Protest: ‘We’re Not Sellouts’ – TUC Replies NLC Over Betrayal Claim

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has denied an allegation of betrayal by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the recent nationwide protest against hardship in the country.

Speaking during an appearance on Channels Televison’s Politics Today on Friday, TUC President, Festus Osifo, said the NLC had accused his union of betrayal by not joining in the last protest against hardship.

According to Osifo, the TUC was never part of any agreement to go for a nationwide protest and therefore could not be said to have opted out or betrayed the NLC.

He said the TUC is not against protest but needs to take a stand due to the repeated undermining actions of the NLC despite previous agreements between them.

Osifo said: “I’ll just explain exactly what happened to you. Now, you see when you have when you say somebody opts out from a process, it means that the person was in before, it means that there was an agreement to do something.

“When there is an agreement to do something at the last minute, you will not say I am not doing it again. That is opting out, then you can use the word sold out. But in this scenario, there wasn’t any agreement to do anything.

“We did not have any conversation; nobody even mentioned to us that this is the direction to go. That conversation never took place. So as long as that also never took place, we never opt out of anything. If there was an initial agreement that let’s go for a protest, the winner would say we are not going for that protest.

“You could call that opt out, you could call that sold out, you could call that anything. But in this scenario, there was no understanding at all. In fact, there was no discussion that could have even led to any understanding.”