GOOD OVER EVIL.

President Muhammadu Buhari [PMB] was recently in Poland where he participated in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice. Some intellectual Nigerians have made it a habit of insulting the president and they would have done same if he did not show up in Poland. They would have called him an analog president oblivious of global trends and asked what he was doing when other world leaders were gathered in one place.

One cannot deny Buhari’s antagonizers their fix; a few of them used social media to express their rage at one of the activities performed by Mr. President while in Poland. PMB met with the leaders of Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Netherlands and Estonia; discussions were largely about Trade, Investment and Agriculture. His meeting with the Dutch Prime minister was a follow-up meeting while it was about Global Politics with the PM of Estonia. Stuff like these did not resonate with certain Nigerians, it was his visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum where he laid a wreath in tribute to Holocaust Victims that irked them.

One fellow explained her disapproval by linking the Holocaust to Biafra while another was angry that he could visit a memorial but not states plagued by Boko Haram. I am still trying to find out which states she referred to. I confronted a friend on Facebook who had shared the post about Buhari’s wreath and the states hit by Boko Haram; I wanted to know the justification for criticizing the President for doing something that political leaders and diplomats do all over the world. I informed those pushing these stories that President Jonathan laid a wreath five years ago at the Yad Vashern Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem and I asked them if they had posts on social media condemning the man.

My friend decided to justify himself when I told him his activities on social media against PMB were borne out of hate for the man. He claimed it was not hate but that he could not trust the man who visited Qatar, a nation that has open channels with Hamas. He said Buhari’s wreath laying was dishonest.

How does one discern honesty by looking at photographs of a diplomatic activity? What does honesty have to do with anything? Was Theresa May being honest when she danced on her recent tour of some African countries? Should anyone really care if she danced with or without honesty? Queen Elizabeth II visited the United Arab Emirates in November 2010. She visited a tomb and the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi where she donned a scarf and took off her shoes. The Supreme Governor of the Church of England wore a scarf and went without shoes into a Mosque. 

Elizabeth II without shoes in Abu Dhabi

What if that happened in Nigeria? Our super-religious folks would have had plenty to trend with on social media. I am a ‘religious’ person and I arrived at my position almost 25 years ago without any parental guidance or societal coercion. I have observed [based on their expressed thoughts] the political ideology of many who have the same faith as I do, and I have found it difficult to explain. I refuse to believe that the shameless expression of hate towards a certain human being comes from truly spiritual people.

Some prayed death his way and one fellow earned plenty retweets when he announced that he was exiting the Redeemed Christian Church of God because he could not fathom how Vice President Osinbajo who is a Professor and a Pastor could be in Buhari’s camp. What wrong did Buhari or Osinbajo do to them? Most of the things they reel out as evidence against the men are flimsy and just broadcasts of what some paid anarchists pushed out to earn political advantage. Those who ridiculed an entire ethnicity, region or religion because of the man they have been trained to despise have now openly or ‘codedly’ declared for someone who is like him because their revered spiritual leaders have tilted in that direction. They have quickly forgotten all their profiling and curses; they now lay claim to divine backing to end slavery and poverty in the land. One court jester who happens to be a senator was recently recorded dancing and singing in front of an exotic car parked in what appears to be part of his living room. The irony of his action is that he was singing about poverty and hunger in the land and how Buhari was the cause.

How does someone despise PMB because he met with Qatar and voted against Israel with respect to Palestine? Is there a written code somewhere that Nigeria must support Israel in whatever that nation does? Is Israel backed by every nation in the world? Does voting against Israel in some issues mean we cannot still have diplomatic ties with them? Canada have diplomatic relations with Qatar just like many others do. The Clinton Foundation got $1million from Qatar when Hilary was US Secretary of State, do the Clintons not know that Qatar has ties with Hamas? The United States and Britain use an air-base in Qatar for some of their military operations in the region. The people we think are ‘defenders of the faith’ have their hands soiled and cover up matters from time to time. The world is evil and yet good; atrocities have happened and will continue to happen. Crimes do not have any unique religious, national or racial coloration, even those we look up to are imperfect with many neck-deep in committing, aiding or covering up crime against fellow men.

The United States of America have Saudi Arabia as a strong ally and not even the recent gruesome murder and dismembering of Jamal Khashoggi is able to affect this romance. What is the difference between what happened to Khashoggi and the many atrocities that have been linked to the USA? Was the CIA not involved in toppling Nkrumah? What about the execution of Fabrice Lumumba or the events that preceded the Vietnam war? Should we talk about the Iran-Contra affair? What about the Slave Trade and the atrocities that accompanied colonization which has left the previously colonized still suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder? In the mid-1980s, Ronald Reagan and some top officials in his government were caught in a mess that involved money and weapons in Nicaragua, Iran, Israel and Lebanon. USA supplied military hardware to Iran prior to the Revolution there. An arms embargo followed which President Reagan supported and continued when he assumed office. Reagan was also in support of the move by the Contras to topple the Socialist government in Nicaragua.

