From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
A coalition of pro-democracy group under the umbrella of the Natives, has declared war on the Joe Ajaero-led Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and any other entity threatening to scuttle the inauguration of President-elect, Bola Tinubu, as the 16th Nigerian president on May 29.
A Northern group, Arewa Youth Assembly (AYA), had raised the alarm of plans by the leadership of the NLC in connection with some groups, to actualise the ulterior motive against Tinubu’s inauguration.
Ajaero had, in his May Day speech, hit the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), accusing it of flawed general elections that produced Bola Tinubu as President-elect.
But, in a statement issued in Abuja, yesterday, Supreme Leader of the Natives, Smart Edwards, warned that Nigeria is not a jungle or banana republic without law and order, insisting that Tinubu would be inaugurated contrary to all the threats.
The Natives, a coalition of different ethnic groups, cultures, languages and tribes across Nigeria with over 20 million members nationwide, claimed that NLC has lost credibility to speak for Nigerians since it chose to be partisan in the last general election.
The Supreme Leader maintained that Tinubu is not a novice and an accidental politician, but an accomplished political icon, a strategist and an asset to nation’s democracy, economy and global development.
“Bola Tinubu will be inaugurated in grand style as the 16th President of Nigeria. The Natives are already rolling out drums as Nigeria prepares to witness the first opposition leader turned National Leader and elected as the 16th President of Nigeria. A comrade, a June 12 advocate, a Senator, a Governor, a negotiator of political power with all past and incumbent Presidents in Nigeria, a builder of men, mentor and supporter of the labour movement,” the Natives noted in the statement.
The group further cautioned those nursing plans to foment trouble before the inauguration, including the NLC to perish such thought.
“We are the Natives of all tribes and languages. We are the real voters and we can’t wait for Tinubu to be inaugurated as the next President of this country. So, we advise all and sundry to perish the thought of protests or scuttling the inauguration, but to galvanize their members and supporters to join in the progress ahead of us all. Asiwaju will be different and all he needs is our collaboration and Labour has a major role to play in this,” Edwards noted in the statement.
Commending the government of United States of America on the recent phone conversation with the President-elect, the Natives said such is a genuine leap in the right direction.
“Nigerians have moved on from the deceptive and self centered negotiations of NLC. We all believed in the Labour Union in the past, their tactics and even their combative actions then, but today it has led itself into a quagmire albeit politically expedient.
“2023 election chronicles their decline from speaking for all, the helpless, poor and disenfranchised citizens, to becoming representatives of politicians and saboteurs themselves. In the last general election, NLC’s foray into politics and its mode of choice of candidates threw the gates open to all manner of unknown and unpredictable people, it left the shores of tested comrades to uncharted depths.
“NLC’s inability to mitigate influx of mixed multitudes into their midst means it is likely to imbibe the culture of politicians with the same outcome from political actors by their choices, which they easily condemned in the past. This is even evident in the current squabbles it is awashed with, given the accusations and counter accusations that lead to the despicable act of its political actors at the Presidential Tribunal,” the statement read.