THE name, Rauf Oladosu, will likely mean nothing to outsiders but it means the world to senior operatives of the Judiciary, especially heads of courts and agencies within the system.
He is the Special Assistant to the CJN, Justice Kayode Ariwoola on Budget Matters and his appointment, scope of influence and operations, have been causing ripples in the accounting and appropriation orbit of the system.
No, the appointment isn’t novel. Walter Onnoghen, the CJN, disgraced out of office by Muhammadu Buhari as President, made a heavy weather of the office, by appointing a Professor to man it, for the time his aborted tenure lasted. Popularly known as Dr. Collins, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka lecturer was something close to the overseer of budgetting in the Judiciary, to the discomfort of several accounting officers of the 12 courts and agencies, that make up the federating units of the arm of government, especially in the early days of his involvement. It was the first time such enhanced hands would be ruffling financial equations within the system.
As much as the senior lecturer was disdained by some top operatives, who must now answer to the CJN, through him, practically nobody queried his profile and professional pedigree as unfitting for the job. He left when his boss’s job was undone by Buhari, I believe, back to Nsukka. He was a jolly fellow I will always reference a friend.
The Tanko interregnum saw one of his numerous favour-seeking sons, play the role, of course, without impacts as father and sons were busy chasing crumbs even when the elephant was on their shoulders. History has Tanko’s mess, stored.
As of today, without the reintroduction of the suspended retirement leave, Ariwoola has exactly four months in office and for all the mostly justified sticks, blows, knocks and stones he has received over appointments, both administrative and judicial, one area he appears to have done it right, is fund management. An empirical evidence is both his enemies inside and outside, yet unable to link him with at least one financial scandal in the administration of billions of naira allocated to the system, through the National Judicial Council. He deserves commendation for being prudent and transparent with public money voted for the running of the system, (his security guys would however have to stop eating bread and water in office), just as knocks should be rained on him over his nepotistic appointments, especially his unbridled appetite for Iseyin-centrism and shamelessly keeping too much in the family.
Oladosu’s appointment is a study in contradiction. Of course, despite the wide age difference, he is known as years-long confidant of the CJN within the system; also family, and predictably, from Iseyin. Ariwoola loves his communal heritage too much, to even be pro-Oyo State. There is a story about him preferring the road to his Iseyin country home being tarred, instead of the one linking his Ibadan abode. I love culturally-minded people, only that they could be uncomfortably provincial, regardless of how well-educated they are.
Aside the nepotism angle, Rauf, who is now considered a political appointee till the expiration of Ariwoola’s tenure, was a Level 9 officer at the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC), where he was the Budget Officer, before, as they would say, God buttered his bread and his kinsman became the CJN.
When placed side-by-side with his immediate predecessor, a professor, it is easy to rule Rauf out as lacking in the requisite pedigree and knowledge, to oversee the system’s entire budgetting, appropriation and spending, serving as the eyes and ears of the CJN.
But despite the misgivings, the lowly officer has done well with judiciary’s budget, getting it jacked up and ensuring due process. The evidence of this claim is the fact that no one, at least from the grumbling insiders, has accused CJN and his boy(s), including a Senior Advocate from Iseyin who rules the privileges’ appointments (both legal and supreme court administration) of budget padding, despite the king-size grudge against the incumbent over his weakness.
That should be a plus for the argument that favours competence over seniority. By positional arrangement, thinking Rauf for the high-profile job, would be akin to the saying “kiniitanaja se kanlemomu” (how can one consider giving dog tigh to the imam when Islam forbids adherents from eating the animal). His now-proven ability and the merit he has shown on the job, would never have been known if Ariwoola hadn’t been wholly consumed by Iseyin-ism. Maybe nepotism isn’t that terribly bad on all sides as the dictionary meanings have projected, worsened by the negative optics of its usage, especially in relation to public service and grammatical applicability.
Maybe future allowances should be given when public service appointments favour family members and kinspeople of the appointors, especially when those without godfathers are also allowed to compete with the favoured, in open and transparent processes. The favoured, if they win fair, should also be weighed on performance and added-value basis, not who appoints them.
But that would never make up for what the constitution clearly calls abuse of office and use of office to confer personal advantage which is a criminal offence, under the law.
Rauf’s appointment, being a political one; meaning he is on secondment from FJSC, hasn’t offended any known law. His apparent capacity on the job, is also a recommendation, for future consideration for higher assignment. But asking his hitherto 12 bosses across the system, to be answerable to him, in the name of being Special Assistant to the ultimate boss, can’t be morally and emotionally right and a sure recipe for more angst against the CJN.
The Rauf scenario and the ill-wind it’s breeding, is a pointer to Ariwoola’s lack of experience as a manager of men. Of course, like Onnoghen and several CJNs before him, Ariwoola never managed any court or agencies of the judiciary, before fate thrust him to the zenith, where everyone now answers to him. His provincialism isn’t helping. It is the same challenge his imminent successor, KudiratKekere-Ekun would be confronting. She also never managed any court as CJ or headed any judicial agency and she will start administering all, in four months, from now. Yes, she has been the vice chairman of NJC since the combative Musa Dattijo Muhammad exited, statutorily heading appointment/promotion, constitution review and finance committees of the Council, but the position counts for nothing if the big man doesn’t fancy you. Dattijo was there and left a bitter man.
It is dangerous for the judiciary to keep appointing men and women without any experience in resource management as CJN. The groundswell of systemic opposition to Ariwoola today, is due to both his greed, and administrative inexperience. Instead of thrusting the manifestly-capable Rauf, who he says he trusts, forward, to boss his bosses with the expected cataclysmic fight-back, an experienced administrator would hide an asset like that as a secret weapon against systemic rot, keeping his subordinates guessing, when he, deemed an ignorant boss, is consistently a step ahead of their shenanigans.
But now, Ariwoola has exposed what Yoruba say an elder should hide under the agidi leaves while eating the cold pap.
To get the CJN now, all his teaducers need is get Rauf, who I learnt is already wearing shoulder-pads in dealing with those who would remain his bosses when the CJN is done and he would be compelled to revert to his FJSC role, maybe now, with promotion to Level 15 as being expected, going by precedents. To help the one who catapulted him to relevance, Rauf must keep his head on his shoulders and stay away from Greek gift. As a friend will joke, awufudey run belle.
Ariwoola’s chapter in Nigeria’s judiciary is already inked, in the minds of both the reasonable and the unreasonable. He is generally perceived as a man who can’t stop taking for his own, like owambewomen who would collect free party jollof packs even for their cats and dogs. It reflects poorly on him as someone called on by fate for a national assignment. But his poor judgement in appointment, also produced a Rauf. How then do we reconcile this, for posterity to make an objective call?
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