The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has directed its members not to attend the national convention of the party that is billed to take place in Akure, the Ondo State capital on 11 October, 2014.

Abdulwaheed Omar, the president of the NLC, made the statement on Thursday, 9 October, 2014, noting that the authentic owners of the Labour Party is the labour movement.

According to him, a new date and venue will be fixed, to allow the party to hold its convention independent of another external force.

“I am calling on all the concerned people that are set to attend the convention on 11 October to disregard the convention and return as a new date and venue would be announced.

“Labour Party in Nigeria is expected to be a very strong and vibrant party that would serve the interest of the workers in the country,” Omar said.

The labour boss stated that the party was very unique and the only one that had statutory stakeholders in the country.

He added that the presidents of NLC and TUC were executive members of the party and two others representing the workers in the country.

Omar said the NLC, Trade Union Congress and other civil society partners in Abuja will decide the future of the party.

“We have been watching with very keen interest the activities of the Labour Party in the recent time and we are concerned with the fixing of date, supervision and hosting of the party’s convention”.

In the reports that the National Executive Council (NEC) of the labour party initially fixed 4 October for its National Convention in Akure but was then postponed to 11 October.

It was gathered that confusion sets in following the defection of the only governor of the party, Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State to PDP.

Omar said: “You recall that the only governor of the party, Governor Mimiko, defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with all the members of the executive and the state members of assembly and the party machinery.

“This is a major concern to us that a governor who had already defected to another party is now the one who is sponsoring and hosting an independent party like Labour Party.

“It is that concern that made us to call for this meeting of the stakeholders of the party with the view of making sure that we call for the immediate postponement of the Akure convention”.

The NLC was formally constituted as the only national federation of trade unions in the country in 1978. Before then, four labour centres existed.

These are Nigeria Trade Union Congress [NTUC], Labour Unity Front [LUF], United Labour Congress [ULC] and Nigeria Workers Council [NWC]. The emergence of the NLC ended decades of rivalry and rancour involving the four centres and unions affiliated to them.

The unions, numbering over 1,000 were also restructured into 42 industrial unions.

The organisation has had a chequered history, surviving two instances of dissolution of its national organs and consequent appointment of state administrators.

The first was in 1988 under the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.

Congress’ opposition to the anti-people Structural Adjustment Programme incensed the military administration to take over the NLC.

The second military intervention was in 1994 during the regime of General Sani Abacha, whose government also became fed up with the labour movement’s agitation for the restoration of democracy.

Like the initial case, the military government dissolved NLC’s National Executive Council and appointed a Sole Administrator.