Wabba wins fresh NLC poll to emerge president

Ayuba Wabba has been elected president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) at the election held on Saturday in Abuja.

The election initially held on February 12, but it was disrupted after some of the delegates alleged that the process had been compromised, leading to the smashing of ballot boxes and hijacking of some of the electoral materials from the officials.

Wabba, a former president of the Medical and Health Workers Union, won the rescheduled two-day election participated in by 3,119 delegates.

His opponents were Joe Ajaero, general secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees, and Igwe Achese, president of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers.

Nasir Fagge, chairman of the electoral committee and president of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), declared Wabba winner on Saturday.

The rescheduled election, which commenced about 6pm on Thursday, had taken place amid tight security at the Eagle Square, Abuja. Still, it was not devoid of drama, as some unions out of the 43 affiliate unions protested against “supposed” discrepancies in the accreditation process.

According to Osmond Ugwu of the Nigerian Civil Service Union, Enugu state who led the protest, few delegates were nominated from the south-south and southeast to participate in the election. He accused the NLC leadership of plotting to disenfranchise the delegates from that section of the country.

Besides that minor blot, the election progressed and was concluded without violence.

Wabba, who is notable for the health workers’ strike he led against the government in 2014, would be heading a congress that has been accused of “unconscionable” partisanship and corruption, owing to NLC’s role in the botched 2012 fuel subsidy protests.

Wabba replaces Abdulwaheed Omar, whose tenure expired earlier in the year.

Ex-president Omar was elected deputy president at the 2003 NLC delegates congress, before winning the presidential election four years later.