By Victor Ahiuma-Young

The travails of Nigerian born Secretary General of Organisation of African Trade Unions Unity, OATUU, Comrade Owei Lakemfa, have been ascribed to international conspiracy.

Lakemfa, elected OATUU Secretary General at its Algiers conference on December 7, 2012 by 43 African countries, replacing another Nigerian, Comrade Hassan Sumonu, was suspended from office on November 29, 2014 at an OATUU extra-ordinary executive committee meeting in Accra, Ghana.

Events before and after the suspension have indicated the suspension of Lakemfa may have been a fall out of what was described as concerted efforts by international forces to subjugate African labour unions and the dominance of the international trade unions and their voices in Africa.

Owei Lakemfa

Giving insight into the plot, immediate past Secretary General of OATUU, Sunmonu, in a petition to the President of OATUU, a Ghanaian, Francis Atwoli, insisted that Lakemfa should be commended and not vilified for insisting on the right thing in the interest of OATUU.

Sumonu did not only fault the way the November 29, 2015 OATUU extra-ordinary executive committee meeting was conducted. He argued that it was done specifically to victimize Lakemfa.

According to Sumonu, “recall that at the OATUU EXCO meeting in Nairobi, 16-17 October, 2014, during the debate on the report of the Secretary-General, Comrade Owei Lakemfa, the three other members of the OATUU Secretariat, Comrades Emmanuel Nzunda, Arezki Mezhoud, Assistant Secretaries General and Comrade Ibrahim Abrar Ibrahim, Treasurer General, circulated several documents containing several allegations against the Secretary-General. The Nairobi meeting heard the Secretary-General’s response to all the allegations. The Nairobi meeting asked that one of the documents being circulated by Comrades Nzunda, Arezki and Ibrahim be expunged from circulation and given to you, Comrade Atwoli, to shred.

“The Nairobi EXCO re-affirmed the decision of the 9th of March, 2014 Algiers General Council that Comrades Arezki, Nzunda and Ibrahim were not entitled to receive housing allowance because they were living in official OATUU residence in Accra. Because the Nairobi Exco meeting did not have enough time to deal with the other problems facing the OATUU Secretariat, it accepted your suggestion to set up an ad-hoc committee, under your chairmanship, to look into the outstanding problems confronting the OATUU Secretariat. This ad-hoc committee met at the end of the Exco Meeting.

“The members of the ad-hoc committee are: Comrades Francis Atwoli (OATUU President); Alex Bonney, Mohammed Abuzeid’ Elamin Mohammed, Osman (Vice-presidents); 3 OATUU Advisers-Comrades Hassan Sunmonu, Demba Diop and Micheal Besha; and Comrade Lellouma Diallo, OATUU permanent representative to the ILO and UN office in Geneva.

The four members of the OATUU Secretariat, Comrades Owei Lakemfa, Arzeki Mezhoud, Emmanuel Nzunda and Ibrahim Abrar Ibrahim, were all present to answer questions from members of the ad-hoc committee or clarify certain matters. The ad-hoc committee came out with a unanimous 10 points way forward plan to resolve the problems confronting the secretariat.

One does not have to be a constitutional lawyer to know that an ad-hoc committee, established by an organ of a body, cannot usurp the authority of the organ that sets it up. In Article 17 of the OATUU Constitution, the organs of OATUU are: The Congress, the General Council and the Executive Committee.”

Continuing, Sumonu said, “In your opening address to the Accra Extra-ordinary meeting of the OATUU Executive Committee (EXCO), you wrongly referred to the Nairobi ad-hoc committee as Sub-Committee of the OATUU EXCO. I drew your attention to it that there is no organ of the OATUU called Sub-Committee of the Exco. I also informed the Accra meeting that the Nairobi ad-hoc committee report and recommendations should simply be submitted to the Accra meeting for its consideration and action. Instead of doing that, Comrade President, you wrongly informed the Accra meeting that the Nairobi EXCO approved the report and recommendations of  the ad-hoc committee. This is not true and I pointed this out to the Accra meeting. You went to the extent of threatening that you would resign as OATUU President if what you proposed was not accepted by the Accra meeting.

“I consider this to be blackmail on your part, which is not fair to the other members of the Exco.

“Comrade President, you did not truthfully brief the Accra meeting of what happened after the Nairobi meeting. Let me remind you that some few days after the Nairobi meeting, the Beijing International Trade Union Forum took place. In Beijing, Comrades Nzunda, Arezki and Ibrahim not only distributed the document the Nairobi EXCO asked to be stopped from circulation, but they also mounted serious campaign of calumny against Comrade Owei Lakemfa and the OATUU. OATUU’S Vice-President from South Africa, Comrade Rose PUTSELETSO, drew your attention to it and you promised to do something about it. What did you do as OATUU President?

In your presentation to the Accra Extra-Ordinary EXCO meeting, you accused the Secretary-General of violating the OATUU Constitution for rightly taking measures to protect OATUU funds in the bank, while pouring encomiums on those who engaged in criminal fraud to empty the purse of OATUU. I would like to respectfully remind you of the legal precept that says, “Those who come to equity must  come with clean hands.

“Also, as a devout Christian that you are, I would like to remind you of the Biblical saying “Judge ye that ye be not judged”. I would like to also remind you of the African proverb that says, “It is a wicked elder who hears only one side of a story and gives judgment”.

“At the Accra meeting, you sent two OATUU Advisers and OATUU Permanent Representative in the ILO and UN office in Geneva, Comrade Lellouma Diallo, out of the meeting, to which we were all invited, at great cost to the OATUU. We all complied, because of our respect for the office of President of OATUU. I had the feeling that you did not want the members of OATUU EXCO to listen to alternative view or advice. We know we are not voting members of EXCO, but your action is in bad taste and is contrary to African tradition. At the Accra Meeting, you were the accuser, Prosecutor and Judge of OATUU Secretary-General, Comrade Owei Lakemfa. His suspension from the office of OATUU Secretary-General is against natural justice and trade union ethics.

“You got the Accra meeting of EXCO to suspend the Secretary-General, and then set up a ‘ fact-finding committee’, to find what? To rationalize the injustice committed against Owei Lakemfa?

I strongly advise that a meeting of the OATUU General Council be urgently convened in the first 2 months of 2015 to resolve the problems deliberately created to destroy our pan-African OATUU, which God forbids.”