According to the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Senator Adams Oshiomhole’s recent remarks on national television are a disgusting violation of Nigerian workers’ fundamental rights and a flagrant misrepresentation of the country’s labor laws.
NUPENG’s leadership announced that it has classified Senator Adams Oshiomhole Persona Non Grata among Nigerian oil and gas workers for his unwavering condemnation of the PENGASSAN strike against the 800 engineers who were wrongfully fired for exercising their fundamental right to unionization.
In order to put this decision into practice, the union declared that it would no longer support or endorse any event that featured Senator Oshiomhole.
Comrade Williams Akporeha, the president of NUPENG, and Comrade Afolabi Olawale, the general secretary, jointly issued a statement accusing Oshiomhole of trying to justify the persecution of employees for exercising their basic rights to peaceful action and association.
With great disappointment, we see how a former labor leader has changed into a strong supporter of corporate oppression who actively campaigns against the exact rights he previously defended.
In addition to being disgusting, his attempts to justify the persecution of employees for expressing their basic rights to peaceful protest and association constitute a blatant violation of both Nigerian labor law and the conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
First, it is extremely ironic that we must question whether former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s alleged description of Senator Oshiomhole as “a Comrade in the morning and a politician by night” at a dinner hosted by the Nigeria Labor Congress during one of its Delegates Conference is accurate.
“We are forced to ask if such a person qualifies to lecture anyone on strategy and/or morality if former President Obasanjo’s description of Senator Oshiomhole is accurate,” NUPENG stated.
In fact, how could someone who once counseled accused corrupt politicians to join the APC in order to have their offenses pardoned have the audacity to preach about morality?” the union continued.
The fact that Senator Oshiomhole falsely claimed to have resigned his post as General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) after taking office as President of the NLC also says volumes about his character.
“There is no question that Mr. Adams Oshiomhole served as NUTGWN’s NLC President and General Secretary from 1999 to 2007, and he did not resign as General Secretary until 2008, a full year after he left the NLC Presidency,” the statement stated.
“It seems like the Senator has a pathological tendency to rewrite history to fit his current reactionary advocacy for the unconscionable capitalists who are not prepared to accommodate trade unions, in preference for slave labor,” NUPENG added.
We reiterate the law’s unambiguous requirements for clarity:
Regarding the unionization issue, NUPENG stated that everyone in Nigeria, including foreigners, is guaranteed the freedom of association and assembly under Section 40 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Additionally, it stated that any contract that seeks to bar a worker from joining a trade union is specifically prohibited by Section 9(6) of the Labour Act, Cap L1, LFN 2004.
Furthermore, according to NUPENG, Nigeria has ratified both ILO Convention 87 (Freedom of Association) and Convention 98 (Right to Collective Bargaining), which both uphold employees’ freedom to organize and join any union they choose without hindrance for the purpose of bargaining.
“These fundamental international standards, which have been made constitutional by virtue of Section 254C (1) & (2) of the 1999 Constitution, are flagrantly violated by the mass termination of employees for organizing a union,” the statement stated.
