In a startling historical disclosure that bridged the gap between global geopolitical rivalries of the past and the economic tensions of the present, former President Olusegun Obasanjo revealed on Wednesday that Nigeria’s organised labour movement was once a proxy battleground for the world’s most powerful intelligence agencies.
Speaking at the 85th birthday celebration and memoir launch of Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, the pioneer president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Chief Obasanjo detailed how the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States and the Soviet Union's KGB funded rival labour factions within Nigeria during the Cold War.
The gathering, held in the federal capital, saw a convergence of Nigeria’s political and intellectual elite, including the current NLC President, Joe Ajaero; former Edo State Governor, Senator Adams Oshiomhole; and the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Hassan Kukah.
Chief Obasanjo, who chaired the occasion, recounted the precarious state of Nigerian trade unionism during his tenure as Military Head of State in the late 1970s. He explained that before the 1978 unification of the movement, the country’s labour landscape was fractured into ideological camps sustained by foreign interests. One faction, he noted, was ideologically and financially tethered to the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc via the KGB, while its counterpart received strategic support from the American CIA.
“I needed for Nigeria a Nigerian labour union, organised by Nigerians, controlled by Nigerians, and financed by Nigerians,” Obasanjo stated, according to reports from The Cable. He argued that this foreign dependency posed a direct threat to national sovereignty, as external powers sought to use Nigerian workers as instruments of ideological warfare.
This realisation, he said, prompted the 1978 reforms led by Justice Adebiyi, which forcefully merged the competing centres into the NLC and established the compulsory check-off system to ensure the union was funded by its own members rather than foreign intelligence services.
The former president’s reflections underscored the historical gravity of Sunmonu’s leadership. Sunmonu, who served as the first NLC president from 1978 to 1984, was credited with steering the newly unified body through its formative years without falling back into the trap of foreign patronage.
Obasanjo fondly recalled a "working understanding" with Sunmonu, where he encouraged the labour leader to maintain his "street credibility" by publicly criticising the government even when they had reached private agreements, ensuring the union remained an authentic voice for the people.
While the past provided context, the present dominated the discourse. Current NLC President Joe Ajaero used the platform to issue a stern critique of the federal government’s current economic direction, specifically targeting the implementation of new tax laws and the rising national debt. Ajaero contended that the exclusion of organised labour from the Presidential Committee on Tax had resulted in regressive policies that "enrage" rather than "engage" the citizenry.
“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 remarked. He warned that the systematic exclusion of labour voices from policy design creates a "dangerous pattern" that undermines democratic stability and threatens to push more Nigerians into multidimensional poverty.
Senator Adams Oshiomhole, himself a former NLC president, offered a more combative interpretation of the celebrant’s philosophy. While acknowledging Ajaero’s concerns, Oshiomhole chided the current labour leadership for "lamenting" rather than "fighting".
Drawing from the title of Sunmonu’s book, Oshiomhole insisted that the purpose of leadership is not to shed tears over imperfections but to organise a factual and legal challenge to unjust policies. He further clarified that, according to his reading of the law, minimum wage earners should be exempt from tax, urging labour to focus on enforcement and legislative amendment rather than public mourning.
