I felt historically satisfied to have participated in the 20th Commemoration of Comrade Michael Aithokhaimen Omiunu Imoudu’s exit. It held in Lagos on December 20, 2025.
Organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Imoudu’s family, the Commemoration was well-attended.
Nigeria Labour Minister, Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi, who represented President Bola Tinubu was on ground an hour before the commencement of anniversary, exchanging views with some participants. With him was Isa Aremu – the Director-General of the Michael Imoudu Institute of Labour Studies.
The representatives of the Governors of Lagos, Abia, Jigawa, and Katsina graced the occasion. Imoudu’s children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and the extended family were fully participated. The NLC President, Joe Ajearo, and other union leaders and activists were likewise, were on ground.
The People’s Lawyer, Femi Falana; woman activist, Lucy Offiong; dogged labour leaders and activists like Sylvester Ejiofoh, Abdulkadir Isah Iguda, Zanna Shittima and, and business mogul, Sir Kessington Adebutu, attended.
Some received the Michael Imoudu Award (MIA) for their distinguished services to the working class and the trade union movement, as well as their consistent struggle for democracy and social justice.
The Labour Minister and special guests delivered speeches and solidarity messages. These included unionists, human rights and pro-democracy activists and professional associations.
A special posthumous MIA was given to late Baba Omojola Oluwide, who was Imoudu’s official biographer, a grassroots’ organiser, committed researcher, and socialist. The award was received by his family.
The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) received the ‘Most Outstanding Union’ award. This was for its decades of protracted struggles against electricity privatisation, elitization and in defence of jobs in the industry. It lost some of the battles, but it never gave up. For it, the struggle continues!
A short documentary on Imoudu was screened. Photo exhibition was displayed. Traditional dances celebrating Imoudu’s legacy took place. A book, titled, “Michael Aithokhaimen Omiunu Imoudu: Labour Leader No. 1 – Leadership profile” was launched. Papers were presented.
Two of Imoudu’s daughters, Dr. Felicia Rovitto and Dr. Veronica Imoud-Omosun, respectively spoke on “Pa Michael Imoudu through the eyes of his children”, and “Twenty years after Pa Michael Imoudu – Personal Reflections”.
Rovitto said their father was a family and people’s man, with “deep principles. He was firm, disciplined, and unwavering in his values. At home, just as in public, he demanded honesty, respect and hard work. He raised us to stand tall, to live with integrity, and never to bow to injustice.”
Imoudu-Omosun concurred, adding that Imoudu was not only “very caring and loving but was a strict disciplinarian” and a people’s fighter, who “ never backed away from fights he thought were righteous, especially those involving workers and the masses.”
She recalled as a child: “one day my father returned home wearing what was known as his ‘war dress’ which was an all-red outfit with a red beret. He had with him, a police baton he had seized in a battle that day between workers and the police”.
Both recalled the sacrifices and pain the family endured as a result of the restless struggles their father waged and led. “Papa was a poor man who never had money to build a house”, said Imoudu-Omosun. But the family, Rovitto said, “understood that our father did not belong to us alone – he belonged to the nation.”
Imoudu-Omosun revealed how in 2005, when their father joined his ancestors, the then NLC President, Adams Oshiomhole, refused to release funds donated by NLC affiliate unions, corporate organisations and individuals for the burial of their dad. None of the donation “percolated to the family” for the burial!
She stated that when the family mandated Imoudu’s eldest son, Dr. Wilfred Imoudu, to approach Oshiomhole for part of the funds to bury their dad. The latter not only denied the request, but also “asked my brother: “Can’t you bury your father?” My brother replied: “We can bury our father in our own way.”
My presentation was titled “Michael Imoudu, the 1945 General Strike and the struggle for Nigeria”. I asked and attempted to answer: “how did Imoudu acquired the name ‘Labour Leader One’?” “What role did he play in the 1945 General Strike?” “How general was the 1945 General Strike?” and “how did it contribute in making Nigeria?”
Barrister Femi Aborishade spoke on “Labour, Neo-colonialism and National Struggle”. Imoudu, he said, lived a life of service to the working class and Nigeria, adding that “the struggle was his life”. He underscored that trade unionism, to Imoudu, “was not a career. It was a mission”, which Imoudu “prepared, not only to lose his freedom, but also to lose his life in the process.”
Aborishade concluded that the current challenge, “is to reproduce the Imoudus of our time.” He added this task: “is the precondition for transforming the trade union movement as instrument for transforming the Nigerian society in the interests of the downtrodden workers and the poor.”
My first take-way from the anniversary is that those who stand with, fight, and die for the oppressed, always live in, and with, the people. While their eyes are closed, they always open the eyes of the living.
Imoudu, though, gone for twenty years, uncelebrated by the state, and largely ignored by Nigeria’s contemporary labour movement, lives in, and with, the workers and other oppressed people.
The second take-away is the need to scientifically research, document, publish, distribute and develop training modules and programmes on Imoudu and his contributions to Nigeria’s trade unionism and development.
Third, there is need to open a museum on him.
The fourth, is a message to opportunistic, narcissistic and materialistically-minded “labour leaders”.
Just as one cannot concurrently serve ALMIGHTY GOD and Lucifer, so one cannot simultaneously and meaningfully serve workers and the ruling classes.
Like Imoudu, Wahab Goodluck, Hassan Sunmonu, Ali Chiroma, amongst others, conscientiously built and served the trade union movement, gallantly fought military despots, vehemently resisted ruinous economic policies, and stood on the side of workers and the oppressed.
Not so Pascal Bafyau, who, though, left huge infrastructures for the NLC, stood firmly for the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, destroyed the alliance between labour and the popular forces – students, academics, women groups, and consciously set NLC on the path of degeneration.
Nor Oshiomhole, who, for self aggrandizement and material gains, sacrificed NLC to the state and capital. Oshiomhole wholeheartedly participated in the privatisation of state-owned enterprises for pittance, seriously undermined the democratic traditions, values, and culture of NLC, and repeatedly turned General Strikes against workers.
Or, Ayuba Wabba, who virtually handed over the NLC to the highly incompetent, narrow-mined, tribalistic, kleptomaniac and corrupt Buhari government. He almost totally buried the NLC.
History will always reveal, and never forgive labour leaders like Bafyau, Oshiomhole and Wabba who subverted the interests of Nigerian working people. Around them, training manuals and programmes should be developed on “How to confront and combat opportunists and renegades in the trade unions”
Imoudu will continue to live and probably, will never die. Oppressed and progressive forces will continue to celebrate him, as they did in his lifetime. His family will never forget him. Most importantly, forces committed to emancipatory politics, within and outside the labour movement, will try to quantitatively and qualitatively replicate Imoudu.
Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf worked as deputy director, Cabinet Affairs Office, The Presidency, and retired as General Manager (Administration), Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NiMet). Email: [email protected]
