Organized labour on Sunday warned that irrespective of several challenges facing the country, it would resist any illegal and undemocratic takeover of government in Nigeria. The President of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, and the Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal in a statement jointly issued in Lagos said the truncation of the current democratic practice would drag the country 50 years backward.
“It is common knowledge that since the military toppled the democratically elected government of Sir Tafawa Balewa in 1966, suspended the 1963 Federal Constitution and imposed a unitary system of government, the country’s growth has been stunted. We are also aware that all democracies in the world including that of the United States of America, Canada, Europe, etc, are not perfect but are still evolving and being improved upon.
The shortcomings being experienced in building democratic institutions in Nigeria were not peculiar and that with time, some of the flaws would be rectified.
Thus, under no circumstances should individuals, no matter how highly placed, should begin to hint of military takeover of government in Nigeria. This is because most of the social dislocations we experience today, such as corruption, deterioration of power supply, collapse of railway, basterdization of the education system, destruction of the Civil Service, etc, were exacerbated by military dictators.
