An uncharitable friend calls them 'human rice and beans' ' a parody of the more common tag 'human rights' ' activists.They are not difficult to identify, particularly in Lagos and Abuja: Tune to a radio or television station at 7am any day, you will see or listen to them mouthing populist ideas. At 8.30 a.m., they are on another station, doing the same thing.Do not think that they are done for the day; in fact, for them, 'work' has only just begun. You will find them on another station doing the very same thing at 10 a.m.At noon, they are the same persons on another station. On your way home, if you tune your radio to any talk programme, you will hear their voices again.The cycle is continued the next day, and days after. Many of them have been on this 'beat' for about 20 years. It is a profession that pays handsomely, often from international donor agencies. Lately, they are largely being funded by a godfather to discuss only issues that will advance his dubious cause.Unfortunately, the public is either not aware, or does not care. The discussions are good music to the ear, especially against the Federal Government in particular, and the elite in general.God bless the soul of the late Chief Ganiyu Oyesola Fawehinmi (Senior Advocate of the Masses (SAM) and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), in that order).In the days of Chief Fawehinmi, it was clearly known that activism was business for many. With the clear exception of Fawehinmi, many of the so-called rights activists then were only after the bottom line ' the money to be shared.It was a most horrified Fawehinmi who saw his erstwhile comrades ' with whom he had fought to expose the lie that the then House of Representatives Speaker Salisu Buhari was ' dump the same high ideals they were advocating when it came to making the then Lagos State Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu face the same public scrutiny on matters that were on all fours with those of Buhari.The selfsame human rights (remember, my friend calls them human rice and beans) activists suddenly lost their voices.How could we, who very recently led a battle to expose the fraud perpetrated by Salisu Buhari, who lied about his age to become a member of the House of Representatives, and then the Speaker, look the other way when allegations started flying that Tinubu did not attend Government College, Ibadan as he claimed in his INEC form' Tinubu asked on end.Fawehinmi's erstwhile friends, who moved from one television station to another in the Salisu Buhari days, shouting the need to cleanse public office of people with shady records, had no answer. The lawyers among them were even on Tinubu's legal team!He was asked such simple questions as, 'When did you attend Government College, Ibadan' Who were your classmates' What were the names of your teachers, House Masters, etc' Which House did you belong to' What was the anthem of the school''He provided no answers.Similar questions were asked about his university claims, to which no answer was given.The human rice and beans (sorry, rights) lawyers simply threw section 308 of the 1999 Constitution on Fawehinmi's face and on the face of the court. That is the provision of the constitution that shields the President, Vice President, Governors and Deputy Governors from prosecution while their stay in office lasted.Like Lady Justice, Fawehinmi was an iconoclast. He knew no tribal affiliations. He simply wanted to cleanse the Nigerian political landscape. Today, he is gone. But he left fond memories.It is hoped that many of today's human rice and beans (chop, chop) activists will also note that they will not live forever.This brings to mind, the criminal silence of the so-called activists to the electoral heist that the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has been accused of perpetrating in Lagos State. I am not a judge and I will not jump to conclusions that the allegations are true.I had, however, hoped to see the 'human rice and beans' community shouting 'Ido Osi', the way they did in Ekiti State, just a while ago.Again, I am not a politician, much less one that will subscribe to the buccaneering bent of the PDP. I also strongly deplore the failure of the PDP-led Federal Government to fix the Benin-Ore and the Oshodi-Apapa roads in particular, not to talk of the nation's refineries and power sector in the last 12 years.This has for long provided the ammunition for the 'human rice and beans' activists any time they are on air. The most readily-available weapon, particularly in the Olusegun Obasanjo years, was the PDP's so-called rigging machine.The Ido-Osi debacle that culminated in the removal of the PDP government in Ekiti State is still fresh in the mind. It is therefore most embarrassing that the party that has for so-long held itself out as the refreshing difference will be accused of thwarting the people's will in such a brazen manner as alleged. Just like the PDP.In this, I have no sympathy for the PDP which clearly does not care about protecting its interests. I expect that by now, after the acrimonious general elections ' which, by the way, I believe the party won fair and square ' the country will be thrown into wild jubilation over proposals that will improve the lot of the citizenry.I had expected that today, the policies that we will be debating at the national level will be on issues like unemployment benefits, provision of housing as a right of the citizens and the return of the country's education sector to glory.Alas! The party has thrown the citizens into pangs of sorrows and spasms over planned removal of so-called fuel subsidies, a euphemism for higher fuel prices and further impoverishment of the people.So, ordinarily, I agree with the activists in seizing every opportunity to tell the ruling party that it is a failure.But, I am also acutely aware that these human 'rice and beans' activists; these chop-make-I-chop activists are turning a blind eye to all issues about their perceived sponsors, even when those issues are also of grave importance to the people.The list of such issues that the activists appear to deliberately ignore, to our collective peril, is growing longer by the day.These include the unresolved issues about Tinubu, that their patriarch Fawehinmi fought so selflessly to resolve since the former Governor no longer enjoys immunity as provided for by section 308 of the constitution; the abysmal performance of council chiefs in Lagos State, which led to the belief that they were voted out at the last election but that their will was thwarted by the almighty godfather who can never be wrong; and the frequent suspicious foreign travels of the so-called progressive governors of Osun and Ekiti States.Also criminally neglected is growing discontent over salary arrears of Osun State workers in a so-called progressive government; the jack up of tuition fees in Lagos State University, Ojoo, Lagos (LASU), from N25,000 to as high as N350,000; and the recently signed contract for a six-lane Ibara, Ita Eko ' Totoro road in Ogun State for a whopping N1.3 billion.If his much-maligned predecessor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, constructed a 40- kilometre road from Sagamu to Abeokuta for N1.9 billion, the Ibikunle Amosun government in Ogun State cannot justify its N1.3 billion contract for a 2.4 kilometre road without any public bidding or open tender. Recall that for the Sagamu-Abeokuta road, the N1.9 billion included compensation for displaced families, street-lights the poles of which were produced by local welders and drainage systems, among others. More importantly, the construction of a six-lane road must be for economic purposes; to expand a road that stands to add economic value to the state in terms of industrialisation.Also, the award of the contract to China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), against the practice of his predecessor encouraging the development of local expertise through state civil servants called OGROMA (Ogun Road Maintenance Agency) for a fraction of the cost that is charged by foreign companies generally, is against the interest of Nigerians.Time was when Taiwanese products and cars from South Korea were objects of derision. Today, it is a thing of pride to use the same products. South Korea-made KIA vehicles dot the Nigerian landscape these days, a product of the doggedness of the South Korean government.The immediate, short-term and long-term benefits of the decision by Amosun's predecessor to stick to the civil servants for road construction are too obvious and only need to be explained to people with lower thinking faculties.The obscenity of the difference in the cost of delivering these two roads should cause uproar from our concerned human 'rice and beans' activistsUnfortunately, most unfortunately, these are no issues of concern to our human 'rice and beans' activists. The godfather has interest in such issues. The ordinary people in the country can go to hell.
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