Nigeria, April 5 -- The African labour centre, the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity, OATUU, in April 2013, marked its 40th Anniversary. The anniversary lecture was delivered by then African Union Commission Chair, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

The trade union centre of the newest country in the world, the South Sudan Workers Trade Union Federation delegation rose up at the conference to invite the continent's trade unions to meet in Juba.

A few weeks later, as the then OATUU Secretary General, I called the South Sudan labour President, Honourable Sinon Dieng, to arrange the meeting only to find that he had become a refugee in Kenya. There had been political tension in the country and he and some South Sudanese had fled the country...