I have spoken by phone, once, with the Ogun State police boss. He sounded as a desirable public officer. Though he wanted out of the issue for my call, he didn’t put on a commandeering posture. He appealed with believable reasons. I obliged him. I’m certain he must have been briefed about his fumbling officers (the report in Punch alleged they collected bribe) in the case of William Ekanem of Bedmate Furniture Company, Magboro and his crazy kung-fu-devotee boss, Master Wan.
Wan reportedly broke Ekanem’s spinal cord with kung-fu kicks just for the fun of it. Wan wanted to see Ekanem rice. He declined. Wan forcibly and degradingly checked. Ekanem protested. A wild Wan went for the spinal cord of his “employee” after turning his back.
Wan had history, as recent as the last minute, on his side in using Nigerian employees as dirt. Countless of such dehumanisation had melted into our collective amnesia and doddering disposition to our new colonial masters in the name of foreign investors.
I won’t indulge in the unfair profiling of certain foreign nationals as abusers of labour dignity in Nigeria. After all, many local employers are even more demeaning and brutal in their relationship with their employees. Crime is a concept. The entire humanity is involved, regardless of religious beliefs, defeating the argument of many of the foreign nationals that traumatised Nigerians right in their backyard, being mostly atheists. Aren’t unanswered questions persisting till date over the sudden death of a particular Catholic Pontiff right inside the Vatican? Was the death not ruled deadly poisoning? Did he poison himself?
Gibbers won’t still judge the Nigerian manager of the company simply called Lekan and company’s lawyer, Ayo Durojaiye, taking the back of an obviously guilty Chinese against their own national, right in their country. The public may be quick in sealing their page in infamy but aren’t they also protecting the “jobs” they are gracious to have by the magnanimity of the foreigner at a time the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics keeps churning out disheartening unemployment figures? The lawyer even offered Ekanem N100, 000 for his deformed spinal cord, with an extra monthly salary of N34, 000. The deformed employee, according to Durojaiye, could return to work any time he desires. You want to ask, which office, which job, with what strength?
As usual with the Internet mob these days, hell should take over Bedmate office and make Wan, the Nigerian collaborators and the bribe-taking officers, its newest additions. Maybe they deserve to be there, but the issues are deeper than their confinement to hell in a case that is clearly not isolated. How many of their ilk had been so confined in the past? Fine, it could start with an index case and why not Ekanem’s. But where are the institutional indices to be confident of any case starting and serving as a deterrent? Where are the requisite templates for justice? The entire justice sector is in comatose. The tokenism embarked upon by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen in the guise of reform, will be subsumed without traces, by the deep ills plaguing the sector. The police, either as a force or whatever, has become the available in the place of the desirable. If police, the first line in justice delivery, is a mess, why are we searching for a virgin in a maternity ward then?
The people get what they desire. What is the record of the labour movement in cases like this? You only hear the labour leaders loud and clear when it is about welfare, salary increment and personal comfort. Ekanem has a senator representing him from his Akwa-Ibom home. A state government deducting his PAYE monthly is also on ground in Ogun State. It is strange the people are still this tolerant of the sham and scam they are confronted with every day. Maybe, because Nigerians actually deserve the wonky society they have now. But a muse is saying to me, it won’t be long again before something will give way if the belly-upside-down situations persist. This isn’t a call to arm but it is either the needful is done or is helped. Either ways, the status quo won’t remain. Ekanem and public-spirited NGOs are court-bound for justice. I hope they won’t return empty-handed. But the assault case must not become one of “them”. Funny enough, I’m trusting the Ogun police boss for justice. Strange?
Saraki, guilty as charged?
SENATE President Bukola Saraki must have been shocked by the quantum of “enemies” awaiting his downfall. His acquittal by the controversial Code of Conduct Tribunal simply melted the social and traditional media, with the loud celebration by his own, totally consumed by the lamentations of those waiting in the wings to celebrate his conviction, already worked out in their heads. Haba. Must he be guilty at whatever cost because he was sensationally charged with accompanying lavish media coverage? Well, while the tears and laughter ring from the two divides, a soul-searching expedition should begin for all. Like Professor Itse Sagay now quite agreed with Gibbers, the anti-corruption project must be reviewed. It must be noted in the ensuing hullabaloo, that Code of Conduct Tribunal is part of the presidency that charged Bukola, without any affiliation with the judiciary. The review, I dare say, must be in-ward for Buhari and his team, not another futile scape-goating adventure. If I were Bukola, I would also be worried amidst the celebration. He would not be the first to be so accused. Why the widespread hate? There must be something he is not doing right. Instead of doing the “yokolu yokolu” psychedelic dance, he should also ask himself certain hard questions.