Rescheduled NLC election: Fresh crisis looms

THE March 12 rescheduled National Delegates Conference of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, may be heading for a fresh crisis as one of the contestants from the public sector union has been lobbying a private sector union candidate to withdraw from the post he is contesting and go for the post of treasurer. Sources said the public sector candidate is said not to be comfortable with the present candidate for the post of treasurer, which is unopposed. The desperate candidate who wants to remain part of NLC leadership at all cost, is hoping to again move for a reopening of nomination on the floor of the rescheduled election as was the case in the botched election earlier in the month. His union had in the botched election allegedly instigated the reopening of nomination that was majorly responsible for the ballot papers crisis that aborted the election. Vanguard investigations revealed that the candidate who had printed a victory celebration calendar ahead of the botched election, on Friday, February 20, led a team to a popular hotel at Otako, Abuja, to lobby that the private sector union candidate publicly renounce the post he was seeking and go for the post of treasurer for which another public sector union’s candidate was standing unopposed. The candidate, who is the president of his union, it was gathered, went to the meeting with his General Secretary and met with a former General Secretary of the private sector union’s contestant to prevail on him not only to support his candidature but also switch to the position of treasurer, assuring that he would mobilise others to vote for him. It was gathered that the candidate is pushing that since a new Credentials Committee had been formed, by virtue of the enlargement of the committee, it would be easier to make the committee or the conference-in-session reopen nomination.