BY Victor Ahuma-young

EIGHT affiliates of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, who are aggrieved over the outcome of Congress 10th National Delegates Conference, NDC; National Union of Banks, Insurance, and Financial Institutions Employees, NUBIFIE, Non Academic Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, National Union of Hotel and Personal Services Workers, NUHPSW, National Union of Postal and Telecommunication Employees, NUPTE, Radio and Theatre Arts Workers Union, Steel and Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria, SEWUN, and National Association of Technologies, NAATS, have taken up arms against the new leadership of Congress.

President of the National Union of Hotel and Personal Service Workers, NUHPSW, Comrade Leke Success, (middle), flanked by some of the leaders of the aggrieved affilates of NLC at a briefing in Lagos

At a meeting in Lagos, the aggrieved group did not only fault some of the outcome of the NDC held between March 1 and 3, 2011, including the election results, but also reject some of the decisions taking by the newly inaugurated National Administrative Council, NAC.

Leaders of the group, at the meeting held on March 17,

besides the rejection of the election results, the group took exception to the amendment done by delegates to the NDC with regard to the position of General Secretary of Congress and the decision of NAC to ask the General Secretary, Comrade John Odah, to proceed on four years accumulated leave, among others.

Speaking on behalf of the group, President of NUHPSW, Comrade Leke Success, said: “Though this has been observed by the General Secretary in his response to President’s leave memo, the meeting still wish to emphasize that the letter asking him to proceed on leave does not state clearly when the leave will end. Secondly, the concluding part of the letter is pointing to the fact that the NAC wants to dispense with the General Secretary by all means possible since it is administratively improper to ask someone to go on leave without stating when he is to return.We believe that NAC’s decision is not in order if it is based on the reason it gave for asking the General Secretary to take his unspent leave.”

“We wish to state that there is a standard administrative procedure for officers in sensitive offices such as that of the General Secretary to take their accumulated leave and not the method adopted by NAC which tend to have turned itself into a medical council. In the President’s memo to the General Secretary, he stated that he had appointed Comrade Owei Lakemfa to act as General Secretary. The meeting disagreed with this appointment because, as bad as the reviews of the Constitution of the NLC in the just concluded Delegates’ Conference were, the appointment of Comrade Owei grossly violates the Congress Constitution and the emphasis the recent review placed on seniority in carrying out appointments to administrative positions at the Secretariat.”

“For example, reviewed Article 19, Section 5(ii) at the 10th Delegates’ Conference states that Assistant Secretaries of all categories, that is, Principal Assistant General Secretary, Senior Assistant General Secretary and Assistant General Secretary “ … shall also be required by the Central Working Committee to Head Departments of Congress without prejudice to seniority and shall report to the General Secretary all the activities of such Departments.”

This Constitutional provision, it must be emphasised, renders Comrade Owei the least qualified since he is the most junior of the four Principal Assistant General Secretaries at the Secretariat. We wish to therefore call on the NAC to reverse its decision or convene the meetings of the Central Working Committee (CWC) and the National Executive Council (NEC) of Congress within two weeks to finally decide on these matters. The group resolved to pursue the redress of these anomalies. We equally want the postponement of the conduct of the elections into state councils of NLC until after the general election in the country.”