Oshiomhole, Sunmonu move to end NLC leadership crisis

The Governor of Edo State, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, and the Pioneer President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Hassan Sunmonu, have intervened in the leadership crisis currently rocking the congress.

The NLC has been factionalised since May 14, 2015 as a fallout of the 13th Delegates Conference of the Congress, which led to the emergence of Ayuba Wabba as the President of the congress.

Oshiomhole and Sunmonu convened a meeting of the two factions of the labour movement, led by the two factional Presidents, Messrs Ayiba Wabba and Joe Ajaero at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja on Wednesday.

The Governor, who briefed journalists at the end of the meeting, attended by all the warring labour leaders, said the two factions had agreed to hold talks under the chairmanship of Sunmonu.

He said it was agreed at the meeting that each of the factions should nominate three members each for deliberations in the seven-man committee, led by NLC pioneer President, Sunmomu.

Oshiomhole added that the meeting agreed to work towards the building of a virile labour movement to protect and champion the interest of the Nigerian workers.

He explained that while a lot of things went wrong, the issues would be addressed for an all-inclusive congress, whose decisions were shaped by multiplicity of opinions.

The governor, also a former President of the NLC, said, “A couple of things definitely went wrong; there is no question about that. We identified a lot of things and we agreed that the way forward is to put a solid movement in place. That all these issues have to be addressed one after the other and we have to have an all-inclusive congress in which all shades of opinions are involved in decision making.

“We agreed to have three members from each of side of the divide, if you like, to be chaired by our founding President Hassan Sunmonu, and to ensure that he guides them through so that whatever they do, they are guided by the core values of organised labour and those rich traditions and ethical issues must be observed.

“We must ensure that the morality of the labour movement is always reflected because organised labour is always ruled by sentiments about justice, fair play, what is proper more than any other thing.

“I think everybody agreed that we must find a way to get on with the job. We are now going to see everybody working together in dealing with all the issues that are on the table and other issues that might be raised in the very near future.”