Debo Adeniran, a consultant educationalist was the pioneer secretary-general, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights. He was the first general secretary, Gani Fawehinmi Solidarity Association and Inaugural Assistant general secretary, Campaign for Democracy (CD). In a chance meeting two weeks back with the Editor, FOLORUNSHO HAMSAT, the executive chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), shares his affairs as an activist, human rights crusader, including his unknown soft side. Excerpt… 

 

What do you honestly think of activists contesting for political offices and not making it; what is really wrong with the system?

It is not totally incorrect that activists don’t get elected when they contest in elections; contrarily in recent times, activists have won gubernatorial elections; National Assembly slots, and at the level of Local Government. However, it is clear that the state and ruling class that have subsisted for so long under bourgeois democracy always do try to ensure that activists are alienated from the process of governance using any means possible; including, but not limited to violence, monetary influence, intimidation etc.  So the dominating ruling class and their underbellies consciously and constantly put ‘obstacles’ on the path of activists contesting in elections and this is because the state and ruling class know that if the activists get into power, the music will change and business will not  be ‘as usual’. It should not, in anyway, be surprising as to why genuine activists seeking elective offices don’t always make it. Given the corrupt and often monetized atmosphere under which our political activities operate in this part of the world, activists’ incursion into the murky waters may just be like a fish out of water – in a strange environment, so to say. Furthermore, birds of the same feather flock together, they say. It shouldn’t, in anyway, be surprising as to why genuine activists seeking elective offices don’t always make it.  He just doesn’t belong. The system has been so tailored to suit the whims and caprices of the bourgeois godfathers who have overtime held sway and have also succeeded in brain-washing and inducing the average electorate into doing their bidding. These ones often see the activist as a potential ‘spoiler’ to their selfish, exploitative tendencies and so would do anything to block his chances. They already know that the activist is most unlikely to tolerate their anti-people stance and not ready to compromise on most issues of governance. And because they would always want to ensure that the status quo is maintained and sustained to their selfish advantage, everything would be done to stop the already identified ‘enemy’.

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