By Opeyemi Adelakun
The Nigeria Labour Congress has lost its General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, who died at the age of 60 after a prolonged illness.
Ugboaja’s death was communicated to members of the NLC’s National Executive Council by the Congress President, Joe Ajaero, during a meeting in Enugu on Thursday, following the receipt of a letter from the late labour leader’s family.
Details surrounding his death remained unclear at the time of filing this report, although multiple reports said he had been battling a prolonged illness.
The development marks the loss of a veteran figure in Nigeria’s organised labour movement, coming after Ugboaja spent more than three decades working within the trade union system.
Born on May 15, 1966, Ugboaja obtained a law degree from the University of Calabar in 1987 before moving into trade unionism in 1993 after practising law privately.
He later rose through the ranks of the National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees, where he served as General Secretary between 2000 and 2005.
Ugboaja subsequently joined the NLC Secretariat in 2009 and became Principal Assistant General Secretary and Head of Industrial Relations and Organising before emerging as the Congress’ General Secretary in 2019.
His appointment made him the fifth General Secretary of the NLC since the establishment of the labour centre in 1978.
The NLC’s historical biography described Ugboaja as the first Nigerian lawyer to work full-time for a trade union, reflecting the combination of legal training and industrial-relations experience he brought to organised labour.
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