Guess the latest unionist agitator in town? Comrade Senate President, Omo Baba Oloye, Dr. Bukola Saraki! Did you catch him pump his fist in the air the other day?
Ah, that would make Adams Oshiomhole green with envy, as the Americans would say! But when did the alliance between an elitist eighth Senate, which has not quite been able to throw off the perception crisis of its forebears, and a populist Labour movement, always mouthing aluta continua, victoria ascerta, even if it stumbles from one defeat to another, in an industrial space spiked with more than its fair dose of neo-liberalism, start?
And wonders and wonders, Omo Baba Oloye was not alone! With him, as captured by a picture which The Nation published in its February 9 issue, was Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, product of Saraki’s rebellion against — and conquest of — his party, in the all-important task of choosing principal officers for the Senate.
With them on the aluta dais was Trade Union Congress (TUC) President, Bobboi Kaigama and Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Ayuba Wabba, both comrades in the new battle to force Babatunde Fashola’s Power Ministry to force service; before brow-beating longsuffering power consumers, to pay even more for the darkness they get now, instead of light.It was at a rally at the National Assembly, Abuja.
That rally kick-started the nationwide picketing of DISCOs (electricity distribution companies) and GENCOs (electricity generating companies), as the new Great Satan (to use Iran-speak, in its high rhetoric with the United States), in the eyes of a baleful electricity — or sorry, darkness — consuming masses; and their organised Labour champions and chaperons.So, between the elite National Assembly and a rabidly populist Labour, when did the entente start? Well, maybe there is no entente, as such.
Maybe elitism and populism have not morphed into some strange alchemy, which sees both diametrically opposed economic dramatis personae hug themselves like some long lost lovers.
Maybe there is only politics of perception, which winning symbolism symbiotically works for both sides!For once, Labour seems happy to have in its corner the Senate, an all-important ally against the Power Minister Babatunde Fashola, SAN, who for the umpteenth time, needs to work on his emotional intelligence.
It is only a Fashola, who would believe in the manifest goodness of his crusade of rescuing the power sector by asking angry consumers to pay first, and ask question later. He dubbed it a bitter pill that must be downed for the future good of all! For another, the embattled Saraki, with his Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) trial set to open soon, would appear to need some healthy dose of populism to weather the fierce journey ahead. Smart bloke! He knows the battle would be fought in the law court as it would be in the street.
If he must win that perception game, he could not afford the folly of the Roman Coriolanus, who mocked the plebs that their breaths reek of garlic. Even if they do, Omo Baba Oloye perhaps has enough courtly street wisdom (and common sense) to merrily gulp them down! So, when next Bukola Saraki comes throwing his punch in the air, in your neighbourhood, know he is preparing for the long haul.
To win the perception war, is a task that must be done, so seems to say Bukky, the latest unionist agitator in town!
NATION
END
Be the first to comment