The General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Emmanuel Ugboaja, has died at the age of 60.
Ugboaja, a veteran trade unionist and lawyer, reportedly died after a protracted illness.
Details surrounding his death remained sketchy as of Thursday. However, Vanguard reports that NLC President Joe Ajaero read a letter from the late general secretary’s family to members of the Congress National Executive Council (NEC), who were meeting in Enugu State.
Ugboaja was appointed NLC General Secretary in August 2019, becoming the fifth person to occupy the position since the establishment of the Congress in 1978.
Born on May 15, 1966, he obtained a law degree from the University of Calabar in 1987. After about four years in private legal practice, he joined the trade union movement in 1993.
The NLC’s historical biography describes him as the first Nigerian lawyer to work full-time for a trade union.
His trade union career began with the National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees (NUCFRLANMPE), an affiliate of the NLC.
He rose through the ranks and served as the union’s general secretary from 2000 to 2005.
Between 2006 and 2009, Ugboaja served as Coordinator, Advocacy and Mobilisation, at the Alliance for Credible Elections, a civil society organisation focused on electoral issues.
He subsequently joined the NLC Secretariat in 2009, where he served in various capacities, including Principal Assistant General Secretary and Head of Industrial Relations and Organising.
Ugboaja also participated in major constitutional and political reform processes. In 2005, he was a delegate to the Political/Constitutional Reform Conference convened under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
In 2014, he served as a delegate to the Constitution Review Conference under former President Goodluck Jonathan.
In 2019, he emerged from a competitive selection process to succeed the then-retiring NLC General Secretary, Peter Ozo-Eson. The NLC NEC ratified his appointment at its meeting in Kano on August 21, 2019.
As general secretary, Ugboaja played a key role in coordinating the Congress’ affiliates, industrial relations, negotiations with government and employers, policy formulation and workers’ mobilisation.
He was involved in major labour-government negotiations, including discussions on the implementation of the N30,000 national minimum wage introduced in 2019.
More recently, he remained active in the NLC’s nationwide mobilisation and advocacy.
In April 2026, he signed an NLC directive calling on workers in states that had not fully implemented the 2024 National Minimum Wage Act to hold street rallies on May Day.
Ugboaja’s death marks the loss of a prominent figure in Nigeria’s organised labour movement, with a career spanning more than three decades across trade unionism, legal practice and civil-society advocacy.