Oshiomhole To Organised Labour: Tell Jang To Stop “Jang-ing” On NGF Chairmanship Election

NGF CrisisEdo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on Thursday decried the Organised Labour’s silence on the controversy surrounding the Nigeria Governors’ Forum election.

Oshiomhole particularly berated the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress for not summoning the courage to tell Nigerians the truth about the NGF logjam.

The NGF has been split into two camps following the outcome of its election in May with a faction pledging loyalty to Jonah Jang of Plateau State, who scored 16 votes and another standing behind the winner of the election, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State.

Oshiomhole spoke at a conference organised by the TUC in Abuja on Thursday.

In the conference entitled ‘The Labour Movement in Nigeria: a centenary of unity, diversity and nation building’, the outgoing TUC President-General, Mr. Peter Esele, urged the NGF to put its house in order.

Oshiomhole said, “When the facts are so clear, comrade presidents of TUC and NLC, you cannot be quiet. You must take a position if you believe from all that you have heard and seen that Jang won, say so. And if you know that he did not win, tell him to stop janging.”

Oshiomhole, who was once a labour leader, challenged the leadership of the union to always speak the truth.

He said, “These are the values of the truth that I learnt from the late labour leader, Comrade Hassan Summonu, who told me when I was growing up that whether you tell the truth, on the day you shall die, you cannot postpone it. If also you choose to live the life of a liar, you cannot live one minute longer than you have been destined to live. But the difference is that for those who speak the truth, there is a space in heaven and those, who live the life of a rogue, their place in hell is defined.”

Shedding more light on the controversial NGF election, the governor said, “Thirty five people went into a poll and at the end, the votes were counted and Jang got 16 votes and Amaechi marshalled 19 votes. The winner emerged and the same people started saying ‘no, we are going to walk out’. I said how could you walk out. Even in madness, there are levels of madness.”

Earlier, Esele said despite the controversy surrounding the conduct of the NGF election, the resultant crisis was needless and unnecessary.