PORT HARCOURT — Beneath the bustling industrial activity and the flowing waters of the Niger Delta, a different, more consequential current is raging within the hallowed halls of organized labour. The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Rivers State Council has become the epicentre of a profound and destabilising crisis, one that threatens to erode the very democratic foundations of one of Nigeria’s foremost labour centres.
What began with the disputed suspension of the state Chairman Sir, Comrade Onyefuru Foster Ikechukwu has spiralled into allegations of a high-level plot involving state capture, constitutional breaches, and a brazen attempt to consolidate personal power, pitting unionist against unionist in a battle for the soul of the movement.
At the heart of the storm is a question of fundamental principle: Is the TUC a democratic institution governed by its rules and the collective will of its members, or has it become a fiefdom susceptible to manipulation by a powerful few? The unfolding drama in Rivers State suggests a distressing drift towards the latter, with national implications that could redefine Nigerian labour politics.
The Unorthodox Suspension
The first tremor struck on June 25, 2024. A letter, bearing the signature of an Acting Secretary General at the TUC National Secretariat, landed on the desk of the elected Rivers State Council Chairman. It conveyed his immediate suspension. The cited reason was a familiar charge in bureaucratic disputes: “misconduct and obvious disregard for Congress by granting press interviews without approval from the National Secretariat”.
However, the context and execution of this suspension immediately raised eyebrows. The Chairman had received a query on June 20th and had promptly submitted a reply exonerating himself. More critically, the process seemed to bypass the TUC’s own democratic architecture. Key governing bodies like the National Executive Council (NEC) and the Central Working Committee (CWC) where such weighty decisions are traditionally deliberated, appeared side-lined.
Most glaringly, the entire Rivers State Council, the chairman’s own constituency, was left in the dark. No formal communication explained what specific “sin” their leader had committed, a move seen as deeply insulting and autocratic.
“It was a surgical removal, executed in silence,” recounted a veteran unionist within the council. “There was no dialogue, no fair hearing for the council itself. It felt less like a disciplinary action and more like a political decapitation”.
Bypassing Protocols and Installing a Proxy
If the suspension was the first stroke, the follow-up confirmed suspicions of a covert operation. Just two days later, on June 26, a second letter emanated from the national office. Addressed to the State Vice Chairman and signed by Comrade Olawumi Jimoh “on behalf of the Secretary General,” it carried a terse directive: NOTICE OF SUSPENSION-DIRETIVE TO ACT.
This instruction violated a cardinal rule etched on the TUC’s own letterhead: “All correspondence should be addressed to the Secretary General.” This rule is not mere administrative formality; it is the bedrock of organisational transparency, ensuring a clear chain of custody for all official decisions. By authorising a major leadership change through a side channel, the national secretariat stood accused of undermining its own governance protocols.
“This golden rule was abused,” argued a legal adviser to one of the affiliate unions. “It creates a single point of accountability. Bypassing it, suggests either a staggering managerial failure or a deliberate effort to obscure the chain of command because the action could not withstand scrutiny.”
The newly installed acting chairman, Comrade Amadi Christopher, soon revealed the alleged script. At a state administrative meeting, he informed council members that TUC National President, Engr. Festus Osifo, and Comrade Jimoh had met and agreed that he (Christopher) be made the State Secretary. The message was clear: authority now flowed from a personal pact, not from constitutional processes.
Engineering a Predetermined Election
With the ground seemingly prepared, the machinery for a state quadrennial election was set in motion. A notice for the election was released on August 19, 2025. However, the released delegates allocation list ignited immediate outrage. Out of a total of 86 votes, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), a major affiliate, was allotted a paltry 6 votes. In contrast, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), the union led by Engr. Osifo, was handed 25 votes.
Alarmed, ASCSN and other affiliates filed a formal complaint on September 18, 2025, detailing “discrepancies that were very disturbing, disheartening, disgraceful and bereft of any democratic logic.” Rather than address the substance of the complaints, the national leadership simply postponed the election.
