Kaduna NLC Congress: Confusion As Two Parallel Chairmen emerge
Kaduna NLC Congress: Confusion As Two Parallel Chairmen emerge
By Alex Uangbaoje
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) yesterday held a parallel state Congress in Kaduna under the factional Presidents, Comrade Ayuba Wabba and that of Comrade Joe Ajaero, leading to the emergence of two State Chairmen.
While the Comrade Wabba’s group held their state delegate congress at the Gamji gate hall, the Comrade Ajaero’s group held their own delegate conference at the labour house, headquarters of the National Union of Textiles, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Kaduna.
In the group loyal to Comrade Ajaero, the election was conducted unopposed, with Comrade Ephraim James emerging as the State factional Chairman of the NLC.
However, the incumbent Kaduna State NLC Chairman, Comrade Adamu Ango was returned unopposed, boosting the strength of supporters for Comrade Wabba’s faction.
Comrade Wabba in a message he sent to the congress said the NLC under his leadership is committed to strengthening the state councils so that it will be able to carry out its functions more effectively.
He stressed that he would implement to the later his team’s manifesto, commitment and resolutions from the 11thDelegates’ conference of employing fulltime state secretaries for all state councils.
> On his part, Comrade Ajaero’s text address to his faction state congress titled, ‘Restoring core values of the labour movement’ said, “we have tried to consolidate on building the structure for a vibrant trade union centre after the misadventure of the past four years under the fraudulent leadership of Abdulwaheed Omar.”
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> He further stressed that, they had hoped for a reprieve from the former NLC boss with the last delegates conference but noted that he was determined to foster on the surrogates that will keep the tradition of non performance.
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> While expressing deep concern that the powers and influence of NLC in terms of the defence of the workers rights and the poor, oppressed in the country has been at its lowest level during the Comrade Omar’s tenure.
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> Comrade Wabba tasked the incoming leadership of Congress at the state levels to as part of its priorities, make arrangements to constitute local government area councils of NLC.
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> Comrade Ajaero called on the newly elected leaders at the state level to recognize that the challenges are enormous and we have resolved to put all energies and resources together in rebuilding the NLC as a vibrant labour centre that is driven by the aspirations of the Nigerian working people and propelled by the support and solidarity of affiliates, the public, the civil society organizations and the international working class movement.
“We must work together at all levels to restore the belief and confidence of the working people in the NLC as the bastion of hope for the masses and as the strong voice for the voiceless people in our country” Ajaero stated.
Meanwhile, the two parallel State chairmen promised to build a better state council respectively.
Comrade James told newsmen after the swearing in ceremony that he was not aware of faction group of NLC in the State, saying that he would carry everybody along to achieve a positive results.
