By Salihu Moh. Lukman
The 11th Quadrennial Delegates’
Conference of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), scheduled for February 9th
and 10th ended inconclusively with ugly disruption of voting process
to produce new leadership for the Congress early in the morning of Thursday,
February 12, 2015. The issues that led to the disruption of the voting process
were allegations ofirregularities fuelling suspicion of rigging by one of the
Candidates. Claims of use of ballot papers that appear different from approved
ones were also raised. Be that as it may, violent eruption of delegates
resulting in destruction of ballot boxes and scattered ballot papers is
indefensible, disgraceful and unacceptable.
Experiences
in the Past
Perhaps, it may be argued that this is not
the first time NLC is going through leadership crisis during its delegates’
conference. In 1982, in Kano, Comrade David Ojeli from the Nigeria Civil
Service Union (NCSU) led a splinter group of unionists with the backing of the
2nd Republic National Party ofNigeria (NPN) federal government of
Alh. Shehu Shagari to challenge the emergence of Alh. Ali Chiroma of the
Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) as successor to Alh. Hassan
Sunmonu of the Civil Service Technical Workers Union of Nigeria (CSTWUN).
Comrade Ojeli's challenge was democratically defeated and all threats,
including attempts to mobilize a walkout, were averted by superior internally
organized response of the Sunmonu-cum-Chiroma leadership.
The second time was the 1988 Benin
Conference of the NLC, which saw Comrade Takai Shamang of the National Union of
Electricity Employees (NUEE), with the support of the Babangida administration,
challenging the Comrade Ali Chiroma leadership, resulting in parallel
conferences, allegedly producing both Comrades Chiroma and Shamang as
Presidents of NLC. The result is therefore a contrived leadership crisis that
justified the direct intervention of government in the internal administration
of NLC with the appointment of Mr. Michael Ogunkoya as NLC Sole Administrator.
That intervention arm-twist union leaders to negotiate the emergence of Comrade
Pascal Bafyau (of blessed memory) who came from the Nigeria Union of Railwaymen
(NUR) as NLC President.
The third instance was the 1994
dissolution of the Comrade Pascal Bafyau leadership along with those of
National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural
Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) by the Abacha administration
on account of their roles against the 1993 annulment of the June 12, 1993
election. These unions remained under government appointed Sole Administrators
up to 1998 when Gen. Abacha died. With the emergence ofGen. Abdulsalami
Abubakar, and the termination of official policy of internal interference in
the administration of unions by federal government, ComradeAdams Oshiomhole of
the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers (NUTGTWN) emerged
as elected President of Congress in January 1999 following a contested election.
2015
NLC Conference
Perhaps like in 1999 and 2003, contests for
leadership during the NLC in 2007 and 2011 did not lead to internal crisis.
Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) succeeded Comrade Adams
smoothly largely on account of capacity of structures to negotiate agreements
and regulate the conduct of members. Why was the NLC leadership unable to
deplore its internal capacity in 2015?
What is very clear in the narrative of Nigerian
union leadership contestation isthat the hands of government in engineering
crisis is visible and perhaps the major catalyst. Is the federal government
also engineering the current NLC crisis? It will be very difficult to prove, at
least not as visible as the 1982 and 1988 cases. If there is the hand of
government in the crisis, it may have been overshadowed by other profound
issues that must have eroded the integrity quotient that used to serve as the
source of moral authority of the NLC.
Partly because of poor ethical standards in the
union movement, government interests and support for contestants may have been
seen as normal and in some cases even a source of strength. This may justify
stories flying around that one of the candidates for one of the offices openly
promote himself based on the credential that he come from the same place with
Dame Patience Jonathan, the First Lady of the Federal Republic. Another is
alleged to have won the support of the Secretary to the Government of the
Federation (SGF) and Minister of Power on account of coming from the same
tribe.
True or false, internal organ deliberations
would have thrown up these issues, absolve or confirm those being accused.
These are now left to speculations and at best ignored by those accused. Therefore,
like the story of Nigeria, NLCgradually, systemically and systematically come
to a standstill through years of value-stripping actions and perhaps deliberate
subversion. Value-stripping actions on accounts of union leaders’ inability to
conduct their affairs selflessly through teamwork, etc. Capacity of union
leaders to internalize these values and in the process produce inspiring
results that translate into union - management/government agreements
manifesting in higher wages, enhanced benefits and good working conditions were
factors that have elevated union leaders to national reckoning. The emergence
of Michael Imoudu, Wahab Goodluck, HassanSunmonu, Ali Chiroma and Adams
Oshiomhole of recent are typical examples.
The question of what went wrong during the 2015
NLC Conference that the NLC wasunable to manage its own affairs and
disgracefully ridiculed the movement, embarrassed its membership and Nigerian
workers, is a matter that need close scrutiny. How did we arrive at this
terrible situation? The answer is not far fetched. It considerably accounts for
the weak presence or near absence of the movement in policy debates and
political contestations in Nigeria today.
