The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has slammed the media aide to the President-lect, Bayo Onanuga, over his comment on Organised Labour.
OsunDaily News reports that the TUC was reacting to a news report credited to Onanuga that the organised labour is heavily partisan and therefore has lost all moral rights to be a judge in the post-election legal tussle.
Onanuga was quoted to have said: “The NLC and TUC are already heavily partisan and therefore have lost all moral rights to be a judge in the post-election legal fights. Looking at the future, I don’t even know how the NLC and TUC can now claim to represent all Nigerian workers having fully embraced the Labour Party, LP.”
In a statement on Wednesday by its President and Secretary General, Festus Osifo and Nuhu Toro, respectively, the TUC advised Onanuga not to create problems for his principal by his sheer ignorance.
The union said Onanuga was wrong to have challenged the legitimacy of the TUC and NLC to adequately represent Nigerian workers because they identified with the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
TUC, however, asked Onanuga and other spokesmen of Tinubu to move from the electoral gear to a post-election one after their principal has been declared the winner of the presidential election by INEC.
The statement read in part: “This fact that labour created the LP does not mean the party must win all elections; indeed it has won some and lost some. So Onanuga challenging the legitimacy of the TUC and NLC to adequately represent Nigerian workers because they identified with the LP, does not make any sense and we do not think he is faithfully representing the position of the President-elect.
“Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been declared the President-elect of our country by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in accordance with the country’s laws and constitution and this remains so unless otherwise decided by the courts. Therefore, his spokespersons like Onanuga need to move from the electoral gear to a post-election one.
“Mr Onanuga is playing the role of a fifth columnist by seeking to manufacture problems for the President-elect, where there are none. We recall that after the elections and Asiwaju Tinubu had been declared the winner, which meant he had become the President-Elect of the entire country, this same Onanuga tried to ostracise and instigate Igbos against him. He tweeted: “Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics. Let there be no repeat in 2027. Lagos is like Anambra, Imo, or any Nigerian state. It is not No Man’s Land, not Federal Capital Territory. It is Yoruba land. Mind your business.”
