(General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Emmanuel Ugboaja. Photo credit: NLC)
Emmanuel Ugboaja, General Secretary of Nigeria’s Labour Congress, has d!ed at age 60 after a long illness.
The news was announced to labour leaders during a meeting in Enugu on Thursday.
Ugboaja was a lawyer and trade unionist who served as NLC General Secretary since August 2019.
He was born on May 15, 1966, and studied law at the University of Calabar, graduating in 1987.
He started as a private lawyer but joined the labour movement in 1993, making him the first Nigerian lawyer to work full-time for a trade union.
Before joining the NLC, he was General Secretary of the National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees between 2000 and 2005.
He also worked with an election monitoring group from 2006 to 2009 before joining the NLC in 2009.
During his time as NLC General Secretary, Ugboaja dealt with major negotiations on workers’ wages and welfare.
One of his first big assignments was handling talks around the thirty thousand naira minimum wage the government approved in 2019.
He remained involved in fights for better pay and conditions for workers even as recently as this year when he urged workers in states not following the new minimum wage law to participate in May Day rallies.
His death comes at an important time for Nigeria’s labour movement, which continues to engage with federal and state governments over minimum wage implementation and workers’ welfare.
