By Taofik Afolabi
Wearing a legally stripped clout with mask of compassion does not give a pass to dangle away the heavy hammer of retribution because ignorance, they say, is not an excuse in law. On the 29th day of December, 2023, the national body of Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria conned JUSUN retraced its track and officially dissolved the executives of one of its branches whose tenure had since expired on November 28, 2023.
Osun state has always been in news when it comes to peace, accommodating pedigree, religious tolerance and of course, steady, unhindered progress. It has also been a state that defines lines of politics and proper conduct in the fabrics of the society by deepening its legal stances and fostering more civil responses to uglier mess. That is why in Osun, you do not come around to assert heir after you feel comfortable with the state’s hospitality. You do that at your own peril. They will show you the boundary that defines the farm of the lazy.
The dissolution of the executives of JUSUN in the Osun state branch was the first time in many years that the national body of the union would reintroduce constitutionality and deliver legitimacy in the richness of what its law says and stands for. Albeit the cancerous position that was taken by some reductionists in the polarized branch of the union where ignorantly, those who were uninformed of the conduct and operational deportment of JUSUN romanced with thespian submission that retained the branch’s dissolved executives body beyond its term, the national body of JUSUN eventually stepped into a deeply steep pathway and meandered itself into the good old days of superiority and legality that muzzled the few reductionist bullies into acquiescence.
When a brigade is confronted by two wars at once, one is sacrificed for the other if the General-in-Charge is unfortified with rich, indomitable arsenal, unmatched strategies and fearless lieutenants. JUSUN in Osun state is facing two wars simultaneously and it is too damning to see that it looks like a madman that always fights himself to defend himself from the people outside his world. The legendary actor and comedian who was the household of the comedy series; the Masquerade, Chief Chika Okpala popularly known as Chief Zebrudaya once advised in one of his blockbuster grammars and said: “the greatest ‘calamitous’ that can happen to a man is to deceive himself.” The immediate past chairman of the union has appeared to prioritize ‘me’ instead of ‘we’ in the last few days after the dissolution of his leadership by the national body of the union. This is war within coupled with ‘a must win war’ for the members where the government is the blistering magma. The potentate has decided to foot-drag the succeeding steps to be taken by his successor even when the law instructed him to handover to the secretary of the committee set up by the union’s National Working Committee.
One’s character typifies the stone from which he is hewed. Apart from the ignorant curiosity of a handful followers in the reductionist camp that echoed maa jo lo, a n w’eyin e (keep on dancing, we are solidly behind you), the inroad the chairman that headed that dissolved leadership in Osun State chose afterwards resonates the actual masquerade in the garment. The man who fumed tiredness of being in the saddle at the congressional announcement of an unlawfully questionable tenure elongation suddenly finds it too hectic to trip down to Osogbo from Ife to debrief the secretary of the caretaker committee on the journey so far and release the union’s properties to him. In his own world, he still derived powers from his own law to call congress after he became an ex. It is like hearing Buhari addressing Nigerians on January 1, 2024 on a national telecast. So, when a General does not recognize when the fight is over, he becomes a prisoner of war. In all of the entanglements, the caretaker is still forging ahead not minding whose interest the past chairman is serving. The man in care of the temporary leadership of the state’s union stated in his online address to his teeming members that focus remains unchanged in the battle for the betterment of the union’s members and more emphatic on the demand that their robes allowance must be paid unconditionally. His team cleared the air resoundingly and assuredly that no matter the amount of pressure and intimidation funneling in their direction, sacrosanct it remains that they get their legitimate requests. Today, the action of the man in saddle resonates that it would take his castigators years of research and learning before they can cross the bridge and get to the land of the wise.
