In the shifting landscape of West African politics and Labour, one of the listed 100 Iconic African Leaders in 2024, by The New Africa Magazine, Comrade John Ejoha Odah has carved a role that is both deeply rooted and far-reaching. As Executive Secretary of the Organisation of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA), his work represents decades of commitment to the rights and dignity of working people across the region.
His story begins at the University of Jos, where in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he stood out as a young activist driven by a deep sense of justice. Influenced by figures like Comrade Dan Umaru, Comrade John Odah’s early activism combined energy with insight, and it was this blend that marked his later achievements. With a background in sociology and a concentration in political sociology, he approached Labour not only as a matter of justice but as a field of systemic change.
Comrade John cut his teeth in progressive and social movement struggles in the students’ union movement, while studying Sociology at the University of Jos, from where he graduated in 1983. Thus, by the time John finished his Masters’ Degree programme in the same discipline in 1986, which he embarked on after completing the compulsory one-year national youth service, the natural place for him to work was the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
Comrade John was a key figure in the student movement in the ’80s. Apart from serving in the Students Union Parliament of University of Jos, and later in the Executive Council of the Students Union, he was in the leadership of the Pan Africanist Movement for the Advancement of African Societies (MAAS) in the university, which had links with other progressive students movements in other tertiary institutions throughout Nigeria. This group gave leadership to the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s.
Click the link below to read more about his inspiring journey from Page 34 of our May-July 2025 Edition:
https://thenewafricamagazine.com/flipbook/the-new-africa-magazine-may-june-2025/
