06/08/2020
ANA CRISIS: OF CONSITUTIONALITY AND DISRESPECT TO ELDERS
Akogun Tai Oguntayo
He who respects the great paves way for his own greatness, says Chinua Achebe in his “Things Fall Apart.”
I may be blunt in my presentation and approach to issues but I try as much as possible not to be rude to anybody, especially elders, because I consider myself to be in that category too - having crossed the bar of half a century. There is no doubting the fact that our leaders in the Association of Nigerian Authors must be respected, having served the association meritoriously in the past. However, it should be noted that nobody, irrespective of age or status, is bigger than the association.
It is on this note that this appeal is being made to some respected past Presidents like Professors Femi Osofisan, Kole Omotoso, Olu Obafemi and Mr Odia Ofeimun not to allow some past leaders who have already soiled their hands over ANA land in Abuja to destroy their credibility.
One does not need to be ANA President before being respected as an elder, as long as one possesses the attributes of a leader. There are some personalities in ANA who are not past presidents but have earned themselves respect by sticking to what they know as the truth and constitutional - and by not necessarily tilting toward any faction in the crisis rocking the association. Some of these people are: Professor Bode Sowande, who twice served as the General Secretary of ANA; Mr Jare Ajayi, a former Assistant General Secretary; Hajia Hafsat who is supposed to be a member of the Advisory Council of ANA had it been eventually appointed by the General Congress, and Mama Mabel Segun, the only female member of the Board of Trustees and one of the three surviving trustees, among others. The duo of Eriata Oribhabor and Daga Tolar had tried their best, without openly declaring support for a particular faction – unlike what some elders have done or are doing, only to turn around and lament that they are being disrespected.
*STALEMATE IN ENUGU*
Before giving either Maiwada or Camillus the tag of a Devil or Saint, it is important to remind ourselves that the present logjam was orchestrated by the rigging plan of Mallam Denja Abdullahi in Enugu, which was resisted by the other three presidential aspirants namely; Dr Iyang Ofonimie, Ahmed Maiwada Esq and Chike Ofili. If Ofonimie, as the then sitting General Secretary, could openly fault the compilation of the delegate list and protested against the continuation of the election while various chapters cried out that their lists were fraudulently tampered with by Denja in favour of his candidate, why would anyone then accuse Maiwada of being responsible for the truncation of the election in Enugu?
The truth was that the election could not hold simply because of the protest against the rigging plot of the erstwhile President. There was no physical clash, despite the devilish action of throwing the delegates into darkness for hours. No shooting, combat or even stealing of telephone handsets that usually happen whenever there was a commotion. The atmosphere was such that some nursing mothers even carried their babies into the hall. This was why it became embarrassing to hear thereafter that some people whose rigging plot was thwarted were so pained to the extent of calling their fellow writers thugs and other unprintable names. There was no decision reached at gun-point as delegates even left the convention hall for a different venue to continue with discussions on whether to hold the elections that same day or not. The immediate past Legal Adviser, Isaac Attach Ogezi Esq, who served under Denja was called upon from time to time to enlighten us on whether our decisions were in tandem with the association’s constitution. This is why it pains when one hears someone saying that the decisions reached at the Congress were unlawful.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES (BOT)
It may be that many who are critical of the line of action we took are doing so because they are not conversant with the provision of the ANA Constitution. Maybe they are just being deliberately mischievous, forgetting that the Constitution is above all individuals. For instance, as at today, a check at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) confirmed that the last update was done on ANA BOT in 2010! Successive regimes since then were busy with ANA land without going to pay the necessary annual fees that officially proved the corporate existence of the association as a legal body.
Moreover, on the list of Board of Trustees at the CAC, late Professors Chinua Achebe and T. M. Aluko are still on record as Board Members, whereas the Constitution – and common sense – makes it clear that only living individuals can be members of a Board of Trustees (BOT).
