Architect Dr Peter Agada on the Labour Institute of Nigeria

DR PETER AGADA 

An Institute for the Propagation and Development of the True Policies and Ideology of the Labour Party as It Currently Runs World Over_

1. MANDATE & VISION

The Labour Institute of Nigeria is established as a non-partisan policy, research, and leadership development institution dedicated to institutionalizing the core ideologies of the global labour movement within Nigeria’s democratic framework.

Modeled after the intellectual architecture that sustains Labour Parties in the United Kingdom, Australia, and other established democracies, the Institute’s mandate is to move labour politics beyond electoral cycles into permanent systems of governance, policy design, and social contract renewal.

2. CORE FUNCTIONS

The Institute operates through four pillars, drawing direct parallels with UK Labour’s ecosystem:

Pillar Function UK Equivalent

Policy Development Unit; Researches and drafts legislation on wages, decent work, social protection, industrial policy, and public services. Converts labour congress resolutions into actionable government blueprints. Labour Party Policy Forum + Resolution Foundation

Ideology & Political Education;  Develops curriculum and training for aspirants, elected officials, and union leaders on social democracy, collective bargaining, and wealth redistribution. Codifies the Nigerian Labour Charter. The Fabian Society + Socialist Educational Association

**Systems & Governance Lab; Designs internal party systems for candidate selection, ward administration, and digital democracy. Ensures transparency, anti-corruption, and zoning compliance with constitutional law. Labour Party NEC + Constitutional Arrangements Committee

International Labour Bureau** Interfaces with ILO, TUC UK, ITUC, and sister Labour Parties to domesticate global best practices on just transition, gig economy, and worker ownership. Labour International + Labour Party International Office

3. HOW IT DIFFERS FROM A REGULAR POLITICAL PARTY

A political party contests elections. The Labour Institute builds the intellectual and institutional scaffolding that makes labour governments possible and successful.

1. Policy Continuity: While party leadership may change, the Institute maintains a 20-year National Labour Development Plan covering health, education, housing, and industrialization.

2. Leadership Pipeline: Through the _LabourDirect Fellowship_, it trains 8,809 ward coordinators annually in budget analysis, community organizing, and parliamentary procedure.

3. Evidence-Based Politics: Publishes the _Annual State of Nigerian Labour Report_ using NBS, ILO, and NLC data to set national discourse, similar to the UK’s _Institute for Public Policy Research_.

4. Ideological Custodianship: Prevents policy drift by maintaining the _Labour Red Book_ — a codified set of non-negotiable principles on privatization, minimum wage, and public ownership, akin to Clause IV of the UK Labour Party Constitution.

4. THE UK MODEL: PRECEDENT FOR NIGERIA

In the United Kingdom, the Labour Party’s durability rests not just on unions, but on institutions like:

1. The Fabian Society : Drafted the original welfare state proposals that became the NHS and council housing.

2. The TUC Economics Department: Provides shadow cabinets with costed manifesto alternatives each election cycle.

3. Labour Together & Policy Network: Think tanks that stress-test policies for electability and fiscal credibility.[1884]

The Labour Institute of Nigeria adapts this tripartite model: Movement + Research + Governance. It ensures that when labour candidates win, they inherit tested systems, not empty manifestoes.

5. CURRENT PROGRAMMES 

a. #LabourDirect Platform: Digital ward congress system with 12,047 verified member endorsements, ensuring bottom-up candidate legitimacy.

b. Local Government Charter: Standardized service delivery benchmarks for all LIN-elected LGA Chairmen on primary healthcare, schools, and market infrastructure.

c. Just Transition Commission: Designing Nigeria’s framework for oil-sector decarbonization without mass job losses, in partnership with NUPENG and PENGASSAN.[2026]

6. RELATIONSHIP WITH ORGANIZED LABOUR

The Institute is accountable to the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress through an annual _Labour Policy Conference_. NLC and TUC occupy 40% of Board seats, ensuring that policy originates from workers, not consultants.

Conclusion

The Labour Institute of Nigeria exists to answer one question: _What happens the day after a labour candidate wins?_ By building systems, training leaders, and codifying policy, it ensures that labour ideology translates into schools built, wages paid, and industries revived. It is the bridge between protest and governance.

How Gombe Court Jails Three Fraudsters for Employment Fraud

Justice J.A Kereng of the Gombe State High Court sitting in Gombe, on Monday, April 8,2024 convicted and sentenced the duo of Ibrahim Abdullahi and Umar Usman to various jail terms for obtaining the sum of N682,847.00 ( Six Hundred and Eighty- Two Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-Seven Naira only) under false pretences . He also sentenced Mohammed Sala Soja to six years imprisonment. All the three convicts were jailed for employment fraud. 

