Human rights activist, former Presidential Candidate, and National Chairman of the African Action Congress ( AAC ), Omoyele Sowore has told Nigerian politicians to stop manipulating and dividing Nigerians with religious and ethnic sentiments.

He said those in positions of authority are the ones behind sowing the seeds of hatred and bigotry using tribal and religious sentiments as bait to achieve their aims.

The activist stated this on Thursday in Abuja at a symptom titled ” Minimum wage, Unresolved National Question, and Insecurity In Nigeria.

The activist noted that the myriads of problems befalling the country were a result of the Internal colonization of Nigeria by few greedy leaders who resorted to divisive gimmick of religion and ethnicity as tools to manipulate the mind of Nigerians.

He added that politicians with despicable characters from every region of the country were responsible for the nation’s misfortune.

They know that religion and ethnicity were to fool you and they have successfully fooled you with it. When they want to share Nigeria’s money they speak the language of greed. There’s no religion or ethnicity.

Sowore said;  “I am not saying we should be proud of our colonial history but the reason Nigeria is the way it is today is not because of the way they put us together. It is because of the characters they put in Nigeria from the West, East, North, and South.

“The damage that was done to Nigeria today was not about national cohesion. The national cohesion is what people are posing as their own way of looking to get out of the cold the sack.

“If you scoop Nigerian leaders today and take them to the United States of America, in six months there will be no electricity. They are special criminally minded people. In six months they would have sold US atomic bombs to another country and pocketed the money “.

He enunciated further on how the Buhari-led government made Nigeria degenerate to a failed state, therefore, making the country to be governed like a zoo.

“Nigeria is not a nation. I don’t even want to call it a contraption. Some people one time called Nigeria a zoo and people are getting upset. I said a zoo is better than Nigeria because if you go to a zoo they have zookeepers.  The animals in the zoo except for Nigerian zoos have doctors, psychologists. The zookeepers care for animals about what they eat, when they rest. Does the Nigerian government give you any of those things? ”

“It is a crime to say Nigerian workers are earning minimum wage. What they are earning is what we call slave wage. The other side of slave wage is ‘wage slave’. When your entire existence depends on whatever you get as a wage, that is a crime against humanity.

“The second issue that people don’t like to talk about is the role of our Labour leaders in the whole conspiracy against Nigerian workers. I am not afraid to say that the Labour Union is criminally involved in the slavery visited upon Nigerian workers. They have conspired to be earning themselves a maximum wage.

According to Sowore, the refusal by many state governors was borne out of a conspiracy theory between them  (governors) and some Labour leaders who decided to help themselves and formed an unholy alliance at the expense of public trust.

“Next time if we want to fight for a minimum wage it must start from Labour headquarters because I know that those leaders are complicit in ensuring that workers don’t get what is due to them”

He said the sum of N100,000 he (Sowore) proposed for workers as the minimum wage was too small considering the damage the current political leaders have done to the economy.

Sowore added that no worker in Nigeria would spend less than one thousand nairas for feeding per day considering the damage the current political leaders have done to the economy.

He, therefore, called on Nigerians to embark on more protests in the country and fight systematic and institutional injustice.

Other panelists include; Senator Shehu Sani representing Kaduna Central in the 8th Assembly,  former General Secretary Nigerian Labour Congress, Owei Lakemfa. Trade Unionist Hauwa Mustapha and others.