NLC Leadership Crisis: Pioneer President, Sunmonu, Heads 7-Man C’ttee

Ayuba Wabba-Joe AjaeroThe warring factions in the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, sheathe their swords as they met publicly yesterday for the first time in over two months.

The NLC, which is the umbrella body for labour unions in the country, broke into two factions on May 14, 2015 when Comrade Ayuba Wabba was elected president at the 13th Delegates Conference of the congress in Abuja.

Comrade Joe Ajaero of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, kicked against the outcome of the election and together with some unions, conducted fresh elections in Lagos, where he emerged factional President of the NLC.

Both factions had laid claim to the NLC Presidency with several attempts to reconcile them ending up as a futile exercise.

However, all differences were set aside as Ajaero and Wabba agreed at yesterday’s meeting headed by Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and veterans of the labour movement, to work for peace.

Oshiomhole, himself a former NLC President, who addressed reporters at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, venue of the meeting, said a seven-man committee to be headed by pioneer President of the Congress, Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, has been set up to resolve the impasse.

He said “a couple of things definitely went wrong; there is no question. We identified a lot of things and we agreed that the way forward is to put a solid movement. That all these issues have to be addressed one after the other and we have to have an all-inclusive congress in which all shades of opinions are involved in decision making”.

“We agree to have three members from each of side the divide if you like to be chaired by our founding president Comrade Hassan and to ensure that he guides them through so that whatever they do they are guided by the core values of organised labour”, he said.

Oshiomhole added that: “Those rich traditions and ethical issues must be observed and we must ensure that the morality of the labour movement is always reflected because organised labour is always ruled by sentiments about justice, fair play and what is proper more than any other thing.

“I think everybody agreed that we must find a way to get on with the job. We are now going to see everybody working together in dealing with all the issues that are on the table and other issues that might be raised in the very near future”.