By Kayode Abdulazeez
Labour Party governorship candidate in Kwara State Comrade Issah Aremu, mni, has officially flagged off his campaign berating the ruling class in the state for the states underdevelopment. He called on citizens of the state to vote him in to secure their future.
Aremu noted that, Kwara Labour Party under his governorship would unveiling a 5 point agenda which he named ‘5P’People: because they are means and end of any sustainable development in the society. The 5Ps stand for: prosperity: to ensure state led-industrialization, wealth generation and agricultural development/agrarian revolution. Popular participation: shall ensure people lead in all development process. Partnership for development: to ensure private and public partnership towards meaningful development. Peace: Sincere Dialogue to ensure sustainable peace through social justice.
“Today I felt very sad for a state that used to be one of the leading state in terms of industrial development, employment, peace and harmony in 70s 80s. Thanks to good governance by the state founding fathers and mothers”
“Unfortunately today, kwara ranks 28th on the list of states by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) behind relatively newest states like , Imo, Edo, and Osun states. It is tragic that there are more children out of schools in Kwara State than Edo and Osun state because of income poverty of parents, charges and extortions in public schools despite official policy of free primary and secondary education and abysmal low public budgets for education”
“Kwarans have been turned to working beggars with the way workers salaries are being treated as belated charity than prompt legitimate earnings for work done. The mass poverty of our people known for resourcefulness is due to the greed of the few ruling elite in the past two decades. Labour Party is committed not only to minimum wages but living wages for pensioners and aged”
“I want to appeal to my fellow contestants that this election is about people, we can disagree but not disagreeable, we can disagree on issues but we should not take it to the level of violences we witness in the state in the last one week. We should know that we are already poor without fighting each other and destroying properties. what should be our focus is how to alleviate poverty that is slowing our development down as a citizen and state. How can a poor community, people be destroying cars in the name of election? Labour Party is not part of this, because we are coming from Organised Labour setting. Kwara is for all of us to make a difference” he said.
In his solidarity speech, the National President Of Nigeria Labour Congress ( NLC) comrade Ayuba Wada, said they are in Kwara to support their own, Comrade Issa Aremu,mni, because he is a consequential Labour leader that has served the Working class and women of this country over three decade.
“Aremu has all it takes to provide quality leadership, one he is intellectually very excellent, he has ideological clarity about what a good system should be and philosophically he is aligned with social justice for all”
“His center point of agenda is people and therefore we are excellently happy to rally round his agenda, that is why you see labour movement all over the country here to support Comrade Issah Aremu. In him we see another Adam Oshiomhole, when governors said they can not pay #18,000 minimum wages to workers, that was when Adam as Edo state governor then, paid #25,000 before he left in the midst of recession”
“We need people that understand governance, people that are ready to make difference, and in Aremu, we have confidence. Labour Party is the party for the masses, downtrodden in the society. Issah Aremu and Labour Party is a better choice for kwarans”
The NLC Chairman, also confirmed the readiness of Buhari led federal executive to transmit the minimum wage bill to National Assembly on before 23 of this month, because not less than 3 of his ministers signed the agreement and we are hopeful that National Assembly also will do the needful when received it because it is about law, minimum wages is not a gift , it was negotiated and enacted.
“We have warned federal government that this would be the last opportunity Nigeria workers would give them. We are following up the process and we would keep all our members posted about the process”.
