Leadership crisis erupts in Lagos TUC over alleged govt interference
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By Victor Ahiuma-Young, LAGOS
The Lagos State Council of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, has been thrown into chaos after angry delegates shut down proceedings at the union’s First Quadrilateral State Delegates Conference, accusing the state government of attempting to impose a candidate on them.
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Efforts to get the reaction of the officials of the Lagos State Government were unsuccessful at the time of this report.
Meanwhile, the election, which was expected to produce new executives for the Lagos TUC on Tuesday, ended abruptly after the government allegedly insisted that a particular candidatemust emerge as chairman.
The said candidate had not even been validly nominated by his own union, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN.
Tempers flared as delegates resisted what they described as a brazen plot to hijack their union.
“We were told that the state government wants one particular person.
“But his union rejected him and refused to sign his nomination form. Yet, the TUC national leadership somersaulted and insisted that man must be the chairman,” a visibly angry delegate fumed.
The drama intensified when a representative of the TUC national secretariat, after allegedly receiving a phone call, suddenly announced the suspension of the election.
He claimed that unresolved internal disputes within the ASCSN forced the national body to stop the process and instead set up a five-man caretaker committee to run the council for 30 days.
But the move sparked an immediate revolt.
Delegates rejected the caretaker arrangement, chanting that the election must continue.
“They cannot stop the election midway and impose a caretaker committee on us. We came here to elect our leaders, not to have them handpicked,” another protesting member declared as the hall descended into uproar.
The conference, which had begun with pomp during the opening ceremony, ended in disarray as angry members accused both the Lagos State government and the TUC national leadership of undermining workers’ democratic rights.
With the elections stalled and the caretaker committee facing rejection, the leadership crisis within Lagos TUC remains unresolved, raising fears of deeper divisions in the state’s labour movement.
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