NLC Moves To Resolve Issues That Truncated Delegates’ Conference

THE National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) will meet on Wednesday, February 18, this year, to fix a new date for the election of its officers following the disruption of the delegates’ conference midway into voting process last Wednesday. 

  The move is to ensure that the current executives of the Congress, which took oath of office on March 3, 2011, do not exceed the constitutionally mandated time limit of four years.    

  The Guardian gathered in Abuja Friday that the botched election was blamed on the Credential Committee, which chose to adopt an alien ballot paper for the election. 

   A source told The Guardian that neither the chairman of the committee, Dr. Isa Fagge, nor most members of the committee saw the final copy of the ballot papers before they were deployed for the election.

   It was not clear yesterday if the extra-ordinary delegates conference would be summoned in order to resolve the lacuna created by the inconclusive election.

  The
General Secretary of Congress, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, admitted that some of the ballot papers had defects but was quick to add that such defects would not have had major bearing on the final result of the election if the process had been allowed to go on. 

  He said: “The voting process, the last item on the agenda, commenced peacefully and in an orderly manner on Wednesday, February 11, and lasted through the night. However, on the morning of Thursday, February 12 at 8:45, a printing error was spotted in a few ballot papers by way of duplication of names. 

  “This error affected four candidates, two each from opposing camps. As regrettable as this error by the Credential Committee is, its degree was insignificant and could have been resolved amicably by way of vote invalidation. However, this was not to be as some delegates who held the view that the entire process might have been corrupted, reacted sharply. 

  “This led to the suspension of the voting process. The National Administrative Council of the Congress swiftly met a few hours later and resolved to convene a meeting of the National Executive Council on Wednesday, February 18, for the purpose of fixing a new date to take the vote.”

  The scribe added that as painful as the unfortunate disruption was, Congress was determined to work with people that were concerned and the organs to find a way to resolve the impasse as quickly as possible and without the current leadership exceeding the constitutionally mandated time limit of four years. 

  Speaking on the disruption, President of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria and a leading presidential candidate, Wabba Ayuba, said the disruption was a carefully orchestration to frustrate the process through the introduction of issues that were unknown to the movement in order to attract sympathy. 

   He said: “Before the disruption of the election, there are things that were done to frustrate the process. First, they mentioned the private and public dichotomy. There was never a time in the history of the NLC that the position of the presidency rotated between the private and public sector. 

  “Even when the so-called private sector met, there was no agreement between the two gladiators who should step down for another. When that failed, they brought the issue of north and south. That again had to fail because it is unknown to Congress. What has been the sole determinant of candidacy has been performance and acceptability among the unions.” 

  Wabba described an accusation of influencing the credential committee labeled against his group as ‘laughable’ saying, “Medical and Health Union is not a member of the Credential Committee. In fact, both NUPENG and NUEE have a member each in the committee that has seven people as members.” 

   While faulting the ballot papers used in the 2015 election, he explained that contrary to the widely held opinion, the secretariat did not print the ballot papers, noting that the printing of the ballot papers was strictly the duty of the Credential Committee.