The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has hit back at former President Olusegun Obasanjo over his criticism of trade union leaders, calling his remarks unfair and historically hypocritical.<\/p>\n
In a scathing statement issued by NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, the union dismissed Obasanjo\u2019s claims that labour leaders have failed their members, pointing instead to past government actions\u2014including those under Obasanjo\u2019s watch\u2014that have systematically weakened workers\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are delighted to have an ally in a personality as distinguished as our former President,\u201d Ajaero remarked, referencing Obasanjo\u2019s recent book, Nigeria: Past and Future, where the ex-president acknowledged that the minimum wage does not even cover transportation costs for some workers, let alone food, housing, and family upkeep.<\/p>\n
However, the NLC leader was quick to counter Obasanjo\u2019s claim that workers had been \u201cvictims of those meant to protect their interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is malevolent governments and predatory employers that deny workers these rights and not union leaders,\u201d Ajaero fired back, rejecting Obasanjo\u2019s attempt to blame labour leaders for workers\u2019 struggles.<\/p>\n
The NLC reiterated that its demand for a \u20a6610,000 minimum wage was based on the harsh realities of Nigeria\u2019s economic crisis.<\/p>\n
Instead, it said the government, backed by the Nigeria Employers\u2019 Consultative Association (NECA), offered a paltry \u20a650,000 without any clear breakdown of how workers were expected to survive on such an amount.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis inevitably led to a stalemate in negotiations and ultimately, a strike action which was suspended only after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took over negotiations and made the offer of \u20a670,000,\u201d Ajaero explained.<\/p>\n
He added that the union had little choice but to accept the inadequate offer to \u201cminimise the pain\u201d for Nigerian workers.<\/p>\n
But Ajaero made a shocking revelation: \u201cPresident Tinubu did accept to pay \u20a6250,000, which was our last threshold, but subject to raising the pump price of petrol to \u20a62,500 or more per litre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Faced with this ultimatum, he said the NLC opted for \u20a670,000 rather than plunging Nigerians into even deeper economic hardship.<\/p>\n
The NLC statement also took direct aim at Obasanjo\u2019s history with trade unions, questioning his credibility on labour matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich founding fathers is he talking about here? The ones the colonial masters harassed or the ones he, Chief Obasanjo, either banned or detained?\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
The NLC reminded Nigerians that under Obasanjo\u2019s presidency, labour leaders were arrested, detained, and even killed for standing up for workers\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho knows, he might find himself culpable,\u201d Ajaero declared, accusing Obasanjo of trying to \u201cproscribe the Nigeria Labour Congress\u201d when he failed to bend it to his will.<\/p>\n
The statement further exposed Obasanjo\u2019s past actions, including his alleged attempt to create a rival labour centre when he couldn\u2019t control the NLC.<\/p>\n
Obasanjo had also accused some labour leaders of seeking political office while in union positions.<\/p>\n
But the NLC dismissed this as unfounded criticism, pointing out that the 1999 Constitution (as amended) grants union leaders the right to contest elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would like to let him understand, with all due respect, that the right to political leadership is enshrined in the law. The Supreme Court decision on this is affirmatory!\u201d the NLC stated.<\/p>\n
It further reminded Obasanjo that during his tenure as president, the NLC had already produced governors directly from union leadership, making his criticism baseless.<\/p>\n
In a final statement dripping with defiance, Ajaero warned that governments should stop undermining unions for their selfish interests.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you still arrest or beat up people after paying them to keep quiet? There is something amiss here,\u201d he declared, demanding that a so-called \u201csenior government official\u201d who made allegations against union leaders should come forward with evidence or remain silent.<\/p>\n
Despite the strong words, the NLC maintained that it still respects Obasanjo as an elder but made it clear that it will not accept misrepresentation of facts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has hit back at former President Olusegun Obasanjo over his criticism of trade union leaders, calling his remarks unfair and historically hypocritical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9532,3581,10356,3571,2163,823],"class_list":["post-22822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-former-president","tag-history","tag-hypocrisy","tag-labour","tag-nlc","tag-obasanjo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22824,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22822\/revisions\/22824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}