APPRECIATION
•We thank Nigerian workers, delegates to the 11th NLC National Delegates Conference, labour veterans, our allies in the civil society and members of the press for the support and solidarity during the flawed rescheduled 11th NLC’s Delegates’ Conference elections.

WE STAND FOR THE UNITY AND PROGRESS OF NLC
•Despite the challenges we had with respect to elections during this rescheduled delegates’ conference, we are absolutely committed to the unity and progress of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). There are “no factions” or “division” in NLC.

•However, like any democratic organization, we have the right to have disputes, disagreement, contestation and cooperation.

•Contestation and cooperation are part of our democratic values. Disputes, conflict and conflict resolutions are core labour traits. Even with the current dispute over the 11th Delegates Conference, we are all united to strengthen and not to weaken the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

COMRADES, NOT AT WAR
•Comrades are not at war at all with each other. We are more united by the core objectives of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) which include; to protect, defend, and promote the rights, well being and the interests of all workers, pensioners, the trade unions and the working class in general; and also to promote and defend a Nigerian nation that would be just, democratic, transparent; and ensure workers have the fair share of the prosperity they created. Labour creates wealth is the motto of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). We are not agonizing. We are organizing.

•However, it is necessary for our members to know what happened at the rescheduled NLC elections.

THE PROBLEM

•11th NLC Delegates’ Conference election was rescheduled to hold on Thursday March 12, 2015 by the National Executive Council (NEC) of Congress at Eagle Square Abuja.

•It was a single item agenda: Elections of National Officers of Congress that will run the affairs of the NLC for the next your years. It was meant to last for one (1) day. We are however sad that the elections took effectively three (3) days. Indeed it turned out to be another display of incompetence and outright manipulation of the electoral process.

•This last NLC election was fundamentally flawed in terms of the Process and it’s outcomes.

THE FLAWED PROCESS

•Accreditation – Accreditation was scheduled to start 9.00 a.m. on Thursday March 12, 2015. It did not start until 11.00 a.m. and concluded at 5.00 p.m. NLC cannot be critical of INEC when we cannot keep to our own time and rules no matter the reason.

•Voting – Voting commenced at 5.00 p.m. Thursday March 12 and ended at 2.30 a.m. Friday March 13, 2015. There was a questionable stop gap as counting of votes did not start immediately.

•Counting – Counting of votes actually commenced 12 noon Friday March 13 almost 10 hours after the voting exercise. There was a scandalous deficit of basic electoral materials such as tallies. Sorting of votes was initially through numbering on piece of paper which became quite cumbersome.

•The fact that NLC Secretariat led by the General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson never thought before the about basic electoral materials that will simplify counting of votes shows the level of incompetence and unpreparedness of the Secretariat in handling the election.

•As a result, counting of votes was stopped midway at 3.00 p.m. after sorting out 127 votes to allegedly enable the General Secretary of NLC and his team to go to the market to buy some electoral materials. In the process there was a crisis of confidence and legitimate suspicion of manipulation.

•The counting of votes resumed at 6.00 p.m. Friday and concluded Saturday March 14, 2015 at 2.30 a.m.

•This implies that it took three working days for an election fixed for only one day to count the votes of 3,119 delegates from the 43 industrial unions affiliated to the Congress.

•Indeed the polling agent of Comrade Joe Ajaero, one of the candidates contesting for the presidency of NLC Comrade Benson Okorodudu protested to no avail, the long delay in the counting of ballot papers after sorting.

•There was also a light outage as counting of votes was going on during which the polling agent of Comrade Joe Ajaero inexplicably fainted and rushed to the hospital apparently paving the way for manipulation.

DISREGARD FOR RULES AND REGULATIONS
•Like the previous failed election, there was an unacceptable disregard for rules and regulations in the latest election.

•Rules were changed midway into the elections. For instance, the credential committee wrongly validated the ballot papers found in boxes not meant for the position being contested for contrary to the rules. These ballot papers ought to have been invalidated.

•Due to poor electoral arrangement, sorting of ballot papers turned to be cumbersome and opened to manipulations and distortions with non-members of the Credential Committee dictating the patterns of counting. For instance, there was an unacceptable direct involvement of former NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar in the election process particularly in the sorting and counting of votes well after the dissolution of the former National Administrative Council (NAC) he headed against the best practices of the past. The tradition has been that once the house is dissolved, outgoing officers return to join their respective unions delegates until election is over.

EMERGENCY ELECTORAL OFFICERS
•The Former President of NLC, Abdulwahed Omar also ordered the delay of counting of votes for over 4 hours after the ballot papers were sorted out in order to manipulate the process to suit his candidates.

•Also former General Secretary of NLC, John Odah was directly involved in the conduct of the election even after he had openly declared interest against some candidates during the botched election. This is clearly unacceptable.

•We recall that earlier there was a crisis of confidence following the alleged marginalization of delegates from some parts of the country notably South West, South South and South East by some unions notably Medical and Health Workers Union and Nigeria Civil Service Union.

•The entire process was not transparent and clearly designed to favour some particular candidates. As a result, some of the polling agents refused to sign the manipulated result sheets thus rendering them invalid.

•Again this election like the previous one was divisive, not transparent and fundamentally flawed.

•All complaints on the process for the election were never responded to by the General Secretary of NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson.

WE REJECT THE OUTCOMES OF THE ELECTION
•It was due to the flawed process and malpractices that characterized this election that we rejected the outcome of the election even before the result was declared with clear directive to our agents not to sign the result sheet.

•According to South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “If you are neutral in a situation of injustice, you have taken side with the oppressors.”

•Nigerian workers cannot therefore subject themselves to people who have remained in power in their unions two years after their tenure is due.

•Accordingly we and other progressive industrial unions have dissociated ourselves from the outcome of the election. We have resolved to reclaim the NLC from the control of the anti-democratic forces in the movement.

WE ARE OPEN TO DISCUSSION
•We are NOT aversed to discussion to address the identified flaws in the election even as we are committed to a special delegates’ conference.

•We hereby condemn the statement by the General Secretary of NLC, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson describing Presidents and General Secretaries of 27 industrial unions as ‘agents of destablization’ for insisting the right things should be done. The real obstacle to Congress is the General Secretary of NLC who unlike his predecessors could not organize simple, credible, free and fair NLC Delegates’ Conference election but on the contrary blaming the victims of his incompetence and partisanship.

•NLC had had 10 successful Delegates’ conferences. None of them witnessed the kind of manipulation and outright disregard for rules like the 11th Delegates Conference conducted by Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson. This clearly shows his incompetence as General Secretary of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

•The ‘destabilization’ in the NLC today is caused by Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, General Secretary of NLC who ignored all complaints before, during and even after the NLC’s failed elections and put the burden on veterans.

•However there is no reconciliation without reconciliatory attitudes and pronouncements on the part of all.

Issa Aremu, mni
GENERAL SECRETARY, TEXTILE WORKERS UNION
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT, NLC