A Kaduna-based journalist, Abdulwaheed Olayinka Adubi, has dragged the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and its President, Chris Isiguzo, before the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Abuja Division, over alleged violations of some provisions of its constitution (2023, as amended).
The claimant, a bona fide member of the Union, averred that the NUJ National Executive Council meeting held on August 9, 2024, lacked the power to extend the tenure of the members of the Central Working Committee, whose tenure is expected to terminate on October 6, 2024.
The claimant relied heavily on Article 5(a)(3) of the NUJ Constitution, which states: “The Triennial National Delegates’ Conference shall be held every three (3) years at venues to be decided by the NEC for the purposes of: (a) receiving and reviewing reports and accounts; (b) revising the Constitution if and when necessary; (c) deciding on questions of general policy raised upon notice by any member, Chapel, or Council to the National Executive Council through the National Secretariat of the Union; (d) electing National Officers of the Union.”
The Chris Isiguzo-led Central Working Committee members were elected on October 7, 2021, with a mandate of a three-year tenure, which lapses on October 6, 2024. The claimant affirmed that the tenure elongation orchestrated by Chris Isiguzo, also a respondent in the matter, was a gross abuse of the NUJ Constitution.
In the averments filed by the claimant’s counsel, Mr. Ibrahim Bawa, SAN, it was posited that tenure elongation was strange to the NUJ Constitution and a self-induced constitutional crisis by Chris Isiguzo-led CWC members to perpetuate themselves in office.
The claimant, a practicing journalist based in Kaduna, is praying the court to dissolve the CWC of the NUJ in the overall interest of the Union. The tenure of the members of the Central Working Committee of the NUJ, according to the extant Constitution of the Union, ends on October 6, 2024.
In the court processes filed on September 10, 2024, and made available to newsmen in Abuja, the claimant argued that the leadership of the Union deliberately violated the NUJ Constitution by not putting in place the Credentials Committee three months before the expiration of its tenure, as provided for in the Constitution.
On this averment, the claimant is relying on Article 5(9)(a) of the NUJ Constitution, which states: “There shall be a Credentials Committee, which shall be put in place three months before the expiration of the tenure of the subsisting Central Working Committee (CWC) to examine the good financial standing of each registered delegate before the conference, and the name of any delegate not in good financial standing shall be withdrawn from the list of delegates.”
Whereas, the leadership of the Union was aware of the provisions of the Constitution but deliberately failed to put in place the Credentials Committee on July 6, 2024. The claimant is praying the court to dissolve the Credentials Committee over non-compliance with the provisions of the NUJ Constitution for gross abuse of the Union’s body of laws.
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The power of the Credentials Committee to impose a humongous amount of three hundred and fifty thousand naira on nomination forms for the office of the President and other intending CWC aspirants is also being challenged.
The claimant is also praying the court to allow Chairmen and Secretaries of Councils to take over the affairs of the Union as from October 6, 2024, and put in place machinery for the conduct of the election within three months, as provided for in the Constitution. If this prayer is granted, the claimant believes strongly that a level playing field will be provided for all members of the Union who intend to aspire for elective positions in the Union.
