The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC has split into two, parading two presidents following a separate election yesterday in Lagos, that produced Comrade Joe Ajaero of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, as a parallel president by 23 aggrieved affiliates of the Congress.
It will be recalled that Comrade Ayuba Wabba of the Medical and Health Workers of Nigeria, MHWUN, was on Saturday Morning in Abuja, declared winner of the March 12 rescheduled election of NLC, which the 23 affiliated unions rejected claiming that it was manipulated to ensure that certain individuals were elected.
The Ajaero-led group had earlier scheduled a special delegates’ conference for this weekend, but had to hold the conference yesterday because of what organizers described as exigencies of the time.
Two Deputy Presidents were equally elected. They are Comrades Igwe Achese and Issa Aremu of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN.
Among others elected into other positions were, Comrade Kasumu Kadiri of the Steel and Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria, SEWUN, Kelly Ogbaloi of National Union of Shop and Distributive Employees, NUSDE, and Yashi Yahaya of National Union of Civil Service Secretariat and Stenographic as Vice President.
Chairman of the five-man special Delegates Conference Committee, Comrade Peter Balogun, told the delegates that as at the time of the meeting all nominated positions were unopposed following a motion that was moved and seconded for confirmation of all the nominated officers as duly elected.
As at today, out of the 43 affiliates of NLC, Ayuba Wabba who was elected President in the March 12, rescheduled election in Abuja, is leading about 18 affiliates of NLC while Joe Ajaero, who was elected president in a separate election yesterday in Lagos, is leading about 23 affiliates.
Two unions, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN and Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, can be said to be neutral as at now.
Reacting to the election of a parallel officers to run the NLC, General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, said “these are criminal acts. They cannot forge our letter head to write or issue directives. The constitution is clear on who calls for a conference. I do not want to be dragged into this issue. I think it is shameful”
Efforts to reach Comrade Ayuba Wabba, were unsuccessful. Several calls put across to his Cell phone were not responded to. Even test message sent to him was not responded to at the time of this report.
NLC crisis in perspective
Since the emergence of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, after the restructuring of trade unions through Decree 22 of 1978 by the government of then General Olusegun Obasanjo, this is the second time NLC would split into two.
The first was in 1988, when the NLC split at its conference held at Saidi Centre in Benin Edo State, producing the Takaya Shammag and the Chiroma factions.
The factions were divided along ideological lines of the “ Democrats and Progressives” respectively
But the present crisis was not based on ideological differences as only the gladiators can explain.
Issues of Account
The untidy way the account of NLC was presented at the botched conference also created tension as the controversial Kriston-Lally Housing scam was not addressed by the Treasurer.
When the Trustee, Comrade Achese, raised the matter claiming that over N2.6 billion was unaccounted for in the Treasurer report, he was shouted down.
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