Nigerian Labor Congress Finally Spilts

President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, and his United Labour Congress of Nigeria, ULC, counterpart, Mr. Joe Ajaero, are at each other’s throats following the emergence of ULC on December 17. Ajaero, until the emergence of ULC, was a factional President of NLC, arising from the crisis that rocked NLC in the wake of the disputed outcome of the March 2015 National Delegates Conference, NDC, in Abuja. 

The relationship between the Wabba- led NLC and the Ajaero faction had been distrust such that all efforts to reconcile the factions by Congress veterans one of including immediate past governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, ended up achieving nothing. A report of the reconciliatory committee, headed by the founding president of the NLC, Alhaji Hassan Sunmonu, was never implemented despite appeals from several quarters including industrial unions. 

The widening gap between the factions manifested during the failed strike to protest government withdrawal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, otherwise known as petrol. While the Ajaero faction decided to meet government to find solution to the issue, the Wabba faction opted for a nationwide strike. In fact, when the Federal Government invited the factions for a meeting over the subsidy removal, Wabba was quoted as saying he would not hold meeting with government alongside the Ajaero faction, forcing government to hold separate meetings with the factions.

 The feud between the factions climaxed on December 17, when the Ajaero faction finally broke away from NLC to announce the formation of a new labour centre alongside some affiliates of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, and some industrial unions that were neither affiliated to NLC nor TUC. from vanguard