Joe Ajaero: Labour Unions Are Not Above The Law 

Beyond the physical harassment and eventual Police intervention that have dominated public discourses on the matter, it appears that many people are shying away from the roots of this matter and many have unsurprisingly, heaped all the blame on the Imo State government. After all, it is just a few days to the governorship election and everything has unfortunately become a campaign stunt and the lousy opposition who have failed to convince the electorate on their alternative plans for the State have resorted to the most nauseating form of mudslinging.

While I have the utmost respect for the person of Comrade Joe Ajaero and concede to his rights as a Nigerian citizen and especially an Imo indigene to have his political biases and even desire one governorship candidate above the other, I will not support anyone taking laws into their own hands and or trying to impose their political will on the people through in the guise of labour unionism.

There would be no logical explanation for Comrade Ajaero’s insistence on holding a protest and rally against the Imo State government, while an order of the Industrial court barring such action subsists, and it becomes more suspicious when this protest is mischievously scheduled to coincide with few days to the governorship election. Those who believe that Ajaero was merely doing a hatchet job for the opposition are justified to hold such an opinion, because there could have been a better time to embark on such protests, after the election. It is simple to understand that Joe Ajaero was only interested in maligning the person of Governor Uzodimma and painting him as an anti-workers governor with the malicious intent of drawing away the support and votes of some of the people from him.

Also the NLC leader’s decision to manipulate the situation for political purposes by directly accusing Governor Uzodimma’s Special Adviser on Special Duties, Nze Chinasa Nwaneri of leading those who attacked him, even without a single photographic or videographic evidence makes it obvious that his trip to Imo State was not really in defence of Imo workers, but in advancement of certain political interests. We all know that redeployment of the Imo State Commissioner of Police, Muhamed Barde, has been a longtime opposition agenda and Nze Chinasa Nwaneri has long been a thorn to the opposition and anything that can be done to whittle down his influence in the government would be a special Christmas gift to the opposition.

Comrade Joe Ajaero and his colleagues at the Trade Union Congress cannot claim ignorance of legal procedures for seeking redress against individuals and institutions that have hurt them, instead of resorting to some kind of jungle justice. If the NLC and TUC have evidence to support their allegations against those they claim harassed them, they should write formal complaints to the relevant authorities and also approach the courts with their evidence, instead of issuing threats and throwing the entire State into darkness.

The reported industrial action by electricity suppliers which have thrown Imo State into darkness in the past four days is a clear evidence of contempt of court order and portrays the NLC as a lawless organisation. An organisation that cannot respect court orders is anathema to democracy, because any society where individuals and organisations could be selective about the orders of court to obey and the ones not to obey is a society on the precipice of despotism. Unfortunately, this time, it is not the despotism of the political leaders that is manifesting in Imo, but the despotism of those who were supposed to protect the masses against the despotism of the political class.

Comrade Ajaero and the NLC must go back to the drawing board, lest, the situation in Imo weakens the power and relevance of the Nigerian Labour union. Should the people begin to see the NLC as an offshoot or a wing of a political Party or some political parties, the union would lose the support it enjoys from the people, and that would be dangerous for both our democracy and our workforce, because it would leave us entirely at the mercy of bourgeois and at the whims of politicians.