Sunday March 15th, 2015

Crisis rocks NLC as Wabba emerges President

on March 15, 2015 / in News 1:36 am / Comments

By Victor Ahiuma-Young & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

NIGERIA Labour Congress, NLC, was, yesterday, enmeshed in a major crisis following the declaration of President of Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, MHWUN, as the new President of Congress, as no fewer than 23 industrial unions including Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, announced plans to hold a “truly Nigeria Labour Congress” election on Saturday, March 21.

Wabba

Their contention was that, among others, the whole process skewed towards achieving pre-determined outcome, saying they were not only rejecting the outcome, but scheduled a Special Delegates Conference of the NLC for Friday and Saturday in Lagos to elect leaders to lead NLC for the next four years.

But, General Secretary of NLC, Dr. Peter Oso-Ezon, has described the aggrieved unions and their leaders as agents of “factionalisation or destabilisation of the Congress.”

Pioneer General Secretary of NLC and the Returning Officer of the rescheduled election held at the Eagle Square, Aliyu Dangiwa, who announced the results of the election by 12.47 am, said Wabba, who was immediate past Treasurer of NLC, scored 1,695 votes to defeat his challenger, Comrade Joe Ajaero, General Secretary of NUEE and one of the three immediate past Deputy President of NLC, who got 1,400 votes.

But 23 unions, which also included another former Deputy President and General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, Comrade Issa Aremu, at a briefing, declared the election inconclusive, claiming the results were declared even when they were not signed by the contestants in line with the stipulations of the NLC Constitution.

The aggrieved unions have scheduled a Special Delegates Conference of the NLC for Friday and Saturday in Lagos as a fallout of the rescheduled 11th delegates conference and election.

The group also announced Peter Balogun of the Civil Service Secretary and Stenographic Workers as the Chairman of the Organising Committee of the conference.

Before the announcement of the election results, some top union leaders of the group had stormed out of the venue of the election in protest.

Less than an hour to the declaration of the results, an agent of NUEE, who was at the collation centre, collapsed and was rushed to Asokoro General Hospital in a police patrol car deepening tension as some union members chanted solidarity songs as they moved towards the collation centre. The police barricade and heavy police and security presence prevented the situation from degenerating further.

Also, out of the five contestants who vied for the three slots for Deputy President of the NLC, Dangiwa returned Peters Adeyemi of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, Najeem Yasin, of National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, and Kiri Mohammed, Nigeria Civil Service Union, NCSU, as the elected three Deputy Presidents of Congress.

According to Dangiwa, Adeyemi, Yasin, and Mohammed scored 1,604, 1,813 and 1,610 respectively to defeat contestants such as Achese Igwe of NUPENG, and Issa Aremu of NUTGTWN.

He said both Igwe and Aremu got 1,283 and 1,110 votes respectively

Contestants for the four available position of Vice President were returned unopposed following the withdrawal of the President-General of the MWUN, Anthony Emmanuel Nted, from the race a day before the election.

The new Vice Presidents of the NLC are Asuguni Amechi of National Union of Civil Engineering Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers, NUCECFWW, Dutsimi Lawal of National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, NANNM, and Oyelekan Lateef, National Union of Food beverages and Tobacco Employers, NUFBTE.

Before the announcement of the results, Ajaero and other aggrieved union had claimed the process was not free and fair as it was marred by manipulation of the delegate lists and other irregularities.

He accused the immediate past executives of supervising a process designed to bring Congress into disrepute.

Speaking also, Aremu also said if the NLC could not conduct transparent free and fair election, it had no moral right whatsoever to comment on federal elections.

Meanwhile, General Secretary of NLC, Ozo-Eson, has faulted the planned new conference by aggrieved unions, describing the unions and individuals behind it as “a group of individuals driven by inordinate ambition.”

In a statement, he said: Affiliate unions of the Nigeria Labour Congress are hereby advised to ignore any invitation to such a conference as the 11th Delegates Conference was concluded in the early hours of Saturday, March, 14, 2015 following the successful election of the National executives of the Congress in a free, fair and credible elections under the watchful eyes of unions, delegates, invited guests, veterans and members of the media.

“The processes leading to the elections and the elections themselves were manifestly transparent, incontestable and unimpeachable. All the contestants and their delegates voluntary lent and submitted themselves to the electioneering/voting processes. At no time, from the commencement of the accreditation of delegates to the voting, counting of votes and announcement of results, was any a complaint raised or lodged.

“Congress therefore finds it necessary to advise that individuals should resist the temptation to be used as agents of factionalisation or destabilisation of the Congress. The Congress is bigger than any of us.”