NUGLOW Mourns Ugboaja, Says Death A Huge Loss For Organised Labour

The members of the National Union of Gaming and Lottery Workers (NUGLOW) have described the death of the General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Emmanuel Ugboaja, as a huge loss to the organised labour and civil rights movement in the country.

Reacting to the death of the late NLC scribe, the Deputy Secretary General of NUGLOW, Comrade Wale Balogun, on behalf of his members, described the late activist as an ‘irrepressible working soldier’ who dedicated his life to fighting for the welfare and wellbeing of the Nigerian worker.

In the statement on Friday, Comrade Balogun stated that the state of loss felt by his organisation stems from the fact that “Comrade Ugboaja was not merely a trade union bureaucrat.

He was a product of struggle, a comrade whose political and labour journey was intertwined with the long and unfinished struggle for justice, workers’ emancipation, democracy and a better Nigeria.”

The statement added that “His death at 60 is therefore not simply the departure of an individual. It is the loss of one of the soldiers who carried forward the traditions of the Nigerian working-class and democratic struggles.”

According to the statement, “Emmanuel Ugboaja belonged to that generation of comrades who understood that the struggle of the worker could not be divorced from the struggle of the Nigerian people.

“Emmanuel Ugboaja was one of those comrades who understood that the street belongs to the people whenever power refuses to listen to the people.”

While stating that his union would miss the late activist, he added that “We will miss the comrade who understood the language of struggle. We will miss the labour leader who appreciated the inseparable relationship between organised labour and civil society. We will miss the man who could be reached when comrades needed intervention.

“We will miss a soldier of the working class who spent decades in the labour movement and eventually rose to become the General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress. But above all, we will miss Emmanuel the Comrade.”