The Conductor of Chaos

Editor’s note: This essay is available in our print issue, A Nation Divided. Buy the issue here.

Following public condemnation, the commissioner of police in Lagos State, Idowu Owohunwa, said the police was investigating the threat. In a swift response to the public backlash, MC Oluomo denied threatening Igbos in Lagos and claimed he was only joking with a certain ‘Iya Chukwudi’ whom he described as his sister.

On election day, however, it became evident that there was no humour in MC Oluomo’s message. Voting had barely started when political thugs went on a rampage carrying out civil-war-era-style eye tests to determine who was Igbo and who was not. Those they deemed to be Igbo were violently deprived of their rights to vote. In some cases, people of other ethnic groups who did not pass the eye tests were also beaten and forced out of polling units.

Such ethnic profiling was perceived to be a fallout from APC’s loss in the presidential election on 25 February where Peter Obi, an Igbo candidate and former governor of Anambra State won Lagos over Bola Tinubu, a Yoruba candidate and the famed political godfather in the South West. This defeat was perceived by Tinubu supporters to have been successful because of the high turnout of Igbo voters in Lagos. Perhaps to prevent a repeat of this political onslaught and enable Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu win a second term in office, MC Oluomo enlisted the help of his foot soldiers who are mostly members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Lagos Parks and Garages Management Committee which he chairs to unleash political mayhem.

It is not the first time MC Oluomo would be caught on video issuing threats against political opponents. During the presidential election on 25 February, he was seen allegedly threatening those who were at a polling unit in Oshodi to either vote for APC or leave. The police at that time also promised to investigate the video and take appropriate action if necessary. Nothing has been done.

MC Oluomo’s political participation and influence did not begin with the 2023 general elections. In 2018, he and his men in the NURTW were in Osun State providing grassroots mobilization support during the governorship election which APC’s Gboyega Oyetola won to some controversy. Shortly after Oyetola’s victory, in a short interview, MC Oluomo issued a warning to the then-senate president and godfather of Kwara State politics, Bukola Saraki, stating that he and his men would be repeating the same exercise to win back Kwara for APC. A year after, APC won Kwara’s entire state political structure.

What has made the NURTW, a trade union for commercial vehicle owners and drivers, so powerful politically? How has MC Oluomo been able to amass so much political power and influence that transcends Lagos and spread to other states in the South West? What is his relationship with South West state actors that has made his political leadership and control not only normalized but also institutionalized? It all comes down to the structure of the NURTW, which has evolved from a revenue collection union to a political vehicle with hundreds of thousands of foot soldiers. In MC Oluomo’s case, he has elevated the interconnectivity between the thuggery embedded in the fabric of the transport union and that of Nigeria’s politics into a recognized, feared and efficient body that seems to operate above the law and makes a mockery of the democratic state.

The NURTW was formed in 1978 as a successor to the Nigerian Road Transport Union which was created in 1934. Although a sister union, the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, exists and predates the NURTW, but the latter has become more popular and grown in size and relevance. Having also registered as a trade union with the Central Labour Organisation now known as the Nigerian Labour Congress, the NURTW has become a recognized body with almost 2 million members.

Apart from tanker drivers, all commercial vehicle drivers are expected to be members of the NURTW. As part of this membership, drivers are required to pay levies to unit representatives. Many of these collectors are recruited area boys or ‘agbero’, many of whom grew up and live on the streets extorting motorists and commuters, mafia-style in motor parks and markets. This makes them the perfect fit for the work of levy collectors for the union.

Thugs have always been willing tools in the hands of politicians who help them to facilitate mobilization through campaigns, distribution of gifts, serving as unofficial security and going against political opponents. In the Second Republic (1979-1983), the Ibadan chapter of the NURTW was led by Busari Adelakun while in Lagos, Adebayo Ogundare controlled the union. Both men lent their support to the Unity Party of Nigeria and, through violent mobilization, facilitated the victories of Bola Ige and Lateef Jakande in Oyo and Lagos respectively.

In the early 1980s, however, to take control of Oyo and Lagos, the National Party of Nigeria-led federal government enlisted the help of Adelakun and Ogundare. The duo, using their members, fomented political unrest in the two states under the protection of the federal government. Ultimately, Ige lost his re-election bid while Jakande barely held on to his political control.

During Nigeria’s short-lived Third Republic (1992-1993), Chief Lamidi Adedibu, a well-known political godfather became notorious for using thugs for protection as well as for unleashing mayhem in Oyo State against his opponents. Adedibu’s political tentacles extended into the Fourth Republic (1999-present), where he was said to have had a hand in whoever emerged as governor of the state. Described as ‘the strong man of Ibadan politic’, Adedibu and his protege, Governor Rashid Ladoja, locked horns over political appointments in Oyo State. Using Latif Akinsola the then-leader of the NURTW in Oyo, who was popularly known as ‘Tokyo’, the political godfather, Adedibu, caused disorder in 2004. Armed thugs attacked both the state secretariat and the state assembly causing public unrest. Another faction of the union loyal to Governor Ladoja came to his defence leading to counter and reprisal attacks. A former Oyo state senator, Lekan Balogun, told Human Rights Watch in 2007, ‘I would call for the complete proscription of NURTW. They do not have any purpose. They are available for negative activities including thuggery and they (politicians) draw their thugs from there.’