Weapons were sold to Iran despite the embargo and the money obtained was used to fund rebel activities in the South American nation. When some American citizens got taken in Lebanon by Hezbollah, the narrative was directed to involve Israel and a move to source for Iranians to help rescue the kidnapped. It appears Israel related with Iran on America’s behalf and this hostage situation was what Reagan used to explain his actions to sell arms. An Israeli adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister at the time, Amiram Nir played a role in this affair. He was apparently hung out to dry and was going to sell his story about the scandal to the press. One name was mentioned, George H. W. Bush who was said to have been briefed by Nir. Bush denied knowledge, Reagan’s rating had dropped, and Bush was busy running for president in late 1988. Nir died in December 1988 following a plane crash in Mexico but his death remains controversial with more than a few conspiracy theories. These are some of the evils that accompany politics and power.

Religious folks are not spared from these types of situations even though such should not happen. Should we act as if some of the Nigerian religious leaders haven’t erred alongside politicians? Some have helped to launder images and monies to foreign lands, should we deny these? As much as people insist that these leaders must be respected, and their actions or inaction not questioned, I find it rather weird to keep quiet when these people in vantage positions speak untruths about Nigeria, her people and her politics. Some of the things that have been said are worse than what set some nations alight and cannot be proved to me to be words from a deity. I might ignore heresies but half-truths or full-lies about Nigeria and utterances which are of the supremacist nature are some of the things that irritate me. We should be the ones pushing for transparency and demanding restitution instead of the cover-ups that we now assume is the godly thing to do. Let us not act like the Australian pastor who knew about his father's crimes but failed to act for many years despite being in the position to only for the matter to return now when his father is long gone. 

It is dangerous politics that is being played in some Nigerian states and Benue is one of such. It seems everything is all about ‘militia herdsmen’ there. The governor as reported in a September 1 2018 story published by Punch Newspapers told the state Chapter of the Christian association of Nigeria that the people of the state should arm themselves by obtaining their Permanent Voter’s Cards in order to resist further invasion of Benue land by herdsmen under the guise of grazing. How will voting for him ensure ‘herdsmen’ are resisted? He takes every opportunity he gets to talk about the state’s enemies and how some other parties that favor herdsmen are conniving to take over the state. There is also the case of Jimi Agbaje in Lagos who took to Twitter to express the same rhetoric about Igbos in Lagos which failed him in 2015. He or whoever is responsible for his social media platforms described the situation as antisemitism. I don’t understand these people anymore.

What is Good over Evil? There is a tussle within many people, to do good or allow oneself to drift with evil currents. The urge to constantly spread lies about Muhammadu Buhari knowingly or otherwise cannot be termed as good. You mock a man for having a modest number of cattle, but you celebrate those whose resources you cannot justify because it aligns with your sentiments. You profile entire groups and you are convinced you are expressing faith? Before you utter the next word or share that jaundiced post, ask yourself if you fact-checked and if what you are going to release will build-up or destroy. Don’t let arrogance or ignorance bring embarrassment your way, let it end in 2018. One fellow who described himself as a physician tweeted that certain anti-hypertensive medications had been recalled and urged people not to take them. He soon had over 5,000 retweets and 2000 likes but the problem was that he followed up the main tweet with information about a specific brand of the drug. Trust Nigerians to activate panic and WhatsApp sharing modes. It was clear that many ran with the root tweet which had no specifics. Other Twitter users noticed the problem and advised the young man to delete the first tweet which had caused confusion for many. Many Nigerians do not look beyond the superficial and those who read the first tweet ran with it as gospel. The problem was not that this man tweeted something misleading, he categorically said that he was not responsible for people failing to read his follow-up tweets. Despite the pleas from others to realize the danger his tweet had caused, he remained defiant.

Please do not think your actions or inaction are without consequence. There is life beyond social media and your supporters club. Do not let religiosity cripple you so badly that you endorse untruth and fiction as truth. Do not let evil cause you to hate your fellow man because society, history or your name tell you to. There is good in you, let it triumph over the evil that lurks. The President of the UAE owns significant real estate in Seychelles and gets to transfuse that nation with monetary fluids from time to time, I wonder if our people would refuse such gestures if we had the chance. 

HUSH.