When a new delegates list surfaced, the manipulation appeared to intensify. The total delegates swelled to 150. PENGASSAN’s share ballooned to a commanding 90 delegates, a 60% controlling stake. ASCSN’s allocation increased only marginally to 11, with the remaining 49 scattered among other affiliates. The arithmetic was now indisputable: control of PENGASSAN’s block votes equated to control of the Rivers State TUC election.
“The game was laid bare,” declared Comrade Udoka Josiah Ugochukwu, a key figure in the opposition. “It was no longer an election; it was a coronation. The delegates’ list was engineered to produce a single, predetermined outcome.”
The “Osifo Say” Regime and Hypocritical Contradictions
Meanwhile, the acting leadership in Rivers state council allegedly morphed into what critics labelled a “puppet government”. Council meetings became irregular and selectively convened, excluding perceived opponents. Whispers of an irregular bank account emerged with the name: Fannisca Nigeria Enterprises-TUC Nigeria R/S. The source of all authority, according to multiple insiders, was reduced to the phrase “Osifo say”.
A stunning contradiction underscored the perceived hypocrisy. While the elected chairman was suspended for unauthorized media engagement, the acting chairman actively undermined a major national TUC press statement. The statement, co-signed by President Osifo and NLC President Joe Ajaero, condemned the Rivers State government’s emergency rule as “anti-workers” and “undemocratic”.
Yet, the acting TUC Rivers Council leadership allegedly collaborated with the same government as even the anointed state Chairman Comrade Samuel Ogan established in his radio chat with Raypower, the acting chairman in a bid to demonstrate brute force even usurped the role of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council to ignorantly negotiate the Rivers state contributory pension scheme vehemently opposed by local workers.
“He was rewarded for disobedience that served a higher political alignment,” a civil servant union leader fumed. “The principle wasn’t about press interviews; it was about loyalty to a personal agenda, not the union’s public stance.”
The Rebellion: A Parallel Congress and the Core Allegation
Convinced that democratic channels within the TUC were irredeemably compromised, ASCSN and several other affiliate unions made a historic break. On the day of the rescheduled election, they convened a parallel Quadrennial State Delegates’ Conference. In a direct rebuke to the national establishment, they elected Comrade Udoka Josiah Ugochukwu, PhD, MCIA as the substantive TUC Rivers State Chairman.
In his acceptance speech, Chairman Ugochukwu framed the struggle in existential terms: “We are here to reclaim the sanctity of labour from those who seek to sacrifice it on the altar of petty self-serving interests. We promise to protect the workers of Rivers State from this orchestrated state capture.”
The core allegation driving the rebellion is a national power play. Engr. Festus Osifo’s tenure as PENGASSAN President is due to end soon. There is a growing conviction among the patriots that he is strategically planting loyalists in key state councils like Rivers to populate TUC’s NEC. This, they argue, is a “well-crafted script” to secure his election and perpetuate his influence as TUC National President, leveraging PENGASSAN’s financial might to control the larger congress.
Broader Implications: A Labour Movement at a Crossroads
The Rivers crisis is not an isolated incident. Veteran labour observers point to similar patterns of delegate manipulation and disputed elections in Lagos and Bayelsa states. The fear is the normalisation of a dangerous pattern where union elections mimic the worst aspects of Nigeria’s partisan politics: godfatherism, vote allocation, and pre-determined outcomes.
“If this trend is not checked,” warned a retired labour leader, “TUC will become worse than the politicians we critique. Our moral authority, derived from internal democracy and principle, will be utterly bankrupt.”
The schism in Rivers State presents the national TUC leadership with a stark choice. It can embark on a genuine, mediated reconciliation that addresses the profound breaches of procedure and trust. Or, it can attempt to wield power to suppress the rebellion, risking a permanent fracture and legitimising the narrative of an arrogant, self-serving leadership class.
As the two chairmen in Port Harcourt now operate from separate offices, each claiming legitimacy, the stakes extend far beyond a single state council. The outcome of this turbulence will determine whether the Trade Union Congress can still credibly call itself a democratic haven for workers or if it has succumbed to the very forces of capture and centralization it was founded to resist. The conscience of the Nigerian labour movement is on trial, and its verdict will resonate for years to come.
