The Nigeria LabourCongress (NLC) inits May Day message painted a gloomy picture of corruption in the country and inequality in the distribution of the nations wealth and resources among its people.The NLC also used the occasion to pay tribute to the members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who were killed in the post-election violence in some parts of the country.Delivering his May Day message, President of the NLC, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, said an estimated $600 billion had been stolen from Nigeria coffers over the years by politicians and other public office holders.It is obvious that corruption has increased in magnitude as our political elites percieve public office as an opportunity to embezzle public funds for personal purposes. Over the years, the estimated stolen funds from the nations coffers is between $400billion and $600billion, he said.Omar said: Since the transition from military to civilian rule in 1999, social transformation has been slow. The Nigerian people, who had suffered under the yoke of military dictatorship, had looked forward with passionate enthusiasm to the swift delivery of the dividends of democracy. Regrettably, after a dozen years, the yawning gap between the rich and poor remains.At the economic level what we are witnessing is more concentration of the wealth of the country in a few hands. For example, over 87 per cent of Nigerians live on less than N184 or $1, 25 a day and life expectancy is now 47 years compared to 60 years in 1960. Youth unemployment which the World Bank report estimates at about 40 per cent in the country is actually as high as 55 60 per cent as almost all families are affected. With so much wealth and a population of about 150 million people, our country continues to be import dependent on commodities it could readily produce for our market.Endowed with arable land for rice and cassava as well as being Africas leading producer of oil, the continued importation of rice, starch and textile, and refined petroleum products, is absurd and unthinkable.Despite this sorry state of affairs, about 10 per cent of the population corner over 30 per cent of the nations wealth by looting the public treasury, excessive remuneration in public office, and engagement in speculation and dubious businesses.Justifying the need for more pay for the workers, he stated that a federal legislator on the average earned about N289 million or more than N24 million a month, and given the new minimum wage of N18, 000, this amount would pay 111 workers for one year.He also added that the annual constituency allowance of a senator, which stands at about N1.6billion, would pay 741 workers a year at N18,000 minimum wages.He said: While education and health have witnessed poor funding, the rate of crime and insecurity in the country has become alarming with incessant kidnappings and internal terrorism cloaked in ethno-religious crisis holding sway.At the political level, despite recent remarkable strides in the electoral process, the parties not only lack internal democracy, but are bereft of ideology and effectual programme for the people. Of much concern has been the penchant of our politicians to win elections at all costs, and engaging in internecine struggle for power in a do-or-die fashion.He said the problem of corruption which continued to hold back any meaningful development in our nation needed to be addressed, adding, as endowed as we are with human and natural resources, these resources now appear like a curse.He added: A major reason is corruption! Can we today, in good conscience, say how many barrels of oil are actually pumped from our reserves Many fear that a huge number of barrels are unaccounted for or privatised daily.
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