Ochereome Nnanna
Comrade Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, was a marked man even before Bola Tinubu was sworn-in as the President of Nigeria after Mahmood Yakubu’s Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, pronounced him “elected”.
He and former President Olusegun Obasanjo had issued statements warning Yakubu to address the complaints of the opposition parties before announcing the winner of the presidential election. Obasanjo had endorsed the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi. Ajaero was the head of the NLC, which registered the Labour Party and is affiliated to it, though members of the NLC are free to belong to any political party of their choice.
What we used to hear was: “the presidency is not for sale”. Dr Umaru Dikko coined this as a means of warning politicians that the Northern political establishment would not cede the presidency to “moneybags” made rich through state patronage. After the North annulled Moshood Abiola’s June 12, 1993 election, Dikko quipped: “We don’t sell it” (the presidency). When Nigeria was still sane, there was a tacit division of labour between political financiers and leaders. But today, such division has disappeared.
Ajaero was marked for several reasons. The Labour Party defeated Tinubu in his supposed home state, Lagos, during the presidential elections of February 25, 2023. Tinubu’s camp had blamed the Igbo community in Lagos for that loss and perfected an evil but dangerous strategy of ethnic profiling and disenfranchisement to prevent his loss of the state in the Governorship election. Obi and Ajaero being Igbo immediately emerged in the Tinubu camp’s cross-wires.
Tinubu and his political clique are not scared of Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who supposedly came second to him in the election. They are far more terrified of Obi who defeated them in their home front and threatened their honey-pot, Lagos.
At every juncture, Obi is on the lips of Tinubu’s spin doctors, notably Dele Alake, Festus Keyamo and ethnic profiler-extraordinaire, Bayo Onanuga. The first time that Organised Labour threatened strike due to Tinubu’s precipitate implementation of petrol subsidy withdrawal, Alake blamed Obi. And when the #EndBadGovernance protest was gathering force, Onanuga tried to rope in Obi, even though Ajaero and the Labour movement were not officially a part of it. Obi had not even made his stand known. It was Atiku who had come out boldly to support it, but Onanuga chose to threaten Obi with “treasonable felony” charges.
On November 2, 2023, Ajaero went to Owerri to lead a mass action for the payment of arrears of salaries and pensions to workers and retirees. The Governor of Imo State and Chairman of APC Governors Forum, Hope Uzodimma, ordered the Police to batter Ajaero, and he was hospitalised. This was unprecedented. Never before had any government (even the colonial or military dictatorships) ordered the physical brutalisation of any Labour leader.
It was a warning shot, specifically for Ajaero, as the big mountain of negotiations for the new national minimum wage loomed. Ironically, Ajaero came out naively praising President Tinubu for being “a democrat” in an exclusive interview with me.
Fortunately for Ajaero and his colleagues, the negotiations for the minimum wage went better than anticipated. From N250,000, Labour suddenly came down to the Federal Government’s offer of N70,000. They event went a further mile of distancing themselves from the #EndBadGovernment protest, which was a self-preservatory move. Their tactical refusal to lead the protests took the wind from the sail of the Federal Government’s well-laid agenda to move in, capture the workers’ leadership and neutralise Labour as an opposition.
The invasion of Labour House by men of the Nigeria Police Force on August 8, 2024, two days to the scheduled end of the protests, was almost like an afterthought when Labour was not seen on the front-lines of the mass action. Police Spokesman, Muyiwa Adejobi, claimed they were after international terrorist. Till today, the identity of the “suspect” has not been unveiled. Instead, Ajaero has been called in to answer “terrorism financing” charges! Peter Obi may be the next in line.
My people say “the river does not drown a person whose feet it has not seen”. My people also say “the dog cannot eat faeces while the goat suffers the mouth rot”. Perhaps people can now see the wisdom behind the Igbo nation’s decision to boycott the protests. It was not an act of cowardice. When the time for mass action comes, Igbo people will do it the way they usually do their things. They were merely saying: “Let those who started the market go and transact it”.
The targeting of Labour for neutralisation as an opposition force started with the use of Lamidi Apampa (or is it Apapa) to fight the leadership of the Labour Party. It has failed, though the party is still experiencing leadership turbulence. I expect the Federal Government to arrest more independent-minded Labour leaders and extend carrots to those who are willing to come “into the bag” of those already captured.
“Terrorism financing” is a pretty strong enough charge to enable government hold a suspect for any length of time it desires. However, Government must prove its case against Comrade Ajaero. Nigerians expect him and the supposed international terrorist arrested at Labour House to be quickly arraigned or released. I say no to detention without trial and the takeover of Organised Labour by the Federal Government
Nigerians, relax. Enjoy President Tinubu, the democrat.
Vanguard
