This may not be the best of time for the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC. Although it successfully conducted its 10th delegate conference this year where its national president, Abdulwaheed Omar was re-elected unopposed, for another four years in office, the crisis rocking the congress over the forced leave of its national secretary, John Odah is threatening the peace at the labour house.
Omar, in a letter to Odah on March 4, directed him to proceed on his accumulated six years annual leave from March 11, to enable him take rest as a result of stress resulting from the scheduled responsibilities.
Although, no resumption date was stated in the letter, which the president said was based on the decision of the National Administrative Council,  NAC, Odah, after observing that no date was indicated for his resumption, was told to resume on September 2. 
No reason was given for Odah’s forced leave. But in an interview with a national daily, Omar said “Odah was relieved of his statutory role so as to enable him tackle health challenges which had plagued him for quite some time and which had become an issue of grave concern to the congress.” He was quoted to have added that the “National Administrative Council, NAC, of the NLC acted to enable him tackle his health which resulted in partial stroke last year.”
Investigation by this magazine revealed that the crisis started when Omar returned from China, after a trip believed to be in connection with the resuscitation of the Labour City Transport Service, LCTS. This would have been in collaboration with the Urban Development Bank of Nigeria, UDBN. The NLC president was said to had agreed to sign agreement for the revival of the transport scheme with Yutong Motors, a Chinese company in his capacity as national president of NLC, together with Comrade Peter Adeyemi, the chairman of the LCTS board who only assumed office three months before the journey was embarked upon. But this was not to be because some delegates who saw the resuscitating of the transport scheme as against their interest convinced the president  not to honour the agreement. They threatened to work against him and forestall his re-election.
In a bid to secure his position, Omar backed out of the agreement, claiming ignorance of the agreement he had signed. The NLC President had travelled to China for the same reason in 2009.
At a meeting of the NLC in July 2010 in Akure, Ondo State, the president called for a reconstitution of a committee to draw the list of people who would serve in the LCTS board for the purchase of buses from Yutong Motors in China. He told the meeting that the sum of N10 billion was made available by the federal government through UBDN for public mass transit revolving fund scheme. Out of this amount, organised labour was allocated N5 billion. NLC will get N4 billion, while Trade Union Congress, TUC, will get N1billion. He disclosed that two directors of UDBN had been nominated to serve in the LCTS board to ensure the smooth success of the loan. The secretary general of NLC was a member of the board.
The board was inaugurated on August 12, 2010 in Abuja. Before the inauguration, Comrade Hakeem Bashorum, NLC internal auditor travelled with the NLC president and general secretary, with a member of the  staff of Union Bank to China in February 2009 to hold discussions with Yutong Motors. The Union Bank of Nigeria stand as NLC guarantor in the deal. The agreement was eventually signed in September 2010 for the acquisition of 150 new buses.
But the deal did not go down well with the Globe Motors because the UDBN had agreed to grant them the sole suppliers of the buses. Omar’s denial of the transactions was said to be the height of the crisis in the labour house.
Comrade Peter Adeyemi, the NLC deputy president, who a member of NAC that did not want his name to be mentioned, said is a close ally of the NLC general secretary, was not to be stopped from re-contesting at the last delegate conference because he insisted that the NLC president actually went to China to resuscitate the LCTS. Adeyemi was the president of the Non-Academic Staff Union, NASU, an affiliate of the NLC. But the plot failed. Odah’s crime was that he was seen to have aided the victory of Adeyemi at the election.
There is every possibility that the current crisis has the capacity to divide the NLC. The forced leave of the general secretary has polarised the union with several affiliate bodies of the NLC calling for his recall.  
NLC staff who spoke to this magazine on condition of anonymity stated that the plot to bring in Owei Lakemfa as NLC secretary-general  has been on before the delegate conference. 
Some officers of the congress however, denied that there is crisis in the NCL. All efforts to reach Comrade Omar was prevented by a group which said the president was not available for questions.
 

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