By Adebayo Abubakar
He who murders peace is unlikely to know peace anymore. This explains the situation of the beneficiary of the grossly flawed Kwara NUJ Council election recently conducted. As Dare Akogun always says, ‘The result does not matter to me, as much as the process.’ From the integrity of the process flows the credibility, legitimacy, and acceptability of the result. Unfortunately, the election process, as conducted by the Credentials Screening Committee (CSC), is integrity-deficient; hence, we have activated the machinery of redress within the framework of the NUJ constitution.
We are aware of campaigns of calumny targeted at Akogun’s person, especially one written and captioned ‘Dare Akogun, the limit of desperation’ by a faceless character who styled himself Sola Ashaolu. The said character is purportedly a former staffer of the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC). I wonder where such a government agency is or was located. Writing under a fictitious name and a non-existent government agency – is that not the height of desperation? But we won’t dignify any of them with a response, as doing so would undermine the machinery for redress already in motion.
If not keeping quiet while the Credential Screening Committee raped democracy is tagged desperation, I don’t care. But I am at a loss as to how and why supporters of a candidate who purportedly won an election would go to the length of commissioning a ghostwriter to advertise this level of desperation that reeks of lack of class and pedigree – campaigning after an election you’ve supposedly won?
Well, if insisting that the right thing be done, as it is the practice in every society that lays claim to being democratic, is termed desperation, then I will join Dare Akogun in wearing it like an Olympic medal – a badge of honor. The desperation by those who have held the NUJ in Kwara state for long, seeking an undeserved congratulatory message, led to this level of desperation and resort to reverse psychology. Gaslighting or subtle blackmail won’t clinch it either.
It is on record that Dare Akogun sent a congratulatory message within minutes of the current chairman being declared the winner in 2021 and also took time out to attend his swearing-in ceremony. That was when the irregularities that characterized the process were within bearable limits. But this time around, it was an insult to everything the Nigerian Union of Journalists stands for – accountability and integrity.
If insisting on adherence to the principles of democracy, anchored around the tripartite points of credibility, freedom, and fairness, becomes a crime, then I’m glad to plead guilty as charged with Dare Akogun. The supporters of the current excos and their ghostwriters need to try harder than they currently are doing for us to be cowed into submission to the outcome of the electoral heist committed on July 31, 2024.
American rapper Eminem says in one of his numerous songs, ‘Don’t touch what you can’t grab.’ ‘Don’t start a battle you can’t finish.’
Adebayo Abubakar is the Head of News and Current Affairs, Sobi FM Ilorin, and Campaign DG for Dare Akogun in the 2024 Kwara NUJ election.