Ethical Bankruptcy and The Lessons
Partly because today’s union leaders are
alienated from the conditions of their membership, it is difficult, if not
impossible to distinguish a unionist from an employer or our public officials.
To a greater degree, union revenue is hardly limited to workers contributions
(check off dues) that are usually about 2% of workers pay. Grants from
employers and governments are today greater proportion of union revenue, far
greater than check off dues. As a result, like CEOs in government and other big
establishments, Presidents and General Secretaries of Unions live lavishly and
unions have multi-billion Naira projects, which are not consistent with values
of collective agreements negotiated by union leaders. Most of the unions with
vested interests of fielding candidates for positions in the NLC were reported
to have paid hundreds of millions of Naira as check off to NLC. These were
unions that struggled in the past to pay some thousands of Naira to NLC.
The consequence is that unlike in the 70s, 80s
and early 90s, union leadership appears very splendid. The major unions today,
with interest in the currentleadership contest, notably MHWUN and NUEE used to
struggle to pay less than N1 million monthly check off. Today, both unions are
reported to have paid hundreds of millions of Naira each as check off to NLC.
This is not a reflection of membership recruitment or wage realities in each of
the sectors. What is the source of the money? May be it is not the business of
members or delegates to investigate. In which case, the mandate of the new
leadership could have been surreptitiously determined.
Today, we daily face the sad embarrassment of
having our labour leaders accused ofmisappropriating union resources, being
unaccountable, collaborating with employers and government to the detriment of
Nigerian workers. In some waysthese allegations have always been there but
because of the capacity of themovement to undertake transparent collective
action with robust internal debates, integrity of leadership was guaranteed.
Where leaders are found wanting, disciplinary process was allowed to weed out
recalcitrant leaders. For instance, financial reports were constantly
presented, debated at all organs of the movement and always formed the basis of
internal enquiry and decisions.Nominations and appointments into committees,
projects, government statutory bodies, etc. were always debated and decisions
democratically arrived at.
The 2015 Conference of the NLC clearly
abandoned all these. Signals of crisis were public knowledge but somehow, the
NLC leadership, perhaps ignored them. In fact, even before the Conference
issues of financial misappropriations in NLC became subject of public protests
especially in relation to housing scheme promoted by the NLC that many workers
subscribed to. The situation led to disruption of NLC Civil Society Program
with political parties at Yar’Adua Centre, about a week before the conference
by protesting workers.
With respect to elections, it was clear that
there were tensions with leadership of private sector unions alleging some
violations of internal agreements. All these couldn’t have resulted in the
disgraceful event of Thursday, February 12 if the rich traditions, conventions
and regulatory controls of structures of the movement were allowed to prevail. Anyone
with clear knowledge of the workings of the NLC would have expected that both
the process of nominating conference Committee members, terms of references and
receiving reports of their work, all organs of NLC would have met and reached
some decisions. For instance, the National Administrative Council (NAC)
involving elected officials and Heads of Departments of Congress would have met
to agree on proposals regarding composition of membership and terms of
references. The proposals would havegone to the Central Working Committee (CWC)
comprising NAC members and Presidents and General Secretaries of all the
affiliate unions. Once adopted, the National Executive Council (NEC) comprising
CWC members, treasurers of affiliates and State Chairmen and Secretaries of NLC
would have been summoned to give final approval.
Based on this, there would have been a NEC
meeting to approve date of conference approve composition of conference
organizing committee, credentials committee, among others. Together with dates
of conference, closing dates for nomination into offices as well as procedure
would have also been agreed. The conference organizing committee handles
matters of logistics while the credentials committee handles issues of
computing number of delegates based on unions’ financial contributions in line
with provisions of Congress’ constitution. The credentials committee also
handles issues of nomination. Once nominations are closed, the NAC, CWC and NEC
would have met to look into the reports of both the conference organizing and
credential committees. Disputes or grievanceswith respect to number of
delegates allocated to unions, disqualification of nomination papers, etc. for
instance could have been redressed.
In the process of debating delegates per union,
Congress’ financial report would have been debated. Many issues would have come
under scrutiny here. Questions of under, over subscription and sources of union
funds would have been checked. There is also the issue of integrity of aspiring
leaders based on records of their performance with respect to transparent
management of Congress’ projects.
There is no doubt that all the organs of
Congress must have met in line with provisions of the NLC constitution and
convention. What then went wrong? Some of the reports indicated poor handling
of debates resulting in either inconclusive debates or decisions that were
hurriedly taken or imposed. Thecase of report of the credential committee
disqualify the nomination papers of President of National Union of Road Transport
Workers of Nigeria (NURTWN) may have been one of the cases. Inability to
deliberate on such matters exhaustively open up the conference to issues that
would have been sorted by lower organs.
