By Adeyeye Mayowa
The recent disruption of the Lagos State Delegates Conference of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has once again cast a dark shadow on the integrity of the labour movement. What was meant to be a democratic process guided by transparency, fairness, and respect for established procedure, was reduced to a theatre of manipulation, largely instigated by PENGASSAN.
It is a notorious fact that PENGASSAN has already completed two consecutive terms at the helm of the Lagos State Council. Yet, rather than yield space for inclusivity and the spirit of rotation that sustains the Congress, it has brazenly sought to extend its stranglehold. Only recently, it assumed control of the Women Commission in Lagos. A similar imposition was carried out at the national level and other states of the federation. These repeated acts of overreach betray an ambition not of service, but of domination—an ambition that threatens to destroy the very essence of the TUC.
The events of yesterday stand as a chilling testament to this ambition. A candidate of PENGASSAN who was duly nominated and screened for the position of Secretary at the close of nominations suddenly sought to contest for Chairman on the very day of the election. Such a reckless alteration of the rules midway into the game was nothing short of contemptuous. Delegates protested, citing the sanctity of closed nominations, yet PENGASSAN pressed on with utter disregard for fairness.
Even when other unions, in the interest of peace, agreed to proceed despite PENGASSAN’s delegate advantage of 25 out of 86 compared to other Unions, the process was further desecrated. The delegates’ list, which had already been published and used in several states of the federation without controversy, was suddenly tampered with at the prompting of the TUC President, himself from PENGASSAN. Inexplicably, Lagos was singled out for this brazen manipulation. The list for PENGASSAN was inflated from 25 to 57 delegates, yet they could not produce the required number. Rather than insist on due process, the umpire abandoned neutrality, deliberately delaying proceedings from morning until late evening to give PENGASSAN time to smuggle in new delegates. Delegates were left stranded from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., hungry, thirsty, and frustrated, only for the umpire to announce a late-night election once the irregular delegates had been assembled.
This spectacle of injustice was too grotesque to ignore. Other unions rose in unison to reject the charade. They refused to be complicit in an exercise so steeped in partiality and disdain for process. They declared unequivocally that if PENGASSAN was bent on conducting a coronation rather than an election, it should proceed alone. That defiance led to the inevitable collapse of the exercise, for PENGASSAN, in all its arrogance, could not produce a State Executive in isolation.
The lesson is clear: no single affiliate, however influential, can run the TUC as a private empire. The Congress is built upon solidarity, equity, and mutual respect. PENGASSAN’s insatiable quest to dominate every structure of the Congress—at state and national levels, even to the point of annexing the Women Commission—represents a dangerous threat to the survival of the labour movement. Such imperial posturing must be resisted, for it is inimical to the spirit of unionism and destructive to the credibility of the TUC.
What transpired in Lagos is not merely an internal squabble; it is a battle for the soul of organized labour. If manipulation triumphs over fairness, if domination silences inclusivity, then the Congress will be reduced to rubble, and the workers it claims to represent will be the ultimate losers. The arrogance of PENGASSAN must therefore be called out in the clearest of terms. TUC cannot, and must not, be reduced to the plaything of one affiliate. It is either a Congress of all, or it ceases to be a Congress at all.
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