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The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has clarified that the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) neither issued an ultimatum to the Federal Government nor participated in the dialogue between the government and the NLC held on October 22, 2026.
The clarification followed media reports linking the TUC to the ultimatum and the meeting, prompting the NLC to correct what it described as an erroneous attribution and absolve its sister labour centre of involvement in the specific engagement.
In a statement signed by its Acting General Secretary, Comrade Benson Upah, the NLC said the TUC’s name had been wrongly included in some newspaper reports, while acknowledging that most publications had correctly attributed the statement to the NLC alone.
The labour centre stressed that it was the only one of the two major national labour centres present at the meeting with the Federal Government.
NLC sets record straight
The statement read, “The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) wishes to clarify that the Trade Union Congress (TUC) did not issue an ultimatum to the government and was not part of the dialogue between the NLC and Federal Government yesterday, 22nd October 2026 even as the TUC side of Joint Health Workers Union of Nigeria, JOHESU and Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, JPSNC were represented at the dialogue.
“TUC’s name featured in error in a paper or two but we note that a greater number of the papers appropriately attributed the statement to NLC only.
“This is to categorically state that only the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) was present at the meeting.
“The TUC is completely exonerated from the purports of this specific dialogue. We urge the public and media to take note of this correction, please.”
The NLC said the clarification was necessary to ensure that the public and media organisations accurately reported the parties involved in the engagement and the ultimatum issued to the government.
It also distinguished between the participation of the TUC as a labour centre and the representation of affiliates associated with the union in the discussions.
JOHESU, JPSNC representatives attended
According to the statement, representatives of the TUC side of the Joint Health Workers Union of Nigeria (JOHESU) and the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (JPSNC) were present at the dialogue.
However, the NLC maintained that their participation did not mean the TUC itself had attended the meeting or jointly issued the ultimatum.
The clarification seeks to prevent the two labour centres from being incorrectly presented as having acted jointly in the specific engagement with the Federal Government.
The NLC urged media organisations and members of the public to take note of the correction, reiterating that the dialogue held on October 22 involved the Federal Government and the NLC.
The statement did not withdraw the NLC’s position on its own engagement with the government but focused on correcting reports concerning the TUC’s alleged involvement.
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