By JOHNSON EBIGIDE
It is said that where there is disharmony, infinitesimal success is hardly recorded. It is also unarguable that when personal ego and vainglorious ambition direct the decision of one to occupy an office against the will of the people, one does everything slanderously and unethically possible, including falsification of the facts on ground, to elicit the support of the generality of the unsuspecting people . As it is in major party politics, so it is in trade unionism and every association that requires leadership.
Tell me why Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso should habour the evil thought of eliminating Thomas Sankara, his closest associate, in order to forcefully lead the citizens of the country ? Yes, let someone explain why betrayal and killing of a fellow countryman has become a mark of valour and love for ones country or any group of people. Let someone explain why Dimka should be applauded for killing General Murtala Muhammed and throwing the steady growth of Nigeria into jeopardy ? Indeed, let someone proffer an explication on why a vice president, chosen by the president as his running mate, would suddenly believe that he should be the president, and to hell with the president who brought him in to stabilise the polity of the country ! Ego and inordinate ambition are the root causes !
The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Delta State has come a very long arduous way to the peaceful pedestal upon which Comrade Mike Ikeogwu as the state chairman is currently working tirelessly to lift from the ordinary to enviable heights, not only in the state but in the country and beyond. It is therefore not a personal worry but that of every conscientious member of the union to learn that members of a cabal in the union are currently scheming to once again throw the union into those regrettable dark days of the past during which practising journalists in the state were treated with leprosy disdain.
As the 2020 election of the union in the state is being scheduled, it is said that some self acclaimed kingpins in the union have perfected plans to shove the constitution of the union aside, and to bamboozle unwary members of the union into believing in a caricature arrangement, perfected by themselves in an election rigging manipulative propensity long ago during the election that produced Comrade Ikeogwu as the state chairman of the union.
It would be recalled that such unholy election manipulative scheming in a chapel of the union in the state by same cabal had crippled activities of the chapel so much so that the entire structure of the union in the state and beyond was overwhelmed as to how to pull back the chapel from the precipice of total collapse, until a commissioner who was genuinely distraught with the unsalutary situation stepped in and halted the unnecessary drift.
As members of the union prepare to elect a new leadership of the union in the state in less than two months from now, it behoves them to put aside sentiments and other debilitating considerations that may further the personal interest of any individual member, group or chapel at the expense of the cohesion and growth of the union in the state and beyond.
Let no unwholesome mesmerising manipulations from any individual or group becloud the judgement of members in their choice of who to vote for, so much so that they unwittingly deflate the lifebuoy of their being members of the union through a wrong choice of leadership.