- NMA President Apologises for Enugu Election Fracas
IMMEDIATE past General Secretary of National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGWN), Comrade Issa Aremu, has called for a return to the core values of the trade union moment as one of the sure ways of overcoming the persistent crises rocking industrial unions and professional associations in the country.
Comrade Aremu, who is also a current Vice President of IndustriALL global Union, made the call as one of the guests at a breakfast programme, Good Morning Nigeria by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) which was aired life from Abuja on Tuesday. The programme, anchored by Kingsley Osadolor and Jummai Yusuf, had as focus the topic; “Challenges in Union Elections and Governance.”
Other guests in the programme include Prof Innocent Ujah, the newly elected President of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), who is also the Vice Chancellor of the newly established Federal University of Health Sciences, Otukpo, Benue State; Dr Abdulrahman Abu Hashim, a public and political affairs commentator, and Comrade Hafsat Shuaibu, Chairperson of the National Women Commission of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC).
Comrade Aremu called on unions to return to the core values of the trade union movement which he said is about selflessness and not selfishness. He argued the prevailing situation in most unions is more about “organisation capture” and “personalisation of leadership.”
“What I want to suggest is that unions have to return to their core values and to know that to lead is about selflessness not about selfishness and that is the only way we can remove what I now call organisation capture, the personalisation of leadership. I am shocked about some of the titles people now use. People talk about number one labour leader; I mean; the Number One Labour Leader we used to know is Comrade Imoudu and he earned it, not that he asked for it.
“Unions are supposed to bridge inequalities; so when you now set up or keep on perpetuating inequality; some unions leaders are now knighted, some chiefs; some are being turbaned, some call themselves Asiwaju; you know, the values that we are opposed to.
“I think unions have to return to their core values of constitutionalism, of democracy and members must have a say; then transparency. You don’t do emergency conference at night in a corner. Union conferences used to be a festival. Conferences are meant to celebrate achievements over the years; elections should only come as the last issue. Ideally, union leaders should be encouraged to lead, not that you say you want to lead yourself. It is about battle; it is about struggle,” Comrade Aremu contended.
While the immediate trigger to the discussion was the recent NMA election in Enugu State that turned violent, Comrade Aremu said the “unsavoury developments” where constitutional and democratic processes of unions and civil society organisations are now being subverted has not been the norm. He said while the NLC had a rupture in 2015, it has overcome that challenge when it unified recently with the coming together the two parties, the NLC and ULC, a development he said is very good for the labour movement.
Comrade Aremu said it is embarrassing for the trade union movement that some affiliates of Nigeria Labour Congress are enmeshed in crises that have split them into factions.
Comrade Aremu stated: “I hope it is not true; I heard that we now have factions in the National Union of Local Government Employees; there are two leaderships, they have gone to court. I was also told that we have problem within the National Union of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employees in which an emergency delegates conference held at the wee hours of the night around 12 am. This is quite a departure again from the tradition we are used to because trade unions are democratic organisations; they have their constitutions, they hold elections as declared by their constitutions and if you are elected officials you are entitled to go for two terms after that you have to step down for others to come in.
“Now the case of the Food Union, the report I heard is that they are amending the constitution for tenure elongation; I hope this is not true. I was completely also saddened that the current president of the union who interestingly, I am not sure of the date now in 2004, I president over his election when he became the President of Food Union. They also had crisis that time and NLC delegated me to go and conduct the election which they had in Nasarawa in 2004.
“Initially he was two-term deputy president, then he became president. Since that period in 2004, he ran two terms, now I was told he had ran third term and now wants to amend the constitution for possibly 4th term. Now I want to say that this is a very dangerous development and the danger of it is that it undermines representation of the unions to defend their members.”
Comrade Aremu said the trade union movement and civil society generally need critical assessment and a lot of self-criticism, further postulated that the motivation for anyone desiring to lead mass organisations, trade unions or professional organisations must originate from the constitution of the organisation which he said is essentially to defend the interest of members.
“So whoever wants to run or lead trade unions must be fired by the anger and the passion against injustice on the members not about hunger of you or me,” Aremu noted, as he again stressed the issue of abiding by the core values of the trade union movement.
“What I think unions should do, I would like to suggest, as well as associations, what we should do more is that as much as possible, unions must return back to the core values for which they were founded. One of the basic principles of any professional association or unions is unity; we must be united because if we are not united we can’t fight our oppressors.
“Secondly, there must be democracy. Unions must obey their rules, so if you have a constitution that says you must be in office for three years, renewable for one term, so must it be. You don’t amend the constitution midway, as we are now seeing; in which people are now talking of tenure elongation.
Prof Ujah Apologises for Enugu Election Fracas
For Prof Innocent UJah; what happened in Enugu during the NMA election in the state was not only an unfortunate event but also totally unexpected.
“Following that unfortunate incident, I apologised to Nigerians and non-Nigerians because doctors have not been known to take such a path, very shameful path, and we called it a show of shame. It is a show of shame because it is totally unexpected, totally unwarranted and totally unnecessary; it is totally avoidable.
“Following that, the Nigerian Medical Association set up a three-man committee, a fact-finding committee, to go to Enugu to find out and tell us what led to the remote and immediate causes of that unfortunate incident and recommend to us what next to do. They are yet to report to us but probably by this week we should get their report.
“But it is something that we; in fact I am ashamed as the President of the Nigerian Medical Association and I got calls from Europe, US; doctors are not happy that doctors in Nigeria, no, doctors in Enugu State, not in Nigeria, would behave that way. They were behaving like thugs, I am sorry to say that, but that is totally, that is not how doctors conduct themselves; doctors are disciplined. There is no militancy in medicine; if you want to be militant, you leave medicine. We have order of doing things.
“When we had a national election on 30th May, [2020], when I emerged as the President of the Nigerian Medical Association, there was no noise. It doesn’t mean that in election, people may not have their own feelings but that should not result in what happened in Enugu State. It is a shame…
“By and large, we are not happy about what happened and it is going to be the last; it is going to be the last; as the president of the NMA, I will ensure that that will be the last, even when I leave office, it has never happened before,” Prof Ujah stated.
