The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has refuted claims of betrayal leveled against it by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) regarding the recent nationwide protest against hardship in the country.
In an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, TUC President, Festus Osifo, addressed the accusation, stating that the NLC accused his union of betrayal for not participating in the last protest against hardship.
Osifo clarified that the TUC was never party to any agreement to engage in a nationwide protest and therefore cannot be accused of opting out or betraying the NLC.
He emphasized that while the TUC is not against protests, it needed to take a principled stance due to the repeated undermining actions of the NLC, despite previous agreements between the two unions.
Osifo elaborated, stating, “I’ll just explain exactly what happened to you. Now, you see when you have when you say somebody opts out from a process, it means that the person was in before, it means that there was an agreement to do something.”
He continued, “When there is an agreement to do something at the last minute, you will not say I am not doing it again. That is opting out, then you can use the word sold out. But in this scenario, there wasn’t any agreement to do anything.”
Osifo highlighted that there was no communication or discussion regarding participation in a protest, hence the TUC did not opt out of anything.
He concluded, “If there was an initial agreement that let’s go for a protest, the winner would say we are not going for that protest. You could call that opt out, you could call that sold out, you could call that anything. But in this scenario, there was no understanding at all. In fact, there was no discussion that could have even led to any understanding.”