ANA Constitution in Article 7(6)(v) says “a trustee shall cease to be a BOT member when he/she ceases to be domiciled in Nigeria.” Now all those people who are wrongly or mischievously mentioning some big names at home and abroad as BOT members are likely not aware of these afore-stated facts.
Furthermore, for any action of the Board of Trustees to be effective and tenable, ANA Constitution clearly states in Article 7 section 1 (i) that the “Board of Trustees shall consist of not more than five persons and not less than three persons, including at least two women, if the numbers are five and one woman, if the number is three”.
The question is how can an insistence on sticking to constitutional provisions be tantamount to being rude to the elders?
Presently, does ANA have three (3) BOT members, the least stipulated by the constitution?
Does ANA have two (2) women mandatorily entrenched in the constitution in case we have five?
Apart from the fact that the BOT is not fully constituted as at today, do ANA members even take their time to study the constitutional roles of the BOT Members as contained in Article 7 (1) – (6) before arrogating duties that are not theirs on them?
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Another basis for labelling some of us as disrespectful is that we insist on Article 8 (1) of ANA constitution which says: “There shall be an Advisory Council for the Association, which shall be responsible for advising the National Executive Council on any project to be undertaken or already initiated by the Association before their inauguration"
So, how does “advising on any project to be undertaken” amount to conducting elections into the National EXCO of ANA? This question is asked in view of the insinuation by some that the Advisory Council has the power to order for elections to be conducted.
ABUJA ELECTION
We all left the botched Enugu convention in 2019 with a mandate by the General Assembly that the Electoral Committee (ELCOM) which was appointed by the congress in conjunction with the Chapter Chairmen, should conduct the elections within 180 days as stipulated by Article 9 (8) of the Constitution. The following five people were appointed as ELCOM members: Mr Odia Ofeimun, Professors Remi Raji and Akachi Ezeigbo. Others are Messrs Yemi Adebiyi and Diego Okenyodo. Right there at the congress, Prof Akachi Ezeigbo opted out, while Prof Remi Raji took over as Chairman. In a video which went viral, Professor Raji addressed delegates and assured them of conducting elections within 180 days. But soon after we left Enugu, he resigned his membership of ELCOM, thus leaving only Messrs Ofeimun, Okenyodo and Adebiyi in the saddle to conduct the election post Enugu.
A WhatsApp platform was opened for members of the ELCOM and Chapter Chairmen, where list of delegates were being compiled. This was going on until we reached another stalemate over the methodology of conducting the election. When it was exactly 130 days after the Enugu stalemate, the Chapter Chairmen, acting on the delegated mandate bestowed on them by the General Congress, invited the remaining ELCOM members and all aspirants to Abuja, where elections were conducted into the National Executive Council of ANA. Prior to the conduct of the elections, additional three members were nominated to join the two ELCOM members (Adebiyi & Okenyodo) who were present in Abuja. The additional three nominated ELCOM members are: Paul Oni, Ogun State Chapter Chairman; Dr Akpos Adesi, Bayelsa State Chapter Chairman and; Zaharaddeen Kallah, Kano State Chairman.
From this analysis, where lies the alleged desperation of the Maiwada-led Exco in all of this? Even while the Abuja elections were holding, some people were planning to hold elections into the same National Exco of ANA, in Makurdi. The newly-elected National EXCO of ANA was forced to file a matter in court, seeking to restrain the Makurdi elections from taking place, as same was planned to be held by an electoral committee not known to the ANA Constitution. Some people started calling us names: at Enugu, when we protested against rigging, they called us thugs and hooligans; after the Abuja elections, when we opted for court intervention to stop their illegality, they said that we were suing our leaders! How precisely should we have sought redress over the injustice looming over us: by folding our arms and allowing things to drift? Justice is not served ala cart!
For those condemning the gathering of Chapter Chairmen and Secretaries in Abuja to conduct elections on the ground that it was not representative enough, their attention is drawn to ANA constitution in Article 32 (2) which states: “There shall be at least fifteen (15) members of the Association with representatives from at least 10 Chapters for a quorum to be formed for an AGM, OGM and EGM”. Please note that AGM means Annual General Meeting, OGM means Ordinary General Meeting and EGM means Emergency General Meeting. So, if the constitution provides for a minimum of 15 members from at least 10 chapters, what is the hullabaloo about over 30 members representing 21 chapters meeting for the Abuja EGM to conduct elections?
