President of the Health Workers Union of Nigeria, Aliyu Wabba, has been named president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, amidst protests by his challenger Joe Ajero of the National Union of the Electricity Employees.
Wabba was chosen on Saturday at the rescheduled delegates’ conference in Abuja.
The new NLC President will replace Abdulwaheed Omar, whose tenure expired recently..
Workers from 23 unions including Electricity Workers Union, Nigerian Textile Workers Union and NUPENG are among those opposing the results of the election that declared Ayuba Waba president of the workers’ union.
Ajaero, in company of some of the candidates that lost out in the election, roundly rejected the result of the election and announced Friday, March 20, 2015 as date for a fresh ‘special delegates’ conference in Lagos, where perceived ‘wrongs’ in the Abuja election would be addressed.
But the Congress in a statement by its General Secretary Dr Peter Ozo-Eson, has directed its members to stay away from the ‘special delegates’ conference.
Ozo-Eson said the conference is influenced by individuals driven by inordinate ambition and vainglory, advising all affiliate unions of the Labour body to steer clear of the conference.
He said: “Affiliate unions of the Nigeria Labour Congress are hereby advised to ignore any invitation to such a conference as the 11th Delegates Conference was concluded in the early hours of Saturday, March, 14, 2015 following the successful election of the national executives of the Congress in a free, fair and credible election under the watchful eyes of unions, delegates, invited guests, veterans and members of the media.”
According to the result of the rescheduled election that held in Abuja on Saturday, the Returning Officer, Aliyu Dangiwa, declared Wabba winner with 1,695 votes, while his challenger, the Secretary General of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Joe Ajaero, polled 1,400 votes.
Some 23 unions, mostly populated by the losers, led by Joe Ajaero, the President NUPENG, Achese Igwe and General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, Issa Aremu, declared the election “inconclusive”.
The group insists that the results declared were unsigned by the contestants in breach of the guidelines of the NLC constitution.
The Ajaero group tagged ‘Restoration Group’ has consequently scheduled what it termed ‘Special Delegates’ Conference’ of the NLC for Friday, March 13 and Saturday March 14, 2015 in Lagos.
The group also announced Peter Balogun of the Civil Service Secretary and Stenographic Workers as the Chairman of the Organising Committee of the conference.
Before the announcement of the ‘special delegates’ conference, some members of the Restoration group had stormed out of the Eagles square venue of the conference.
Comrade Joe Ajaero and the leadership of the aggrieved unions said they had fixed another delegate conference in Lagos for 21 February which would produce the leadership for the workers.
Ajero told journalists his own side of the story. “You have Idan Giwa, Fege and another Abdulwaheed Omar supervising the same process. That is not acceptable. In the whole process of this election, Abdulwaheed Omar is not wanted.” He is the caused of all that is happening in the labour movement today.
“I am the rightful winner of that election. I remain the authentic president of the Nigeria Labour Congress,” Mr Ajaero said.
“We are organising a special delegates conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress in Lagos on Saturday, February 21. Arrival shall be Friday.”
The reconvened NLC at the Eagle Square on Thursday was expected to lay to rest the crisis that trailed last months congress which failed to produce new leadership for the congress.
Less than 24 hours after, the congress announced the names of the new NLC leadership, members of 23 workers unions including some contestants rejected the results declared.
The eleventh delegate conference had ended up in a deadlock last month.
Although, a new leadership was declared in Friday’s elections, the reactions from these members showed that there was no end in sight for the crisis in the NLC.
