By Ibrahim Jibia

A fortnight ago in Geneva, Switzerland, Gilbert Houngbo of Togo, emerged the 11thDirector General (designate) of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in a keenly contested  election.

He was the Africa Union (AU) candidate, despite dissent by South Africa’s Mthunzi Mdwaba, who intensely was in the contest, though without the support of the South African government.

Queued up too were Muriel Penicaud, a consummate labour diplomat and current Ambassador and Permanent Representative of France  to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Also former France Minister of Labour, Penicaud was thought the favourite of the labour poll.  There was also Greg Vinnes from Australia, who is an incumbent Deputy Attache of the ILO, in charge of Management and Reform and formerly, Labour  Minister and Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

Others were Kang Kyung-wha who was  the foreign Minister and later the  Republic of Korea’s Permanent Representatives to the United Nations. Then,  Mthunzi Mdwaba of South Africa who was former Vice Chairperson of the ILO Governing Body and Vice President/Spokesperson of the ILO International Organisation of Employers.

Formidable as all the candidates are, their respective home  governments, except South Africa, engaged in diplomatic shuttles to sell them to the international community. The French candidate was thought to have the broadest support  but March 25, 2022  election came with a blip.

The ILO’s rules for voting made provisions for  several rounds of secret balloting, with breaks of at least 45 minutes between each round, until an eventual winner is selected.

In each round, the candidate with the lowest number of votes will drop out until a candidate gains more than half of the votes (2/3) of all voting members. After each round, the names of the remaining candidates will be announced.  Hence, when voting kicked-in  by exactly  9:00a.m  Nigerian time that day, the institutional fabric  of the ILO electoral process was ready to handle the tough  stalemate of the first round of voting. Many had thought the French would emerge outright or at least be in the next round with just an opponent. But against  expectations, the two candidates from Africa made an impressive show into the second round. However,  Africa would lose to Europe if there was no big brother to separate two Africans in a pyric  battle .

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It was at this point that the lot fell once again on Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige who  since 2016, contestably, has been the one of the  foremost African government representative  in the ILO.

It was the crucial role Nigeria played, that broke the tie and decided the day. The  Nigeria’s tripartite delegation  demonstrated the leadership role the country has been playing since 2016 when it launched itself back to  the  governing board.

I recall that Ngige was in 2018 nominated the spokesperson of the Africa Region in all matters affecting the third world. It was on this instance that he  led debate in the governing body meeting of October 2018, the day African delegates threatened a walkout over the democratization of the ILO.  It was the same year that he was elected the Chairperson of the government group of the governing body, a position Nigeria  occupied till 2020.  Memory is still fresh how Ngige  worked for Anglo-Franco Africa unity, culminating in a motion in April  20, 2017 in Algiers, during  the  Specialized Technical Committee on labour and Social Development by the AU, calling for cessation of  disparate interests that drown Africa’s voice on the global stage.

The immense experience Ngige garnered over the years as governor, senator and minister has accumulated  in him, a deep mine of ideas that gush at a little scratch. And this knowledge coupled with innate quintessential leadership qualities had seen him permeate and made friends across the labour tripartite of government, workers and employers group of the ILO. Ngige is highly regarded, one of the reasons ILO conceded the hosting of  the International Youth Forum to Nigeria in August 2019, first ever  outside Europe.

But who were the voters  and how did they vote ?  The ILO has a governing body consisting of 56 regular members, subdivided into tripartite of  28 governments , 14 employers and 14 workers as well as 66 deputies, comprising 28 governments , 19 employers and 19 workers. While the Minister of Labour in each country occupies the seat of the country elected into the government group  of the board, the representatives of  workers and employers are elected in their individual capacity. It is on personal capacity that  the President of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba , who is also the President of International Trade Union Congress  was elected to the Workers group of the governing body.  Other African countries on the government group  of the body together with Nigeria includeCameroon, Morocco , Uganda, and Rwanda.

For starters, the ILO as a specialized  agency of the united Nations , created  in 1919 to set labour standards has a three-fold  membership of workers, employers and the governments, generally known as tripartite social partners . The election of the 11th Director General brought this three bold division to the fore with each side muscling  to take control. While Mthunzi Mdwaba of South Africa belongs to the  employer group and had the entire votes of employers in the governing body, Houngbo  somehow has dual constituency, first with the workers and then government group. No wonder workers voted massively for him. The French candidate is of the government group. The tie that sent voting to the second round was therefore  discernable as each side wanted one of theirs to occupy the number one position in the ILO.

With workers solidly behind Houngbo, the AU candidate, all he needed was an inroad into the employers camp where South Africa’s Mthunzi Mdwaba was the champion. Hence, Ngige, accompanied by Wabba went for intensive lobbying  among delegates to save Africa from defeat. Meanwhile , the rallying point of employers delegates was  Jacqeline Mugo  of Kenya’s Federation of employers and Vice president of 103 session of the ILC. Her stoic support for the Mthunzi was fierce that concerned African delegates, delegated to Ngige the burden of convincing the influential Kenyan employer and he did. He  explained to her, the limited chances of the South African against    Penicaud, giving further  reasons Africa must unite. He told Jacqueline that it if after 86 years of Ethiopia’s Halie Selassie’s  famous lamentation at the League of Nations, “that Africa was turned to hewers of wood and fetchers of water,” Africans themselves would squander a golden  opportunity to break the yoke of second fiddle in the 103 years history of the ILO, it would be unforgivable by her future generations.  He also reminded Jacqueline how Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s NCNC sent lawyers to defend Jomo Kenyetta and other Mau Mau leaders in 1952,  rounding off,  that African brotherhood would not die in this age. With further audience with Houngbo, the votes were sealed as the final voting saw him narrowly beating  Penicaud of France  by 30 to 23 votes.

It is important  that we note that  on February 26, 2022 when Houngbo visited Nigeria to ask for support , Ngige affirmed that Africa was in the race to win and that  the continent would speak with one voice at the 344 session. It deserves  recalling also  that after Penicaud came to solicit for support on February 10, 2022, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron on March 3, again sent a special mission led by the Ambassador to Nigeria, Emmanuel Blatmann  to Ngige over the election. He insisted Nigeria would support France as a second choice to Houngbo, expressing gratitude for France massive investments in Nigeria . The election has been lost and won but it is not difficult to discern that Africa would not have spoken with one voice , would have in fact lost, but for the intervention of the Nigeria’s Minister of Labour and Employment. Africa would remain grateful  to this foremost Nigerian labour diplomat.

• Jibia is former Director of Skills Development and Certification, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and  member,  National Labour Advisory Council.