‘Our colleagues refused to accept workers’ verdict

Comrade John Odah was the former General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress and current Executive Secretary of the Organization of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA). In this interview, he bares his mind on the current impasses rocking the leadership of NLC. Excerpts   What is your view on the current leadership tussle rocking […]

Comrade John Odah was the former General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress and current Executive Secretary of the Organization of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA). In this interview, he bares his mind on the current impasses rocking the leadership of NLC. Excerpts

 

What is your view on the current leadership tussle rocking the NLC?

After the delegate conference of NLC there was a crisis, but recently some groups that called themselves factional group of the NLC went to register themselves as a separate union under the Ministry of Labour. I was very active in terms of monitoring the outcome of the election and it was very unfortunate that some groups went to disrupt the outcome, which was very regrettable. But those of you journalists that witnessed the election know very well those responsible for that. The negative publicity that these events brought against the labour movement in Nigeria is very sad and regrettable.

The subsequent rescheduled election was done with the active participation of all the veterans that have played active roles in NLC in the past till date and but for the vigilance of members and security agencies, those of you who are journalists saw attempts made to hijack the process all over again.  It was very unfortunate that our colleagues who lost the election refused to accept the verdict of the workers and if you are a democrat as you claim, you cannot just throw away an entire process because you have grievances but rather you can put yourself up for re-election at subsequent times. So, the fact that our colleagues went or plan to go ahead to create a parallel union after almost two years is not something we can go ahead to dance about.

 

What actually went wrong in the electioneering process?

As far as I am concerned, that seems to have always been the intention before even the election came to be. Prior to the May Day celebration, Ajaero and Ayuba had signed an MoU that borders on the active participation of both factions in the May Day celebration which was brokered by the members of reconciliation committee but it was not followed through and another celebration had to be done in Lagos as against the unified one planned earlier for Abuja.

But I think a point has to be made really that following the very concerted effort we made in 2004 and 2005 to stop President Obasanjo from balkanizing the NLC and from liberalizing the process of registering a centre from the initial bill which states that any two unions can form a federation and we made our case before the House of Reps and Senate; eventually we  arrived at a compromise of 12 unions.

I do not think our comrades who  refused  to be active participants because they were not in the leadership of their respective unions can  then  come and dismantle the NLC as it is and attempt to make their efforts go down in futility will only be living in some illusion.

This is because a lot of sweat and efforts have been invested in the unity that we now enjoy. And in any case, if you  can go and read the 2005 amendment bill, you will see that it is an exercise in futility.

If you see the copy of a  letter written by Ayuba Wabba  to the Minister of Labour, you will see that it was explicitly stated there that by law, it is not possible to go and form another union from an existing one. So, I think they are well aware of that development, which is the more reason why they teamed up with a former union member who is now a politician to create what Ayuba called “planting of unions without membership” in the transport sector, and balkanize the Medical and Health unions.

The Judicial Staff Union took a long time before we could affiliate them in 2010, how much more attempts to create new unions that hardly have any membership and all this is happening because they are trying to get a fall back plan  should the law take its course against formation of a new union from an existing one.

Our comrades have refused to be patient because Comrade Ajaero is only just 50 years and his general secretary does not have tenure elongation, so, if you fail at an attempt to lead this year you can prepare better against the next election cycle instead of causing rancours in the movement.

 

What is the implication of this imbroglio  on  the workers?

First it is creating an avoidable distraction and as such it is creating an alibi for Ayuba should he refuse to fulfil his campaign promises. They can easily attribute that to the many distractions they have witnessed in their tenure.

 

 With the formation of a new labour centre, don’t you think the larger NLC should go to seek redress in courts to resolve this crisis, seeing as you said they may have violated a section of the law?

 As reiterated by the TUC and NLC  in the letter to the minister of Labour and pointed at the labour law both the original and the 2005 amendment which says you cannot parade yourself as a union once you are not properly registered which is what the parallel union is currently doing by going about saying they are a united labour centre.

Secondly, I do not think it is the responsibility of the NLC  to go to court to seek redress but instead there is an onus of responsibility on the Ministry of Labour to disallow the flagrant abuse of our laws until Comrade  Ajaero’s union is properly registered and they can now shout to high heavens. I am saying this because Nigerians should not be further confused on the purported stance of the law in this situation and should also know the illegality of the new faction parading themselves as a union even when they have not been duly registered.

I also want to be quoted as saying that Nigerian workers deserve unity and this has been there since 1975 when the symmetry declaration has all four centers decided to be unified and fuse into a single labour unit. So, the media should  keep reminding and sensitizing Nigerians on the history of the NLC that if anyone comes around to claim that it was Obasanjo who brought about the current face of labour union then such person should be deemed ignorant of the true history of the union. As far as it is documented, it was Murtala Mohammed that commissioned the reorganization of industrial unions from nearly 1000 to just 42 when people who lost out in the new labour union petitioned him. This culminated with February 28, 1978 election in which Comrade Sunmonu emerged President of NLC in Ibadan.  Anything else apart, that established history is just mere fallacy and sheer display of ignorance.

Over the years, the NLC has defended the position at the ILO and the Freedom of Association Committee when people say that we are taking over government, and government attempted to take control but we took our movement back.

They did not even think Sunmonu was even going to win because Sunmonu has already risen to the level of senior staff and he has better prospects with his twin brother then in the Ministry of Works. So, they at some point asked him to choose between his career and serving as President of NLC.