₦airaland Forum

By Christian Appolos



Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed that Nigeria’s organised labour movement was, at a critical stage in its history, funded by foreign intelligence agencies, a development he said exposed the country’s labour system to external control and raised grave concerns about national sovereignty.

Obasanjo made the revelation at the 85th birthday celebration and public presentation of the memoir of a former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Hassan Sunmonu, titled “Memoirs of an African Trade Union Icon: Organise, Don’t Agonise”.

The gathering of labour leaders, policymakers and civil society actors evolved into a broader reflection on the past, present and future of trade unionism in Nigeria.

According to the former president, Nigeria’s labour space during the Cold War era was dominated by two powerful labour organisations which, though Nigerian in name, were allegedly financed and influenced by opposing global power blocs.

He said one faction received support from the Soviet Union’s KGB, while the other was funded by the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency, a situation he described as unhealthy and dangerous for an independent nation.

“As far as you remember, when Gooduck was leading one of the two major labour then Adebola, these two labour organizations are Nigerian labour organizations but they were not organized or funded by Nigeria,” Obasanjo said. “I don’t know if you know that, but that was the reality.

“One was being financed by KGB, that is the truth, and the other one was being financed by CIA, that was the truth, and then I came on the scene.”

He explained that this reality shaped his resolve, as military Head of State, to reform the labour movement and insulate it from foreign interference by building a structure that was organised, controlled and financed by Nigerians.

“I needed a Nigerian labour union organised by Nigeria, controlled by Nigeria, financed by Nigeria. So I decided there was going to be a labour union reform,” Obasanjo said, recalling that the reform process was spearheaded by Justice Adebiyi.

He noted that Sunmonu was among those who initially questioned his involvement in labour matters.

Obasanjo said, “Hassan was one of those who was forefront to ask, what do I know about labour that I’m asking for reform? What is my business?”

Obasanjo said the reform process eventually led to the restructuring of trade unions and the enactment of laws that gave birth to the Nigeria Labour Congress as a unified national platform.

He stressed that the emergence of the NLC leadership was achieved without direct government interference, restoring credibility to organised labour and fostering relative industrial stability.

“Of course, I don’t know anything about labour but I know that I wanted a Nigerian labour organization organized by Nigeria, headed by Nigeria, and funded by Nigeria,” he said.

“When Justice Adebiyi finished his job and we reformed the labour and party law establishing NLC, what happened? Without government’s hand, they elected their leader and Hassan became the first leader they elected. I don’t know how I felt at that time, but I felt comfortable.”

Sunmonu, who led the NLC from 1978 to 1984, is widely regarded as one of the architects of modern trade unionism in Nigeria.

Reflecting on his relationship with Sunmonu, Obasanjo said government and labour were bound to interact and even depend on each other, but must do so without compromising their independence.

He recalled advising Sunmonu to openly criticise government policies after private engagements in order to preserve labour’s credibility and the trust of workers.

He added that the introduction of a compulsory check-off system ensured sustainable union funding and permanently eliminated foreign financial influence from Nigeria’s labour movement.

Obasanjo further praised Sunmonu for elevating Nigerian labour on the continental and global stage, describing him as the most influential figure in the country’s labour movement after the late Pa Michael Imoudu.

The occasion also provided a platform for the current President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Joe Ajaero, to deliver a blistering critique of contemporary economic policies, new tax laws and Nigeria’s rising public debt. Ajaero warned that the systematic exclusion of labour from critical policy processes was deepening poverty and undermining democratic governance.

He argued that the philosophy captured in Sunmonu’s memoir, Organise, Don’t Agonise, stood in sharp contrast to what Nigerians were currently experiencing, accusing the government of preferring “enrage over engage.”

“Tax laws that tax the national minimum wage, impose heavier burdens on workers and the poor, and worsen excruciating poverty are not progressive but regressive,” Ajaero said.

He insisted that labour was deliberately excluded from the Presidential Committee on Tax because workers were “meant to be on the menu.”

Raising broader concerns about governance and accountability, the NLC president echoed Sunmonu’s recent public interrogation of Nigeria’s growing debt profile.

“Where are all the monies being borrowed by the federal government?” he asked. “It is from this standpoint that we must speak directly to the Nigerian Government.”

Ajaero warned that bypassing key stakeholders, distorting Acts of Parliament and ruling “by strong arm” eroded public trust and threatened national stability.

He said the central message of Organise, Don’t Agonise also imposed a responsibility on the state to engage citizens sincerely rather than provoke frustration and social unrest.

“The philosophy of ‘Organise, Don’t Agonise’ also implies that the state has a duty to engage, not enrage.

There is an urgent need for deeper, more sincere, and structured engagement with the trade union movement at all levels,” he said.

