The organised labour may have been entrapped by accepting a N6.3bn loan from the Federal Government amid nationwide opposition to the planned withdrawal of petroleum subsidy next January.
It was learnt that the loan, which was sourced from the Urban Development Bank, would assist the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress to procure mass transit buses from China in order to cushion the effect of high transport fares.
The Federal Government had since October, said that fuel subsidy would be removed as from January 2012, a campaign that had been on since Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration.
According to TUC, it will take delivery of the buses procured with the loan next month.
Under the arrangement, the NLC has N4bn while its TUC counterpart grabs N2.3bn.
The Acting Secretary-General of the NLC, Mr. Owei Lakemfa, however, dismissed the speculation that the loan might have been an inducement or a comprise pact.
Rhetorically, he said, "If you get a loan from a bank, are you not supposed to pay back with an interest? And how does that translate to colouring your position on issues?"
According to a Presidency source, the TUC’s plan to procure the buses from a Chinese firm has reached an advanced stage.
But the NLC, which equally signed an MoU with another Chinese firm - Yutong - suspended the transaction because of intrigues and infighting among key power blocks within its fold.
It was gathered that the labour unions were expecting the money in the form of grant from the Federal Government as was the case under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, which gave 150 buses to labour.
However, the unions were shocked when President Goodluck Jonathan directed them to the UDB to get the funds in the form of a loan.
The sudden change in arrangement was said to have irked the labour leaders, but they nevertheless, opted for the deal. With the renewed attempts by the government to remove the fuel subsidy, the NLC and the TUC have threatened to call out Nigerians to resist the plan.
But FG agents had in the last two months, mounted a series of counter-measures, which included advertorials in national dailies among others.
Some of the campaign are tagged, "Subsidy: Stop funding the problem, start finding the solution." "Let’s change the equation: Removal of fuel subsidy is in the people’s interest."
A Presidency source said a substantial amount of money had been set aside through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency to prosecute the campaigns for removal of the subsidy.
An investigation showed that following an approval of the loan deal, officials of the NLC left for China to make arrangements for the buses to be imported.
The NLC delegation allegedly comprised its President, Mr. Abdulwahed Omar, the ousted General-Secretary, John Odah, and a former Deputy President, Mr. Peters Adeyemi.
While Odah and Adeyemi signed the deal, Omah was said to have appended his signature as a witness.
However, the arrangement ran into a hitch following doubts on pricing, durability of the buses and discount, among others. But authoritative labour sources told SATURDAY PUNCH that the pervading feeling among labour leaders then was that accepting the loan could be interpreted to mean a compromise.
A memo from the ousted NLC Secretary-General (Odah), dated June 30, 2011, quoted the finance committee of the congress led by the treasurer, Ayuba Wabba, as having faulted the move to take the loan for the mass transit, as it could be taken as an inducement for labour to support deregulation.
The memo reads in part, "That on ideological basis, the mass transit deal is a bait to congress, since it appears to be a fallout of the struggle against deregulation."
A former Deputy President of the NLC, who was its chairman of mass transit scheme, Mr. Peters Adeyemi, said in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that the deal was called off because of the perception that the loan was a Greek gift.
He said the claim by some people that the buses were sub-standard was proved to be false, as the bank sent representatives alongside labour leaders to examine them and found them to be good, and in use in Angola, Ghana and other African countries.
He said he did not share the belief that taking the loan would compromise labour as the money was a loan that was meant to be paid back with interest.
However, Adeyemi was surprised that the NLC was activating the process of procuring the loan for the mass transit scheme now.
On his part, Lakemfa emphasised that there was no relationship whatsoever between the loan and the position of the NLC on the issue of deregulation.
He stated that getting a loan for the mass transit programme predated Jonathan’s administration and the debate on subsidy.
He explained that the NLC did not accept the loan initially because the organs of the congress, comprising the National Executive Committee, the National Working Committee and the National Administrative Committee, faulted the procedure for acquiring the loan. According to Lakemfa, the NLC took the decision to write the bank to put the loan on hold because of the observed procedural error in that the loan did not come through the stated organs.
He said the NLC reactivated the process of obtaining the loan because its finance committee and the major organs had gone through it and approved it.
He said, "The Federal Government is not procuring any loan for us, getting a loan for mass transport scheme started in 1992/1993; and it has been on since then.
"Why we didn’t accept the loan was that our organs said the procedure for acquiring it was faulty; It did not come through the organs - the NAC, the NEC and the NWC - so, it was procedurally wrong.
"We wrote the bank to put it on hold. Now the NEC has looked into it; the finance committee has looked into it and it has gone through the organs."
Reacting, the TUC General-Secretary, Mr. John Kolawole, said the UDB had nothing to do with subsidy."
He said, "Let me, therefore, state categorically that our position on the issue of subsidy removal and deregulation still remains.
"The approval of the N2.3bn has nothing to do with the negotiation on removal of fuel subsidy because at the time we started processing it, President Jonathan was still acting President. So, I don’t see how that translates to agreeing with subsidy removal."
Kolawole said the TUC had yet to actually have any dialogue with the Federal Government on fuel subsidy, pointing out, that attempts at dialogue had been suspect.
He said, "They have been trying to talk to individuals in our midst, instead of the body and we are opposed to that."
He stated that the TUC hoped to take delivery of the buses in January 2012.
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