Let me put a caveat at the outset. Firstly, I was Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim’s coursemate at OAU almost four decades ago.
In addition, he made me the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Nicon Insurance Ltd a couple of years ago.
However, I do not intend to relinquish or surrender my freedom of expression based on my relationship with him.
I am aware that armchair critics of Sonala’s ilk will latch onto this relationship to paint this write-up as parochial or biased.I owe them no apologies.
Typically, the fact that I come from the same ethnic stock as Jimoh Ibrahim, whom we fondly call ‘Araba’, will not be a barrier to my right of expression.
I was inundated with a flurry of calls and texts by friends and associates yesterday morning, and some of them sent me a PDF copy of the article.
An initial cursory glance revealed that the contents consist of distorted facts and baseless claims, as well as a rehash of old allegations which Sonala now peddles as true.
Also, Chidi Odinkalu mentioned it on his X page. As a professor of law, a far higher standard is expected of him, but of course, he is also an armchair critic.
In this write-up, I shall be referencing Femi Olawole’s classic riposte to Sonala Olumense, published on 10th October 2004.
In that article, Femi warned that, ‘Prowling the pages of national newspapers and the internet are the likes of Olumhense with a mission to rally the rest of us with their rabid nay-sayings that are borne out of personal failures, frustrations, and furies.
They latch on to the moribund dusk of the past with no hope for a glorious dawn. And they are so consumed with such a chronic pessimism as to become pathetically blind to the emerging new Nigeria.To them, our nation is eternally doomed’.
Femi’s statement above, 22 years ago, is still true and very pertinent. A leopard cannot change its spots, even in the progress of time.
It is expected that an ‘ogbologbo’ journalist (as Femi aptly describes him) will practise journalism within the frontiers of its tenets and ethos.
The least expected is for him to cross-check his information to verify its authenticity.
It is further expected that a man who celebrated his 70th birthday last year would have become more circumspect and judicious.
Unfortunately, Sonala is bereft of these lofty qualities that those grey hairs confer as one ages. In his hurried, frenzied hatchet commentary, he referenced court cases without research-a very lazy, puerile, and infantile approach, unexpected of a journalist of his status.
He pontificated on matters beyond his competence or knowledge. His penchant for ‘bolekaja’ journalism did not start now.
The brilliant piece by Femi unravelled his persona for what it is.
Femi, in his brilliant 2004 piece, deconstructed Olumense’s persona.
He alluded to Olumense’s penchant for armchair criticism. He urged him to ‘take a pause from his perpetual sermon of pessimism and sweeping condemnations to see that not all politicians are bad, corrupt and selfish’.
Lamentably, Olumense seems to be irreversibly committed to this path of infamy.
The cerebral lawyer Chief Niyi Akintola has written to both Sonala and The Punch newspaper. They will soon have their day in court, and by jove, they will have their just desserts for the malicious write-up.
It beats one’s imagination how The Punch newspapers will allow such a publication, knowing the full consequences of libel.
Unfortunately, Araba’s penchant for resorting to legal redress up to the Supreme Court is legendary, and the records of success against individuals and government agencies are intimidating.
Sonala would have been spared this imminent lawsuit if he had not been presumptuous or intellectually lazy by failing to conduct a proper investigation into the cases he mentioned.
Still, no-his pious public posturing would not allow him to do so. Now he has, by his indiscretion, brought a lawsuit against himself.
Araba might be brash in his public interactions.He might be impervious to public perception of his persona, but he is not fraudulently or criminally minded as portrayed by Sonala’s abhorrent and reprehensible write-up.
Many times, when some of his friends and associates call his attention to false information about him in the public domain, he will shrug it off as inconsequential.
Sometimes he shows mute indifference or even utter insouciance. He is human and also has his own frailties. His credo has always been never to be distracted by such lies and false narratives.
As someone who has been part of his legal battles for decades, I know for certain that all the petitions written to the EFCC and other similar organisations were found to be baseless upon investigation.
These allegations were copiously referenced in Sonala’s obnoxious commentary, which is definitely a hatchet job.
What else will motivate a man to pen such a terrible article if not a promise of lucre or even sheer envy? It is not inconceivable that successful people attract the envy of even those they are not acquainted with, just because they remind them of their own failings.
How on earth will you dismiss a man who has traversed the Ivy League universities and emerged outstanding?
For record purposes, I will give a little biodata on him. After graduating from Ife with a law degree in 1990, he obtained a Master’s of Public Administration from the same university.
Subsequently, he attended Harvard University, where he earned a Master’s in Law and Taxation.
Two decades later, he went on a trail-blazing intellectual sojourn during which he obtained an MSc from Oxford University and an MBA from Cambridge University.
He is also the first to be awarded a doctorate in business from Cambridge University since its founding in 1209.
He also holds a PhD in War from Buckingham University and a first degree in International Relations from the University of London.
But armchair critics with their own PhD (Pull Him Down) will ignore all these academic laurels and instead conjure fictitious allegations in their desire to serve their paymaster well.
The truth will unravel itself in the fullness of time, and while Araba will shine like a northern star at the UN, Sonala Olumense will have a libel case to contend with in his retirement.
Sir Abayomi Apata
A Lawyer writes from Lagos
Comments
Post a Comment