Crisis Rocks Osun NLC As Affiliate Unions Pitch Tents

•Conflict of Interests, Desperation Responsible For Crisis – Faniran

•Conducting Election The Only Solution – Arapasopo

the other groups. What effort has the caretaker made to bring everybody together? The answer is nothing.

“In a nutshell, we both resolved at the Sunday mee ng and a mo on was raised and seconded that within three weeks, the Na onal secretariat of the NLC should give a date for elec on. There was no counter mo on to that.

ing government. It is a ma er of quality delibera on, sincerity and logical reasoning. We are in a scien fic period.

“We held elecon on March 7 and it was disrupted by thugs. We know who brought the thugs and we have evidence to that effect. A caretake commi ee was put in place by the na onal secretariat.

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Faniran, contested for the chairmanship posi on of the union in the aborted elec on.

The two groups of Arapasopo and Faniran have traded blames on who was responsible for the disrup on of the elecon.

It was gathered that the disrup on of the elec on led to inaugura on of caretaker commi ee to manage the affairs of the union.

But instead of calming the fraying nerves, the introducon of the caretaker commi ee has further deepened the crisis.

Leaders of some affiliate unions of the NLC in the state accused the Caretaker Chairperson, Mrs Oyedele, of an attempt to perpetuate herself in office and not carrying them along in the ac vi es of the congress.

A mee ng called by Oladele on Monday, July 31, 2023 was disrupted by some workers who demanded for her removal and conduct of an elec on.

Speaking with OSUN DEFENDER in an exclusive interview, Arapasopo said conduc ng elec on to have a democracally elected state officers of the NLC is the only solu on to the crisis.

Arapasopo maintained that the caretaker commi ee had exhausted its threemonth s pulated me frame in line with the cons tu on of the NLC.

He said: “The crisis started in March this year when our elecon was disrupted; when we got to the elec on venue, some uniden fied persons chased me and most of our people out and that was how the elec on was aborted.

“A caretaker was therea er put in place by the Na onal Secretariat. But ever since the caretaker was put in place, there haven’t been any me the caretaker leadership called for any mee ng, and the fact remain that there are many things on ground that should be addressed by the state NLC. There was no mee ng un l Sunday when we received a massage that there would be a mee ng of NLC state execu ve council on Monday.

“We all went to the mee ng because even if we have groups, what is on ground and important to us is the interest of the masses. And when you have the interest of the masses, you should not have what we called groups, it should be one because NLC is one.

“And one of the utmost assignments given to the caretaker is to go and unite the groups, put them together and let us have one happy family so that we will be able to have an organized NLC in Osun. Under the NLC cons tu on, the caretaker has just three-month to operate.

“But no mee ng was called, nothing was done by this caretaker. What effort has the caretaker made to bring the groups together? Of the 32 affiliate unions in the NLC, 27 of them are with me, the other five unions are with

Dismissed Army Officer Arrested For Alleged Armed Robbery In Osun

Yusuf Oketola

A28-year-old man, Adeniyi Adesina, has been arrested for allegedly robbing students at their hostel in Osun State College of Technology, EsaOke.

The State Commissioner of Police, Kehinde Longe, who briefed journalists in Osogbo, yesterday, said Adesina confessed to be a dismissed army personnel and member of Aiye confraternity.

Longe said Adesina was arrested a er burgling St. Francis hostel at about 3:30am of Thursday, July 27, 2023 in a bid to rob innocent students.

According to him, one locally made cut size gun with two live cartridges were recovered from the suspect.

He said: “On 27/07/2023 at about 0330hrs, one Adeniyi Adesina a member of Aye confraternity was arrested in connec on with a case of burglary / stealing at St. Francis Hostel in Esa-

•CP Longe

oke town.

“The suspect confessed to has stormed the hostel at the odd hour of the day in a bid to rob the innocent students. He further confessed to be a member of Aye confraternity and also a dismissed army personnel.

“The suspect will soon be charged to court a er the conclusion of the invesga on; meanwhile surveillance was s ll in place to apprehend the remaining members of the syndicate.”

“We want to have one family, we want to have NLC back in Osun. We can’t watch our people suffering because their house is not in order. Once you have a democratically elected execuve of NLC in Osun, definitely we will have one common front and that will make sure there is smile on the faces of the en re workers in Osun.”

Commen ng on the ma er, Faniran who was Arapasopo’s opponent during the aborted elec on, attributed the crisis to conflict of interest and despera on.

Faniran, in a telephone interview with OSUN DEFENDER yesterday, said: “What is happening in Osun NLC is as a result of conflict of interest. Some of us want change; we don’t want business as usual and some people are not comfortable with that.

“It is simply a clash of interest; some people believe it should be business as usual while we are calling for libera on in our group. We need libera on; the affairs of the NLC should no longer be about godfatherism or personal interest. It should be collec ve interest of workers in Osun; not interest of some set of people or individuals. That is what our group stands for.

“When you are talking about leadership, a leader or quality leader is one that knows when to blow hot and when to blow cold without losing his/her focus. This is not a ma er of fight-

“There are rules when it comes to unionism. NLC is a congress where we have affiliate unions and to any union or convenon, there are guiding rules. Nobody is saying that we don’t want elec on. We want elec on. But it is the Na onal Secretariat that will give direc ve for an elecon, not the caretaker commi ee.

“We are ready for elec on; but we believe that due process should be followed. It is not a ma er of bringing thugs and destroying peace and unity of the union because you want to be leader. It is not done that way. We want to follow peace and the rule to the core to achieve our aim. We are not desperate.

“If somebody claims he has 27 unions on his side, do you want to compare a union with just two delegates to that which has 91 delegates? The number of unions does not matter, it is the number of delegates. We are talking about quality not quan ty.”

However, the Caretaker Chairman denied the accusaon that she was perpetua ng herself in the office, saying she has no inten on to stay longer than necessary.

She maintained that the two groups were not ready for amicable se lement which will assure the na onal secretariat of their readiness for elec on.

She said: “I did not have it in mind to be in this posi on. I don’t want to stay longer

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We are about to end a week which has exposed the dysfunc on of the republic. The week has been full of twists and turns exposing the so belly of a naon in transi on and much should be learnt as we a empt to correct the disadvantages.

The discontent of the labour unions intermingled with the screening of ministerial nominees. Both fronts le a lot to be desired.

On the industrial rela ons front, it became obvious that there were contradictory interpreta ons of the cost - of - living - crises caused largely by the sensible elimina on of the fraud propelled “ fuel subsidy”. The core cons tuency of the labour unions looked on bewildered at the incoherence of the leadership of the unions.

This is not surprising. The unions are s ll stuck in the adversarial mode necessitated by their origin in the colonial