulation,
commercialisation, monetisation, outsourcing, bail-out of collapsed private
banks and interest with public fund, foreign debt enslavement, etc
·
Government
should have business in the socio-economic and welfare NEEDS of Nigerians
through public ownership and democratic control of the economy.
FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER!
Dr. Oladipo
Fashina Comrade Abiodun Aremu
JAF Chairperson
JAF Secretary
