'Lai Olurode An individual member can only hold office in the union through an election which is conducted by means of a secret ballot. Though, a hierarchical organization, it is highly democratic both horizontally and in a vertical sense. Moreover, the constitution states further that,“Members wishing to hold elective offices in the union shall start from the units, through to the local branch and thereafter to the state level and finally to the national level. It therefore means that no member can hold any office at the state level without first serving at the local level and no one can hold an office at the national level without first of all serving at the state level”(see Article 42 on general provisions, subsection 4). There is really something in this to learn by political parties in leadership recruitment for political positions in Nigeria and even for INEC in granting license to political parties to operate. Political parties that had no presence at the local and state levels should have no business aspiring to field candidates at the national level. The same Article 42 in subsection 3 talks about politics and the union. It prohibits diversion of the funds of the union for the furtherance of political objectives whether directly or otherwise. Members are free to join any political party of their choice. Members who wish to stand for elective offices in political parties shall be allowed to do so provided that such members shall formally withdraw their membership of the union or apply for leave of absence for the specific period for which they will be absent from the activities of the union. This provision was meant to isolate the union from partisan politics. Of course, this has been difficult to achieve. It seems, the political class cannot afford to leave the union and its members alone. 56 Understanding a'Power Broker': The Road Transport Workers Unions in the Context of Election Security We spoke with some significant members of the association. What emerged from our discussions was that the officers are educated and they displayed impressive understanding of their roles and relationships with other sectors of society. In terms of orientation, they tend to share core values of society, particularly about democratization, the rule of law and they expressed concerns for good governance and people's welfare. Members' behaviour are governed by written rules. Elections are now held into specific offices and there are term limits. The organogram is both vertical and horizontal and this arrangement facilitated communication along hierarchical and horizontal lines. There is the national headquarters based in Abuja, zonal offices in the six geo-political zones, state councils in each state of the federation, branches in all the 774 local governments and units which are below local government offices. Attempts are now on to generate a list of registered members with a view to making election more credible and as a measure of prompting effective social control and discipline of erring members. These features of wide spread of members, the hierarchical control and sometimes the vast influence of leadership on the rank and file seem to be key factors in the power broker potential role of the union. Any union leader that is charismatic and humane will certainly wield tremendous influence among members which can be deployed for partisan purposes. We asked questions on the perceived causes of conflict in which the union is involved, in particular, intra union conflict. The two major sources identified were forceful control of motor parks by those with expired terms of office and internal leadership tussle. An oppressive regime which is characterised by excessive levies and charges may be desperate at perpetuating itself in office and violent conflict may 57