Date: 2013-01-20

By Esuwoye Adesina Daniel

I read an opinion piece recently on a popular online newspaper, The Premium Times tagged "Tunji Morounfoye: An 'Activist' Gone to the Dogs". The piece is sure a delight to read, although rather too long for a lazy mind like me! I had earlier ignored it on other online platforms where I initially encountered it. Not even the many tagging on BB by friends would attract me to it. But as soon as I spotted it on the blockbuster Premium Time and latter on Ilorin Info, another fast rising local online forum, I knew our man was in deep shit! Premium Times, like Sahara Reporters, enjoys an unprecedented traffic of at least fifty thousand active visits in a day. Imagine how many Nigerians and Kwarans in particular would have had the privilege of reading that sharp piece, if half of the daily visitors to the online news media read the article? In fact, for three days running, the article was the 2nd most read on Ilorin Info, meaning that a lot of Kwarans were interested in reading a piece about a life of duplicity and deception that the Morounfoye personage resonates.

But as beautifully crafted as the piece in question was, there is a part which I took strongly to; that Tunji Morounfoye is (or even was) an activist! Tunji Morounfoye an activist? My foot! I can't imagine an informed mind as the author, one Abdullahi M. Gambari, deck a man like Morounfoye in a garb of activism. And somehow, I have been spurred into taking up the gauntlet to once and for all push for a proper definition of activism in Nigeria.

For the purpose of full disclosure, I fairly know Tunji Morounfoye, especially in Lagos. All through that time, his huge chest was a great asset for him as he commercially deployed it then. Tunji never ever involved in any emancipation crusade or national struggle for rebirth with us. Should I say he minded his business or just stayed aloof when we were at the fore-front of struggle for democracy and good governance? I think the latter better captures it. But, he was not totally aloof, while we were busy in the battle front, Tunji was rumored to be warming his way into the hearts of the oppressors. He was allegedly dinning and winning with the bourgeoisies, the despots in the name of whatever he was doing with them.

Thus, at a point, some of us saw the red flag raised that he was in an intense lobby for a government post. Towards the build-up to his eventual appointment, he made frantic efforts to demonize the opposition. That effort was a well rehearsed display of sycophancy designed to market himself into a government from whence he can join the cabal ofexecuthieves in the famous looting of the state's coffers.

As I remember those days when we had a stint together, I wept for Nigeria, I weep because I never imagined in my wildest dream that a day would come when Tunji would be used as an attack dog by people who are totally disconnected from reality. Until lately, Tunji remains for me one of the finest of the Fatai Ahmed-led administration. A man I foolishly thought would add some finesse to the lackluster occupiers of Ahmadu Bello way. But the Tunji I see today is a shadow. A pitiable sight of the old Tunji who has confirmed the adage that a goat that keeps the company of dogs will eventually became a dog. How else can I describe Tunji crass crudity in his response to the CPC's intervention on the street destitute? While I grant him the right, it was cruel to have subjected the party's genuine intervention to the white wash of his brush.

I was aware he was under fire from every one. His friends are grumbling aloud that this is not the Tunji they used to know. And I have been one of his sympathizers, his mischief notwithstanding. Is he worried, as much as we are, for his battered image and reputation? To his friends, they need not worry because our Tunji has crossed the Rubicon. He's at a point of no return. But why would Tunji ever go so low to the level of throwing aspersions to a party that has shown some promise and seriousness among the opposition parties in the state? This is the only reason I am responding to his diatribe. He knows in his heart, that Kwarans are too smart to accept his assessment of the Fatai-Ahmed administration, especially in respect of the destitute and their control in the metropolis that the CPC raised. I expected a person of his standing to check his facts, but he was in a hurry to cast aspersions on the imagined enemies of Fatai and his godfather. So for all he cares, Tunji ensnared himself in a mesh of irreconcilable contradictions, which is what happens when you are wittingly dishonest or outrightly intellectually incompetent. Because unknown to Tunji the omnipotent, while he was foolishly rubbishing the CPC's claim, his Commissioner counterpart in the Culture and Tourism Ministry admitted the upsurge but stated government intervention. That was from the Commissioner that is directly responsible and not from our I-too-Know Information Commissioner. Has Tunji been to Gambari to see the destitute eyesore there? What about the Emir's market and Sango area? Did he ever bother about the stretch of destitute along the Ipata-Amilengbe areas? Does he see the hordes of corporate beggars that flood Ministry of Works and Transport entrance and the Government House? And even in my hometown of Offa, the beggars are moving freely everywhere! Ask the Olofa what he had to do to curb the menace taking over his palace then, and he will tell you it was just some days of diplomacy devoid of lies and deceit that the Morounfoyes resorted to.

Honestly, my problem with some of these pseudo intellectuals like Morounfoye is that they mischievously fail to realise that a government whose normal moral compass was lost even before sailing is not worth defending. You can tell unless you wear the garment of the Pharishees. Some of us will never serve in the government; our middle name is Ilesanmi. Those who join the government only to turn against their primary constituency, the people, will not find rest. It's a natural law. Those who join government and cannot resist the temptation to also become deceitful and corrupt will live with both personal burden and the burden of history.

Tunji should have known better that no matter who serves in Kwara, no matter how foolish or wise the government becomes or claims to be, social critics and public commentators will always be here. It doesn't matter how we are addressed, we take on this social burden to tell things as they are. The motivation for this contribution is simply to show that consciously, our friend Tunji, seems to have allowed his stomach to rule over his head in accepting to serve in the PDP government and under no less a person than the con artist, the "godfather", because whether we like it ornot, Fatai is just a pwan in his chess game! Yes, somebody has to serve as a spokesman, after even despicable despots such as Abacha had his own Comical Ali. Having observed at close range on radio, Tunji's defense of the Fatai administration, I knew something had given in (or something caved in) in the old Tunji. He's a good speaker but a terrible liar!

In the light of the foregoing, it's pretty obvious that Tunji is involved in a dirty laundering for the PDP and his integrity is sliding towards an inescapable abyss. Tunji might not a liar simpliciter but a government that is failing its people like PDP for the past years needs people without convictions, people who are comfortable telling lies and going home to sleep without a bother! And Tunji, the opportunist, was waiting in the wind for a pick! But in the end, it was a judgment call for Tunji and he must have made it consciously for reasons he alone would know. Tunji has actually not and is not betraying anyone but his conscience each time he goes out there to lie to the Kwara people. Whilst wishing him luck, I challenge him to always be civil in his manners.

Esuwoye Adesina Daniel wrote from Federal Polytechnic, Offa