In commemoration of its 40th anniversary, the leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Thursday, unveiled plans to relaunch the NLC College Endowment Fund.
According to the Congress, the sole administrator appointed by late military Head of State, Sani Abacha embezzled over N10 million fixed deposit raised by the labour centre in the early 90s.
Peters Adeyemi, chairman of the 40th Anniversary, disclosed this at a pre-Anniversary press briefing in Abuja.
“In this anniversary year of the Congress, soon after the formal celebrations are completed, we will turn our attention to planning in earnest for the re-launch of the NLC Labour College Endowment Fund.
“This is being done based on the realisation of the necessity to operationalise a full fledge labour college to serve NLC and its affiliates.
“It will be recalled that in the early 1990s, following the failure of the then NLC leadership to convince the military regime to hand over the Michael Imoudu Institute of Labour Studies, Ilorin, Kwara State to the NLC to manage exclusively, the Comrade Bafyau leadership of Congress launched a Labour College Endowment Fund at the National Arts Theatre in Igamu, Lagos.
“We raised over N10 million then and put it in a fix deposit. This amount which is today’s value is over N400 million was one of the casualties of Abacha’s sole administratorship in the NLC, as it was withdrawn and squandered by the government appointed Sole Administrator,” he alleged.
Other programmes outlined for the commemoration of the 40th anniversary include: anniversary lecture that will be delivered by Attahiru Jega, a renowned trade unionist in his own right, former President of ASUU during the turbulent IBB years as military Head of State, and immediate past Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) while Guy Ryder, Director General of International Labour Organisation (ILO), is expected to deliver the second anniversary lecture on “the Future World of Work’, from the ILO headquarters in Geneva.
“Day three, which is the final day of the celebration, will begin with a lecture on the theme of the anniversary: ‘NLC, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”. Long standing working class intellectual, Prof. Toye Olorode, an ASUU stalwart, will be the Guest Lecturer. Comrade Olorode will spotlight the contribution of workers to National Development and Social Justice in his presentation.
“The evening programme, which is tagged; Gala/Award Night will climax the anniversary celebration. On this occasion, apart from the traditional cultural display, there will be awards and recognition giving to selected persons in appreciation of their contributions to NLC or the entire labour movement over the years.
“These range from long service awards to deserving staff of Congress, awards to past and present leaders of the NLC and the preceding generation before the current NLC was formed.
“In the above respect, awards will be given in the General category of contribution to the cause of the working people; a 2nd category will be recognition of intellectuals of the working class; another is those who have used their legal practice to promote the cause of the working class. There will also be recognition for female trade unionists and activists who made path-finding contributions to our effort to involve and integrate women in trade union activities,” Adeyemi said.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
