By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.
The planned protest, whether peaceful or violent, is definitely not good for Nigeria or any country for that matter. One of the reasons, among many others, is that it may be hijacked by criminals to commit all sorts of crimes or create a void within the country, which must be filled by some yet to be known persons. But, as is most often said, ‘The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know’. Put another way, there is a popular Nigerian pidgin English phrase that says, ‘trouble dey sleep, yanga dey wekam’.
The above quotations tell us that the outcome of any deliberate disregard for law and order is bound to misfire, as the result could be anything but what most of the participants expected it to be at the end of the day. But there are always ‘hidden’ beneficiaries of lawlessness, who directed and used the masses from behind the scenes, for the political gain that they could not get fair and square.
There are some statements credited to the then politician, Senator Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, also known as the Jagaban, now the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. These were statements that any opposition politician of note would make. Palatable or not.
But as a Nigerian President, Tinubu is no more the advocate of revolutions or ‘violence’. On his X (formerly known as Twitter) handle recent sympathy message to former US President and Republican Party Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, he said that there is “no place for violence in democracy”, in reference to the failed assassination attempt on the former president.
Politicians would always appeal to our fault lines for present and future votes, by whipping up local, state, religious, regional and national sentiments. Or the perceived failing of the ruling government, which is often the case, to gain more popularity and attract voters’ attention and their votes. But when the votes are counted and ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ emerge, they both bond up with one another and wait for the next election. In politics, as in foreign relations, it is said that there is ‘no permanent enemy, only permanent interest’. It is no different on these shores.
The only losers are the voters, who trooped out in sunshine or in rain, to cast their votes for the candidate of their preference. However, majority of the elites do not bother with the polls, but always decide who becomes what and who gets what in the country.
There is a video clip trending on the social media showing then former Senator Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), often referred to as leader of the party, calling for a change of the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan government through a revolution. The call was not headed by most Nigerians, as President Jonathan stayed in office up to 2015, when he lost to Muhammadu Buhari in the election of the later part of the previous year.
There was a reproduction of the story in a Lagos based national newspaper where Senator Tinubu made the call. I have no issues with the newspaper, it was only doing a part of its job, which is to keep the people informed about happenings around them.
In another publication (lengthy), Senator Tinubu stated that he did not believe in the unity of Nigeria a far away US. He was then a ranking member of the banned group, National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) under the leadership of Chief Antony Enahoro, the First Republic Minister in the Western Region, who died in 1980 at 87 years old. The statement was issued out in 1987 in far away US, where he went on the lam, allegedly to save his dear life from the killers in the military. But in 1999, he became the governor of Lagos state through a democratic election.
No country, whatever the degree of its religiousity, condones the forceful change of government, be it civilian, military or autocratic. Nigeria is not an exception, because it is both religious and democratically civilian elected, in both reality and practice.
I am not by any way a very religiously knowledgeable person, so I am not going to base my comment on a religious pedestal. Besides, I am not in anyway, and have never been, a beneficiary of the ‘alleged’ money that was said to have changed hands from the government to some preachers in order for them to appeal to their supporters not to take part in the planned nationwide protest.
Also, I am a strong supporter of some of the Islamic ulamas such as Shiekh Yakubu Musa, of Katsina, Shiekh Aminu Daurawa of Kano and the state’s chairman of the Hisba Board. Some of these people and my humble self enjoy a a very cordial relationship. Therefore, I believe them absolutely when they swore to not receiving any money from the Federal Government to dissuade their northern followers and or supporters from partaking in the planned protest against the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Their calls in opposition to, and stance against, the planned nationwide strike were taken because there was nowhere violent protests against the leadership of a society is legitimatised in Islam or the Sayings of the Messengers of God. There is also none, in my view, in any self respecting religion for that matter.
Among its supporters and promoters is a publisher of a famous online magazine and a former Presidential candidate in Nigeria who is, apparently, not at peace or comfortable with the way the sitting President conducts the affairs of the country. If he and or any other people have a better alternative, they should wait for the next Presidential election in the country and offer it to Nigerians. It is legal and not in contravention of any law in the country.
Out of the many freedoms democracy legitimately gives to the citizens of this country, is the freedom to choose the candidate of their choice without hindrance from any quarters. It is called the ‘Freedom of choice’.
Top people in the government, who feel very powerful because of the ‘Dutch’ courage their office gives them, may do well for the country to deploy the energy they used to discourage sincere citizens from doing what is going to improve the hard condition of the ordinary Nigerian. The attempt, by a ranking official of an agency under the supervision of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), to run down the effort and sacrifice of billionaire Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who built a refinery that took him nine years at the staggering cost of 20 billion US dollars, was anything but patriotic.
If such people were sincere about their so called loyalty and love for their country, they should deploy them towards saving Nigeria from the dangers of the planned nationwide protest and the danger that they and their white paymasters purposely created for the country.
I am sure yours sincerely would take some criticisms and praises, probably on equal measure, for taking this stance on the planned nationwide strike. But as the famous poet, essayist and lecturer, Nigeria’s only Nobel Laureate (1986 for Literature), Akinwande Oluwale Babatunde Soyinka, better known as Professor Wole Soyinka, once said in his prison notes, now made in some very famous books and plays, said that, ‘The man died in he who sits on the fence in the time of crisis’.
The most important fact of the matter is that my religion, Islam, and my conscience are out of the reach of any bidder, therefore not for sale at anytime. May God help us to continue that way, up to the end of our existence in this world.
Malam Malumfashi wrote from Abuja.
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