Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) splits: ...aggrieved candidate forms parallel executive

Despite assurances by the newly elected President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, that his leadership was making moves to bring all aggrieved factions back to the fold, a parallel executive emerged on Thursday in Lagos.

The new executive, which effectively splits the Congress into two factions, has the main contender in last Saturday’s rescheduled national elections in Abuja, Joe Ajaero, as President.

The emergence of Mr. Ajaero, the General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, has confirmed the threat by members of 23 aggrieved affiliate unions of the Congress to form a parallel executive this week.

Mr. Wabba controls 18 out of the 43 affiliate unions. Two unions have remained neutral as yet.

The threat by Mr. Ajaero’s faction followed allegations that the electoral process that led to the emergence of Mr. Wabba as successor to the former NLC President, Wahab Omar, was flawed by irregularities.

The election in Lagos saw all the participants returned unopposed, two Deputy Presidents – the National President of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Igwe Achese, and General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, Issa Aremu.

Also returned as Vice-Presidents were Kasumu Kadiri of the Steel and Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria; Kelly Ogbaloi of the National Union of Shop and Distributive Employees, and Yashi Yahaya of the National Union of Civil Service Secretariat and Stenographic.

The main National Executive Council of the Congress in a statement on Thursday by the General Secretary, Peter Ozo-Eson, said at the end of its National Administrative Council meeting in Abuja that a reconciliation committee was set up to woo aggrieved members, who lost during the Delegates Conference back to the fold.

The Congress had warned affiliated unions invited to the “special Conference” to ignore such invitation.

Credit: Bassey Udo/Premium Times