Comrade Joseph Ajaero, General Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees, was elected as the next National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday.
Ajaero, who had served as the labor union’s deputy national president before being elected president, made history on Wednesday by becoming the union’s unopposed president at the conclusion of the 13th National Delegates Conference in Abuja.
The election of new national officers for a four-year term is anticipated to conclude the conference, which got underway on February 7 at the International Conference Centre in Abuja.
Ajaero in his acceptance speech vowed to mobilise members against the current scarcity of Naira notes if the government failed to address the issue by the end of next week.
He said, “NLC shall continue in its tradition of ensuring that Nigerians are protected from all anti-people policies and that plunder in governance is reduced to the barest minimum while the government is assisted to work for the majority. We shall therefore robustly engage the government to stop the impunity and pervasive wickedness currently going on in the country in the name of petroleum product pricing.
“The usurpation and use of state power to impoverish the citizenry abuses the ideals of democracy and destroys the nation. Governance ought to provide comfort for the citizenry, so it pains us to witness the increasing frustrations Nigerians have had to go through in the last few months just to fuel their cars and generators, the new phenomenon of black market Naira-buying our own monies at a discount from illegal brokers.
Ajaero succeeds Ayuba Wabba, whose tenure as NLC national president ends Wednesday, February 8, 2023.
Joe Ajaero, who was born on December 17, 1964, in Emekuku Owerri-North, Imo State, has been the NLC deputy president since 2011. He has been the general secretary of the NUEE since 2005. He was Research Officer One Mechanised Infantry Division Nigerian Army Kaduna between 1990 and 1991 (NYSC); Reporter/Correspondent and Assistant News Editor at Vanguard Newspapers 1992 – 2001; and Head of Training/Information, NUEE 2001 – 2005.