The labour movement in Nigeria has been counselled to revive itself and shake off mistakes if it hopes to regain the confidence of the people as champions of the masses.
The advice was handed down by the immediate past president of the National Union of Hotels and Personal Services Workers, NUHPSW, Comrade Leke Success at the opening ceremony of the 5th Quadrennial national delegates’ conference of the union, at Sheraton hotel, Abuja.
Success called for the return to the militant tradition of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC under the leadership of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
He said: “As organized labour, we need to urgently regain our voice and our respectability among the rank and file of our members and the Nigerian public.
“In a country where the political elites have shown that they are prepared to drive the nation to the brink at the slightest sign of stress, for short term personal and clannish interests, we as organized labour, must reclaim our role as the champions of the common good; as the protectors of the common interest of the masses,” he said.
Success, added: “As we prepare for the next delegates conference due February 2015, it is my sincere hope that we will not allow ourselves to be guided by the experience from the last delegates conference, and do everything to avoid the mistakes made leading up to the conference and immediately afterwards”
Bemoaning the lost glory of the labour movement, Success said before now, workers were proud to be associated with the NLC and officials of government readily open their doors at the mention of the labour congress “but today, the reverse is the case as we are now constantly asked at every given opportunity what has happened that the voice of labour is no longer heard,” he said.
“Clearly, if we are to be sincere and frank with ourselves, we will trace the root cause of the present state of the movement to the dismantling of the Secretariat of the NLC on the altar of political expediency as part of the fallout of the 10th Delegates Conference of NLC in 2011,” he added.
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