"Squib and Her "Customers"' By Adesina Ogunlana

http://www.squibcoverstory.blogspot.com/2011/11/federal-high-court-ikeja-rotten.html





Since inception in March 2001 the Squib has known five Chief Judges of the Lagos State High Court. Our very first “customer” was Christopher Segun J. the Squib was in its earliest infancy then, merely a four-page sheet, selling for, was not just N20? It would’t be a surprise if when Segun left office in May 2001, he never heard of or cared much about the Squib.


Our second “customer” Ibitola Sotiminu J. (2001 to 2004) turned out to be a god-sent promoter for the Squib. This honourable Chief came to power May 2001 and by September of that same year had become very uncomfortable with us. Our searching, investigative range and the scorching reportorial style, not to talk of our irreverent and defiant posture greatly irked this Chief Judge who vowed that the Squib must be squashed at all cost.


This resolve manifested in the ban of the sale of the Squib in the premises of Lagos State Courts. ( Pls click link below to read)


http://adesinaogunlana.blogspot.com/2007/12/lawyer-takes-on-lagos-judiciary.html
 

The numerous police arrests and detentions of the Squib vendors and finally the laying of a complaint against the First Gecko, Editor of the magazine for “professional misconduct as a lawyer” before the Nigerian Bar Association, which by special arrangement found merit in the spurious allegations and referred the First Gecko for trial before the Disciplinary Committee of the Body of Benchers. The said trial lasted from 2003 to 2009 before it fizzled out, even though it never actually got started despite several appearances of the First Gecko and his mighty defence shield, the venerable Daddy 3. [more on daddy 3 in brackets below]

(http://learnedsquib.blogspot.com/2008/01/memoirs-of-daddy-3-by-adesina-ogunlana_15.html)


Our third “customer” was Fatai Adeyinka J. he came to power as honourable Chief Judge in April 2004 and left in August of the same year. He inherited a full blown war of the Lagos State Judiciary with the Squib but the man simply lacked the will to join the fray.


The third customer just kept his peace and buried his head while the Squib was peppering him over all manner of revelations of corrupt dealings of his administration.


Our fourth “customer” and so far the longest reigning, was Augustine Adetula Alabi a.k.a Ade Alabi (2004 – 2009). At first Alabi wanted peace with the Squib but on the condition that the Squib should compromise her editorial thrust and range. It was a desire that could not meet with any satisfaction or success.


Deceptively amiable, even affable, the 4th customer was not comfortable with the Squib’s unrepentant, trenchant penchant for calling a spade just that. And after two years of stomaching the Squib’s ‘wahala,’ the now best forgotten Chief Judge rose up to the challenge of continuing the war that Sotuminu J. started against us. However, try as much as he did, in collaboration with Dele-Oye of the Oceanicbankceciliaibru fame, the First Gecko’s prosecutor before the Disciplinary Committee, Alabi who is reportedly now a big-time hotelier in is Ido-Ani province of Ondo State, failed woefully to overpower the Squib. He left the throne with the distasteful reputation of a smelly banger among many Lagos Judiciary workers!


Our fifth “customer” is Inumidun Akande J. this is one Chief Judge who has turned a huge surprise to many people. As a judge, Akande was ordinary. But as Chief Judge, she has turned something else. Positively something else. She has become extra-ordinary. But that’s a story for another day, for fuller telling.


In our interactions with her administration, we found out that, she is accessible and genuinely respects what we stand for – responsible conduct in the Bar and on the Bench. I suspect that her identification with the Squib is because she is a kindred spirit – a boat rocker, if not necessarily a radical albeit mellowed by age and structured by a civil service career life.


This fifth customer is far, by far different from her four predecessors. So if we don’t fight her, it is because she has given us no platform to direct fire at her position.


Respect begets respect. There has been no time the Squib complains to the 5th customer that she ignores it. Now that’s very important and smart, not seeing the Squib as foe but treating her as a partner in progress, even though the Squib’s agitational journalism gives her the occasional shakes too.


I believe that by the time this edition hits the stands, the Lagos State Judiciary’s cheque or draft for one Mr. Omoniyi Falaiye would have reached him or his counsel.


Oh, I have lost you? Who is Omoniyi Falaiye and what’s the relevance of bring him into the picture?


One day the First Gecko will speak about him and why the 5th customer, if her ladyship does not change, will not join the leagues of leagues of former Chief Judges who cannot stroll in, into their former ‘empires’ at will, after retirement.


Eni se rere


Ko ma se lo


Eni se ka


Ko ma se bo


Ati re, ati ika


Ikan ki gbe!



http://www.adesinaogunlana.blogspot.com/2007/12/playing-abacha-tyrant.html