Jim Pressman, Abuja
We do not know where the Senate President is on this, as a supposed arbiter in debates, but once a soldier, always a soldier, never mind General Eisenhower and those most often cited ex-Generals – turned – democrats.
I had expected my brother and Senator Smart Adeyemi to fall into the evil camp as usual, so I could laugh my head off again, but he disappointed me, sweetly for a change… But I digress as our story will not be told here, did not start here.
The pain of what happened at the Senate over former Senate Committee on Sports, Heineken Lokpobiri -when he presented the ill-fated Bill to the effect that sit-in, picketing and all manner of protest rights of Labour which includes Media professional groups such as RATTAWU and NUJ – is that the likes of ex-Newswatch magazine Associate Editor now Senator Ayogu Eze were so loud in their support of such an obnoxious piece of legislation! Bassey Out, Senator of the Federal Republic, Haba!
When the likes of Hon. Abike Dabiri in the Lower Chamber burned the midnight oil to study and lobby and canvass all quarters to get the FOI Act passed from Bill into law, nobody heard much about Ayogu Eze and his anti-Labour cohorts. He was in fact to later deny my efforts to see him and all the messages I left for him, when we ran into each other at the first workshop by NUJ to enlighten members on the Act and its implementation, how to test and make it work, where Abike Dabiri-Erewa challenged in an address to put the Act to the test… It was then time for all to shine and share the credit for the long – drawn battle for the law to come to be!
Ex-Governor now Senator Ngige fought the anti-people (even anti-Senate, he argued) Bill, which Smart Adeyemi suggested should be just ‘thrown outside’ – the best thing I have heard him said, and I hope he was not playing to the gallery in view of the approach of NUJ national elections mid-year… that, another story!
Senators Lanlehin, Makarfi and all those who fought off the wicked attempt, remain our friends in Labour and people-oriented Media, not the huge PR/Marketing outfits today parading Image mangers and crass canvassers as reporters, while all the other Senators: Manager, Paulker, etc… should bend their heads in shame for attempting to remove what one supporter-Senator called the only window of opportunity for venting their displeasure.
We are waiting for the Public Hearing, should Senator Bonaventure stay bent on giving his friend Lokpobiri a soft landing from this precarious misadventure!
