On Thursday, the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) took action by picketing the state Labour Party secretariat located at Ogbelaka Street, Off Sakponba Road, Benin.
Their protest stems from allegations of contempt towards the Nigeria Labour Congress by the party’s National Chairman, Julius Abure.
Elaborating on the motivations behind the picketing, the state vice chairman of the NLC, Suleiman Abubakar, asserted that Abure’s management of the party resembled the operation of a personal enterprise.
Issued on March 19, 2024, a directive penned by Titus Amba and Chris Uyot, Chairperson and Secretary of the NLC Political Commission respectively, mandated the picketing of all LP state secretariats by the state council of the Nigeria Labour Congress.
Abubakar emphasized that the Labour Party is inherently linked to the NLC, underscoring the necessity for the NLC’s involvement in all decision-making processes within the LP.
Additionally, he cautioned that the NLC would vehemently oppose any attempt by Abure, the national chairman, to unilaterally impose a candidate on them.
He said, ‘We were directed across the 36 states of the federation to picket the Labour Party offices. We ought to have done the picketing on Wednesday as directed by the political commission of NLC, but because we were unable to mobilise our members.
‘The reason for the picketing is that the National Chairman, Julius Abure, is running the party like his personal property. Everybody should be carried along. He has announced the national convention and wants to hand-pick and impose a candidate on us. This is not the time to hand-pick and impose anybody.
‘The way forward is for him to go to the national body and resolve his difference with other officials. He must learn to play by the rule of the game. We are not being sponsored. Nobody is sponsoring us,” he said.
Read also: NLC Picketing Of Party Secretariats Deemed Unlawful By LP
In response, Sam Uropka, the Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party in the state, criticized the NLC, accusing it of neglecting its core duty to Nigerian workers and diverting attention to irrelevant matters, while workers suffer from hunger and other pressing challenges.
He said, ‘The Nigeria Labour Congress has left its primary responsibility. They are supposed to be fighting for the interest of workers for a better living. They have left all these things, and they are fighting political party that is not in government. Workers are suffering. Look at the current minimum wage, the cost of food stuff. Today a lot of people cannot pay transport to their places of work. The NLC is not looking into that, but they are fighting a political party.
‘How many of them are card-carrying members of the Labour Party? For you to query what is happening in a political party, you must be a card-carrying member and also discharge your financial responsibility to the party. Many of them are in PDP, and others are in APC. So, why are they concerned with the events in the Labour Party?’