WHY YOU ARE SHOCKED AT SOWORE’S ASSETS DECLARATION.

 P O L I T I C S

WHY YOU ARE SHOCKED AT SOWORE’S ASSETS DECLARATION 

By: Adeyeye Olorunfemi

I guess a number of people are surprised at SOWORE’S assets and even the balance in his account. The DSS who investigated him for 5 months too were shocked at how a poor man can stand against powers and principalities with 6,000 Naira (the amount they found in his account on the day of his arrest). The 6k balance must have been the amount left after he has sent money out for posters, placards, megaphones, mobilization support for some rights lawyers; towards the protest. His usual style. 

The extreme rage the state agents brought to the protest centres across the country suggested they thought he got sponsorship from some big thieves in and outside the country. Even you, did not believe that #RevolutionNow protest was not sponsored. The government spent billions chasing poor us on the streets of Lagos, Osun, Abuja, Edo, Kano etc. It wasn’t too long in the case before they dropped the money laundering charge against Sowore, because they discovered there’s no money in the first place. So why launder? Who launders a vacuum? 

Sowore is the definition of that accounting method of stock called FIFO (First IN First OUT) He spends as he receives. He is shouldering mass responsibilities he tries to hide from the public. From giving scholarships to funding human rights cases for others; different levels of support to Nigerians, he can’t keep a nuclear savings account. 

Still he wishes he can do more. Those that are very close to him know all these things and wouldn't be surprised at the declaration yesterday. The rented house in Abuja is just a mini Kalakuta. An average of 20 persons (very conservative figure) move in and out of the house per month. When he stayed at Radisson Blu in Lagos, the hotel management could not stomach their displeasure at the the traffic of people who come to either visit or stay with Sowore per day. There was a day one of the receptionists disclosed that almost 70 percent of visitors who approached the counter came to see Sowore. I don’t think he would be allowed to stay in their hotel again, even if he begs to pay double the fee. 

And before you say where did he get the money to stay in such an expensive hotel? Expensive by the Nigerian standard anyway. Isn’t it much more cost effective to “squeeze in” 10-15 persons in a 2 bedroom hotel apartment and pay 100k plus, as to paying hotel bills of the 15 persons? That’s after you know fully well that no rented house in Lagos will allow that number of persons to live in a 2-bedroom. 

You have no idea the number of people who sleep over each other’s head in that hotel room. That’s Sowore for you. It’s verifiable. This is not the hyperbolical anecdote of I wore one wrist-watch for 17 years. I digressed. 

It’s Sowore’s dream that humanity will go back to communalism or something close to the system of the good old days. Yes, the good old days! 

Many of our parents were raised in the compound system of family. Yorubas call it “agbo’lé”. It was though a system of stratification. People described themselves with their agbo’lé. And it was not just a village thing like you are already thinking. Even in urban areas, families lived and kids grew up together. But as the economy kept crumbling with different austerity measures targeted at the common man, values kept changing, with structural adjustment programs that restructured family size, values, life expectancy etc, we moved from that family system to nuclear system and now to what I term as “survivalist family system”. Oh, you thought we are still practising nuclear family system. No. We are progressively retrogressing. 

Everything economic and political have drawn us apart. The “nuclear family” parents don’t have time for their children again. At age 1, crèche is the agbo’lé because the mum needs to hustle before 7am while the father needs to bustle till 11pm. Economy! 

For adults, let’s agree you are not living together, when last did you call to greet any member of your family? Mind you, I mean calling to just hear from them and not asking for money or preparing the ground for money and other perks. When last did you call for “God’s sake” and not the sake of your survival? That’s why you are shocked that a journalist of his repute will have 3k in his account. We have all imbibed the idea of personal prosperity in lieu of communal prosperity. Provided I’m fine, the next person can go to hell. 

Since we all started living in ridiculously pricy slums we call estates, no one cared about the man on the street, or even their own family members who stay at the less expensive slums. Economy fixes everything that’s broken. People can not love or care genuinely when they’ve not eaten. It’s science not a moral issue. 

Finally, money is not SOWORE’S problem. It is the problem of Tinubu, Atiku and Obi. They are the ones who are given to the primitive accumulation of wealth. 

P.S- He lied about his assets. He didn’t add his social media followers. 

Pic 1- Sowore praying for daily bread. 🤣. (Kidding) 

Pic 2- Rich men in their Estate. 

Pic 3- Poor men in their Estate.