Comrade Jola Ogunlusi, former National Secretary of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), will be 90 years old on 25 September. His friends and associates have planned a thanksgiving service for Saturday, 28 September, at Church of Pentecost, 21 Road, FESTAC Village, Lagos to give praise to God for preserving the life of the man who crossed many turbulent waves, along with others to make journalism and its practitioners get to the promised land in professionalism and unionism.
Mr Ogunlusi has course to praise God for sparing his life. He was humiliated, suffered setbacks, survived a ghastly motor accident, incarcerated and even mocked by his peers in his younger days at Ayedun Ekiti. Because of his poor background, he could not complete his secondary school education. He dropped out at Ansar- Ud- Deen High School, Ikole-Ekiti in Form four due to financial crisis. He ended up as a pupil teacher and studied privately at home for the General Certificate of Education (GCE).
The love of Ogunlusi for politics and late Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s ideology made him to join the services of Africa Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN Plc), Publishers of Nigeria Tribune and Iroyin Yoruba. This was in the early 60s, when political crisis had engulfed the popular Wild, Wild West and Chief Awolowo was incarcerated. Then it was a crime to buy or read Tribune titles, openly.
Ogunlusi joined the Iroyin Yoruba as a reporter under late Pa Olu Olofin. His passion for welfarism and trade unionism in the 1960s grew as he was influenced by Comrade J. O. James to join United Labour Congress of Nigeria, as an Assistant Secretary.
Because of the poor financial standing and political victimisation of Tribune workers, working for months without salary, Jola Ogunlusi, to keep body and soul together, was also a freelance reporter for Africa Arts Magazine and LAMP Magazine. He was discovered by Chief Ayo Adedun who eventually made him to take up appointment with Western State Government Newspaper, Sketch Press Limited, where he was seconded to Gboungboun, the Yoruba publication of the newspaper. Chief Mike Pearse later assisted him to gain employment with the New Nigeria Newspapers.
The journey of Ogunlusi into full-fledged trade unionism started in the late 70s when the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) was at the peak of leadership crisis, which led to Michael Asaju and Sidi Ali Sirajo’s factions. The union was then operating a controversial constitution. Luckily for Ogunlusi, he found himself in the camp of the Asaju faction which became the recognised faction by the government.
I remember the brunt I had personally with Igwa’s group when I used the photograph of Chief Asaju to illustrate a page I planned in the Herald Newspaper. At the editorial conference, the Editor, Alhaji Yakubu Abdulazeez, had to put his feet down to overrule views of the likes of Dan Ikunaye and Alfred Ilenre, who were in Sidi Ali Sijaro’s camp. They insisted we must not use Asaju’s photograph while on a facility tour in Cuba.
Ali Sirajo was in charged of his group, mostly northern journalists who were sympathetic to his cause. Except in Plateau, Borno and Kwara states, there was no active NUJ unionism in the northern states. This was the period that the NUJ Secretariat, under Jola Ogunlusi, succeeded in dragging the union to full-fledged professional and trade union body, fighting for oppressed journalists.
Many decrees and draconian laws like, albatross, were hanging on the necks of media practitioners in Nigeria. Despite the fact that the crisis which started in Jos was not solved at the Akure delegates conference which led to emergence of Alhaji Bola Adedoja-led executive, the offshoot of Michael Asaju’s recognised camp, Jola Ogunlusi and his new boss, Adeoja, continued to forge ahead, fighting on all fronts to stabilise journalism practice which was in serious battles with the government and media owners.
At the same time, many journalists lacked the professional background and there was the need to look for avenues to train them within and outside the country. Having been influenced by Comrade Tunji Otegbeye and Wahab Goodluck, hardliners in trade unionism, NUJ National Secretary, Jola Ogunlusi, succeeded in getting training facilities, especially in the Socialist Eastern Europe. At a go, 33 journalists proceeded on three-month courses at the International Organisation of Journalists (IOJ) in Bulgaria.
“It is on record that during the Jola Ogunlusi headship of NUJ Secretariat- from Michael Asaju, Bola Adedoja, George Izobor, to Sanni Zoro, 101 journalists were sponsored for various courses in Bulgaria, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Russia and United States of America, as well as other facility tours, outside Africa, apart from local trainings.
