At last, a sonorous beat seems to be emanating from the caged, hitherto crisis-mongering camp of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Oyo State, should the unfolding events of the last two weeks or thereabouts be anything to reckon with.
To watchers of events within the Oyo NURTW, the dawn of a new era in the banned transport workers union looks imminent with the outcome of the rancour-free stakeholders forum held recently at the House of Chiefs, Secretariat, Ibadan where the union leadership from different branches across the state unanimously resolved to retrace their steps and embrace total peace and tranquility in their future endeavours.
Interestingly enough, that peace forum was graced by the State Commissioner for Works and Transport, Professor Raphael Afonja and the Deputy National Secretary of the NURTW, Comrade Kayode Agbeyangi, among other dignitaries. Comrade Agbeyangi who doubled as the Chairman, Oyo NURTW Harmonization Committee while commending the spirit behind the harmonization stated pointedly that election into the executive council of the union “may only come after the State Government might have lifted the ban placed on the activities of the Union, though the aggrieved members have agreed to work together for the betterment of the Union.”
He maintained that there is no anointed candidate by either the national leadership of the Union or Oyo State Government among candidates jostling for the post of Chairman of NURTW in the State.
No sane government can afford to keep its eyes wide open and do nothing as hoodlums take the laws into their own hands, hence the wide applause that greeted Governor Seyi Makinde’s action.
However, with the noble intervention of well-meaning people of goodwill and leaders of thought from all over the country including traditional rulers, spiritual and religious fathers who had pleaded for leniency on behalf of the erring Union, coupled with the fact that the NURTW stakeholders have now shown genuine remorse, it will not be out of place, at this time, to call on the government to review its ban order on the Oyo NURTW.
But in doing this, it is apt to point out the desirability for the authorities to be doubly assured that due process and rule of law are well embraced by whoever should be entrusted with the task of piloting the affairs of a mass movement Union like the Oyo NURTW. In this situation, the authorities must ensure strict surveillance and thorough screening of security reports concerning the past and present of all those jostling for the leadership of the Oyo NURTW with a view to safely projecting whatever likely future that beholds the Union and its teeming members under their care.
At a time like this that Oyo State and Nigeria as a whole are facing the multifaceted challenges of armed robbery, wanton killings, kidnappings, banditry, etc., the State NURTW cannot afford to have as its superintending officers people of doubted integrity or ex-convicts in all its ramifications.
Sunday Olugbade,
Ibadan.