Lamentations for CLO

Recent events in the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO), Nigeria’s foremost human rights body, are, to say the least, shameful. (Photo shows Ayo Obe, one time President of CLO)

Otherwise, how can any sane person justify a situation whereby an insignificant number of Board members, led by Chairman of South West Zone, Igho Ighariwe, throw provisions of CLO’s constitution overboard only to resort to violence and anarchy?

Why should this band of lawless Igho-led board members, in order to, by hook or crook means, reinstate Lanre Nosaze, one time Acting Executive Director, back to office, act in such a barbaric manner as to procure a police siege of CLO headquarters in Lagos in the course of which the incumbent Acting ED, Ibuchukwu Ezike, was rough-handled and dehumanized? And, since when did CLO, as a rights group, start deploying police and thugs towards resolving conflicts in its fold?

Let me recall that the immediate cause of the current crisis began with the unconstitutional suspension of the President, Titus Mann, by some members of the Board. Titus Mann was neither given fair hearing to react to the seeming trumped-up charges against him, nor was he present at the meeting of his purported suspension. More heart-rending is the fact that President Mann had intimated the board that he was seriously sick, and could not attend the meeting, yet the Igho-led ‘brigands’ insisted on sending him to the hangman’s noose irrespective of calls for caution from the likes of me.

To demonstrate its love for lawlessness, this group, having tried in vain in coaxing Uche Wisdom Durueke, Vice President, to preside over the removal of his President, forced him to step aside to enable them take their long awaited pound of flesh on the President.

Thus with Durueke out of the way, Igho unconstitutionally assumed the position of Acting President of CLO, and went ahead to preside over the meeting in the process of which they, of course, achieved their set unconstitutional objects.

And in a subsequent illegal meeting, Igho-led group purportedly directed Ezike, incumbent Acting ED, to revert to his earlier position while pronouncing the reinstatement of Lanre Nosaze as ED.

They did not stop at this. They went ahead to forcefully take over the CLO secretariat in Lagos, unleashing the Nigeria police on both Ezike and the staff.

Perhaps, Igho and his group have short memories. During the last CLO Convention in Jigawa state, it was the same group that protested the presence of policemen deployed to ensure that the event was peaceful. But now that they want to usurp positions in the organization, they are harassing CLO membership across the country with their police connections.

It is to my knowledge that the South West Zone held a meeting wherein they removed Igho as their Chairman. Although as a stickler to due process and compliance with constitutional provisions, I think it is the National Convention that will ratify his removal. But common sense dictates that Igho, living in glass houses, should stop throwing stones. That is, he should avoid further unconstitutional activities in the face of this Vote of No Confidence by his own zone.

I keep on wondering why a Zonal Chairman will suddenly start addressing himself as Acting President while the Vice President of the organization is still alive and in office. It is certain that Igho is aware that CLO constitution prescribes that the Vice President should take over in the absence of the President.

Put differently, assuming the so-called suspension of the President, Mann, pending outcome of investigations of the issues in contention holds sway, what constitutional provision authorizes Igho to usurp the functions of the Vice President?

Another conundrum: CLO constitution has procedures for appointment of ED, and those procedures had always been methodically followed. It is yet uncertain the criteria that led to the hurried reinstatement of Nosaze as ED by Igho-led board.

I am sure that Igho and his fellow ‘coupists’ vividly recall that Nosaze’s petition is still pending before the National Convention, the highest decision making organ of CLO. The petition was, as a matter of fact, not deliberated upon during the Jigawa convention because the matter was still in court. What this means is that Nosaze’s petition would become ripe for determination as soon as the case is dispensed with in court.

To the best of my knowledge, Nosaze’s suit challenging his dismissal as ED was thrown out by the court, and he neither appealed against the court’s ruling nor filed a fresh suit against the board’s action. Therefore, since the convention holds soon, why couldn’t Igho and his ‘musketeers’ exercise just a little patience for the Convention to take a decision on the matter?

The only plausible explanation is that Igho and his clique have their sponsor/s that has/have vowed to pull down CLO. I do not know what anyone or group would gain by using some warped-minded board members to destroy CLO, but I am hereby warning Igho, incidentally my professional colleague and friend, and his ‘bed fellows’ to be careful the way they are going about their avowed mission to destroy. They should better know that their rights end where other people’s begin.

It is not as if we (the rest of the Board members) cannot be lawless like them (or even more), but some of us realize the need for CLO to exist. Is it not unfortunate that even those who, without CLO, would not have gotten jobs elsewhere are part of this move to kill the organization? I wonder where such people will now work when they succeed in their infamous mission.

Let me, at this juncture, register my disappointment with Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), who, at the expense of both his life and personal comfort, set up CLO to fight the military junta that pocketed the Nigerian nation and her people in the 1980s. Agbakoba’s CLO, largely, led to the ouster of the military from governance, as well as subsequent enthronement of civil rule under which we can now relatively operate freely.
Agbakoba has, despite several promptings, continued to look the other way while his brain child (CLO) continues to boil. Is Agbakoba waiting for CLO to die before he intervenes to rescue the situation?

It is my candid opinion that Agbakoba is what he is today because of his exploits as CLO’s founder and first President. So, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) should stop pretending that what happens in CLO is none of his business. It is!

Lest Agbakoba does not know what to do in the circumstance, I join others to advise him to immediately convene a meeting of CLO stake-holders and seek ways of pouring oil in this troubled water. Let me assure this senior citizen, Agbakoba (my brother), that if he waits a little longer before stepping into this brouhaha, then, it will, sooner than later, be nun-Dimities to CLO, the progenitor of human rights organization, at least, in the West African sub-region. I rest my case!

Scripted by: Uba Aham
(Chairman, Southeast Zone & Member, CLO Board of Governors)