By BASHIR ADEFAKA
“One down side though regarding our community. The unpaid emoluments of late Ayodele Akele who was the Lagos state Labour leader that was sacked by Tinubu…”
Former Editor of Vanguard Newspapers and Executive Director of the Centre for Free Speech organisation, Mr. Richard Akinnola, has reopened conversation on the sack of late former Chairman of Lagos State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Ayodele Akele, and his withheld eentitlements still unpaid by the state government since the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
He said the time is now ripe for the matterbto be redressed.
The DEFENDER recalls that Akele, due to his activities demanding better welfare for Lagos State workers as a must-do responsibility of government, was sacked by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Governor of a state touted to be the fourth largest economy in Africa and first in Nigeria, with all his salaries and entitlements withheld.
Akele later died in circumstances that have remained unclear till today as to the cause of his death aside what was presumably said to be the cause.
In his latest statement titled, “THE TINUBU I KNOW FROM AFAR”, and posted on his verified Facebook social media network on Saturday May 4, 2024, the Ondo City-born Richard Akinola revisited matter of the Lagos state-indigene albeit posthumously asking the Lagos Srate government to pay all entitlements that are due to the late Labour leader and activist.
Richard Akinola, a Nigerian journalist, author, lawyer, and activist, is a contributor of many books and media materials to journalism profession including his books titled, ‘Publish the Truth and Go to Jail’, ‘Defending Free Speech Litigations’, ‘Derention Manual for Journalists’ and ‘Law for Journalists’ among several other scholarly works.
His statement, though looks like patronising President Bola Tinubu from start, turned out to be full of wisdom from which appointees and state agents of the Tinubu’s ongoing administration were urged to learn lessons and stop being overzealous in attempt to please their principal.
The statement read in details, “I may not be a Tinubu follower or associate and l don’t even want to be (l don’t even know where his house is on Bourdillon road, ikoyi), but l would not hesitate to state his positive sides.
“The closest l have been to Tinubu was when we met at the house of late Yinka Odumakin when both of us visited his widow same day. When my friend, Tokunbo Afikuyomi mentioned my name and asked me to take the closing prayer, Tinubu’s eyes brightened up with a smile and nodded. Apparently, he too was seeing me at a close range too for the first time.
“His visit to the Odumakins struck something in me. If you knew how vitriolic and acerbic Yinka was to Tinubu in his last few years, it could only be a man with a big heart to pay a condolence visit to the home of his traducer. I hope his associates who hold political offices would learn from this.
“As Governor, l knew how Tinubu was close to our community. After the death of Chima Ubani, he gave the widow a house and scholarship to two of his children (l hope subsequent governors in the state followed up). The Lagos state government also named the Government House press centre after Bagauda Kalto, a journalist with TheNews that was killed by the Abacha junta.
“So, l hope those who surround him at the highest level who may plan sinister things against the perceived critics of his government or functionaries, (like those DIA soldiers who abducted Segun Olatunji for two weeks because of a publication against a top Villa official), should know that they are not working in the best interests of their principal.
“Most of the atrocities perpetrated by Major Hamza Al-Mustapher, the CSO of General Abacha, were probably done without the imprimatur of the Head of State but in our history and narrations, we attribute them to Abacha government. I hope this sinks in,” he said.
The journalism veteran then came to the core of his message when, despite the long stretch of positive sides he wrote about Tinubu, he touched on what he described as the down side of him.
“One down side though regarding our community. The unpaid emoluments of late Ayodele Akele who was the Lagos state Labour leader that was sacked by Tinubu.
“I raised the issue with BRF when he was the governor but apparently his hands were tied because the sack was done by his boss. This has to be redressed by the Lagos state government,” Richard Akinnola said.
Genesis
Ayodele Akele, who died on Tuesday June 23, 2020, was Chairman, Lagos State Chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and at the time of his death was National Secretary of the National Conscience Party (NCP), under the leadership of late Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN).
As a quantity surveyor, he worked at the Lagos State Property Development Corporation (LSPDC) from where he was elected Lagos State Chairman of the National Union of Public Corporations Employees (NUPCE) in the late 1980s until 1996 when NUPCE, along with CSTWUN and RSEU, merged to form the Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations Civil Service Technical and Recreation Services Employees (AUPCTRE).
Beloved by rank and file of workers who had implicit trust in him, he was elected as the first Lagos State Chairman of AUPCTRE.
One of the first things the Bola Tinubu-led AD (Alliance for Democracy) government did upon assuming office on on May 29, 1999 was the sack of over 10,000 public sector workers who were largely Lagos State indigenes but were sacked by him in the name of “rationalisation”, starting within his first month in power.
Ayodele Akele, who Governor Tinubu had pampered playing the NADECO game against the military, immediately amplified calls for action to reinstate those workers of indigenous status sacked by the governor and eventually got most of the workers, particularly in the health sector, reinstated. but obviously was not forgiven.
The following year, workers in Lagos were locked in a monumental battle with the state government.
NLC had negotiated a review of the national minimum wage to N7,500 for the federal public service and richer states like those in oil producing states and Lagos, and N5,500 for other states.
Lagos State government under Tinubu insisted it could not pay more than N5,500. Akele rallied the Council of Industrial Unions (COIU) leaders along with rank and file union members in his struggle that won for him and his fellow workers a partial victory on the issue of national minimum wage.
But the Tinubu-led empire struck back sacking Akele, for demanding better welfare for fellow workers, and as much workers as were reinstated after the 1999 retrenchment were as well thrown into the abyss of unemployment because the governor made sure that Ayodele Akele did not go down alone.
A founding member of National Conscience when it was established as a party on 1 October 1994, Akele was always unshaken in rolling up his sleeves to work for the party till his death. He was the NCP Lagos State governorship candidate in 2007, 2011 and 2015.
