By Funmi Komolafe, &  Victor Ahiuma-Young

For Labour Vanguard that has had  the privilege of  attending Nigeria Labour Congress delegates conferences for  over 20 years,  the last one was anything but a “big shame” as the first General Secretary of the NLC, Aliyu Dangiwa described it.

This edition of Labour Vanguard reflects on the whys and hows behind the failure of the conference. Dangiwa  in his assessment of  the botched conference, told Vanguard:

“It’s a big shame….. Moreover, on the part of workers, we have to be  more articulate and objective. Apparently, we must look at ourselves. There are people working against us, people working for our adversaries in our midst. Whoever is responsible for this should be traced by Nigerian workers for appropriate action”. He said it all.

Unprecedented marks

The issue is, was the National Delegates Conference, NDC, designed to fail? If so, who did it and for what purpose? What happened in Abuja last week had many unprecedented marks and ended up unprecedentedly.

First, is the manner the leadership of the NLC handled issues of the conference before and during the meeting.

NLC president , Abdulwaheed Omar used his position as presiding officer to comment on virtually every speech made by delegates on the basis that it “touched on his person” which was not quite healthy for his position.

The issue of the bloated number of delegates was the first signal that the conference was a time-bomb waiting to explode.

The number of delegates from two unions — Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria(527), and the National Union of Electricity Employees (471), were unprecedented. Both unions attributed this to increased membership and increase in wages.

Yet, the (NLC) constitution has provisions preventing bulk payment for the purpose of allocation of delegates for the election. However, one cannot blame the two unions because NLC’s secretariat accepted their explanation and so it became a reality.

Re-opeing of nomination

As if that was not enough, the organ of Congress that constituted the Credentials Committee, owes workers a “full explanation.” Why did the committee not inform the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, that there were gaps in their nomination forms which needed to be filled?

Also, the leadership of NLC is aware that one of the candidates would retire this year but because he is in the current National Administrative Council, he was allowed to contest.

Perhaps the most important is that certain individuals in the committee were of questionable conducts.

The insincerity of some members of the credentials committee resulted in the re-opening of nomination on the floor of the house on Tuesday, which again, was unprecedented. Those who called it Democracy in Action should tell others if Democracy is also a process without rules.

With this, the conference was thrown into confusion when they failed to listen to the words and wisdom of elders of the labour movement including its pioneer president, Alhaji Hassan Sunmonu, who warned the delegates against the danger of throwing the labour movement, and indeed the conference, into chaos.

Having re-opened nomination, it meant that anyone was free to contest. What took many delegates, journalists and others aback was the magical process of printing ballot papers.

President of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, Igwe Achese, withdrew from the contest for NLC presidency on Tuesday and threw the weight of his supporters behind Joe Ajaero of NUEE. By 5 p.m. on Wednesday, President of NURTW, Najeem Usman Yasin, President-General of MWUN, Tony Nted, and Achese’s names were on the ballot paper as candidates for the posts of deputy president, vice president and deputy president respectively.

Delegates were never informed that NUPENG, NURTW and MWUN had filled nomination forms for new posts. No time was given for them to fill and submit fresh forms.

Failure to dissolve NAC: Perhaps, the worst thing that happened at the conference was failure to dissolve the National Administrative Council, NAC, before a fresh election.

This point of order was raised by Ismaila Bello of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers, NUTGTWN, but an NLC Deputy General Secretary, Emma Ugboaja, who was a General Secretary of an affiliate of the NLC, said “it is not in our constitution.” To put it mildly, many delegates knew nothing could be farther from the truth because it is the norm. In the interest of peace, delegates accepted.

Incumbent president

Consequently, voting for a new president and other officers was on while the incumbent president was still in office.

The question is, had the election succeeded, would there had been two presidents of the NLC at the same time?

Kriston-Lally/ NLC: One cannot, but commend delegates that brought up the issue of NLC/Kriston-Lally failed housing project that did not produce houses for workers and in some cases refunded devalued money to depositors.

The real disclosure came from Achese, who confirmed that “yes, N2.5 billion is safe” as disclosed by the Treasurer , Ayuba Wabba, but Achese insisted not all the money was safe.

The question is, where is the financial report? Out of 3,119 delegates at the conference, not more than 50 saw the report, yet, some moved for the adoption of a report that was not seen. Omar called for a vote by standing up, and without counting, he declared the report accepted. This to some delegates confirmed that the executive had something to cover.

The onus is on workers to elect an executive that will be transparent with this particular issue because workers’ hard-earned money is involved.

Fraudulent consultation–  Twice, the leadership  was engaged in what could best be described as “fraudulent consultation”.

Omar, called for votes on whether or not to reopen nomination, before he consulted pioneer leaders of the movement who were seated right before him.

Secondly, on the issue of the dissolution of the House, the pioneer leaders were seated there and were not consulted or were consulted after Ugboaja had announced that “ it is not in our constitution” as if that was the first conference of NLC or any industrial union for that matter.

Sectoral Division: Had the conference gone on smoothly, it would have created a wound that would take a long time to heal. Workers appeared to be divided along private and public sector unions, though many were silent and could have voted for the candidate of their choice.

One would have thought that as usual, they would be divided along ideological lines or some kind of principles but this was not so.

Turn of the private sector

While some argued that it was the turn of the private sector, others insisted the public sector must have it. For the records, the president of the NLC could have come from any sector.

The issue however is the fact that the movement under Omar had degenerated so much that the ideological focus has been thrown to the dogs.

It is in this era that union leaders now fly First Class while travelling on official assignments. For those who do not know, a first class ticket to London which is six hours flight is about One Million Naira or more , depending on the airline.

Some of these leaders who now distance themselves from Kriston-Lally travelled to Greece, the headquarters of the company on these expensive tickets.

There are remote and immediate causes for the failure of the Abuja 2015 conference but in all of these, the leadership, indeed the secretariat, must take responsibility for a failed conference.

Now that the National Executive Council, NEC is to decide a new date for the election, isn’t there a need to appoint new and experienced hands to organize the conference ? Wouldn’t the legality of the new conference be a subject of litigation if the ‘ leadership’ presides?

Isn’t it also time to put in place a responsible and committed leadership at the secretariat?

All of these are questions awaiting answers. The struggle continues.