War of words as NLC finally splits

President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Mr. Ayuba  Wabba, and his United Labour Congress of Nigeria, ULC, counterpart, Mr. Joe Ajaero, are at each other’s throats  following the emergence  of ULC  on December 17. Ajaero, until the emergence  of ULC, was a factional President of NLC, arising from the crisis that rocked NLC in the wake of the disputed outcome of the March 2015 National Delegates Conference, NDC, in Abuja. The relationship between the  Wabba- led NLC and the  Ajaero faction had  been distrust such  that all efforts to reconcile the factions by Congress veterans  one of including immediate past governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, ended up achieving nothing. A report of the reconciliatory committee, headed  by the founding president of the  NLC,  Alhaji Hassan Sunmonu, was never implemented despite appeals from several quarters including industrial unions.

The widening gap between the factions manifested  during the failed strike to protest government withdrawal of subsidy on  Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, otherwise known as petrol. While the Ajaero faction  decided to meet government to find solution to the issue, the Wabba faction opted for a nationwide strike. In fact, when the Federal Government invited the factions for a meeting over the subsidy removal, Wabba was quoted as saying  he would not hold meeting with government alongside the Ajaero faction, forcing government to hold separate meetings with the factions. The feud between the factions climaxed on December 17, when the  Ajaero faction finally broke away from NLC to announce the formation of a new labour centre alongside some affiliates of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, and some industrial unions that were neither affiliated to NLC nor TUC. Wabara opens fire Reacting to emergence of the ULC, Wabba  said: “Our attention has been drawn to news report in which Comrade Joe Ajaero, the General Secretary of NUEE, and Igwe Achese, President of NUPENG claimed they have formed a new labour centre called the United Labour Congress (ULC). It will be recalled that following their defeat at the March 2015 rescheduled election in their bid to lead the NLC, these Comrades have been parading themselves as ‘president, ‘ and  ‘deputy president’ of NLC respectively.. The  factional NLC President went on: “The Congress would like to assure our members across the length and breadth of the country and the general public that the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress is committed to the unity of the working class in the country notwithstanding the latest declaration by Comrade Ajaero and Achese. We shall do everything within our power to preserve the unity and coherence of the labour movement which was handed down to us by our forebears in the movement. It will be recalled that our Comrades in their ambition to lead Nigerian Workers in February, 2015, at the elections which would have concluded the 10th  delegates conference of the NLC, disrupted and scattered the ballot papers that were already casted, in the full glare of the world. “This was after delegates had voted to waive the requirement to allow Comrade Igwe Achese who has been campaigning to be President, to step down to deputy president position, and declare support for the candidacy of Joe Ajaero. At the rescheduled election held in March 2015, following the intervention of the veterans of our movement, and with the provision of adequate security, the plot of Comrades Ajaero and Achese to disrupt the elections again once it was clear that their combined forces will not deliver them the leadership of Nigerian workers they had so clamoured for, was thwarted, and the election results were successfully announced.” Wabba, while recalling the efforts by the reconciliatory committee headed  Sunmonu to reconcile the  aggrieved parties, said: “We had spent considerable time and energy working with the veterans of congress to bring our estranged comrade fully back to the congress because as they say,  ‘if you allow a crack in your wall, you invite the lizard in’. We didn’t want our class opponents to use them as the weak link to undermine the solidarity of our movement. Unfortunately, as Nigerians saw during our last national strike against the fuel price increase by the Federal Government, our comrades chose to allow themselves to be used as willing tools to undermine our collective struggle. “It is quite ironic that these comrades can’t see the contradiction between their empty rhetorics on wanting to ‘fight non-payment of salaries’ and collaboration with the state to undermine popular action of the working people and the Nigerian masses. And yet when congress was in the frontline forcing their home state government(s) to pay workers wages and halt retrenchment of thousands of workers, they were nowhere to be seen. “The congress wish to assure all our members including those of NUEE, NUPENG and others listed as having attended the alleged launch of the new centre, that the NLC will continue to provide protection for them, and will ensure that their leaders do not out of their consuming ambition to be leaders of a ‘national center’ lead them into the wilderness.” Ajaero fires back Ajaero, scathing in his reply to the  Wabba statement, said the ULC was beyond Ajaero and Achese, as it  clearly brought together men and women   determined to create a platform that would offer Nigerians and workers a renewed hope in the portends of the labour movement. “We have clearly gone beyond the issues of the well-acknowledged duplicitous Delegates’ Conference of 2015 and the subsequent reconciliation efforts scuttled by the desires of Ayuba to continue sitting on the collective desires of Nigerian workers and their Unions to reform the movement repositioning it to serve Nigerian workers and masses better”, the ULC leader said. He added: “His (Wabara) insistence and fixation on this shows a complete naivety of the traditions and workings of the trade union movement. Anyway, this is a demonstration of utter desperation and the frustration of a drowning man who has refused to understand that you do not trifle with workers’ interests and hope to bind them to yourself by the use of force. The laws of the land are very clear on where the powers of each union resides. It is the Unions that affiliates with the centres and not individual workers. The unions have taken their decision to leave and that is how it stands. “It is important that we remind you that there is a natural law guaranteed in our constitution and various statutes which allows us that freedom of choice to decide who we can or cannot associate with. This natural law is fundamental and transcends our laws and statutes but fortunately in this case has been given vent by our various statutes. It is this same guarantee that protects all of us especially workers from rabid slavery in the hands of desperate despots bent on holding them captive forever. This is what allows individuals to freely choose and that is why a man or woman who is a Catholic or Anglican today would chose to become a Pentecostal tomorrow and nobody can do anything about it. It is also what allows Politicians to move from one party to another as you must have observed in the case of the PDP and APC. When one construct becomes obsolete and no longer in a position to deliver on its promises to its publics, individuals leave. That is what has happened in this case, Nigerian workers have freely chosen to move on so that you can preserve your NLC. Remember that it was part of your pleadings in the Court.” Continuing, Ajaero reminded Wabba that ULC was “more concerned with uniting Nigerian workers with the traditions and Ideology upon which the trade union movement is founded”. He explained: “You may not understand the centrality of this statement as it defines our emergence and our determination. We are not wholly interested in the characters and personalities involved but in ensuring that we create a platform that is continually able to protect the interest and desires of Nigerian workers and peoples. It is paradoxical though that a man who has done everything to undermine unity within the movement debasing our various traditions and truncated democratic organs in his union for purely selfish reasons would begin to preach democracy. Any man that extended his tenure in total perversion of his Union’s constitution cannot be trusted with anything talk less of democracy and that explains the conundrum which your usurpation of the Labour House has created within the movement. “We advise Ayuba to instead of embarking on a futile mission outside of his capacities and capabilities to rather concentrate on dousing the fires within his NLC which is what we think should bother him more. When our attention was drawn to this, we had truly thought that he was focusing on solving the internal schisms which his style of leadership has created for those who still share the same umbrella with him. This is our comradely advice. “Our assurance to all Nigerian workers and peoples is that we are determined to protect their interests within the context of creative and sensible engagements both with our social partners and other stakeholders. The vision which we have crafted for ourselves and the historic journey which we have embarked upon cannot be threatened by puny tantrums from the mouth of an individual who has foisted massive deprivation upon Nigerian workers and masses.”