They Might Just Ignore To Knock…

It will not be Buhari’s fault that Nigerians stumbled into another fascist phase, it would be the fault of the silent, the complicit, and the ones counseling peace, to the victims of injustice…

Two years ago to the day, I posted a thought, I queried Buhari’s demand for emergency powers to tackle the economy. I asked what powers he’d be requiring to deal with the myriad of issues bedeviling our country. National Security, that amorphous phrase, was one of several, that I listed.

The long quote below, is the response posted by an old friend. Decent fellow, older than me, and an all round good guy, two years ago.

“You had better, just be talking ooooo.??? I keep wondering WHY people make a mountain, out of a mole-hill. Every leadership will continue to initiate strategies, to suit, emerging, governance circumstances. Why must people not trust or tolerate themselves??? Some of you think Nigeria, is the same size with Cotonou or Ghana??? We better get real.!!! Nigeria NEEDS radical reforms-whether you like it or not. People’s orientation have been REVERSED into thinking, because we have oil, they sit lazy & expect government, to do everything, for them. Stealing is the order of the day: aided mostly by arm twisting lawyers – who believes they are hungry or angry??? If we channel our efforts positively, with hard work, sincerity of purpose, I TELL YOU, NOWHERE LIKE NIGERIA. I have been around places, glory be to God, This much I can tell you, my brothers”

Two days ago, the president went to the gathering of Nigerian lawyers, and reading from a speech that must have been written by a lawyer, in an administration with an erudite professor of Law, as the Vice President, he placed National Security above the rule of law.

O’hun ti oju Aja ri, to n’gbo, the same thing ni Agutan n’wo, to n’wo boobo… The Dog and the Lamb will respond differently to the same phenomenon. Some of us are cursed with the 3rd eye, and I am particularly afflicted with a burden for Nigeria. I know my country, I know the system governing Nigeria, and I am painfully familiar with the way things happen around here. Buhari’s path to his second term lies through fascist territories.

If you’re not ready to spend some time in unlawful, but legal confinement, it’s a good time to shut up. If you don’t want to disappear without trace, hold your tongue. Three years in which hitherto critical voices have become either complicit or silent, have led this government, into believing that the coast is clear. But it takes the silence of the lamb, to assure it’s slaughter. We shall not be silent.

National Security remains a ground for the justification of a citizen’s arrest, but the duty to convince the court to agree with the government, remains with the state, and it is an objective test, which must be proven way beyond all reasonable doubts. Asari’s case, from which the president lifted his quote, is clearly different from Dasuki’s and El-Zakyzaky’s cases. In the case of these two gentlemen, the various courts considered and disagreed with the government’s arguments justifying the detentions on the grounds of national security, and threw them out.

Buhari and his government stands accused of willful disobedience of court orders, and it will not be Buhari’s fault that Nigerians stumbled into another fascist phase, it would be the fault of the silent, the complicit, and the ones counseling peace, to the victims of injustice.

I hear the knocks on the Protestant’s door, I kukuma thank God, I’m Hindu….

Na turn by turn.

DF

First Published 28 August 2018.