Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, has congratulated Ayuba Wabba on his re-election as the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
The president also congratulated other members of the National Executive Committee on their election and re-election at the 12th national delegates’ conference of the union in Abuja.
This was made known in a press statement signed by the Mr. Buhari’s senior special assistant, media and publicity, Garba Shehu.
Mr Wabba was re-elected as the president of the NLC after a unanimous decision by delegates at the union’s conference on Wednesday in Abuja.
The NLC president and other members of the executive board returned unopposed and will be in charge of the workers union between 2019 and 2023.
Among others that were returned are first deputy president, Amaechi Asuguni; second deputy president, Muhammed Idris; and third deputy president, Najim Yasim.
According to the statement, the president said he looks forward to working closely with Mr Wabba, the Central Working Committee, CWC and the National Executive Council of the NLC to fulfill the promise of a partnership between the government and labour.
The NLC was formally constituted as the only national federation of trade unions in the country in 1978.
Before then, four labour centres existed. These were the Nigeria Trade Union Congress [NTUC], Labour Unity Front [LUF], United Labour Congress [ULC] and Nigeria Workers Council [NWC].
The emergence of the NLC ended decades of rivalry and rancour involving the four centres and the unions affiliated to them.
The unions, numbering over 1,000, were also restructured into 42 industrial unions.
