NULGE's Naked Dance In The Market Square Over APC Reinstated Council Chairmen In Osun

The widely reported recusal of the ongoing matter involving the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and the All Progressives Congress APC and 14 other Court of Appeal reinstated  APC local government council chairmen instituted by the NULGE by Justice Isiaka Adeleke of the Osun State High Court sitting in Ikirun, Ifelodun Local Government Council Area of the state on Thursday was a welcome development based on the adduced reasons of  an alleged compromise of the court by a party in the suit.

The hoopla attracted by the celebrated case, at the onset, was as if heavens would come down on its adjourned date to the extent that it would not be an hyperbolic expression to state that the unsavoury development shook the state to its foundation as any decision arrived at that was devoid of the glaring demonstration of the rule of law was capable of igniting avoidable political schisms in the state.

Now that the matter which was initially fixed for 15th of April, 2025 for hearing but thereafter fixed for 8th of May, 2025 because the earlier date clashed with the last Easter holiday, has suffered another set-back, should the development not form a formidable basic reason for the NULGE that sued its employers to have a rethink in the overall interest of the deprived members of the union and the development of the state?

It would be recalled that some members of the senior staff of the Local Government Workers have declined to go to work since 16th February, 2025 following the Court of Appeal judgment delivered on 10th February 2025 which nullified the Federal High Court judgment that sacked the Chairmen and Councillors elected on 15th October, 2022. 

The elected officers thereafter resumed offices on 17th February, 2025 and in a very strange manner, some executives of the  NULGE loyal to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have prevented the unsuspecting and innocent staff of the local government from going to work since 16th February, 2025 using safety as a ground to play the political card which is widely believed is being orchestrated by the PDP-led government in the state.

The matter got to the crescendo when the glaringly partisan and pliable leadership of the local government workers using NULGE to institute action praying the court to install the PDP candidates into the councils and re-sack the reinstated chairmen and councillors.

Since the shunning of work by the council workers on the order of the NULGE in the state, there has been absence of governance at the grassroots level of government across the state of which the innocent residents of the state have been paying dearly for it without the state government finding it necessary to bring the situation into an abatement.

Strange things are indeed happening in Osun State under the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke as fast checks have shown that it is the state government that is sponsoring the absence of governance at the local government level across the state which can be likened to self-destruction. It is first of its kind in the history of this nation.

It was funny that it was when the NULGE was on strike that the leadership of the compromised union organized a kangaroo election in Ede, the country home of the state Governor Adeleke where only the favourite of the government was allowed to contest against himself which has been the cause of the perpetual ripples bedeviling the union.

Strange enough, the compromised leadership of NULGE which members have been collecting their monthly salaries while on strike worked in cahoot with the other sister unions in the state during the last May Day to present a metaphorical key to the Governor's Office to the state Governor Adeleke as a sign of showing of appreciation for paying the NULGE members their monthly salaries for being an active ally in fighting the APC and its reinstated chairmen and councillors.

A cursory look at the key presented to the governor by the compromised labour union leaderships in the state during the May Day celebration showed that it looked like a key to a correctional centre freely given to an accomplice in the commission of a crime who would be called to judgement at an appointed time.

Apart from the fact that the state has been losing substantial amounts of revenue accruable from the local government council areas across the state because of the needless strike by the council workers, the challenges of exposing the residents to avoidable hardship by the closure of the local government council areas across the state should be of concern to the leaderships of the labour unions in the state.

History is the most important discipline in life as human beings write history everyday without knowing. It is however, instructive to state here that whoever is not fair to history would find himself consigned to the trash can of history. 

It shocked the whole world when the news filtered that some leaders of the Local Government Councils workers in Osun State shut down the secretariats and went to court recently. The suit is neither to seek salary increment nor promotion for the workers. Rather, it is to ask the court to eject the APC recently reinstated chairmen and councillors in the local government councils and install the PDP candidates selected on 22nd February, 2025 through a sham otherwise called an election by the PDP and their promoters in that regard, the NULGE. 

Recall that the national leadership of the NULGE, which first fumed over this unprofessional act of its state branch, visited Osun State few weeks ago.

Surprisingly, the leadership  suddenly began to praise the government upon the visit and smiled away back home without talking on the matter of its state branch again. The reason is only known to the visitor but obvious to the whole world. Findings further revealed that the national president of the union is from Jigawa State with probable less interest in Osun State.

 

The NULGE had since 16th February, 2025, closed the councils, and disturbed some other senior workers who wanted to resume work having felt the closure is unfair to any effort targeted at growth and development of the state. The people suffer in the state as a result of the closure and several millions of naira being lost on a monthly basis. 

Fortunately enough for the masses, the suit suffered a monumental failure yesterday, 8th May, 2025, when the court saw reasons to withdraw from hearing the suit. 

This is enough reason for the labour wing of the PDP masquerading as labour union to have a rethink.

e-SIGNED

Mogaji KOLA OLABISI, Osun State APC Director of Media and Information.