The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has lost two of its top staff principal officers -the General Secretary, Emmanuel Okechukwu Ugboaja, and a former Acting Head of Education, Maureen Ekwuasi-Onyia- both of whom died last Saturday, August 22, 2026.
 
While the death of Ugboaja was officially communicated to the leadership of the NLC yesterday by his family during its meeting in Enugu, it is unclear whether that of Ekwuasi-Onyia had been communicated officially by her family.
 
NLC is presently in Enugu holding an organ meeting. Ugboaja, who died at 60, ends more than three decades of active involvement in Nigeria’s organised labour movement. .
 
In 2019, Ugboaja succeeded Dr Peter Ozo-Esan, who also died on December 13, 2025, following a prolonged illness.
 
Also, Ugboaja battled ill-health for more than two years before succumbing to the cold hands of death.
 
Ugboaja’s death was disclosed to members of the NLC National Executive Council during its meeting in Enugu by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, who read a letter from the deceased’s family informing the labour leadership of his passing.
 
Born on May 15, 1966, Ugboaja was a lawyer by training who abandoned private legal practice for full-time trade unionism in 1993.
 
He subsequently rose from an affiliate union to become the administrative and industrial-relations engine of the NLC, eventually emerging as its General Secretary in 2019.
 
His death marks the loss of one of the labour movement’s most experienced negotiators at a time when organised labour remains deeply engaged with government over wages, the cost of living, minimum-wage implementation and the wider consequences of economic reforms.
 
Ugboaja graduated in Law from the University of Calabar in 1987 and spent about four years in private legal practice before joining the National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees (NUCFRLANMPE) in 1993.
 
He is fondly remembered as the first Nigerian lawyer to work full-time for a trade union.
 
He rose through the ranks and served as General Secretary from 2000 to 2005, establishing himself as a labour administrator with a combination of legal training and industrial-relations experience.
 
His career, however, was not confined to the trade union movement. Between 2006 and 2009, he served as Coordinator, Advocacy and Mobilisation, at the Alliance for Credible Elections, a civil society organisation focused on electoral issues.
 
Alongside Issa Aremu and a few others, Ugboaja represented organised labour at the 2005 Political/Constitutional Reform Conference convened under President Olusegun Obasanjo and the 2014 Constitution Review Conference under President Goodluck Jonathan.
 
Ugboaja returned to the NLC Secretariat in 2009 and rose to become Principal Assistant General Secretary and Head of Industrial Relations and Organising.
 
That position brought him into the heart of the Congress’s engagement with the government, employers and its numerous affiliate unions.
 In 2019, he emerged as successor to Peter Ozo-Eson, who had retired as General Secretary.