History is one subject that captivates me more than others. I have spent some time studying some of our West African neighbors and I am more than ever convinced that certain Nigerians need to talk less or not at all.

Some West African nations have fought civil wars in recent years just like Nigerians did for more than 24 months in the late 1960s. Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Nigeria all have danced naked and bloody before the world and one thing that is common is the focus on divisions above real issues. All these countries like most African states have been bedeviled by corruption, greed and other vices which successive governments vowed to tackle but where conflicts arose; those who sponsored them appeared to always engineer the discussion to be about ethnicity, religion or social status.

Military coups occurred in many African countries mostly backed by either foreign and/or local sponsors. In many of these cases, these activities were carried out to correct some real or imagined ethnic imbalances. Ghana had more than her fair share of coups but she somehow was spared the waste of a civil war. I don't know why this is so but where wars happened, it appeared fracture lines were made more apparent.

Liberia is a story of settlers (slaves who returned from America) dominating indigenes until Samuel Doe struck in 1980 killing the president before him and executing majority of his cabinet (Johnson Sirleaf and a few others managed to escape). A young non-commissioned officer soon promoted himself to general alongside other opportunists. They practically turned against one another till all things fell apart. Thomas Quiwonkpa, Charles Taylor and Prince Johnson were prominent players from 1980 in Liberia. Quiwonkpa before turning 30 fled the nation and returned in 1985 to overthrow Doe. He succeeded for about 6 hours without realising the Americans had given Doe a hint of the planned move against him. Quiwonkpa was killed, decapitated and all sorts of unimaginable deeds were done with his body. All these happened barely a month after Doe had organized elections and won. He is reported to have gotten over $500million dollars from the USA and met with Reagan. It seemed all a nation needed to do was to tell the U.S. that money was needed to fend off the Soviets. Doe turned on his former colleague's people and killed many of them. It became a 'we versus them' and the aggrieved only required a commander.

Taylor was acknowledged by U.S. intelligence to be one of their assessts while undergoing a trial in a U.S. court in the mid 1980s on account of money allegedly stolen from his role in Doe's government. He broke out of an American prison aided by American intelligence and somehow ended up in Libya with Gadaffi. He returned to Liberia a war Lord in 1989 and it became a 'free for all.'

With ECOMOG presence, Doe who had expected American intervention berated them for not doing so because they didn't want development in Liberia which he as president wanted. The U.S. under Bush snr were only interested in evacuating US CITIZENS which they did. So Nigerians, when next anyone incites other Nigerians or preys on our differences, please find out if they have dual or multiple nationalities. Don't be deceived, those big countries will only save those who have their travel documents which your pastors, imam or social media god may already have or be in the process of procuring.

Prince Johnson was with Charles Taylor as they approached Monrovia but soon broke away. He had been with the commander who had tried to overthrow Doe and seemed to have a personal score to settle. They soon captured Doe and the man who the US had planned an evacuation for was begging for mercy. The once boastful man was castrated and murdered gruesomely. Johnson kept repeating to him all his atrocities and how he didn't show mercy to his opponents.

The Americans were undecided on Taylor and let things play out. It's easy to call on America and other world powers for intervention when fecal matter hits the propeller, it's another thing entirely for them to budge. Ask Syrians. Taylor soon became president and a disruptor in the West African subregion. What he did cost Nigeria cash and blood; Obasanjo hoodwinked him and he got 50years for all his troubles. Prince Johnson is a senator.

I didn't realise how much Sierraleoneans sounded like Nigerians until I watched a YouTube video about their own version of civil war. Some of their names even look Nigerian like Joseph Momoh, Yahya Kanu, Solomon Musa etc. Settlers from slave pasts also stayed in Sierra Leone like they did in Nigeria. They are called Saros in some settings and were found across southern and central Nigeria. They were disputes back in the day with disrespect, land grab and it is on record that they were on different occasions pursued from Lagos and Abeokuta but they returned later.

Ethnic issues also played a role in their war but external influences weighed in considerably. A Nigerian businessman who lost both hands to machetes in Freetown [January 1999] recounted to Channels television in a 2012 interview how his limbs were chopped off by a Liberian rebel and how other Nigerians suffered similar or worse fates in only a matter of days. He said those rebels had francophone accomplices, soldiers of fortune more like. The subregion is that fluid and mercenaries for hire are available. I think we need to be addressing the real issues of poverty and underdevelopment in the region before we forget ourselves in disputes about who is a settler or indigene, black or mixed race and jew or hindu. They deliberately sought for Nigerians in Freetown because of ECOMOG. We have hemorrhaged enough as a nation on account of others. Let's not even for a second wish to bleed again from our own cuts, who will form the ECOMOG that will patrol our mangroves up to our Savannahs? Benin Republic?

