"HELP! WHERE ARE OUR RIGHTS ACTIVISTS?"

Article written by Samuel Ajayi

You can quote me: majority of our so-called human rights activists were on the payroll of opposition when PDP's reign of 'tani o mu mi' (who will challenge me) lasted. Yes they were. This is how it used to work: opposition would raise an issue but before doing that would have 'discussed' with a couple of rights activists (names withheld). Immediately a statement was released, the rights activists would take it up, sustained the noise, some would even go to court and before you knew it, the issue had
assumed a life of its own. A non-discerning member of the public would think all the noise was for the common good. No. Don't be deceived. It was not. There was always a reward for the 'noise making'.

The defeat of the big for nothing PDP and role reversals between it and the contraption called APC has put most of our rights activists in quandary. THAT IS THE NAKED FACT! Again, you can quote me: Tinubu used to take care of them lavishly. I repeat: quote me. Now that the then opposition party or benefactor is now the ruling party, what will they do? Pretend as if they are blind or not aware of the terrible state of things in the country.

No matter your political leanings, if you are a Nigerian, were things this bad before the Occupy Nigeria protests of 2012? Let me ask some salient questions. Who designed the Occupy Nigeria logo? Who paid for it? Who paid for the T-shirts? Who paid for the caps? Who paid for the public address system? Who was supplying the foods? Who was supplying the fliers? Who paid for their printing? Who took care of the TV crews that were beaming the protests live? Especially Channels, TVC and LTV8.

Let me tell you this: Jonathan never recovered from the massive whipping up of public sentiment against him during the protests. While I am NOT asking for such against Buhari for now, but how come we have not seen even a press statement from any of our so-called rights activists? With the present state of things. How come all of them have lost their voices? Why haven't we seen them take the government to task or even to court? It is seems a case of what Yorubas call "ti enu ba je..." (When the mouth eats, shame usually seals it). I am battling the urge to mention some names who were just noise makers before Tinubu made them landlords in highbrow areas of Lagos. Shioor!

Gani Fawehinmi must be turning in his grave!"

~ Samuel Ajayi