How NLC Election’s Fiasco Was Planned, By Union Leader

Com (Dr) Ayuba P. Wabba (Image source: medicalworldnigeria.com)

President of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Dr. Ayuba Wabba, has said that plans to frustrate the workers from electing a new leadership was hatched long before the beginning of the delegates’ conference, The Nation reports.

Ayuba, who was one of the presidential candidates in the election, said the plan was put in place early in the year by a group of union leaders who wanted the presidency of the congress ceded to unions in the private sector through undemocratic means.

Addressing a news conference on the development, Dr. Wabba criticized the system adopted in the printing of the ballot papers.

The system adopted, he said, was different from what had been used in the past in which names of all candidates for an office were printed on one sheet.

He denied claims that he was being sponsored by the government for the election, saying: “Those saying that does not know me. If they know me, they will not be saying such things. We know who the real government candidates are.”

Dr. Wabba also accused members of the credentials committee, who his opponents alleged were planning to rig the election in his favour, as part of those behind the ploy to disrupt the election.

Opponents of the MHWUN president had accused members of the committee of trying to favour him by printing his name two or more times on the ballot paper booklet.

“Let me call the attention of the public to the fact that the first attempt to cause confusion began on the second day of the conference when some delegates of NUPENG disrupted the proceedings of the conference by throwing chairs and smashing the head of one of the delegates of the Civil Service Union.

“All other delegates decided to keep their calm as they have never been part of violence and will want to protect the integrity of NLC,” he stressed.