Joe Ajaero, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) — not a great one for introspection –rolls out the big guns again, in a battle he is not in any way sure to win.
This is clear from the latest drama out of a simple Police invitation which Ajaero and gang just flipped into some slur against NLC as a body, letting off insane threats of a Labour meltdown, should the police arrest Ajaero.
Pray, does the NLC President, as His Excellency, the Workers’ President, now enjoy immunity from arrest and prosecution under the 1999 Constitution?
Still, like Ajaero’s other past skirmishes since the dawn of the Tinubu administration — all of them needless — he is avid at fluffing whatever goodwill he has left. Some blokes are just quick — too quick — to push their luck!
At the end, choices are free. So, Ajaero can hang himself on own whims. But he has no right to hang organized Labour with him. There, lies the rebuke in this latest gambit.
But again, organized Labour must decide — why cry more than the bereaved? If Ajaero spurs Labour to gallop with Joe, in his joy ride of doom, it’s their choice too!
If workers are short-changed — and they will, you can be sure — let them blame no one but selves. Ajaero has shown to be more than enough distraction, in self-driven gambits that use Labour as opportunistic cover, for his electors to have thrown him off.
But if they still indulge his rabid journey to perdition, maybe collective suicide of organized Labour would make logical sense. Again, their democratic choice!
How did this latest excitement start?
It was an August 7 raid-and-search of a rented shop, on the second floor, at the NLC Abuja Headquarters complex. But you could clearly see the bad faith, as Labour — wilfully? — conflated that as raid on its office proper, on the 10th floor. By the way, the two facilities are eight floors apart!
Incidentally, Benson Upah, who released that initial press statement (per The Punch August 8) just doubled down on his original fib, in his emotive bluster against a second Police invitation to Ajaero, this time with Emmanuel Ugboaja, the NLC general secretary, fixed for September 5.
Why, when asked by The Guardian (September 2 ) that reported his bluster, if the duo would honour the invite, he waffled: “some programmes have already been fixed”! Meaning: entertaining Police invites is now at the discretion of NLC!
Femi Falana, SAN, had better correctly advise his clients! Yeah, government impunity is bad. But even worse is Labour — and sundry — impunity. That’s knocking on the door of anarchy.
But it all issued from the first invite, by which the Police asked Ajaero to report at Force Headquarters, Abuja, on August 20. But Ajaero, with his lawyers, picked August 29 to appear — and triumphantly marched on Force Headquarters, with lawyers and sundry activists in tow.
So, you can pardon Upah for hallucinating over “some programmes have already been fixed”. It’s one hubris NLC may yet sorely regret should, after a long waiting game, the Police decide to hang Ajaero and co with own long ropes. Hubris!
Still, this route of bad faith is a lose-lose. What does it take to play the civil citizen, go to the Police as invited, then use the same democratic institutions to establish your innocence? Aren’t there enough systemic checks and balances to do that?
Shortly after that first visit, Ajaero bragged: the Police had nothing on him — which may well be. But a second invite might just show the man had bragged too soon.
Either way, it really doesn’t matter — the relay of interviews. What matters is a clean process to firmly establish allegations for a fair trial — or non-evidence to close the case. Both parties should be committed to such. Nevertheless, bad faith makes it unnecessarily complicated.
In fairness to Ajaero and co, though, Labour isn’t the only organized body that takes advantage of its set-up to impose citizen impunity.
Anytime a journalist runs into a storm, the media are all too eager to jump into the fray to defend “free speech” and “human rights”. It’s an instinctive jump, powered by preening dogma, with little objective analysis of the facts of the case.
The other day too, a former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) was in the dock for alleged failure to declare correct assets — a routine call that comes with his high office.
Many a petal in the flower of Nigerian Bar all but told the embattled ex-CJN to resist trial; and spit at the same law that created his office to sit in judgment over fellow citizens — co-citizens that are the CJN’s equal, in the eye of the law.
Might the CJN then be above that very law that exalted him above others? Arch-folly!
Thank God, though: good sense prevailed. The ex-CJN got convicted at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT). But the jurist stays alive to fight his appeal, before the courts right now.
That’s due process: submit, even if you have a doubt. Then, prove your innocence. If Ajaero had followed this process, this distraction wouldn’t have arisen.
He — with NLC — would have found quality time to fight the cause of workers whose check-off dues gift them their huge salaries and generous allowances. But no! A play to the gallery is irresistible! But how does that advance workers’ cause and welfare?
In truth, Ajaero’s self-distractions have caused workers dear — and not the least on the N70, 000 new minimum wage. After making much row about an outrageous N615, 000, and filibustering over N250, 000, NLC eventually accepted N70, 000, pretty much as a face-saving measure.
Had Ajaero not picked too many needless battles before then, perhaps he could at least have secured N100, 000 for the lowest earner? By the time the NLC agreed to N70, 000, the threat of strike, NLC’s most potent weapon, had all but lost its sting.
Before then, Ajaero had attempted three failed strikes: one after he was battered black and blue at Owerri, for using NLC to strong-arm voters, to favour the Labour Party (LP) candidate, in the Imo State gubernatorial election.
That ended as double — or even treble? — jeopardy: the LP candidate didn’t only take an electoral hiding, Ajaero himself has since become a near-personal non grata in smart Alec, Julius Abure’s LP. Add Ajaero’s Owerri drubbing, and it’s a clear treble.
During another strike, some desperadoes switched off the national grid — a clear security and economic sabotage that the government just let slide.
But it might just be as the Yoruba say: the child abused the Iroko and flushes with early victory. Does the poor lad think the Iroko crushes traducers in the immediate?
No one — but deluded Labour itself — frets over insane threats to go on strike at the drop of a hat. It won’t stop anything if plausible evidence exists against Ajaero.
But the government too must be fair to Ajaero. No government worth its democratic name would frame any citizen — even the most unreasonable of all gadflies.
But a parting advice for Ajaero and co: untrammeled rights lead to blatant wrongs, which coast to anarchy. Anarchy itself swallows democracy and its flower of rights.
