AFTER February 16, 2007, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole will cease to be the President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) having successfully completed two terms of eight years with remarkable achievements and a legacy future Presidents of NLC would continue to envy for a long time to come. The distinguished labour leader and activist who is seeking to occupy the Edo State Government House where he vowed to set a standard and prove to Nigerians in general that good governance is possible in this part of the world if given the mandate by the people of Edo state spoke to Vanguard exclusively on a wide range of issues. 
Excerpts:

Despite your assurance that the incoming leadership of Congress will live up to expectation, many labour watchers and other concerned individuals and groups do not share this optimism. To many, there is a serious doubt whether your successor could sustain the tempo and the level your leadership has taken the NLC. How do you react to that?

I do not have any fear about the ability to sustain the tempo. Of course, the truth is that you are not going to have any two people who do things exactly the same way. But that this is more in terms of forms and styles or in terms of content or in terms of the essence. I believe that those coming in are going to sustain and even probably improve upon what we have been able to do. The thing you must bear in mind is that yes, a leader has a critical role to play, but even more critical is the role of the collective. The leadership is a collective and a lot of the people who would be coming in are the people whom we had worked with over the past eight years.

Together, we had debated issues, together we had strategised on issues, together we had gone to the streets, together we had meet government at various levels, together we had met employers on all sort of issues and argued out things. All I was doing is that I was first among equals. So, those coming in are not strangers. They know now that NLC cannot afford to be anything different from what it was. If anything, the Nigerian public expects NLC to do even more. It does not matter that we are simply a workers’ organisation, we have actually become the voice not only of the voiceless, even the voice of business. Voice on the side of moderation, voice on the side of what is patriotic. That I believe the congress would be committed to sustaining. I do not have any fear.

What would you say to those who argue that because  the President is a major determinant of the side the tide would move  to, the driving force of every organisation, besides the two contestants for the position of the Presidency, that NLC has within its fold quality individuals who could have better stepped into that shoe?

Well, people are entitled to all kind of permutations. I can tell you that the movement is going to be in very good hands. There are many posts that constitute what is called leadership. The concept of leadership is collective; it is not an individual thing. So, the person who is not a President, but a deputy president, the one who is not a deputy president, but a vice-president or a trustee or a treasurer, at the level of debate, it is your power of persuasion and the merit of your argument that will influence the final outcome not necessarily your post. So, I do not have those fears at all.

Another concern of many is the issue of the Lagos sub-secretariat and its sorry state. Since the headquarter was moved to Abuja, the former headquarter seems to have been abandoned. Why is it so?

The Lagos office is running, but it is like Lagos State as a city lost its colour to some extent since the Federal Government relocated to Abuja. Wherever the leadership is, that is where the action would be. So, it is not something somebody set out to design one way or the other. If there are meetings in Lagos, we come to Lagos. We call Lagos the sub-secretariat, the only difference is that you have more unions in Lagos than elsewhere. Like any state council, the level of activities cannot be as much as Abuja. As for the physical building, the problem is that NLC does not have resources and you need resources to engage in renewal or renovation and the likes. I know the building can benefit from renovation.

We had looked at that but the kind of resources that we need to do it, we simply do not have it. The NLC under my stewardship, I did not believe that we should go to government or certain employers to beg for money to carry out NLC activities because that compromises your independence. So we have had to rely exclusively on affiliation dues paid by our affiliates. Unfortunately, many of the affiliates were not paying the correct amount. Almost 80 percent of NLC affiliates are not paying the correct amount. Maybe only about 2 percent are paying the correct amount and maybe another 40 percent are paying 60 percent of what they should be paying. About 60 percent are paying little or nothing. So, you then have to prioritize your spending basically to meet your running cost, your salaries, very minimum overhead.

How do you feel that you are leaving behind a divided labour movement in Nigeria where there are at least three central labour organisations when modern trend even in business is for organisations to merge to form a bigger organisation?

Well, it is a shame that we still have union leaders who would rather be big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a small pond. Like you said, the in-thing around the world is that the reality and the challenge of globalisation is that big is beautiful. Nations are dissolving national boundaries or playing down national boundaries to create wider market. They create community of economic unions here and there that play down national boundaries and so on. Big businesses as you said are into mergers, take-overs whether friendly or hostile take-overs so that they can get bigger and have economic muscle and usually greater share of the market and therefore, greater control. The common sense challenge of this is that, workers organisation whose responsibility is to counter the market place that is driven by greed ought to also try and develop a greater muscle. It is a common saying that divided we fall, united we stand.

Around the world, significantly towards the end of last year, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and World Confederation of Labour (WCL), merged together to form one supra-global trade union organisation. So, the challenge and direction is clear. But unfortunately, you cannot compel people if they prefer to be on their own, you cannot compel them to come and join you particularly if people feel it is only when they are on their own that they would be relevant. So, the judgement has to be left on the conviction of the individuals. But the good news is that this is not something that everybody subscribes to. They are many who appreciate the need for us to come together.

We had since signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Congress of Free Trade Unions of Nigeria (CFTU) and its affiliates and they would be joining the NLC and they would be participating in the forthcoming delegates conference as part of the Nigeria Labour Congress. So, obviously, for me that is good news particularly when you realised that the intention of the Trade Unions Amendment Act was that they expected some unions to leave the NLC. Now, we are benefitting because unions who were out are now coming back into the NLC. So, I believe that is the way and that is the trend that will happen. But like I said, you cannot compel people if they want to be on their own. They have a right so to do.
     
