Now, dog eat dog [1]

I stepped into the Ondo Council of the NUJ in 1996, before the creation of Ekiti State. It was no doubt a union to be proud of.

The secretariat then was a beehive of activities and those of us, new entrants were encouraged by the vibrancy and the discipline within the system. I was the Assistant Editor of Nigerian Monitor, a grassroots newspaper owned by my father, published in Ondo and The Church Magazine.

The Chairman at the time was the Late Mr Idowu Adelusi, an Ekiti man from the Ondo State Radio-vision Corporation (OSRC), and the first monthly congress I attended endeared me more to the union. Opinions of members were allowed without any fear of intimidation while respect for elders was a sacred thing that everybody held to their hearts. Journalists both in the state employ and private establishments had only one thing in common: interest of one another and that of the union.

I met versatile journalists like the Late Mr Laniyan Jegede, who was the Director of News and Current Affairs of OSRC and a former state Chairman of the union, the late Kingsley Owadasa, the late Chris Fajemifo, the late Baba Atoki, late Sam Okiekpakpo; former Editor of The Hope Newspaper, late Funso Muraina, late Baba Ajobere and a host of other professionals that have exited this world. Among the respected leaders over the years that are alive today include,  Mr Paddy Dare, former Chief Press Secretary to late Governor Adebayo Adefarati and later GM of OSRC, Chief Ademola Adetula; former MD of Owena Press Limited, Mr Sehinde Omokoba, Mr Dayo Fadahunsi, Mr Jide Akadiri, Prince Rotimi Obamuwagun; former National Deputy President of the NUJ, Mr Osewole Modupe; former MD of Owena Press Limited, Mr Soji Alakuro; former CPS to late Governor Olusegun Agagu and GM of OSRC, Mr Tunde Olowu; former Editor of The Hope Newspaper, Mr Bode Betiku; Chairman/CEO, Owena Press Limited, Mr Ayo Ogedengbe, Mr Ayo Oni, Mr Frank Fashanu and Mr Steve Alabi, to mention but a few.

These professionals were (are) passionate about the union. We also followed suit. I could remember that few months after I joined Owena Press Limited in 1997, I approached the Late Sam Okiekpakpo who was then the News Editor, demanding to know whether my name had been forwarded to the State Council as a new member of the Owena Press Chapel, his answer was “David, don’t worry at all, that had been done. Just continue to do your job, the union is there to protect your interest”.

After the Ekiti’s left for Ado-Ekiti, following the creation of their state, election was held in the Ondo state council and Mr Dayo Fadahunsi emerged as the Chairman. His tenure was two years according to the NUJ constitution at the time. He recontested in 1999, but lost to Prince Rotimi Obamuwagun, who incidentally was also from his chapel. He relinquished power without creating unnecessary acrimony within the system. It was during Obamuwagun’s tenure that NUJ constitution was reviewed at the national level and tenure of officers was increased from two to three years. I have been playing active roles in the union for over two decades now, but the error that led to the evident balkanisation of the once united and virile Ondo council was committed in the election of September 2005.

Although there was sharp disagreement among members of the pen profession in the 2002 election when Obamuwagun got his second term as chairman of the council, but that was nothing compared to the error of 2005, which has been hunting the system till date. During the said election, there were three candidates namely; Sina Ogunjobi (Owena Press Limited), Dayo Adeoye (Ministry of Information) and Dele Atunbi (NTA), he was the incumbent Secretary of the council. I was the Chairman of Owena Press Chapel at the time and I pitched my tent with the candidate from my chapel who was my predecessor in office, Sina Ogunjobi. Eventually Dele Atunbi who enjoyed the support of the State Chairman and the government of Dr Olusegun Agagu won the election and James Sowole emerged as Secretary; that has remained the greatest undoing of the Ondo NUJ. That Exco never purged itself of the anger of the concluded election and was doing everything possible to get a pound of flesh from its “perceived enemies”.

Of particular reference was the collusion of the Atunbi-led exco with the Managing Director of Owena Press Limited at the time to frustrate me as chairman of the chapel by attempting to dictate and give marching orders on what were purely union matters. Of course I stood my ground in defence of my people and the MD gave me a month suspension which I received with all joy. May it interest you that no step was taken by the leadership at the state council to ensure that the decision to suspend a sitting State Executive Council (SEC) member of the union by the MD of Owena Press was reversed?

