This paper takes a careful look at the socio-politico and economic developments within Nigeria. It is argued that a combination of these factors have severe consequences on the fortune and clout of the trade union movement. However based on the suppositions and prediction that civil government was likely, in retrospect, to bring about a turning point in the fortune of trade unionism, the paper examines the extent to which these assumptions are correct. The paper concludes that despite the high hopes and expectation generated by democratic governance elsewhere, the dividend in Nigeria, eleven years on, has been rather gloomy on the fortunes of the labour movement in the country. Hence, it is argued that these suppositions may be far fetched.