- Windfall as Oyelekan, Ex-NAC Members Get 10% of Union’s Investments
- Ex-President Now Chairman of Board/MD of All NUFBTE Investments
By Our Reporters
ALMOST two months after the 11th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference held 2nd-3rd February, 2023, the new national officers of the National Union of Food Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE) are yet to take over the management of the affairs of the union, National Record investigations have revealed.
Our findings reveal that Comrade Garba Ibrahim, the new National President, and his new colleagues who emerged at the conference are yet to assume office as Comrade Lateef Oyelekan is still firmly in control of the union, running its affairs as if there was no change of baton, including the signing of cheques.
A reliable source in the union confided in National Record that Comrade Oyelekan and the immediate past National Treasurer of the union, who incidentally emerged as one of two deputy presidents of the union, are still signing cheques.
The source revealed that Comrade Ibrahim had stayed back in Lagos after the conference hoping that he was going to assume office immediately, but when it became clear that Comrade Oyelekan was not ready to leave, he reportedly left quietly for Kano, where he works with Northern Nigerian Flour Mills.
Resolutions handing over the Union’s Fortunes to Oyelekan
Apart from the new leadership’s inability to resume office and run the union’s affairs, both the newly elected national leaders and the union’s membership are said to be miffed by two resolutions closely guided and passed by the organs of NUFBTE.
Resolution 3 of the internal and external Resolutions, a copy of which was obtained by National Record, appointed Comrade Lateef Oyelekan as the Chairman and Managing Director of all the union’s investments.
Comrade Oyelekan is to run the union’s investments along with three of his colleagues in the outgone NAC, who will now serve as members of the board of the assets.
Resolution 3 reads: “(3) The NEC and NDC in-sessions expressed unreserved appreciation and deep satisfaction for the unprecedented achievement of the outgoing National President (Comrade Oyelekan Lateef) therefore unanimously resolved in accordance with the Provisions of our Union Constitution that he (Comrade Oyelekan Lateef) be appointed and affirmed as a substantive Chairman and Managing Director of all the existing Union Investments.
“In the same vein, three (3) members of the outgoing NAC members namely:- Comrades Anthony Anyasi, Yomi Oni-Orisan and madam Kate Charles respectively were considered and appointed as members of the Board of our investments together with comrade Oyelekan lateef representing the outgoing NAC members on the board.”
Resolution 4, ceded 10% of the total current value of the union’s investments to Comrade Oyelekan and the outgone NAC as appreciation of the “unprecedented achievement”.
The resolution reads: “(4) As a measure of appreciation and motivational reward, the NEC and NDC in-sessions overwhelmingly resolved that 10% of the total current value of all assets acquired and accrued for the Union by the outgoing regime led by Comrade Oyelekan Lateef shall be given and conceded to the outgoing National President Comrade Oyelekan Lateef and all his team of National Administrative Committee (NAC).”
Members of the union who spoke under the cover of anonymity to National Record described both resolutions as immoral an complete negations of trade union ethics, describing them as similar to retirement benefits some state governors corruptly allocated to themselves.
According to one of the sources, “the content of the resolutions clearly revealed the reason behind Comrade Oyelekan’s plot to stay in office for life.”
A member of the newly elected national leaders, who pleaded anonymity, revealed that at the pre-conference NAC and NEC meetings, the motion granting 10% of the current value of the union’s total investments, was moved by Comrade Garba Ibrahim who was to later emerge as president.
The current value of all the investments was estimated to be over N400 billion, from the disclosures at the organ meetings, although some members dispute this valuation stating that that estimate was fraudulent and designed to cause further fraud.
The only opposition to the motion was said to have come from Comrade Eterigho Sylvester which was quickly smothered. According to our source, after the NAC meeting, an emissary was allegedly dispatched to caution Comrade Eterigho from opposing the motion at NEC and NDC, which was said to had been heeded.
Comrade Eterigho, who is from the Nigerian Breweries, Lagos branch of the union, later emerged as one of the two deputy presidents.
The source also noted that it was at the NEC and NDC that a slight adjustment was made extending the 10% benefits to all NAC members in the outgone leadership under Comrade Oyelekan’s presidency.
New and old leaderships keep mom
When contacted on phone for his views on the inability of his leadership to take over the administration of the union, Comrade Ibrahim neither picked our calls nor responded to enquiry messages sent to him via SMS and WhatsApp.
Similarly, while calls to Comrade Oyelekan’s mobile did not go through, those made to Mike Olanrewaju, NUFBTE’s General Secretary, were not picked and messages sent to them were not responded to.
When contacted, Comrade Eterigho Sylvester declined to comment, stating that he does not know the reporter prior to the call and as a result will not speak unless the reporter comes physically to NUFBTE’s national secretariat in Lagos. “I should know you before I speak; and whatever it is, if you want to get any information, you come to the secretariat, I am always at the secretariat,” Comrade Eterigho told National Record.
Members react
Some members of the union who spoke with our reporters on the happenings also disclosed that the Oyelekan leadership handpicked those who eventually emerged as national leaders rather than adhering to the union’s constitution and tradition which prescribe writing of letters to branches asking for nominations.
One of our sources at the national secretariat of the Food Union described the emergence of the new leadership as a farce alleging that Comrade Garba Ibrahim was picked by Oyelekan to exploit his weaknesses in order to hang on to power.
According to the source, “the monthly check-off remittance from Comrade Ibrahim’s employers is merely around N200,000 and as such does not command to be appointed as president when compared to a candidate from Nigerian Breweries from where the union pulls about N26 million monthly.
Another source revealed that Comrade Oye, as Oyelekan is often addressed in the Food Union, is hanging on to power so as to ensure substantial implementation of the 10% resolution, said to be around N400 million.
“I can confidently tell you that Comrade Oye and Comrade Yahaya Ahmed are still active signatories of the union and may be working to implement the 10% resolution. Yahaya is a deputy president in the new NAC but he is not complaining because he is also a beneficiary of Oye’s stranglehold on the union’s resources,” the source alleged, further asserting: “In fact, Oye and Yahaya are the ones running the union now. They are the ones signing cheques.
“That is what I think is happening? They want to implement the 10% benefit by all means. I don’t know the type of country we are in; that somebody will stay put in office of a union and refused to leave after new officers have been elected. I have not seen that in any union before now. A union president has become a full monarch who nobody can challenge, and nobody is saying anything.”
When called, Comrade Yahaya Ahmed neither picked nor called back just as he also failed to respond to enquiry text messages sent to his mobile numbers as at press time.
