By Femi Oyekola
He was the most effective and most productive Registrar General ever. He was at the Commission as a staff before he was appointed as RG so he knew their thieving ways and blocked most of them. He also had a running battle with the the workers’ union, AUCPTRE. There were complaints against their Exco by these same “mourning” staff that they had embezzled the union money, mismanaged their mortgage payments and their cooperative funds.
Since he too rose through the ranks, he knew some or most of the allegations were true but there is this principle of non interference or so in Labour practice which does not allow management to dabble into affairs of workers union. So, what he did was to transfer some of the so called Executives from the headquarters to the States. They resisted the transfer citing their involvement in labour as excuse. Then the management responded that the Union, AUCPTRE, was a junior staff union by the express provisions of Trade Unions Act and these so called Exco members were senior staff by the records of the Commission and could not be members of that Union, not to talk of being in the Exco.
The Union went to court against the RG and the Commission and we represented them – RG and the Commission. It was so shocking that they made their case around the fact that the RG had once queried the Exco members in respect of mismanagement of the items I had earlier listed and they refused to answer the query on the ground of breach of the said principle of non interference. That their transfer was in continuance of interfering in their union affairs. Of course, our defence was that these fellows could not be members of that union and that their case was based on illegal cause since membership of the union had been stipulated by law to be junior staff and these were senior staff in express contrast to the law.
We were also of the position that even if the so called Exco members who were senior staff were to be treated as exceptions to the law, that the non interference should be both ways; that in as much as the management cannot interfere with the union affairs, the Union too cannot interfere with management. That the management knew where it needed the services of her staffers who more so, were not members of the Union by operations of the law. We also posited that the affected the individual employees whose interests were personal and who could challenge or pursue their interests using the mechanisms of the Commission.
In other words, we challenged the locus of the Union. We went before the President of the NIC who went to town in showing how abusive he could be. He abused the living daylight out of the RG and their lawyers for not knowing the basics of Labour Principles, Law and Practice. He granted the prayers of the Union and declared the transfer of her members (who were not before the court) invalid. It was my first time before that President of the NIC but I later got to know that he treats what he calls “Labour Practice” like rocket science and always too quick to allege ignorance of that area of endeavor even where such constitutes an affront to common sense, law and even the Constitution. I know that one day the members of staff of NIC JUSAN or any Unions they have there will also produce an almanac or banners to celebrate his own exit too from that NIC.
The man’s tenure was really revolutionary. Quick service delivery, excellent feedback mechanism. If it is the desire of CAC staff to go back to the old regime, good luck to them and our country.
It’s unfortunate , He was a selfless leader who did his best for the Commission.
He cleared the billions of debts that he met and turned the prosperity of the Commission around.
We can’t be loved or like by all.
We pray for greater blessings for him in his future endeavors.
2008 to 2021, staff were not going on overseas training except the Directors above, he restored that,brought onboard so many innovations that improved our services.
That was part of msgs a friend of mine received from the director
HR…..our people don’t like good public servants. So someone has to be careful about messages on social media.
Definitely it seems he stepped on some toes that want a rotten system who are now trying to get back at him.
