By Victor Ahiuma-Young

The appointment of General  Secretary is a major highlight of the National Administrative Council (NAC) and Central Working Committee, CWC, meeting of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, scheduled to hold on Wednesday and Thursday  respectively at Enugu, Enugu State.

Article 9 of NLC Constitution says the NAC is made up of 18 elected officers led by the President of the Congress, all heads of departments, the General Secretary and the deputy General Secretaries. The CWC is inclusive of all NAC members and the Presidents and General Secretaries of the 42 industrial unions affiliated to the NLC and it is often presided over by the NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar.

Since the retirement of the third substantive General Secretary, John Odah, the Congress Secretariat had been run by acting General Secretaries, namely Owei Lakemfa (who had since become the Secretary General of Organisation of African Trade Union Unity OATUU) and Chris Uyot, the current acting General Secretary.

Despite the controversy over the attempt to reduce the powers of the General Secretary of the Congress through controversial constitutional amendments, the secretariat remains the “engine room” and the “brain box” of any industrial union and any labour centre in the world like the NLC. In its 36 years of existence, NLC has paraded notable elected five Presidents (Hassan Sunmonu, Ali Chiroma, Paschal Bafyau, Adams Oshimhole and the current Abdulwaheed Omar). Conversely, NLC had had three substantive appointed full time General Secretaries (pioneer Aliyu Dangiwa, the late Lasisi Osunde and John  Odah).

Unions are generally driven by elected Presidents who are entitled to two terms popularly referred to as part time officers, PTOs, and appointed General Secretaries popularly referred to as full time officers, FTOs.
Well known General Secretaries of the industrial unions include retired comrade SOZ Ejiofor of the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporation, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees, AUPCTRE, and Chief Frank Ovie Kokori of June 12 fame and who was the high profile General Secretary of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas NUPENG.

Some unions and labour centres elect their secretaries while some labour centres such as NLC appoint them with tenure based on civil service rules of age and length of service. The appointed General Secretary is the head of the national secretariat.

He or she confers with the President in discharging his or her responsibilities and prepares for the critical organ meetings of the Congress, namely NAC, CWC and National Executive Council, NEC, through documentations and policy papers. GSs are also the faces of the unions.

Since the exit of Odah, as GS, the brain box (Secretariat) of the NLC has practically gone from bad to worse.
In fact, currently, the secretariat is without direction, focus, commitment and determination to fight for or defend workers’ rights. The Nigerian workers no longer feel the positive impact of NLC because the secretariat lacks leadership despite possessing very competent staff. To the average Nigerian worker, the NLC is no longer relevant to him or her. He or she is practically alone in the face of casualisation, outsourcing, retrenchment, privatization among other anti-labour policies and practices of government and employers.

There is no doubt that NLC needs a fresh blood, a go-getter, who knows his or her onion and what it takes to lead a central labour organization that stands up for the Nigerian workers and masses, and not one who has allowed the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, to be the driving force.

Leaders of NLC must have realized the dire need for a change that, in April, the Congress put up an internal advertisement for the position of the General Secretary.
The internal advertisement, Sunday Vanguard gathered, was proposed by the Establishment Committee of the NLC as a vote of no confidence in the current headship of the secretariat.

The internal advertisement has attracted two new applicants namely: Dr Peter Oso Eson, Chief Economist of the Congress, and Comrade Issa Aremu, one of the Vice Presidents and the current General Secretary of a vibrant private sector union, National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN).

According to the advertisement, those “who wish to apply for this post (of General Secretary) are expected to either be a “… suitable and qualified Deputy General Secretary of Congress who has shown manifest vocation for the post and inspirational collective/leadership attributes and team work; or A suitable officer of the rank of General Secretary of an affiliate union with proven vocation, skill and knowledge with cognate experience of not less than five years on the post, provided s(he) has the requisite qualification that includes …..commitment to appropriate social and political orientation consistent with the Labour Movement”.

In addition, applicants must have minimum academic qualification of first degree/HND in any discipline (with additional academic qualifications as advantage) and have minimum age of 45 years.
At the close of the time frame for application, Uyot, Eson, and Aremu were the contenders.

Uyot
His major selling point is that he is the acting General Secretary of NLC, a position he assumed in 2012 after the exit of Lakemfa.
A graduate of Mass Communication, Uyot is said to have joined the Congress in 1988 and had headed the information department, among others, before his appointment as Acting General Secretary.

Ordinarily, he should have been confirmed. But that the position was advertised  speaks volumes.
Under his headship of the NLC secretariat, the secretariat has not only lost its appeal, but NLC also went  to sleep. Lately and increasingly, social partners and allies alike are accusing NLC of lacking focus and even lacking loud voice to represent the working people in the world of work and in the lager society.