By and large, the ex chairman of JUSUN in Osun State has decided to wear an eternal character of someone who needs to be sympathized with. Two weeks after his reign ended by law, he advertised far more sympathy with his pithy venture into graver lawlessness and ardent romance with power like possessed snakes in the desert. For centuries, Yoruba people have had aalo (folklores or tales) to ascribe characters to situations, time and space. They are knowledgeably rich people who use animals in folklores to send messages and pass warnings. Chiefs among the animals in Yoruba folklores are Ijapa, Yannibo and Irere (the tortoise, tortoise’s wife and the hatchling). Also, Okete (bush rat) has its place in aalo. It was notoriously known for greed and could take any oath of good character with Ifa (oracle) to fill its void desperately and betray the oracle shortly after comfort Okete, bayi ni’wa re; o ba’fa mule, o da’fa. Okete would crawl in the deep dark into the farmer’s farm and devour his yam voraciously with belching mouth and protruding stomach. After it is filled, it would stock its mouth with pebbles of yam to a bulging cheek and carry another yam-load on its head, walking manly in the dead of the night. It always sneaks in a rat, walks out a man. It was also prominent of deafening itself from warnings. In the kingdom of animals in Yoruba folklores, Okete was always warned not to rely on its multi-chamber anthill underground mansion because out of its main gate, the poachers are decisively mean to smoke it out from its different routes, even if it seals its conducive bedroom from its spacious living room with a mountainous pebble.
But Okete would never listen until it finds itself in the marketplace. This created the aphorism; Okete de’gba alate, o kawo leri (the bush rat finds itself on the counter in the marketplace and flounders its arms up).”
Of all the characters ascribed to Okete, the IPC of Osun JUSUN has failed to unmask himself of one. He has appeared to court greed intimately, close his eyes on good name by eating with all the ten fingers and cut away collectiveness that would ordinarily make his efforts meaningful to redeem the image of his mediocre leadership. He audaciously broke the rule of engagement at each turn without any recourse to warnings of consequences. His dissolved members have since recognized their position and queued behind constitutionalism.
On the other length, the caretaker committee chairman inaugurated by the national leadership of the union adequately represented JUSUN in the State’s NLC’s delegate’s election in official capacity and he was accorded a gracious recognition and honour by the leadership of the State’s labour movement.
What else could anyone say again other than in the land where the law is a mere documentation, punishment remains a toothless pronouncement?
But it is not too late to make the hay. The sunlight at this peak of sunset is still enough to dry some clothes. At least, if it becomes difficult to swing hands, one can still fold them on his head t’apa obasesanmo,a nkal’orini. The ex chairman and his dissolved team are advised to build alliance in a matter of days with their new leadership so that meaningful and steady progress would be made. In all of this, there are many ways to win a war without firing shots. It would be a craftily mastered step forward if he hands over properly before the NWC of JUSUN evokes sanctions for gross misconduct; the ominous cloud a sensitive leader would never allow being drenched by its rain. Their demands can still be met by the state government if they can bring their heads together to brainstorm. They can and still, will serve the interest of their members, government and the public if they can look deeper and breathe clearer without necessarily romancing the current imbroglio. The state judiciary is an arm of government that the society cannot afford to be on permanent suspension. Something has to be done in earnest.
Sometimes, shortcut can be found at the top of the palm tree. Both sides can still tell those who are cynical or doubtful that there exists a big possibility to form an enviable force that can make every principality bow to a repaired alliance.
However, if all diplomacy collapses, the good is that the past chairman has been able to launch himself into a national prominence by the position he took at the pinnacle of the State’s Chief Judge’s suspension and also, the caretaker chairman has begun the assignment in his plate on a high note with or without proper handover procedure because he learned leadership from the right and raw source. No elephant’s calf ever dwarves and the tiger’s cub always dons its mother’s coat Omo ajanaku kan kiiy’aran, omo t’eya ba bi, eya nii jo. The bad is that the shortest time of the past chairman at the twilight of his two-term tenure would have been fruitful, but condescended by ego and unwillingness to gloriously end a reign. And the ugly is that the ex chairman’s performance will face the travail of eight years of embarrassing reign that is battered, shattered, tattered and tattooed with ignominy, bolstered by massive corruptive adventures which are likely to request for answers.
For the immediate past chairman, I hope he would avert the saying: time scolds the old man who fails in his energetic prime to fallow, but makes mounds when dangerous damage had been done to his strength Igba yi laaro, t’arugbo n ko’gba.