 

Abdullahi and Usman were separately arraigned on three count charges of cheating and employment scam by the Gombe Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The charge against Ibrahim Abdullahi reads: "That you, Ibrahim Abdullahi sometimes in October 2020 and January 2021 in Gombe, Gombe State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, obtained the Polaris ATM Card properties of Aminu Adamu Idris and Muhammed Saidu Jibril, which you claimed was documentation for offer of employment you secured for them in a private liability company at Gombe, but rather used the said ATM to obtain loan to the tune of N682,847(Six hundred and Eighty Two Thousand, Eighty Hundred and Forty Seven Naira only) without their consent and thereby committed an offense contrary to Section 320 of the Penal Code Law and punishable under Section 322 of the same Law ".

 

The charge reads "that you, umar Usman sometimes in October 2020 and January 2021 in Gombe, Gombe State within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, obtained the Polaris ATM Card properties of Aminu Adamu. Idris and Muhammed Sadu Jibril, which you claimed was documentation for offer of employment you secured for them in a private liability company at Gombe, but rather used the said ATM to obtain loan to the tune of N682,847 (Six Hundred and Eighty Two Thousand, Eighty Hundred and Forty Seven Naira only) without their consent and there by committed an offense contrary to section 320 of the Penal Code Law and punishable under Section 322 of the same Law ".  

 

Upon arraignment, the defendants pleaded guilty to their respective charges when they were read to them.

In view of the defendants' pleas, prosecuting counsel, A.B Kware prayed the court to convict and sentence them accordingly. However, counsel to the defendants, R.A. Anthony pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy “as the defendants are first- time offenders who are remorseful for their actions.

Justice Kereng convicted and sentenced Abdulahi to one year imprisonment with an option of fine of N50,000 (Fifty Thousand Naira) only and Usman bagged two years imprisonment or a fine of N50,000.

 

The convicts bagged their imprisonment when they allegedly approached their victims in October 2022 about some phony job opportunities in a private liability company in Gombe State. They directed their victims to each open an account with Polaris bank which they did and surrendered the account details as well as their ATM Cards to them. The convicts in return gave their victims the sum of N10,000 each . After a while, the victims had issues with Polaris bank’s transactions and went to the bank to make enquiries only to be confronted with an outstanding loan of N682 ,847. All efforts to distance themselves from the loan proved abortive and reported the case to the EFCC.

 

In a similar development on Monday, 

Justice Kereng also convicted and sentenced one Soja to six months imprisonment. He was arraigned on three count charges of intent to defraud, cheating and employment scam by the Gombe Zonal Command of the Economic and financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

One of the charge reads "that you, Muhammed Sala Soja sometimes in July 2023, at Gombe, Gombe State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud did make a false document titled "2023 recruitment invitation for marshal's basic course" which knew to be false and thereby committed an offense contrary to section 362 of the Penal Code Law and punishable under Section 364 of the same Law. "

Upon arraignment, he pleaded guilty to the charges, prompting the prosecution counsel, AB Kware to pray the court to convict and sentence him accordingly.  

However, counsel to the defendant, I.S Gada pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy “as the defendant who was remorseful for his actions is the breadwinner of his family and has a medically challenged father to care for”.

 

Justice Kereng then asked Kware if the defendant was a first time- offender and the prosecution counsel responded that though the defendant had made restitution to the victim of crime, he was convicted by same court on February 14 2024 for a similar offence".

 Responding, the judge said, “ based on the plea of the defence counsel coupled with the fact that the defendant has restituted the victim of crime and his father’s medical condition, I will give him a second chance. The defendant is hereby convicted and sentenced to six years imprisonment with an option of fine of N150,000

Soja still has other pending cases with the EFCC .

Source: EFCC

Kolapo Alimi says No mass recruitment yet into Osun State Civil Service

Govt only approves recruitment of 5,000 new teachers and 250 education officers

Alimi

OSUN State commissioner for information and Public Enlightenment Oluomo Kolapo Alimi has on Friday said the state government under the leadership of His Excellency, Senator Ademola Adeleke, is currently not carrying out mass recruitment into the Civil Service as being wrongly assumed with the on going sales of employment forms by the Civil Service Commission.

Alimi in a statement said the sales of forms by the Osun State Civil Service Commission, it must be emphasized, is a normal official routine.

He reiterated that members of the public, particularly employment seekers, should not, in any way, misconstrue it to be a scheme by the Ademola Adeleke-led administration for mass recruitment into the state civil service.

"We advise those, who by now, must have collected the forms, to keep them jealously in their possession pending when official approval for mass recruitment exercise may be officially unfolded to the public."

"Again, the Government wishes to reiterate that the only approved recruitment drive currently going on in Osun state is the sale and issuance of forms for the engagement of an additional 5000 teachers and 250 education officers."

"The aim, which is in accordance with the recent approval granted by the Osun State Executive Council, is to fill the existing vacancies in the state's teaching service in order to strengthen the hitherto moribund education sector."

"Therefore, If the Government wishes to embark on a general mass recruitment exercise into the Civil Service, an official announcement, via officially designated media channels, would be released to the public."

READ;

Osun Government Approves Recruitment of 5000 Teachers, Awards N1 billion Rehabilitation Contract for Ora Igbomina Water works

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COVID-19 Another 3.2 million filed new US jobless claims last week, total claims filed since mid-March now 33.5 million