They will come together as a group and give themselves a name, register the name with the Corporate Affairs Commission, and claim that their aim is to fight injustice in society, to work for the interest of ordinary citizens in society, the downtrodden, those left behind by the system, people without voice, to give them a voice.
They will begin by openly challenging every action of government, criticize it, and say that it should have been one way or the other. They will issue press releases, hold press briefings, or take to the streets to protest, or to express their disapproval of certain action of government. Sometimes they will go to court to challenge the action.
The people will hail them, clap their hands that their liberator, their saviour, those fighting their cause, for their liberation from the hands of their oppressors, the highhandedness of those in government, the very powerful in society, have arrived. They will praise, celebrate, and hero worship them.
But beyond this facade, this pretense that they are working for the interest of the masses, members of the group will surreptiously go behind, under the cover of darkness, to wine and dine with the oppressors. They will be given huge sums of money or government appointments, to shut them up. Then, all of a sudden, the noise and the crticisms, will stop, or will be mellowed down. And the people would have been fooled.
So, it was not surprising when an audio recording that has gone viral, revealed that Mr. Charley Boy Oputa, Chairman of OurMuMuDonDo Movement had collected hundred millions of naira from Mr. Festus Kayemo, spokesperson of Buhari Campaign Organization to do a song against the PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and that Charley Boy also turned his back on his comrade in the struggle, Deji Akinyanju, who the authorities had locked up in prison in Kano.
That’s the lot of most of most of our Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and so-called civil society activists. They will always run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.
Our own dear Maradona was a master craftsman, a game player. He had studied and clearly understood the psychology of most Nigerians and he knew how to handle them, how to get those who make too much noise about his regime to shut up their mouths. He perfectly did it during his own time.
For instance, when both Tai Solarin and Wole Soyinka were at his neck, criticising his regime, he went and established the Peoples Bank of Nigeria and made Solarin its chairman. He also knew that Wole Soyinka was passionate about the issue of road safety, so he set up the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), and made Soyinka the Corps Marshal. Suddenly, the two men began to sing his praises and stopped criticising him.
We know that most regimes do exactly the same. What is surprising however in the present instance is not that OurMuMuDonDo Movement Chairman collected money from government, afterall other groups have been doing the same. What is surprisung is that this was done under the watchful eye of Mr. Integrity, Mr. Incorruptible, who no doubt, had approved the release of the bribe money, afterall the money did not come from Festus Keyamo’s purse.
As our people would say, if rain did not fall, one would not have known that the guinea fowl has ten footprints. In other words, if the audio recording between Charley Boy and Deji Akinyanju did not leak, one would not have known that the Buhari administration was engaged in bribery.
Charley Boy has openly admitted that he collcted money running into nine figures from Festus Keyamo, the only problem was that Deji wanted to be part of it, which he refused. So, among the theives, there must be a level of morality.
Aside of that, tomorrow, let nobody tell me that he is fighting corruption.