Comrade President, since you joined the political train how has it been?
Well, it is quite different in a sense. First that labour is very political and it is more at the level of a central labour organization. Central labour organization is quite political. Even though you might say NLC it is not partisan, but it is not apolitical. Therefore, we are not really strangers to politics. What may be different is the way in which Nigerian political parties are organized with the peculiar culture of our politicians in which there is very little of principle, there is very little in terms of conviction. It is more about what is convenient for the individuals and the role of money in partisan politics is something that is strange to somebody coming from the background of labour. In labour, you sit down with people to discuss issues and rely on the power of persuasion and you seek support on the basis of merit.

In partisan politics, the process has been extremely corrupted. This is why I believe that unless and until serious minded Nigerians get into the field and try and get things changed from within, I do not see any hope for the country. Politics is about governance, it is about acquiring political power for the good of the majority if not all and if you leave this serious business in the hands of commission agents, people who are only motivated by money, people who have no conviction, people who do things on the basis of what is in it for themselves only, if we leave the future of our country, the leadership of our country into such hands, the country cannot grow faster and so, the quality of its leadership is very important. Nothing happens by accident. There are no miracles in the lives of nations. It is to the extent to which you plan and to the extent to which you can faithfully and creatively apply those plans that can determine whether a nation grows or collapses. The crisis we face today is a reflection of the political leadership across the country.

There is this thing that people may call misunderstanding or controversy as to under which platform you are contesting the governorship election of Edo State. Is it purely on the ticket of Action Congress (AC) or a joint ticket with Labour Party (LP)?

There is no controversy. We have an alliance between the Labour Party and the Action Congress in the gubernatorial election of Edo State because we see the benefit of a coalition. If everybody goes into factions and you contest in your small, small platforms that would work to the benefit of the government in power. This is a manner of common sense around the world that opposition parties try and shelve their differences and work together so that they can defeat the government in power with the so-called power of incumbency. So, that is what we did. There is no controversy over it. It is straight and it is clear. But of course, under the rules, if you have to go into an alliance, you have to choose on which political party platform because you cannot use alliance. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) does not recognize that. The AC people insisted we have to use their platform and not Labour because they have stronger structures on ground. We agreed that we use AC structures.

Where does the All Nigerian People Party (ANPP) come into the picture because facts on ground in the state suggest that you have a lot of followers and admirers within ANPP who are in support of your candidacy?

Well, there are discussions among AC, LP and ANPP. First, at the national level AC and ANPP have an alliance in which they agreed to work together and use a common platform. It remains to be seen how that works out. At the level of the state, we also appreciate that. Like I said, these are the three main opposition parties in the state, Labour, AC and the ANPP. So, let us all come together and reinforce each other. But you know these things are not that easy because each party has its own candidate for all sorts of positions and there is a level of concessions and sacrifices people have to make to be able to forge ahead. So, that is still on and I think until INEC closes the filling of candidates by the middle of February, I believe it is still possible to make a deal that would make it possible for the other political parties, the alternate political parties platform to come together and agree on a common list of candidates. I think it would benefit everyone.

Edo state in particular, has had a tradition and probably the ill luck of not having good and trusted people at the helm of affairs, as you seek for the people’s mandate, why should they trust and believe that you can deliver the goods if you are elected?

You are right Edo has not been too lucky. We have bad military governors. In fact, people say there was even a military governor who by 9 in the morning was already almost drunk. So, he starts the day sleeping in his desk and he retires home to continue drinking. He ran the state even without commissioners. So, he was a sole administrator of the state. Well, the rest is now history. Nothing happens, nothing works and unfortunately, under this democracy, the present PDP government in the state has not done better. We have not gotten the best that democracy had promised and that is why the people are anxious to ensure that this time around, they vote strictly on the basis of trust. If you then now ask why should they trust me, fine. It is a very legitimate question. I have also told people that anyone who comes to them and promise that he is going to put Air conditioners on their highways, he is going to convert the state to a corner of heaven and things like that. Just ask them why should you trust them. Let them tell the story. But whatever they tell you, you find should time to find out who they were. Not who they are in terms of where they were born or their religion, but who they are in terms of what they have done before. What are their records in public service? Have they ever worried about the welfare of society? Have they ever been concerned about the pains of the people? Have they ever spared a thought about those people who have no food to eat?

Have they ever been engaged in policy contestations with regards to options of development? So, if they have not, why should you believe them? In my own case, I will simply ask them to look at my pedigree. All I have done for a living is working for the people. So, nobody is going to lecture me that the people matter because I know it. I have fought on their side, we have defended them and we have argued their cases. We have risked our lives so that Nigeria may be free, we have fought against poverty and we have argued that it is not an act of God, but the result of socio_economic history that can only be revised through good governance. We have been involved in all kinds of agitations on the side of the people and with the people. So, all they have to do is to find out whether this Adams is a stranger or is the one they have known.

Today, if you are asked to differentiate between Comrade Adams Oshiomhole the unionist and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole the Politician, how can you do that?
There is no difference. There is no difference at all. I think it is only time that will tell if there is going to be a difference if one gets into government by the grace of God. But as far as I can see, I cannot learn new tricks at my age. I cannot re_appraise my appreciation of the Nigerian people. I cannot change my world’s view, my value system, my value orientation and others I do not see any of those changing. But it will be left for the observers in future to see if anything will change. But I also do not want to talk on as if I am already in government. I am just an applicant seeking to go into government and make a difference. So, for now the only thing is that I have additional workload in addition to my regular routine at the NLC. I have to find time for my electioneering campaigns and strategizing. Otherwise, nothing has changed and nothing is going to change. I will always be myself.