My friend Opeyemi Tegbe returns with something from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). For regular readers of this blog, you’d have noticed he likes talking politics, today isn’t different. He connects the dot between the NLC and the polity. Read and enjoy.

Most often when we try to analyse politics in Nigeria, our main focus is always the highly placed political leaders, forgetting the fact that it is a bottom-up approach. A lot of sectors, groups as well as individual entities in Nigeria have lost their proper course of establishment and operations due to pursuance of selfish interest on the part of major players. This, over the years, has led to little or no consideration for the growth and development of our society.

Perhaps, if you have enough information about the housing scandal perpetrated by officials of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), then unsuccessful election stories should not be a shocker. On May 1, 2013, the Abdulwaheed Omar-led NLC executive flagged off a housing scheme in conjunction with Kriston Lally EPC Nigeria. The Deputy President of NLC, Promise Adewusi and Umar Madawaki, Managing Director of Kriston Lally, earlier signed an agreement on April 6 of the same year. The NLC was supposed to provide land while Kriston Lally would build the houses across the country. The cost ranges from N4.6 million for two-bedroom detached bungalows to N6.5 million for three-bedroom bungalows and N18.5 million for four-bedroom bungalows. Subscribers were asked to pay N5,000 each for forms and 10 percent of the total cost for their desired houses. But the good part of the story ended there!

The housing scheme discussed above is the root of the problem rocking the largest and most powerful labour group in Nigeria and explains why the body cannot afford to hold a free and fair election. The NLC has been in the news for the wrong reasons in the past few weeks and one could not but cringe at the reality that our politicians are not worse off than labour activists. From a N960 billion housing scandal – yes, you read the figure correctly – to an election that ended in a fiasco on February 12 at the end of its delegates conference, it is very clear that the moral high ground that the NLC loves to occupy is not more than a mere cosmetic elevation which is far from reality.

If you’re bothered about the need for alternatives to the vultures rampaging Nigeria and claiming to be our leaders, you must be worried about the show of shame in the house of labour because the stems can only flourish if the the root does not tap the necessary recourses into the system of the plant as a whole. A house divided against itself can neither grow internally nor add value to its immediate environment.

Do we know how many houses in Nigeria are divided? Let all the houses put themselves in order and as such, we will feel the aggregate effect in the leadership of our country sooner than we expect.

PS: You might see less of Opeyemi here as he will be busy with his baby-project. This is wishing him and his entire crew success. You can check what he is up to here.