Perhaps because lower organs were not managed
properly, issues of financial report were also left open. With very strong
allegations of financial mismanagement running into billions of Naira, emotions
and tempers were high among delegates at the conference. It is possible with
all these to have still organized a hitch free conference. This would have
required some clear organization ensuring that security wasn’t taken for
granted. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be serious security
arrangement, at least as reflected during the voting process.
It is incomprehensible that in contemporary
Nigeria, elections involving assembling some 3,200 delegates in one roof will
be organized without the visible presence of our regular police in the hall.
Accounts indicates that it was only after the crisis leading to the destruction
of ballot boxes started that not more than five policemen who looked confused
and threatened were brought into the hall. This was after conference was
disrupted on Tuesday, February 10 twice, first with the issue of re-opening the
nomination of thePresident of NURTWN that was disqualified by the credentials
committee. Followed by refusal of the NLC leadership to allow for debate on the
NLC financial report.
What needs to Done?
What is very obvious is that the NLC conference
was set for the disastrous outcome that emerged. Unfortunately, the NLC
Secretariat proved completely incompetent. Otherwise, how could the conference
be disrupted on February 10th during the debate on financial report
and the NLC Secretariat did nothing to mobilize for security during voting? On
the 10th, Chairs were thrown around the hall by delegates, which
should have indicated what might come during voting.
Didn’t the NLC Secretariat foresee all these?
What security arrangement was put inplace for the conference? Now that we all
have to deal with the shame that came out of the conference, what is the way
forward? So far, the NAC has convened a meeting of NEC for Wednesday, February
18, 2015 and indications are that NEC will be requested to approve proposal for
conference to reconvene on February 25 to conclude elections.
In order to ensure that everything is done to
prevent repeat of the sad events of February 12, the NLC Secretariat should
wake up to its responsibility. Two issues readily come to mind here. The first
is the issue of security. NLC should mobilize the Nigeria Police to provide
adequate security for conference such that safety of ballot boxes and votes can
be guaranteed.
The second issue is the question of the ballot
papers. Accounts from the disrupted conference indicated that the NLC
Secretariat vacated its responsibility ofproducing the ballot papers to the
conference organizing committee. This led to the abuse of the process, which
produced varied ballot papers. This must not be allowed again. Congress’
Secretariat should under no circumstance abdicate such responsibility again.
The third issue is that there are allegations
of some Secretariat staff on account of their support for some candidates, also
fuelled the crisis. It is important that order is restored and NLC staffs are
made to demonstrate high measure of discipline and commitment. This may require
setting up a committee to investigate the conduct of all NLC staffs leading to
the shameful event of February 12. All those found to have been culpable should
be sanctioned in accordance with the NLC conditions of service.
The fourth issue is the need to protect the
integrity of the NLC. With the allegations of financial embezzlement, there is
the urgent need to setup a strong investigation panel comprising some of our
veteran leaders to investigate the matter. The committee should be given enough
powers to access all NLC accounts and report to NEC.
Beyond the NLC
The need for a strongly united union movement,
especially at this point in our national life cannot be overemphasized. We are
faced with the danger of an orchestrated constitutional crisis by the Federal
Government with the postponement of the general elections to March 28. Clearly,
the political reality that may follow such a constitutional crisis would call
for broad alliance of patriotic forces across all shades of interest. The role
of NLCwith a membership base running into millions in mobilizing national
actions to defend our democracy will be crucial.
As lawyers would say, he who comes to equity,
must come with clean hands, NLC would need to put its house in order and join
forces for the democratic national rescue with strong moral quotient. This has
been the credentials of the Nigerian union movement. In all our trying moments
as a nation since independence, it was only in the struggle against the
Yar’Adua cabal in 2009 and 2010 that NLC leadership under Comrade Omar shied
away from teaming up with national patriots to contribute to the struggle for
democracy. On that occasion, the struggle was to eliminate the vacuum created
by the absence of sick President Umaru Musa Yar’Adu. All these are now
forgotten as President Jonathan and his functionaries are publically recognized
as ‘Comrades’ to NLC leaders even though at the critical point in 2009 and 2010
when they were called upon to join the forces of democracy, they were visibly
absent.
In some ways, there is a lot of similarities
between our national realities and realities faced by our non-governmental
organizations. Like in government, our non-governmental organizations are faced
also with problems of corruption, incompetence and lawlessness. Everything is
about protecting the vested interests of our leaders. Organizations that are
standard bearers of change or changeagents should take the extra steps to model
the way forward. Rather than sweeping allegations of corruption, organizations
like NLC should investigate such allegations and in the process clear leaders
and throw them up as national leaders.
Conclusions
The objective of this memo is to offer
suggestions to our union leaders regarding how best to get out of our current
shame. It is my hope that our leaders pay attention to issues raised in the
memo.
May God Almighty protect our NLC and
Nigeria. Amin.
(Lukman writes
from 79 Nelson Mandela Crescent Asokoro, Abuja. He can be reached via: smlukman@gmail.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please restrict your comment to the subject matter.