The country will not breathe since the terrific news of the planned attack on the face of the largest revolutionary workers’ force in Africa, Comrade Joe Ajaero, filtered into the atmosphere two days ago.
On that fateful morning of 1st November, 2023; the country was bustling with activities and later with the news of the sudden attack on the Emekuku, Imo State born activist and journalist, Joe Ajaero.
Despite his rich history of maximum dedication to the tabulated fundamentals of the struggle, including the pristine commitment to academics; he was not spared from the mob action that ate so deep into his flesh and was going to send him to the early grave.
Ajaero is not a thug. He obtained a Bachelor’s Degree at the prestigious and only University named after Nigeria, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
His passion for journalism took him further, as he pursued a postgraduate diploma in Journalism at the Times Journalism Institute in 1994. Ajaero’s commitment to continuous learning is evident through his numerous certifications, including one from the International Professional Practice Partnership in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2003.
In 2023, he added a Law degree from Baze University, Abuja, showcasing his dedication to expanding his expertise.
While it is true that Comrade Ajaero is one of the few committed activists who did not only school himself in the rudiments of the struggles; he also finetuned his potentials by giving himself to rigorous education in the different stratas of our educational faculties. This was before showing interest in the apex labour positions.
Prior to this time, Ajaero has engaged in several oral fisticuffs with Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He has also led many courageous nationwide actions after his election by consensus as the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress on the 2nd February, 2023.
Ajaero was the former Secretary-General of the National Union of Electricity Employees. Being from the southeast, he is suspected to have made several attempts to beat the Nigeria Labour Congress down to an ethnic and political union. A union meant for many purposes, including pandering to the interest of an ethnic, political and religious candidate in the previous presidential election.
Peter Obi, a candidate whose ‘Obidient’ mantra shook the entire nation was barely known to the labour union, except for his wicked and brutal treatments of workers in Anambra. It was the least expected that the Ajaero-led Nigeria Labour Congress will have no other choice other than to bank and bandit on the many fake promises of Peter. This was despite the availability of a more competent and ideological alternative, Omoyele Sowore.
Peter Obi’s policy objectives and manifesto is not in any way different from the audacity of hope being paraded by President Tinubu. So on what ground was the support for Peter Obi based? Peter Obi promised to remove subsidy upon emerging president; one of the reasons for the clash between the NLC and the Tinubu-led government.
Omoyele Sowore’s African Action Congress did not crave but got the ideological support of the Democratic Socialists’ Movement at the movement’s emergency meeting which took place in Lagos State prior to the elections.
An opinion published in the Vanguard Newspapers of the 9th May, 2023, carpeted Ajaero over his several moves towards incapacitating th NLC by subjecting it to a politician of Obi’s standing. An excerpt from the opinion titled, “Before Ajaero Turns NLC Into An Ethnic Union,” says:
“SINCE the election of Comrade Joe Ajaero as the President of Nigeria Labour Congrss, NLC, he has embarked on actions that appear to be against the corporate existence of Nigeria. As if borrowing from the playbook of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, he has adopted a combative and confrontational militancy against some state governments. And when he is not threatening the Judges handling the presidential election tribunal, he is engaging in action that could lead to economic sabotage of the country.”
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“Ajaero is playing an ethnic card against President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He is supporting Mr Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party. If he was doing that in his personal capacity, nobody would be bothered. But when he uses the NLC platform to prosecute such a sinister agenda, Nigerians, especially the security agencies, ought to be alarmed, not just worried.”
“those who don’t know his history, Ajaero was once involved in splitting the NLC. That was when he lost the presidency to the former president, Comrade Wabba. He went on to form the United Labour Congress which later collapsed. That, of course, showed that he desperately needed the NLC platform for an agenda that has nothing to do with the defence of workers’ rights.”
“He later got what he wanted, and more. Comrade Ajaero is an Igbo and the Secretary General of NLC, Comrade Goddy Ugboaja, is also an Igbo. Working alongside some highly placed Igbo in the Buhari government, they worked for Peter Obi who eventually lost the presidential election. Now Ajaero wants to use the platform of the NLC to scuttle the inauguration of President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu on May29, 2023. He wants Peter Obi to be declared president.”
For instance, prior to the last elections, he was siad to have declared a total strike in Imo State, thus paralyzsing the economy of the state with possible disenfranchisement of the voters. All that was done to foist his stooge and classmate as the chairman of NLC in the state. He has similarly grounded the economies of Ebonyi and Abia states in a show of force that they must support the Labour Party candidates.
I am of the strong conviction that the several failed roundtable dialogues with the Tinubu-led federal government were unconnected with the partisan leaning of the Nigeria Labour Congress. They were failures motivated by the information being brought to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu by his many informants, one of whom is the incumbent Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake. Alake’s self-confidence and potent weapon of words have shown him approved as one of the very reverred confidants of the incumbent president – a reason why he is called Ajiroba.
The attack on Ajaero was pre-planned by the Imo State government as a reprisal against his many reactions and actions. It must also be noted that unpopular Supreme Court Governor Hope Uzodimma is warming up for another contest which he might not possibly survive until all stumbling blocks are taken out. A reason why he perceived Ajaero as political opponent.
Tinubu’s silence in this needless attack is also to be suspected. Uzodimma, being one of the few loyalists of President Tinubu, is riding roughshod on the federal might, including the transferred enemity between Ajaero and the federal government. Because how reasonable is attempting to arrogate the responsibility of a court in respect of a purported court order. Meanwhile, Ajaero has picked holes in the court order.
Is President Tinubu and his godson, Hope Uzodimma, out to cut off any tiny voice of reason and opposition despite the kindness of providence to him at the different courts?
How do they want to explain to Nigerians that they were still passionate about revenging the alliance between NLC and powerless Peter Obi, considering the many excruciating policies of the new government.
I will look into the pertinence of Ajaero’s actions and not the several attempts to demean and render voiceless the only labour union in the country, especially from the prism of the avoidable errors and mere miscalculations. The platform of the Labour Party was created by the NLC to achieve the paramount objective of convenience for its members. There is nothing bad if the NLC has decided to mobilize its rank and file in allegiance to a domesticated politician, caught with the will to feather its interest. Labour Party has been used by many politicians in actualising their political aims, some of them non-labour activists.
The witch-hunting against Ajaero and by extension, the Nigeria Labour Congress must stop right away.
Tunde Akingbondere, an intern at the Falana and Falana Chambers, writes from Lagos
