THE May Day celebrations slated for Wednesday to commemorate Workers’ Day is being threatened by alleged collection of N200 million by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) from the Centenary Committee.
While addressing the media Sunday in Abuja on the preparations towards a successful May Day celebration, one of the deputy presidents of the NLC, Promise Adewusi, said the labour organisation did not collect money from the Centenary Committee.
It was alleged that representatives of labour collected N200 million from the Centenary panel through a company.
Sources close to the negotiation at the SGF secretariat of the Centenary Committee alleged that money indeed changed hands but labour insisted no money changed hands between it and the committee.
It was learnt that the decision of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and NLC to celebrate the centenary of labour movement in Nigeria in 2013 instead of 2012 has made some labour leaders curious.
The Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU), which came into existence in 2013 and is the oldest union in the country celebrated the labour centenary in Nigeria last year and the NLC, which NCSU is part of, did not take active part. The questions begging for answers are: Why is labour movement celebrating the centenary of the movement one year after the event? and Why is the President of NCSU, Kiri Mohammed, who is a deputy president of the Congress not driving the process?
It should be noted that at no time in history did the labour spent more than N10 million to host the May Day celebration.
Adewusi revealed that the Centenary Committee would be responsible for the organisation of the 2013 edition of May Day with the labour movement contributing nothing towards the event. He also stated that labour is not partnering with government on the celebration but with private sector.
Speaking on the controversies, the Chairman of TUC, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter, Aliyu Musa, insisted that labour did not collect money from the committee but suggested which company to patronise.
Indeed, Adewusi stated that it was at the instance of labour that African Textile Manufacturers Limited, Kano got the contract to supply the clothes.
He said: “We insisted that the company that would manufacture the clothes must be the one that allows unionism in its establishment. We insisted that we would not take money from the committee but we would have a say in who got the contact.”
Adewusi also said the Centenary committee wanted the shirts to be branded but that labour refused, which resulted in some big companies pulling out of the deal.
For logistic reasons, a raffle draw where about 300 cars would be won would have been part of the May Day celebration, according to Adewusi.
NLC, TUC deny collecting money for May Day celebration
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