ISA TIJANI: THE LEOPARD WITH ITS SPOTS?

An unfortunate statement carried by Sahara Reporters – an online medium credited to Isa Tijani who claims to be representing Labour veterans in which he called for the exit of comrade Joe Ajaero; the hardworking President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC); has come to our notice.

We are obliged to respond on behalf of workers in the North so that Nigerians will know the true character of this impostor and name dropper. It is important so that we can place him where he belongs in the hall of shame where betrayers, backstabbers and fraudulent individuals are found.

We want to make haste to say that Isa Tijani is not a veteran of any union. With his usual penchant for lies, he smuggled his way into the fold of the trade union where he exhibited his trade mark. His treachery against the interest of workers and the great union that he intended to besmirch was soon discovered and he swiftly faced the consequences.

He has a very sordid history in the trade Union and is treated like an outcast within the movement because of his disgraceful behaviour. He was disgraced in the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) after he went to collect bribe over NLC strike in 2002.

He was disgraced out of NUPENG after betraying NUPENG’s June 12 strike to restore MKO Abiola’s mandate. For over 20 years, he can’t appear in any function of the nation’s trade union movement and was considered a total pariah because we know that he has the capacity to betray the interest of workers which he has continued to demonstrate even till today.

Isa is an unscrupulous character who is willing to sell himself to the highest bidder provided his stomach will be filled. His betrayal of comrade Salisu Mohammed; a former Acting General Secretary of the NLC and our brother who is a strong voice in the trade union movement in Nigeria is legendary. His love for betrayal informed our decision to dissociate ourselves from him refusing to allow him into our fold. The moment we therefore read his rant, we knew that he has found a new paymaster or already doing the bidding of his old paymaster who are enemies of Nigerian workers and peoples.

We cannot forget how he was disgraced by Major Hamza Al Mustapha. We therefore ask, will this man ever learn his lessons and change for the better or will he continue wallowing in the cesspit of shamelessness? A disgraceful character like this will therefore only speak ill of good men or seek ways to tie them with other evil men without any sound reason. That is what he intends to achieve through his stupid association of a man driven by his passion for Nigerian workers and peoples with a habitually corrupt and irresponsible Abure so that he can earn the applause of his masters.

APC recruited him into their Labour committee to be used as an attack dog against the interest of Nigerian workers. We do not begrudge him this position but we want to warn him that we will not relent in protecting the interest of workers in Nigeria especially those in the North. We advise him to remain in that shameful role as an attack dog of the ruling elite instead of answering a veteran Labour leader which he is not. If he is not ashamed of his position in the party, why is he hiding it instead of trying to pretend to speak for a group that he does not belong to and which in any case will not grant him membership.

He has adopted scamming as a career. People should be aware of this betrayer of Comrades and his fraudulent tendencies. He does not have any known source of living except scamming and begging. When he finds it difficult to get what he wants from his intended victims, he turns them into objects of blackmail. Recently, he has been parading himself as a member of the Board of Directors of the Dangote group thus uses it to continue obtaining monies from undiscerning individuals. It is therefore important that we expose this character’s antics to protect our nation and the workers so that they will be well informed and not fall into his filthy hands. We are committed to ridding our society of questionable characters who have a penchant for feeding fat on the misery of the people in their service to the ruling elite.

As long as Isa refuses to repent and change his ways though we know that the leopard will never change its spot, we will remain alert to stop his attempt at spreading falsehood and bile against the champions of Nigerian workers and masses. This is our little contribution to the building of a better Nigeria through the building of greater workplaces in Nigeria that guarantees the rights and privileges of Nigerian workers continually.

Comrade Salihu Uthman
National Convener