And for those who were bandying a rumour around that fake names of Chapter Chairmen were paraded among those who gathered in Abuja, here is the list of the 21 States’ Chapters that were physically there. It is worthy of note that out of these chapters, only two (2) states voted against holding elections on that day. The states present are:
Ekiti
Ogun
Osun
Lagos
Edo
Bayelsa
Anambra
Akwa Ibom
Plateau
Niger
Kaduna
Kano
Sokoto
Nasarawa
Abuja
Kebbi
Jigawa
Zamfara
Yobe
Bauchi and
Kastina.
MAKURDI ELECTION
Those who have not done so are enjoined to take time to study the many irregularities and illegalities that characterised the Makurdi elections. A few of them are listed here:
One, ANA Constitution in Article 9 (8) categorically specifies 180 days for a Caretaker Committee to conduct election after a stalemate. But Denja Abdullahi, after his regime had been properly dissolved, was seen on video presiding and conducting another election in Makurdi 239 days after the stalemate in Enugu.
Two, Article 9 (7) says “Where, due to circumstances beyond the Association’s control, elections cannot be held at any Annual National Convention or such a convention cannot be held for elections to be conducted, the Advisory Council shall convene an Emergency General Meeting (EGM) of the Association to elect a Caretaker Committee that shall then organise a Convention and have an election conducted at the said Convention.”
This constitutional provision makes it clear that what the Advisory Council could do was to convene an Emergency General Meeting where a Caretaker Committee would be elected. Instead of doing this, the Advisory Committee announced a 7-man Electoral Committee headed by Prof Jerry Agada. This in itself was in flagrant defiance of a court order to maintain status quo, which was served on Professor Jerry Agada and all his illegal electoral committee members in March 2020.
Three, aside Prof Agada, none of the other six members of the ELCOM unconstitutionally appointed by Prof Osofisan’s "Advisory Council" was present in Makurdi, except that they were called on Zoom to make comment after the illegal election was held.
A Yoruba maxim has it that ‘knowing how to present one’s case is as important as fighting a proper cause.’ In contradistinction to this maxim, these people not only pursued a wrong cause, they also relied on some elders to present their case for them – because even they themselves know that they have no case.
Unfortunately, some of those elders who are expected to carry themselves in a respectable manner are the ones fuelling the crisis. How do we explain a whole former president, Prof Remi Raji, in a recorded Zoom call, calling some ANA members “animals” and “bastards”? Is it because he felt the group he is supporting will protect his pecuniary interest in the scheme of ANA affairs? This is petty and unbecoming, if not childish, of someone who is aspiring to become Vice Chancellor of one of Nigeria's premier Universities and later an Oba!
To be candid, this is not really new to me because between 1996 and 2000, we served in the same Exco of ANA Oyo when Dr Wale Okediran was the Chairman and Dr Remi Raji (as then was) served as his Vice while I was the chapter PRO. Since then I've known him to be arrogant and easily provoked but I thought he would have left this attitude behind him since he has grown older and presumably more experienced!
In the said Zoom, Remi Raji was seen boiling and fuming, ostensibly laying credence to several scandalous allegations levelled against him when he was ANA President.
ANA is not about big names doing the wrong thing but bona fide members doing the right thing within the confine of the Constitution. Let those who gathered in the private backyard of an individual also list the 20 states’ chapters they are claiming attended their Emergency General Meeting and let their respective Chairmen attest to its credibility. The Fact speaks for itself!
On our own part, we, the Maiwada-led Exco, are determined to take ANA to the next level of positive development and progress. We therefore beckon on all Members of our dear association to join hands with us to rebuild ANA. We thank you in advance.
Akogun Tai Oguntayo
ANA General Secretary.
