No assassin would be able to reach him ever again, gone but sadly sooner to be forgotten by a country he loved so much. Joining a league of arguably the finest cadres ever produced by the Nigerian students movement, such as Late Chima Ubani, Anselem Akele, Joseph Manman, Basil Chanson Chris Abachi and others, sadly the Nigeria of our dream, still remain a dream.
Till we meet to path no more, farewell Olaitan Oyerinde.
CITATION
OF COMRADE OLAITAN OYERINDE
Very few Nigerians are
privileged to be entrusted with political appointments in states other than
their own. One of these few Nigerians is Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde, the
Principal Secretary to the Governor of Edo State.
He was born on the 7th
of December 1968 to Alhaji Azeez Oyerinde, a journalist, and Mrs. Comfort
Oyerinde, a stenographer. He is married to Funke Oyerinde and they are blessed
with four children.
Comrade Olaitan
attended the University of Lagos where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree
in Mass Communications. As a student, he was deeply involved in radical
activism and helped to provide leadership for groups like the Thomas Sankara
Movement (TSM), Youth Solidarity on Southern Africa (YUSSA), Patriotic Youth
Movement of Nigeria (PYMN), the University of Lagos Students’ Union and the
National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).
This was at a period of
intense political ferment which threw up the students’ movement as the most
effective opposition to Military Rule in the country. In 1989 after the anti-SAP
protest organized by the Students’ Movement, he was detained for two months
under Decree 2 along with other leaders of the National Association of Nigerian
Students. Incidentally, his detention order was signed by Admiral Augustus
Aikhomu, Chief of General Staff as he then was.
On the verge of
graduation, Olaitan’s NYSC Call-up
letter was seized by the university authorities allegedly for a pending
disciplinary case related to another protest. But a court granted an
injunction, which enabled him to proceed for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
Again in 1991, he was
detained after another national students protest purportedly for harbouring the
NANS President and a few other students leaders, who had been declared wanted
by the security agencies.
Olaitan Oyerinde
started his trade union career in 1990 when he was appointed Assistant General
Secretary by the Iron and Steel Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, an
affiliate of the Senior Staff Consultative Association of Nigeria, which
metamorphosed into the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria.
While in the union, he
was actively involved in the pro-democracy movement, which was waging a
relentless battle against the military and the interim government. At this
point, he was the Lagos State Chairman of the Campaign for Democracy under the
national leadership of the late Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti. He was also executive
director, Centre for Worker’s Rights (CWR) and a member of the Nigerian Tenants
Association (NTA).
Olaitan left the Iron
and Steel Senior Staff Association of Nigeria as a deputy general secretary
after ten years to join the services of the Nigeria Labour Congress when
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole assumed its leadership. Under an organisational revival programme embarked
upon by the leadership of Comrade Oshiomhole, younger and ideologically
clear-headed activists were brought into the NLC to help build a more radical
labour movement.
In the NLC, Comrade
Olaitan had been head of the departments
of Industrial Relations and International Relations as well as the Special
Assistant to the NLC President.
He established a
reputation for thoroughness, uncommon brilliance, deep commitment to the values
of the trade union movement and capacity for creative thinking and initiative.
This explains his rapid rise in the NLC.
Like other comrades in
the Labour movement, he was involved in the electioneering campaign of Comrade
Adams Oshiomhole and co-authored the manifesto entitled My Vision, My Mission.
In November 2008,
following his victory, Comrade Oshiomhole sought and obtained the NLC’s consent
to release Comrade Olaitan to work with his administration. Olaitan resumed as
the Special Adviser, Special Duties but was appropriately re-designated as the
Principal Secretary to the Governor/Head of the Governor’s Secretariat.
Olaitan has so far
demonstrated extraordinary devotion, well-acknowledged competence and a
passionate loyalty to his labour constituency. In the Government House, he was
the focal and contact person for the entire Labour Movement. He attended to all
comrades with so much enthusiasm. Indeed, it is usually said that you could
never reach Comrade Olaitan with any problem, personal or official, without
getting tangible results.
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