Twice jinxed? NLC’s 11th Delegates’ Conference

Precisely because yours comradely is involved, I join other concerned comrades to thank the veterans for their efforts to save the movement from destruction by anti-democratic forces.  Sadly like the botched election of February, this last election of March 12 was also fundamentally flawed in terms of both the process and it’s outcomes. For one, […]

Precisely because yours comradely is involved, I join other concerned comrades to thank the veterans for their efforts to save the movement from destruction by anti-democratic forces.  Sadly like the botched election of February, this last election of March 12 was also fundamentally flawed in terms of both the process and it’s outcomes. For one, like the previous failed election, there was an unacceptable disregard for rules and regulations. Indeed rules were changed midway into the elections. The credential committee wrongly validated the Ballot papers found in boxes not meant for the position being contested for contrary to the rules. These ballot papers ought to have been invalidated. Thirdly, there was a scandalous deficit of basic electoral materials such as tallies.
As a result, counting of votes was stopped for 3 hours to allegedly enable the General Secretary of NLC and his team to go to the market to buy some electoral materials. Some delegates said the General Secretary, Dr Peter Ozo Esan went in-and-out  more than three times to the market shopping for basic electoral materials which ought to have been provided for a rescheduled election. In the process there was a crisis of confidence and legitimate suspicion of manipulation. It took two working days for an election fixed for only one day to count the votes of 3,119 delegates from the 43 industrial unions affiliated to the Congress. If INEC exhibits this scandalous cumbersomeness and sheer incompetence for any national election what would be the NLC reaction?
Due to poor electoral arrangement, sorting of ballot papers turned to be cumbersome and opened to manipulations and distortions with non-members of the Credential Committee dictating the patterns of counting. For instance, there was an unacceptable direct involvement of former NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar in the election process particularly in the sorting and counting of votes well after the dissolution of the former National Administrative Council (NAC) he headed against the best practices of the past. The Former President also reportedly ordered the delay of counting of votes for over 12 hours after the ballot papers were sorted out in order to manipulate the process to suit his candidates.
Indeed the polling agent to a presidential candidate Comrade Joe Ajero protested to no avail, the long delay in the counting aof ballot papers after sorting. When counting eventually took place, there was an intermittent light outage during which the polling agent inexplicably fainted and rushed to the hospital apparently paving the way for manipulation. Also former disgruntled General Secretary of NLC, John Odah was directly involved in the conduct of the election even after he had expressed partisan position during the earlier botched election.
With these emergency electoral officers not known to NLC constitution, any further evidence why NLC election is getting jinxed?  We recall that earlier there was a crisis of confidence following the alleged marginalization of delegates from some parts of the Country notably South West, South -South and South East by some unions notably Medical and Health Workers Union and Nigeria Civil Service Union. In terms of female participation, some of the industrial unions failed to comply with the Congress affirmative policy according to which 30 per cent of the delegates from the industrial unions should be women. The entire process was far from being transparent and clearly designed to favour some particular candidates.
As a result, some of the polling agents refused to sign the manipulated result sheets thus rendering them invalid. Again this election like the previous one was divisive, not transparent and fundamentally flawed. Precisely because of the flawed process that characterized this election and the malpractices that characterized it, some unions have legitimately rejected the outcomes of the so-called election.  This has again denied the Nigerian workers the moral authority to pronounce on the national election so soon at the time labour voice is most needed on the coming national elections.
The industrial unions affiliated to NLC routinely hold successful delegates’ conferences. NLC itself has held as many as ten successful conferences; all lovers of the labour movement must show more than passing interest and ensure that NLC election should not turn comrades on comrades. Election is only the means.
The end is who protects the working men and women against the existing socio-economic deprivations.