As the in-fighting and leadership tussle continues to rattle the top echelon of Nigeria’s e-hailing union, AUATON, one of the gladiators, Comrade Ayoade Ibrahim, the founding General Secretary, has called for elections from the local government branches to the national level as a way forward to resolving the crisis and according legitimacy to the leadership of the union.
The General Secretary disclosed this in a chat with Technext. While explaining how the executives came to hold their offices, he noted that when the AUATON was founded, elections were not held from the branch to the national level. Instead. Rather, arrangements were made based on the three organisations that came together to form the union: NUPABW, NACORP, and PEDPA.
Thus, at the national level, leaders were selected through a consensus-based process, with Adedamola Adeniran representing NACORP selected as President, Ayoade Ibrahim representing NUPABW emerging General Secretary and Jolaiya Seun Moses representing PEDPA emerging as Treasurer.
Other positions were also distributed among the groups, along the same line. At the state level, leadership positions were allocated to each group, with Abuja going to NACORP, Lagos to PEDPA, and Kano to NUPABW.
“This arrangement was made without elections, which is why some states had leaders from different groups. However, this setup is no longer tenable, and we need to follow the AUATON constitution to establish a legally constituted authority. Our current national leadership is set to expire next year, and to put the union on a firm footing, we need to conduct branch and state elections, followed by a National Delegate Conference,” he said.
Ayoade challenges AUATON president to withdraw suites against members
The General Secretary also challenged the president to show good faith and withdraw all his court cases against various key officials of the union. He reiterated that this was an instruction by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) when it was mediating the dispute among the various factions. He pointed out that while he withdrew his, the resident did not withdraw his own case.
“I just want to beg everybody, this is not the time to claim rightness or wrongness, whoever can talk to Adedamola should talk to him. Let him withdraw his case against Emeka (Southeast Vice President), and withdraw every case that is on the ground. The other case that is with me too, if everything goes well, I will withdraw it. At least five people have cases at the industrial court waiting for judgment. Let’s rally around, withdraw them and start this union afresh,’ he said.
He asserted that, as it were, people see three factions within the AUATON: the Adedamola group, the Central Working Committee (CWC), and his faction, which essentially means the three amalgamating groups are warring amongst each other. He said that the division cannot help the union, and if the union fails, all its leaders have inadvertently failed, regardless of factions.
“Let everybody come back to the table and begin to negotiate. From there, we can solve this problem amicably. We should try as much as possible to withdraw the case against whoever. The union is not run by taking ourselves to court; it won’t help us get anywhere. At the end of the day, the union will crash,” he said.
Reacting to Ayoade’s call for elections, the AUATON president, Adedamola Adeniran, speaking with Technext, said there is nothing wrong with elections, but the General Secretary needs to bring his proposition to him so that they could align and be sure there are no ulterior motives.
“He needs to talk to me so we are on the same page. I am talking for the union. I don’t know who’s talking for. He can’t be talking for the union because that’s his own perspective. I am very careful to say I agree with him – I need to know what he means. Honestly, he is bigger and older than this union stuff- he can do whatever he needs from the outside,” he said.
On his part, Ayoade said he doesn’t have a problem speaking with Adedamola on this or any other subject, but that conversation would not happen under the current circumstances.
See also: Bolt, others may commence NIN verification for passengers by Q4 2025- spokesperson
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