The General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Emmanuel Ugboaja, has died at the age of 60.
  
Ugboaja, a veteran trade unionist and lawyer, reportedly died after a protracted illness.
 While The Guardian is yet to get the full details of his death, NLC PresidentJoe Ajaero, read a letter from the late General Secretary’s family to members of the Congress National Executive Council

(NEC), who were meeting in Enugu, Enugu State.
 
 Ugboaja was appointed NLC General Secretary in August 2019, becoming the fifth person to occupy the position since the Congress was established in 1978.
  
Born on May 15, 1966, Ugboaja obtained a law degree from the University of Calabar in 1987. After about four years in private legal practice, he joined the trade union movement in 1993.
  
The NLC’s historical biography describes him as the first Nigerian lawyer to work full-time for a trade union.
  
Ugboaja’s career spanned private legal practice, trade unionism, civil-society advocacy and national policy engagement.
  
He cut his teeth in the labour movement with the National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees (NUCFRLANMPE), an NLC affiliate, rising to serve as its General Secretary between 2000 and 2005.
  
His grounding in industrial relations shaped some of the labour movement’s biggest confrontations with government. In his first major test after taking office in 2019, he was drawn into negotiations over the implementation of the N30,000 national minimum wage, a standoff that pushed organised labour to the brink of industrial action before a deal was struck.
  
Before rising to General Secretary, he had served the NLC as Principal Assistant General Secretary and Head of Industrial Relations and Organising, positions that positioned him for the top job when he emerged from a competitive selection process in 2019.