Even many affiliate unions believe the secretariat no longer identifies with their struggles and pains. Some people argued that probably because he never worked with any industrial union, he finds it  difficult to understand appreciate their pains and struggles. Most successive General Secretaries come from the ranks of the unions having participated in the struggles of the workers for better working conditions and relating with social partners like employers and governments alike.

Eson
His greatest asset is educational qualification and his vast experience as a university lecturer before retirement. He equally worked briefly (on a one year sabbatical) with NUTGTWN as an Education and Training Officer and later a Research officer under Comrade Adams Oshiomhole who was the then General Secretary of NUTGTWN.
However, going be advertised criteria, it is surprising that Eson was an applicant who also attended the interview date held on Tuesday, June 10, 2014.

He is neither a line union staff nor a General Secretary of any industrial union besides his brief stint with NUTGTWN.
His candidature is a departure from the global labour norm because he is neither a Deputy General Secretary of the NLC nor a serving General Secretary of any affiliate union of the Congress. Indeed he is the Chief Economist of the NLC who is a consulting staff on consolidated pay that is higher than that of the General Secretary.

Another area of concern is that Eson is a retired university lecturer whose age  is well above the average in the labour movement that demands energy, commitment, mobility and drive in the wake of worsening working/labour market conditions with attendant strikes and work stoppages.

Concerned labour leaders have complained that since Eson’s appointment, there has not been any significant value addition in terms of alternative voice of the Congress on the economy. With wholesale privatization, de-industrialization and mass job losses, the Chief Economist is accused of not initiating policy ideas that would assist the industrial unions to protect industry and jobs.

The most challenging is the oil and gas sector, where casualization has become the preferred policy of the International Oil Companies, IOCs. No serious economic ideas have been generated by the Congress to assist the struggles of the affiliate union, NUPENG, for example. Even the annual labour’s critical assessment of the annual budgets is lacking.

Recently too, Federal Government pensioners under the auspices of the Association of Retired Senior Public Officers of Nigeria, ARFESPON,  protested a cut in their pensions arising from the report of the Presidential Technical Committee on the Review of the Federal Public Service Pensions. The association in particular criticized the NLC represented on the Committee by Eson for not living up to expectations and allowing impunity and total disregard of the provisions of the 1999 Constitution with regard to pension administration in Nigeria.

Aremu
His selling points include his educational qualifications, experience, among others.
Aremu is a member of the National Institute as NLC candidate participant for Senior Executive Course, SEC, 27 in 2005.

He has master’s degree in labour studies at the prestigious Institute for Social Studies (ISS), The Hague, Netherlands, also  attended by successful General Secretaries like Ejiofor and Frank Kokori.
Apart from his labour related academic qualifications, Aremu exhibits decades of experience in industrial and national negotiations, conflict resolutions, organizing the unorganized, defense of workers’ rights and policy advocacy that has led to revival of some closed textile mills.

Some of his previously held trade union positions include, Head, Economics/Research Department, NLC, Organising Secretary/Research Officer, NUTGTWN, Assistant General Secretary (Research), NUTGTWN, Senior Assistant General Secretary, Education/Research Department, NUTGTWN, Deputy General Secretary, NUTGTWN and the General Secretary of the same union since March 31 2008 till date.

Some of his international labour work include Africa Industrialization Day (AID), November 20th every year, Global Action against precarious work, Monday, October 7, 2013, which resulted to unionization of some factories in Lagos notably Dura Pack and Majestic PP Woven Sack Ltd and revival of Nigeria’s participation in the ILO Conference. Aremu has been elected to the Executive Board of IndustriALL Global Union with Headquarters in Brussels as well as election as Chairman Sub-Saharan Africa Region, IndustriALL Global Union that has 50 million workers members world wide. He is also a Member, National Labour Advisory Committee (NLAC) and Chairman, International Committee, NLC.

He was member of Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage, 2000 and 2009-2010.
Aremu undoubtedly has the requisite commitment, skills, experience, competence, energy and capability to effectively and efficiently serve as the substantive General Secretary of Congress. Having worked with many Presidents of his union as well as all Presidents of the NLC since inception, he is also expected to cement the necessary relationship between the full-time officers (FTOs) and elected part time officers (PTOs).

The concerned among some secretariat staff that the discipline and the drive Aremu might bring to the secretariat will not be business as usual for some of them who many workers and unionists have observed add little value to the Congress’ efforts and the struggle of affiliate unions to defend the conditions of the working people.

But whether this unfounded and unjustifiable fear has anything to do with his suitability for the job, is the challenge for the NLC leadership to determine.

Though the ultimate decision of appointing the substantive General Secretary of NLC  lies in with the leaders of Congress who will definitely decide whether they want NLC to continue be in limbo, lacking the respect of workers, the masses, government and private sector employers, or an NLC that is well respected by all stakeholders, the choice is that of NLC.