Another N100m Scandal Rocks NLC?
By Chris Nwachuku
Every strike opens an opportunity for some officials of the labour movement to enrich themselves. They have a way of doing this. First, they enter into negotiation with their employers so that members of their union would not participate in the strike and save the management of possible closure of work places.
This appears very common in the private sector, where the managements are more conscious of the manhours lost in every strike initiated by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). For example, in one of the recent ones, the workers in construction giant, Julius Berger, did not participate. A secretariat staff confirmed to THISDAY recently that stories of management meeting top union staff in a bid to seek to scuttle the strike exist."
In the end, the workers did not join their counterparts in the strike until NLC officials threatened to take action.
The first major strike to protest fuel price increase witnessed a similar incident. This time, however it was some top union officials who negotiated with government for the disbursement of N140 million to weaken the eight-day old strike. Names were mentioned including Nnorom, a candidate for 2007 NLC election, as well as a former staff of NUPENG, among others. NLC set up a probe panel which confirmed the involvement of some of the labour leaders.
Many thought that these were exceptional cases and as men already recognised as promoters of justice and good governance, the nation might have seen the last of such conduct. It does not appear so.
In the June 2004 strike, while NLC President Adams Oshiomhole, along with some very core and principled unionists, was busy mobilising, closing offices and ensuring proper compliance with the industrial action some other union officials were engaged in something different.
THISDAY exclusively gathered that these union officials demanded from government about N100 million to break the strike. Their identities and the method they added could not be immediately confirmed. What was never in dispute was that a letter-headed paper of chemical workers union was printed with some of its past leaders listed as serving officers. None of the names of the present national leadership was mentioned.
Ironically, the union officials could not collect the N100 million demanded. THISDAY gathered that at the point of collection, President of one of the public sector unions got wind of it and informed government officials that the men involved lacked the capacity to break the strike. Apart from the fact that their unions were not strategic, the President was quoted as saying: "This is a popular strike, no union can break it. This guys will collect the N100m and make few statements on pages of newspaper, they cannot help you. Tell them to address their union members first before coming to collect the money."
This advice changed the direction of the discussion or rather put an end to the "negotiation." Expectedly, the union leaders involved got to know of why their negotiation collapsed and the source of the problem. At one of the meetings of labour leaders in Abuja, two of the alleged ring leaders confronted the union president who deflated their plans in an open exchange at NLC secretariat in Abuja. THISDAY learnt that NLC is still investigating the cause of the hot exchange.
Two industrial unions, Construction Workers Union (CWU) and National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) have featured in the discussion over demands for N100 million. Who are these officials in the unions. The General Secretary of NULGE A. A. Salam is a very close friend of Oshiomhole's. can he betray his friend and by extension the movement? In construction union, the president Henry Adekweh, is a member of National Administrative Council (NAC) of NLC, who many noted is very comfortable and committed unionist who cannot play dirty. As a staff of Julius Berger of many years, the president in the past eight years had been able to put up two ultra modern hotels in Lagos and Abuja worth millions of naira. Can such person seek for ordinary N100 million? Unlikely?
Said Salam: "I have served my union as general secretary for many years faithfully without any blemish. I have never been accused of any wrong doing, people spreading these stories only want to tarnish my image and I will not take it lightly. I challenge anybody with any information of my involvement to come up openly. At a time, when it was striving to make money, during the military, I stood firmly with Nigerian workers, why will I deny them now or betray them? It is not true."
Indeed, Salam fought for Nigerian workers. He was appointed by the military government to an lead Nigerian officials to International Labour Organisation (ILO) conference in Geneva. Only estacode goes with such trip, not much material benefit. At the conference, based on principle, Salam refused to do the bidding of the military government who wanted him to discredit the trade union movement then and endorsed the action of the military taken against labour. Although the Labour minister then, Uba Ahmed was to accuse him of hobnobbing and collecting money from foreigners, many did not accept this allegation.
Oshiomhole confirmed the N100 million scandal at the last Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Abuja. Sources at the meeting said the workers' president hinted that seven unions were involved in the plot to disrupt the strike. Although he was said to have confirmed to the top union leaders at the meeting that the promoters of the deal did not finally get the money, the national secretariat is still investigating and would not mention names until it concludes the exercise.
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