As a core union leader, I continued the struggle of defending the cause of my members who were being victimised by the MD in proxy for the Atunbi group. When the heat of my activities became unbearable for the MD, Mr Osewole Modupe, he had to rush to my father in Ondo, asking the old man to please appeal to me that I should stop the union struggle. My father later told me when he demanded for my presence that he asked Mr Modupe that “Why did you suspend him when you knew I could talk to him and resolve the whole matter abinitio? As a veteran in the profession, you should have consulted me earlier, not only because I am his father”. My father thereafter told me to allow peace reign in the company and I promised him all would be well provided the MD and his men stopped victimising my members whom I swore to protect.

Since that time impunity became the order of the day in the Ondo council of the NUJ. If you are in their group, you can escape with anything including breaching of constitutional provisions, but once you have a divergent opinion on their activities, you cannot get anything in the council no matter how you merit it.

I left the Ondo council in 2008 after I joined Western Newspaper Publishing Company as one of the pioneer staff of Nigerian Compass and I was posted to Ekiti State. I was there till my redeployment to Akure in August 2009. My records as a member of the Ekiti state council of the NUJ during the tenure of Akogun Tai Oguntayo is there for people to cross check.

To buttress my point that the union has unfortunately been hijacked by people who only believes in unionism of vendetta and politics of desperation, I was shortlisted as the Best Investigative Reporter of the Year during the Press Week of 2009, shortly after my return to the Ondo council as a member of the Correspondents’ Chapel, but to my amazement the Atunbi-led exco refused to give me the award. Realising that there was no way they could dance round the report of the committee that recommended my entry as the best, they decided not to give award in that category to anybody that year. When I brought the matter up in the presence of some colleagues at the Correspondents’ arena at Adegbola junction, they all felt bad that such a treatment was meted out to me and one of us, precisely Mr Tope Okeowo confronted Mr James Sowole, the state Secretary and member of our chapel to explain why they didn’t give me my deserved award. His response was that “You know we have a bye-law in the Ondo State Council that whoever fails to attend four meetings out of the eleven in a year would not be given an award.” Then I interjected him that was it not your Exco that welcomed me back to Ondo council in August when we had only four meetings left in the year? I attended two out of the four which means I scored 50 percent, whereas your bye-law gave about 40 percent condition. And if your Exco is sincere on this, why didn’t you call for my attendance in Ekiti state if you really wanted to fulfil the conditions of the bye-law in good faith before arriving at this segregating decision? It was at this point when he knew there was no route for escape that he tendered apology on behalf of himself and his chairman. But alas! They never revisited the issue, making it extremely glaring that it was deliberate.

I decided to go down memory lane in order for readers to understand the issues at hand.

When the second tenure of Atunbi was winding up in 2011, I approached James Sowole as members of the same chapel at the time and asked whether he wanted to contest for chairmanship because I was going to show interest. His response was that he was preparing to return to his family in Ogun state, because he had been away from home for too long and so all he was pursuing how to get transferred to his home state, so he had no interest to contest.

Unfortunately I could not stand for election that year because of health challenge occasioned by accident. In 2014 when he approached me that he wanted to contest, I said but this is in contrast with what you told me three years ago? He said well, it was because things didn’t work as he envisaged, but that I should support him as he had only little time to spend around. I stood for the election but was disqualified due to lack of enough meeting attendance. The three chairmanship candidates in the 2014 NUJ election are; Taiwo Ibitoye (OSRC), James Sowole (Correspondents) and Akin Owanikin, the incumbent who was seeking for second term. James Sowole of the Correspondents’ chapel emerged the winner and was sworn in on October 31, 2014.

As another election draws near, consultations had began and I was surprised when James Sowole came to my office in May this year, seeking my support for his second term ambition. I told him in plain words that “why are you deviating again from what you told me three years ago?” But to my amazement he said he never came out clearly that he was only going to spend a term.

Then I told him that as you are aware that I am a man of God who speaks and leads by the truth always, let’s put this issue in abeyance until the election is near.

Then in August, Mr Hakeem Gbadamosi, the Ondo State Correspondent of Nigerian Tribune met with me at the Press Centre, appealing to me to support James Sowole’s ambition for a second term, but our conclusion was that he should allow me to study events as they unfolded till after the month of September.