Struggle for good governance and against class oppression or any form of exploitation or gender discrimination comes naturally to her. This makes Funmi Aluta a familiar face at the barricade, on the streets with clenched fist, megaphone, singing, dancing, distributing leaflet or raising banners to protest and mobilize others in several marches demanding for good governance.
Funmi doesn’t have much time for unnecessary polemics in as much as the issues leading to protests are very clear to her. She’s restless, lively, jovial, frank and can be unnecessarily overwhelming and impatient on occasions. But no one can accuse Funmi of vacilitating or compromise or for any unprincipled action when struggles break. Just call her name if the mission is to fight for good governance, the right of the masses and against government’s bad policies, Funmi Aluta is there firmly, fearlessly and purposefully at the barricade.
About three weeks ago, I was with the Convener of Where’s the Light Movement, Comrade Sina Odugbemi on our way to launch Where’s the Light Community to Community National Campaign. When we got to Agege area, it occurred to me that Funmi once told me she stays around that neighborhood. We decided to give her a call to say “hello”
She insisted we must pay her a brief courtesy visit after describing how to get to her street and shop. We met her getting set to go and fix her hair in preparation for a party with friends in Sagamu.
After Odugbemi informed her of our mission to Idimu /Igando communities in Alimosho Local Government to launch Where’s the Light campaign. Instantly, Funmi changed her mind not to go to the party again and decided to follow us to Idimu for the community launch. We were pleasantly surprised by that rear commitment. According to her, residents on her street and in other neighborhoods were also having issues of crazy billing and her community, so it’s worthwhile to support to support Idimu communities and relate her experiences too in anticipation of a day of action to collectively protest.
At the Idimu programme, Funmi was at her very best behind the megaphone singing, dancing and talking to many people on the road and in the market particularly market women, educating them on the danger of electricity power exploitation due to the fraudulent privatisation of the power sector which led to over commercialisation of light and darkness because of the profit interest of the few greedy merchants in the power sector. She encouraged women to be at the forefront of the Where’s the Light Movement’s campaign against crazy bills, irregular power supply yet people pay more for darkness.
As the chief host of Where’s the Light community campaign a week after in Agege, Funmi, again, displayed her grassroots popularity and influence. Restless as usual, she led women and men in the mobilisation for the meeting when our team arrived the venue. In her constituency Funmi is an iron lady with sense of duty and humanity because she had led many battles against crazy bills, illegal disconnection and harrasment of the community by Disco’s staff aided by security agencies.
Her speech during the programme was precise and direct to the equally aggrieved members of the community who have become permanent victims of estimated crazy electricity bills and illegal disconnection. Many old women confessed that they had become hypertensive due to the rude conduct of electricity workers anytime they come for disconnection because they were always the ones at home to attend to the rude electricity staff.
Funmi Aluta is always at home with her community. She feels their pain of bad governance, of electricity exploitation and bad road network. Like them, she’s a victim of bad governance, but unlike many of them, particularly women, Funmi Aluta does not believe in despondency or endless prayer to confront ruling class oppression and bad governance.
She has opted for agitation, protest, mass struggle and campaign against discrimination be it class or gender basis. Funmi, a good mother to lovely children and a grassroots activist, can be described as a tireless lady of the barricade out of conviction and an Amazon of multi-perspective struggle.
How far Funmi Aluta can go in uncompromising activism for good governance will be determined not by her natural instinct to resist class or gender oppression, or by how many protest placards she carries for many years, or conferences she attends, but by her ideological clarity to arrive at a conclusion that System Change is the ultimate goal with her experience in struggle. Bravo!
