The scandal that has trailed NLC’s plan to provide workers with affordable houses in Abuja underlines decline in standards

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has to do more than explain its part in what has become an illustration of the sorry state of things in the country. Almost all institutions and sectors have been desecrated and what could be called the national standard is well below even regional standard in Africa. More than 3,000 workers who believe in the integrity of the umbrella Labour organisation had responded positively to an advertisement in May 2013, that it was in the process of building an estate where a deposit of at least 10 per cent of a minimum of N4.6 million would make one own a house in the federal capital territory. To those who immediately paid, it was a dream come true.

It appeared all worked out. A developer who would secure the necessary fund offshore was introduced. The NLC said it was in the process of getting the land and the housing units were to be delivered to subscribers by December 2014. In a short period, about N4 billion had been deposited in the joint account opened for the project jointly by Kriston Lally PLC and the NLC.

But about two months after the December deadline for delivery, there is no site in place, let alone development. It is as bad as scams go.

It is unfortunate that the NLC is trying to explain away the situation, blaming it all on the developers. The questions being asked by the subscribers include whether due diligence was conducted before the developer was chosen for the project? Who are the developers and what is their antecedence? What has become of the money deposited and how could the developers have made away with it without the connivance of Labour leaders who are joint signatories.



More importantly, we ask: what steps has the NLC taken on the matter so far? At what point did it become apparent that something fishy was going on and were the subscribers fully briefed at that point? We call on the Labour movement to get the security agencies involved in the matter at once. Both the Labour bureaucrats and Kristal Lally’s promoters should be grilled for the part they played in this messy scandal.

How could a working people’s organisation prey on deficit in housing supply to the same people? By the World Bank account, there is a deficit of 17 million housing units in Nigeria and most of the poor people cannot even afford decent meals. The bank also says about N60 billion would be needed to provide the shortfall over coming years. Realising this, the NLC plotted to draw in people who saw it as the way out of their predicament.

There was a time when the Labour movement was the conscience of the nation; at the forefront of the fight for a better life for the people and the first to lead the struggle for a just society. This seems to be in the distant past now. It seems what we now have in place are a bunch of Labour leaders who are too seized of personal comfort to think of the working people. The show of shame at NLC’s 22 delegates conference last Wednesday is a pointer to how low the Congress has sunk.

By these developments, the Nigerian people must have lost a natural ally in the struggle to raise standards. The NLC has lost the moral right to query the state of things. Veteran labour leaders such as the first National President of the Congress, Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, and the Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole should step in to stem the rot and restore the confidence of Nigerians in the organisation.

As a first step, the subscribers and general public must be fully briefed on what went wrong and who played what roles. Thereafter, if the Congress is unable to make good its promise within a short period, a full refund of deposits, plus interests should be made to the subscribers. This is clearly one scam too many.

http://thenationonlineng.net/one-scam-many/