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NLC to resuscitate labour college, celebrates 40th anniversary tomorrow

By Collins Olayinka, Abuja
27 February 2018   |   4:06 am
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) would resuscitate the building of Labour College more than 25 years after it first mooted the idea.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) would resuscitate the building of Labour College more than 25 years after it first mooted the idea.

This come as the foremost labour centre in Nigeria will be 40 years old tomorrow, Wednesday 28 February 2018.

Indeed, the move to formalise the birth of the NLC started in 1974 during what is now famously tagged “the Apena declaration”.

In September 1974, the leaders of the then existing four national centres – the United Labour Congress of Nigeria (ULCN), the Nigeria Trade Union Congress (NTUC), the Labour Unity Front (LUF), and the Nigerian Workers Council (NWC) – decided to form a new United Central Labour Organisation which eventually culminated into the formation of the Nigeria Labour Congress on the 28 February 1978 by the Olusegun Obasanjo military government. Hassan Sunmonu became the pioneer President while Aliyu Dangiwa was the first General Secretary.

Speaking on the activities lined up to commemorate the 40th anniversary, the Chair of the organising committee, Peters Adeyemi, who is also a deputy president of Congress, accused the Sole Administrator appointed by the late Sani Abacha military administration of allegedly misappropriating the N10million that was initially meant for the construction of the Labour College.

He hinted that the NLC would re-launch Labour College endowment fund after the celebration of the 40th anniversary.

Adeyemi, who is also the General Secretary of Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated Institutions (NASU), said NLC will use the occasion to reflect on its many struggles, its trials, its successes and triumphs.

He explained that labour movement in Nigeria has not been without challenges as the NLC suffered proscription under military regimes of General Babangida, between March and December 1988, and by General Abacha in 1994 till his demise in June 1998.

“Reaching our first 40 years is therefore an opportunity to celebrate an opportunity to reflect on decades of struggles, the impediments, the successes, and to outline the immediate and medium-term challenges facing our movement as we march towards the golden jubilee of this Congress in another 10 years,” he added.

A former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Attahiru Jega, delivered the anniversary lecture yesterday (Monday).

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