Kola Ibrahim

The war machine of Israel is drawing fresh blood from Gaza. While a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire has been agreed to as at the time of writing this essay, estimating the cost is itself a horrific venture.

The kidnapping of about 270 schoolgirls in Chibok town five weeks ago has drawn widespread global opprobrium.

Visiting your alma mater brings some nostalgic feelings of the good and not-so-good times. However, when your former institution of learning seems to be moving from bad to worse, the nostalgia turns to repugnance.

“Since we were retired, no kobo was paid to me. Every time, we would be called to come to Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, to fill one form after another. Sometimes, we sleep at Awolowo Road on the bare floor, for us to be attended to. In spite of that, nothing had come out of it.

Like every house built on fraud, the attempt by the Nigerian ruling class to privatize Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and the electricity sector is already falling flat.

This is calling on the government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola in Osun State to immediately commence the payment of outstanding pension and pension arrears of retirees in the state.

It will be recalled that about two weeks ago, workers, arising from their congresses, resolved to embark on a four-day warning strike to drive home their demand for implementation of the nationally legislated N18, 000 minimum wage, which the Aregbesola government has stubbornly refused to impleme

Despite all attempts by the capitalist ruling class in Nigeria and its big business town criers to portray the privatisation of the electricity sub-sector in good light, the reality has continued to show that it is nothing but sheer fraud and deceit.

The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR), Osun State, hereby condemns in strong terms, the ridiculous, illegal and clearly unjustified compulsory contributory pension policy being imposed on workers by Osun State government.

While the Asian Tigers, many of whom started out on the journey of development at the same time as Nigeria, are busy taming the moon and befriending Mars, Nigeria tramps on in poverty, disease and illiteracy.