Joe Ajaero: Ordering Industrial Action Over Personal Grievances Is Wrong In Nigeria By Stanley Alieke

I was in court today for a sensitive matter, in fact, the client I am defending has been in detention for months and there was a hope of getting him out on bail today, to my amazement, when I got to the court I was told by a court staff around that the court will not be seating today and I enquired for the reason why the court that just resumed from a long annual vacation will not be seating on a Wednesday morning when there is no public holiday that I am aware of and they said there is a nationwide strike initiated by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) because the NLC president was attacked by thugs and other security agents sometime last week, in Owerri, Imo state.

How can I as a lawyer explain to my client who has been in detention that today we had hope of getting him out that the court will not seat and that he will have to still be in prison detention till the next adjournment date which is a month from now just because a private citizen was attacked?

As a disclaimer, I’m not condoning the act of brutality meted out on Mr Joe Ajaero, nobody deserved to be lynched, not even the NLC president who was mobbed by thugs who joined forces with some security agents in his line of duty but there are definitely other ways to settle these scores instead of putting the whole nation on standstill; put the economy on pause, put the education on break, the justice system on hold just because one person who happened to be the NLC was attacked by a mob. The other better way to handle this situation is to identify the perpetrators; they will be easy to catch since the act was captured on camera and let them be arrested and prosecuted for the crime. If found guilty let them be sent to jail for the crime of assault and inflicting grievous bodily harm on a citizen. This is the way to solve this and it is the only way I advocate for as a legal practitioner.

Some banks were closed down today too, we have not had light since yesterday because the national grid is also shut down. Can you imagine the impact of this on the economy and on every other sector of Nigeria?

How can you declare a total shutdown if not that we are unserious people in this nation where everything and anything goes?

This same anyhow ness with no fear of repercussions motivated then President Olusegun Obasanjo to raze down an entire village in Bayelsa state on 20th of November 1999 just because a soldier was attacked by some persons in the village. Till date Obasanjo and his foot soldiers are yet to answer for the massacre they carried out in Odi village, in Bayelsa state 23 years ago.

I totally understand the fact that the NLC had to go this route and take this drastic action in other to get the attention of the public and also that of the government on the matter but the NLC being a strong organization that can afford to hire any amount of lawyers to follow up the case until justice is done; they do not have to put the whole nation on a standstill on their quest for Justice; a wrong and a wrong will never make a right.

It will be in the interest of everyone for the NLC to call off their nationwide industrial action since they have gotten the attention of the government they sought as the National Security Adviser’s office released a memo stating that they have captured some of the perpetrators that mobbed Mr Joe Ajaero, the NLC president, last Wednesday in Owerri, Imo State.