“Policies, from fuel pricing to taxation, from wage to social services, must be crafted with the active, respected input of those who represent the workers and the broader masses.”

“To sideline the organised voice of labour is to design policies on shaky, exclusionary foundations, destined to generate crisis and agony as is being witnessed currently,” he added.

The NLC president also demanded the immediate constitution of the PENCOM board and called for clarity and restraint in the implementation of the new tax laws, warning that persisting on the current path was dangerous for tax administration and democracy.

While celebrating Sunmonu as a symbol of courage, integrity and principled engagement, Ajaero said the event had transcended personal honour and become a moment of national reckoning on the condition of Nigerian workers.

He urged the Federal Government to urgently address workers’ wages ahead of the next statutory minimum wage negotiation and called for a decisive shift toward inclusive governance.

“Comrade Sunmonu, as we launch your book today, we pledge to keep its central message alive,” he said.

“We will continue to organise. We will continue to challenge power. We will continue to fight for a Nigeria where no worker has to agonise over poverty, insecurity, heavy taxation or a stolen future riddled with national debt.”

Efforts to obtain official government reactions to the concerns raised were unsuccessful as of press time.

The Nigeria Labour Congress [NLC] was formally constituted as the only national federation of trade unions in the country in 1978. Before then, four labour centres existed. These are 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 unions affiliated to them. The unions, numbering over 1,000 were also restructured into 42 industrial unions.

Sauce

With help from AI

Nigeria Trade Union Congress (NTUC): This was generally a leftist, militant, and nationalistic trade union center.(KGB funded most likely)
United Labour Congress (ULC): This organization was considered a rightist or moderate central movement.(CIA funded most likely)
Labour Unity Front (LUF).
Nigerian Workers Council (NWC): The NWC maintained relations with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)(ICFTU was non-communist. probably this one was also CIA funded..probably.)


All funding suggestions are hypothetical, not to be taken seriously.

Afriifa:
Nigeria has always been interest to foreign powers but our leaders still failed to get it right including Obasanjo.

SpatialKing:
That was under Adam's

When he was president

saphiere:
Baba go and rest. People like you are the reason we are where we are today. Power should be given to women pleaseeee

brain54:
You can't give them power...


Just because they are women!

saphiere:
Ok enjoy the riot the caused.

brain54:
Obasanjo - one of the past leaders of Nigeria I have a huge respect for...


Sometimes I wish he was younger and not retired!

Afriifa:
Nigeria has always been interest to foreign powers but our leaders still failed to get it right including Obasanjo.

yorosstores:
This was many years ago but sadly it's still the same today.

NLC and LP have foreign support to destabilise Nigeria.

musicwriter:
From the late 1940's as soon as the CIA was created, they began running colonialism because European imperialists saw the hand writing on the wall that their days were numbered in their former colonies.

One of their first major tasks was to create the elites in their former colonies and the destruction of native languages.

Western secret services are the ones running colonialism till this day

sage:
http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28:the-vague-future-of-nigeria&catid=28:friday-column&Itemid=56


Lord Lugard, the former governor-general of Nigeria, in 1926, wrote his unfiltered thought about Nigerians. From his book, The Dual Mandates, come these excerpts: "In character and temperament, the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless, excitable person, lacking in self-control, discipline, and foresight. Naturally courageous, and naturally courteous and polite, full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity, fond of music and loving weapons as an oriental loves jewellery. His thoughts are concentrated on the events and feelings of the moment, and he suffers little from the apprehension for the future or grief for the past. His mind is far nearer to the animal world than that of the European or Asiatic, and exhibits something of the animals' placidity and want of desire to rise beyond the state he has reached.

"Through the ages, the African appears to have evolved no organised religious creed, and though some tribes appear to believe in a deity, the religious sense seldom rises above pantheistic animalism and seems more often to take the form of a vague dread of the supernatural. He lacks the power of organisation, and is conspicuously deficient in the management and control alike of men or business. He loves the display of power, but fails to realize its responsibility - he will work hard with a less incentive than most races. He has the courage of the fighting animal, an instinct rather than a moral virtue. In brief, the virtues and defects of his race -type are those of attractive children, whose confidence when it is won is given ungrudgingly as to an older and wiser superior and without envy. Perhaps, the two traits which have impressed me as those most characteristic of the African native are his lack of apprehension and his lack of ability to visualize the future"


Guys lets discuss the thoughts of Lord Lugard. he had  a supremacist view obviously. But is he right in the way he describes Nigerians and Africans in general? How many of the issues that he raises are valid?

Letz get some responses

anonimi:
Why are they not running colonialism in China that was destroyed in the opium wars

Does it have anything with our black nature as tribesmen?

musicwriter:
Because China didn't give up their language, education, religion.

Without destroying those three, you can't control people in the long run