Each hall of energy is strewn with its personal peculiar coterie of grovellers. They might come below varied designations — Particular Assistant, Press Secretary, Particular Adviser, Commissioner or another official nomenclature — what unites them is their blind and unthinking resort to extra-legal measures in defence of their principals.
Some public officers who don’t know any higher, really get pleasure from having a gang of assault canine to do battle in opposition to actual and imagined foes. However test all through historical past, such lickspittles often convey their principals to grief, particularly once they take liberties with allotting punishment to their boss’s perceived traducers. So many company and political reputations have been ruined on the altar of intolerance orchestrated by overbearing aides.
Flashback
One of many oft-referenced situations of the above occupational illness is the case of dehumanisation of a journalist by the underling of a army governor 52 years in the past. The case continues to be referenced as a result of its material is of abiding relevance to governance, human rights and the bounds of the deployment of brawn rather than mind.
Journalist Minere Amakiri’s article on the academics’ strike of 1973 had been revealed by the Nigerian Observer on Navy Governor Alfred Diete-Spiff’s birthday. What temerity! On His Excellency’s birthday! The governor’s aides determined to show the intrepid journalist a lesson he would always remember. They arrested and detained him and shaved his head like a standard felony earlier than administering 33 lashes of the cane on him. It was a bloodied, shaven, traumatised Amakiri that emerged from detention following excessive profile protests by members of the fourth property of the realm.
The battle shifted to the courts with human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, showing for the plaintiff. In his Assertion of Declare, Amakiri said that at 3.15 p.m. on July 30, 1973, the defendant, ASP Michael Iwowari, who was an aide to Governor Diete-Spiff, got here to his residence and invited him to the State Home the place he (Iwowari) questioned him about publications within the Nigerian Observer regarding the Rivers State academics’ protest.
He mentioned ASP Iwowari unlawfully imprisoned him within the mentioned Authorities Home after the entire of his hair had first been shaved and he was subjected to extreme beating. He was detained from 4 p.m. on July 30, 1973, till 7 pm on July 31, 1973, with none meals or refreshment.
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The court docket discovered the defendant, ASP Ralph Michael Iwowari responsible for the detention, assault and battery of Minere Amakiri. Giving a breakdown of the financial compensation awarded, Justice Ambrose Allagoa mentioned N200 was for every of the 33 strokes of cane obtained by Amakiri; N2,600 for being detained illegally and N2,600 for the unsolicited shave and ache he was subjected to by the defendant and his sidekicks. Complete damages value N10,000 had been awarded in favour of Minere Amakiri, a tidy sum in these good previous days.
Landmark
Since that point, Amakiri’s title usually pops up at any time when the difficulty of govt recklessness and human rights infringement perpetrated by sycophantic underlings within the corridors of energy, is being mentioned.
Nigeria’s First Woman, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, dodged that bullet not too long ago when she bluntly refused to be sucked right into a ready-made controversy which might have forged her within the mould of a petty abuser of energy.
Whereas, Amakiri’s brutalisation occurred within the analogue days when there was no social media, the latest matter which may have introduced out the worst in Mrs Tinubu was everywhere in the digital media and was feasted on by the main information and gossip networks and platforms.
Well being Initiative
Mrs Tinubu was in Delta State to additional the reason for her Renewed Hope Initiative Well being Programme. On the event, 10,000 skilled kits had been distributed to midwives within the South-South geopolitical zone.
As is common with the grovelling sycophancy that attends such occasions, the Grasp of Ceremony launched Senator Tinubu because the mom of all by means of a chant:
“Na our Mama be dis o eh; na our Mama be dis o, we no get one other one…”
The response was imagined to be “Na our Mama be dis o eh”
However the viewers, the overwhelming proportion of which comprised college students, chorussed as an alternative: “Na your Mama be dis o, eh…”
If she was embarrassed by the rejection of her ‘mothership’, the First Woman didn’t present it. Subsequently, nevertheless, one Osato Edobor, a scholar of the Delta State School of Nursing Sciences, Agbor, revealed a video of the occasion on TikTok, displaying the nursing college students gleefully rejecting Mrs. Tinubu as their mom.
The Provost of the nursing establishment, Mrs. Rita Ogonne Evbodaghe, promptly did the usually Nigerian factor— she issued a question to Ms Edobor, accusing her of participating in a “malicious act” by recording herself singing and posting an “unofficial response” to a track through the First Woman’s arrival on the Dome Occasion Centre in Asaba.
The matter refused to depart the entrance pages and plenty of had been wanting ahead to the drama that will comply with its anticipated escalation. Human rights activist and politician, Omoyele Sowore, swiftly introduced his assist for the beleaguered nursing scholar: “We shall be offering backing to this woman with all our bodily and authorized may to make sure the authorities at Delta State School of Nursing Sciences don’t perpetrate this egregious act of injustice, as an damage to at least one is an damage to all.”Mrs Tinubu sidestepped what would absolutely have been a public relations entice with a press assertion issued within the first particular person, thereby establishing her possession of the emotions expressed therein:
Re: College students’ Expression Throughout First Woman of Nigeria’s Go to to Delta State
“My consideration has been drawn to a video circulating on social media, showcasing the nice and cozy reception I obtained throughout my latest go to to Delta State. I’m deeply grateful for the passion displayed by the folks of Delta State, nurses, midwives, girls teams, and scholar nurses on the occasion.
“The Renewed Hope Initiative’s donation of 10,000 Skilled Kits to Midwives within the South-South zone was an enormous success, and I’m thrilled to have performed an element in motivating midwives throughout the nation. Our objective is to cut back toddler and maternal mortality, and morbidity in Nigeria, and occasions like these convey us nearer to reaching that.
“Nonetheless, I’ve been made conscious that some college students from the Delta State School of Nursing Sciences have been issued a question relating to their participation in a playful welcome chant. Whereas I respect the establishment’s proper to take care of self-discipline, I additionally imagine that college students ought to really feel protected to precise themselves in a light-hearted method.
“Because the First Woman of Nigeria, I hope that instructional establishments will foster an surroundings that balances self-discipline with free expression, permitting college students to thrive and develop. I belief that the Delta State School of Nursing Sciences will deal with this matter with understanding and equity.
“Thanks once more to the folks of Delta State on your heat welcome, and to the scholars, nurses, and midwives who made the occasion so unforgettable.”
I say, Bravo! Senator Oluremi Tinubu, by the best way, is a product of Nice Ife (Obafemi Awolowo College) the place she will need to have imbibed the spirit of activism. However then, the lesson we should not allow ourselves to overlook is {that a} tigress doesn’t essentially should proclaim its tigritude to point out its dominion.
Wole Olaoye is a Public Relations guide and veteran journalist. He might be reached on wole.olaoye@gmail.com; Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021
