…as civil servants boycott congress
SEGUN AYINDE, ABEOKUTA
The crisis rocking the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria took another dimension on Friday when senior civil servants in Ogun State boycotted the union’s 7th Triennial Delegates’ Conference over zoning arrangements to key positions in the state.
The aggrieved civil servants under the umbrella of Senior Civil Servants Association of Nigeria, Ogun State chapter, maintained that they would not tolerate act of injustice against the initial zoning agreement with them by the TUC in the state.
They accused the members of TUC of changing the previous arrangements the body had with them on key elective positions a few hours to the congress, insisting that they won’t deviate from their stand on the matter.
ASCSN’s Chairman, Olude Isa, while speaking with newsmen in Abeokuta, the state capital, said that his members felt cheated about the zoning arrangements, hence the need to boycott the congress.
Isa, who said that his association which had the largest membership strength in the Ogun TUC, threatened to post their protest on the portal of the National Secretariat of the Congress to intimate them about the situation
He said that they had agreed that a member of ASCSN would get the chairmanship slot of TUC women commission with other key positions, but were surprised when the other members of the union changed the agreement by giving his member the position of secretary to the commission without prior notice
Although the selection of officers into elective positions, as learnt, was done through consensus because election could not be held due to COVID-19, Isa described the process as an embarrassment to the union.
He said, “All we want is to ensure that the position of chairmanship of women commission is given to our association. We are civil servants and we are together in the struggle. There can’t be deviations among us.
“The list circulated yesterday was not earlier our agreed list, hence we considered it necessary to walk out of the delegates’ conference.
“We are not fighting; we will come back to the round table and agree on something. If they give us what we want, then we can work together as a team to benefit our members.
“We are going to post our protest on the portal of the National Secretariat of the TUC, informing them of the situation today because the centre belongs to all of us and no individual, no particular union nor affiliate, can claim the ownership of TUC.
“It came as a surprise to us today when the name of our member was read as the secretary to the commission, instead of chairman.
“In the opinion of the association, there can’t be leadership without followership and no single union can do it alone. We agreed on the chairmanship of the women commission.”
Reacting, the newly elected state Chairman of TUC, Akeem Lasisi, said the supposed agreement was not reached in the first place.
According to him, there has been realignment in the zoning of elective positions in the union to accommodate demands of other associations.
Lasisi hinted that the union zoned the chairmanship slot of the TUC women commission to another association because members of ASCSN had occupied the position more than six times.