We like to throw big words around as Nigerians but we should weigh them before writing or speaking such. Some people through their craftiness have succeeded in manipulating entire groups of people against other tribes and faiths. Educated folks who should examine and correct many of these inaccurate descriptions and stereotypes unfortunately do nothing. The more seeds of discord are sown the more trees of deception grow and block the sighting of truth and restraint.

People don't wait to verify news, they rush to broadcast and spread distrust, hate and rebellion. Some opinions are toxic enough to equate arson and these really don't have to be uttered. Don't even suggest any scale of violence because nothing can be guaranteed; the progression or the end. What some people think is freedom of speech seems to me like licences to kill; such should not be celebrated in any way. Don't play politics with everything, just hush from time to time.

JOA8072018

DEATH THREAT 2.

The story about Ciroma elicited an internal investigation by Premium Times PT which got their Plateau reporter fired and an apology extended to Ciroma. In order words, some guys plucked news from Pluto's atmosphere and tagged Ciroma to it. It is unfortunate that some people still did not get this memo at all or they got it but found it difficult to accept they were duped so they carried on with the narrative.

Some people praised PT for apologising and even attacked Nigerians who didn't spare PT because none of the other media houses who ran with the reprisal story didn't retract or apologize. Like how the gist about Arabic in Police screening exams got into church sermons, Ciroma was prayer point headline and the gates of curses were torn down on account of him and the people he represents. The gates of hell were also opened earlier in the year when two priests and about 17 others were killed in Benue. An appointee of Ortom was arrested for this carnage and Benue has gone cold.

It is baffling how rumour, conspiracy theory and faulty material gets served as sermons these days. When people can justify a 'pastor' calling on his members to take heads and offer them to God, what is the small matter of just accusing an entire tribe of planning to dominate about 250 others?

I listened to the clip about Fulanis not being able to rule in Guinea and Senegal and how they are all being summoned to Nigeria a few days ago. I was disappointed that such could have been said. One wonders if those who got killed or displaced in Ebonyi, Akwa Ibom and Cross River a few days earlier were non-Christians. It appears there is nothing the incumbent Fulani President can do to convince those whose minds are made up already.

I commented on a certain post where this video was attached and a certain young man who attends the church of the pastor concerned decided to be famous. He called someone "pisshead" and then faced me posting daddy and mummy abuse. He later on posted "I am about to make you lose your life," "...if I see you physically, what happen (sic) to those people in Jos will happen to you," "..don't be worried, the shivering will soon stop. The dead don't shiver."

I have been laughing all day today because a Yoruba man from Ekiti like me can boldly make threats to commit murder on social media because of his love for his pastor. This is unfortunately what some Nigerians have become; we were supposed to debate on the validity of the history lesson but sense does not always go side by side with packaging.

Where do we all come from sef? Who is the indigene and who is the non-indigene? I have learnt a few things about my lineage from my mother and if you haven't asked your people any questions before, perhaps it is high time you did. I know a friend and colleague with incredible history that extends into Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Brazil, USA, Benin Republic and a few other West African nations. Why do we go about with arrogance (if I must call it that) like we are superior to other people? We keep talking about 1804 and an age where we did not have formal boundaries defining nations. Major tribes in Guinea for example have origin in Ancient Mali, some ethnicities are divided by national or state boundaries. Should such related people end their affiliation simply because of boundaries? Should we build walls like Trump proposed or should we divide Africa all over again so that we don't have any mixing?

It's easy to say this is our land and others are settlers but what is the gain? Should original Lagosians say non-indigenes in Idi-Araba, FESTAC, Aguda, parts of Surulere etc ask 'settlers' to vacate because their forefathers before Dan Fodio owned the land? Should we not work with those of us alive at this time and find out ways that the disputed lands and waters will be efficiently utilized?

I am convinced that blacklisting people who don't share our ethnicity, culture or religion does not proceed from love (of even ourselves and family members) but from paranoia and a supremacist ideology. We are not any different from the Ku Klux Klan or slave traders.

As for the wannabe murderer, I can only pray for him and hope his friends and family help him. You are not more human because you think one cannot condemn killings in Nigeria and at the same time support Mr President.

If you can't stand him, get your PVC, identify a candidate and campaign peacefully and vigorously for him or her to win. it's not war and like I tell people, I won't mind to see the drama and action a Sowore presidency will bring. Do you think i won't enjoy watching him jail Jonathan, Atiku, Obasanjo, Dezieani, Tinubu etc etc?

JOA3072018