Delegates Conference: Crisis rocks TUC in Ogun as union stages walk-out

None adherence to the agreed zoning arraignment of key elective positions in the Ogun State chapter of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has led to a major crisis, threatening the solidarity of the entire labour movement in the state.

At the 7th Triennial Delegate Conference of the TUC in the state, the Ogun State chapter of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) walked out of the event over a disagreement in the zoning of key elective positions, thus signalling a fresh crisis in the leadership of the congress in the state.

Reacting to the development, the State Chairman of ASCSN, Comrade Isa Olude, said his members walked out of the TUC election because the association felt cheated in the zoning arrangement.

The union has the largest membership strength in the congress and is one of the eight associations that make up the TUC in the state.

According to Comrade Olude, the zoning agreement his own union had with other members of TUC was allegedly altered some hours to the conference; adding that all members had earlier agreed that ASCSN would produce the chairmanship slot of TUC Women Commission, alongside other key offices.

However, the ASCSN chairman expressed sadness that other members of TUC betrayed the senior civil servants by changing the arrangement and giving ASCSN the Secretary of the Commission without prior notice.

Describing the changing in the agreed zoning arrangement as an embarrassment to the association’s integrity, he said, “the arrangement was that since our association has been in charge of the leadership of TUC for quite some numbers of years, the other affiliates contacted us and asked that we should allow them to have a slot of the leadership.

“In the opinion of the association, there can’t be leadership without followership and no single union can do it alone. We agreed on the chairmanship of the women commission. It came as a surprise when our member was designated as the secretary to the commission instead of chairman, women commission.

“We are going to post our protest on the portal of the National Secretariat of the TUC because the centre belongs to all of us and no individual, no particular union nor affiliate can claim the ownership of TUC.”

To press further their protest, the association has written to the state Head of Service, thus notifying the state government that the union has “dissociated itself forthwith from the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, (TUC), Ogun State Council, following the apparent reneging on the pre-election agreement entered into with other interests/affiliates of the congress.”

 On the constitution of the new state administrative council that had fallen due since February 2021.

The letter read, “Of note, of the Unions/affiliates of the Congress, only the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) possesses the legal instrument as a duly recognised and registered Public Service Union with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, (Trades Union Act, 1976, amended 2004) whilst the two others: Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS) and National Association of Community Health Practitioners of Nigeria, (NACHPN) are on observer statuses of the congress.

“It is thus instructive to strongly advise the state government to exercise restraint from engaging with the Ogun State Administrative Council of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) as composed, ultra vire, from the kangaroo selection that held on Thursday, August 19, 2021.

“Further, the interest and influence of the ASCSN is very paramount in securing those positions which all parties hitherto agreed to, and by extension, leading to the respect and protection of the core interest of the mainstream Senior Civil Servants of Ogun State within the labour movement.”

Reacting, the newly elected Chairman of TUC in the State, Comrade Akeem Lasisi who came from ASUSS denied any agreement. Rather, he stated that there was a realignment in the zoning of elective positions in the congress so as to accommodate the demands of other associations.

Lasisi expressed readiness to have a round-table discussion with the aggrieved members of ASCSN, adding, “if you are talking of the gentleman agreement we had, it was never an agreement.”

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