One of the beneficiaries was Prince Mola Olaniyan who was NUJ chairman in Kwara State. I was the vice chairman, while late Chief Jide Adebayo was the secretary. I took over the running of the Kwara NUJ as acting chairman when he travelled until I relocated to Oyo State, where I served consecutively as two-term secretary.
Apart from foreign courses, NUJ, during his tenure as National Secretary, contributed a lot to sustain and project the Nigeria Institute of Journalism (NIJ) as well as laying foundation for establishment of International Institute of Journalism (IIJ). When some females who were not journalists in electronic media were parading themselves as journalists, the George Izobor/Jola Ogunlusi Executive cut them to sizes by creating Nigeria Association of Female Journalists (NAWOJ).
NUJ is an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). NUJ Secretariat under Comrade Ogunlusi became highly respected as an affiliate of the NLC to the extent that NLC would not go for negotiations without one NUJ member in its teams. The NUJ Secretariat, under Jola Ogunlusi, on its own also, fought relentlessly against injustice metted to its members. The sack of Vera Ifudu by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) for reporting the missing ₦2.1 billion oil fund was a good example. NUJ declared trade dispute against the NTA Management and got the reporter reinstated.
Many journalists would have lost their jobs unceremoniously if the Jola Ogunlusi-led National Secretariat of the NUJ had not taken up their cases. Among others, they included journalists in Tide, Chronicle, Standard Newspapers, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Nigerian Tribune, Nigerian Television Authority, MTV and Sketch Press Limited, whose employers were either not friendly or refused to give good welfare packages to the poor reporters.
For example, when Dr. Omololu Olunloyo became the governor of Oyo State, many journalists were sacked or punitively redeployed to the Cultural Centre and Ministry of Information, the NUJ has to fight relentlessly for their reinstatement. Many journalists that were laid off in the Herald in Kwara State were reabsorbed by the Tribune, Sketch and the Oyo State Ministry of Information due to lobbies from NUJ.
Many draconian military decrees like Decree 31 prohibiting media organisations were too much for journalists. The NUJ Secretariat, under Jola Ogunlusi, formed alliance with the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), headed by Alhaji Lateef Jakande, and the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) to form the Nigeria Press Organisation (NPO) to prepare a common front to fight the government and media employers who wanted to kill the newspaper industry and the electronic media.
Jola Ogunlusi, was a rigid, conservative scribe whose loyalty to his boss on many occasions was his undoing. When a reformation group moved to unseat Alhaji Bola Adedoja with a view to creating a NUJ with a more broad outlook, Jola Ogunlusi, with some of us form the Western Zone, opposed the move which eventually dethroned Adedoja and paved way for George Zobor. This was the beginning of the exit of Ogunlusi from the NUJ Secretariat.
Though George Izobor and his deputy, Nasir Zaharadeen, meticulously accommodated Ogunlusi to run the affairs of the NUJ, after broadening NUJ Secretariat with the creation of zones, those who came after them succeeded in retiring him without making proper arrangements to offset his entitlements which, unfortunately, are still pending till today.
A cat with many lives, Jola Ogunlusi almost lost his life in a ghastly motor accident along Ijebu Ode Road. Unconscious Ogunlusi, when he regained his memory at the General Hospital, asked for a pen and piece of paper where he scribbled “Please tell Governor Segun Osoba that his brother is here and could die any moment as a result of a motor accident.
The hospital workers were disturbed by the write up. A brother to a serving governor? Was this man insane? They were ruminating until the hospital management took the badly written message to Governor Osoba who, in a convoy with blasting siren, rushed down. Sighting the NUJ Secretary in the bed, and with tears rolling down his cheeks, Governor Osoba instructed the hospital management to do everything in its power to bring Ogunlusi back to life. Thank God who answered Chief Osoba’s prayer and the cooperation of Ogun State Hospital Management, perhaps, this 90 years anniversary might have not been possible after all.
May God bless the new age of Mr Jola Ogunlusi.
•Kareem, veteran journalist and former Commissioner for Works and Transport in Oyo State, writes from Ibadan.
