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| Olufemi Olu-Kayode |
"I won't be surprised if the man arrested for naming his dog Buhari is arraigned before Justice Okon Abang. There is nothing beyond this government"- Mr. Deji Adeyanju, Twitter, 20th August, 2016.
Mr. Adeyanju, who is a young and rising bright star in Nigeria's political firmament, is absolutely right.
When the likes of Mrs. Oby Ezekwezile, the former Minister of Education and a hitherto great supporter and friend of the Buhari administration can publicly proclaim that
"President Buhari does not deserve to be President", then you know that this government has indeed gone beyond the pale, that the meltdown has started and that the corpses are beginning to smell.
Yet nothing is more indicative of the Federal Government's misplaced priorities and more reflective of their total and complete moral degeneration and psychotic paranoia than their behaviour towards the owner of a dog that was named Buhari. Consider the following.
One year and two months ago when President Goodluck Jonathan was still in power, a man named his goat "Goodluck Jonathan".
After doing so he took a picture of himself with the goat and proceeded to splash it all over Facebook and Twitter.
As insulting and provocative as this was, no-one in government raised an eyebrow and neither did President Jonathan take it in bad faith.
Again one year and two months ago whilst he was still in power President Goodluck Jonathan was maligned, misrepresented and labelled as being "clueless", "weak" and "incompetent" by many.
We took advantage of his meekness, decency, sense of restraint and humility and we took the basic freedoms that he gave us for granted. It didn't stop there.
On several occasions during the course of the 2015 presidential election campaign he was stoned in parts of the core north by violent groups of hungry-looking and thuggish almajiris whilst the First Lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, was unfairly and cruelly portrayed as an illiterate, a drama queen, a clown and something akin to a female court jester.
She was even referred to as a "hipoppotomos" by no less a person than our Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka whilst Jonathan himself was described as "a pig" by Mr. Japhet Omojuwa, a young and dynamic blogger and political commentator.
Yet despite all these unwarranted, crude and provocative insults the President did not lose his cool, the heavens did not fall and his government did not query, warn, threaten or arrest anyone.
One year and two months later things appear to be very different. Permit me to explain. A few days ago a man who named his dog "Buhari" was promptly arrested by the police and remanded in custody. His name is Joachim Chinakwe and he lives in Ogun state.
The police told members of an incredulous public that they took and kept Mr. Chinakwe in custody "for his own safety" and that they intended to arraign him in a court of law in a matter of days for having the effrontery to name his dog "Buhari".
According to them, giving his dog that name was a provocative act that could have lead to an ethnic and religious conflict because Mr. Chinakwe's neighbours were Hausa-Fulani.
Apparently those neighbours were not too happy with the name that he had given to the dog, in view of the fact that our President shares the same name, and therefore they threatened to kill him for it.
As far as I am aware this is the first time in the history of our country that anyone has been arrested simply because his dog shares the same name as our President.
It is also the first time that the victim of a serious crime and an individual whose life was threatened ended up being thrown behind bars whilst those that threatened to take that life ended up being the complainants in the case.
And all this because of a poor dog named Buhari which, we are told, had to be quietly put down and sent to the great beyond by its owner so that it couldn't be used as evidence against him in court!
The whole episode sounds like a second rate Hollywood script but sadly it really happened. I guess that is "Mai Chanji" for you.
Yet examples of the startling contrasts that exist between the Jonathan era and the one that we are in today refuse to abate.
Things have got so bad in this country that Mr. Ebube, a regular and increasingly influential commentator on Twitter, posted the following words on his handle yesterday. He wrote,
- "Under this misfortune called APC people are arrested for writing about EFCC, naming a dog and criticizing a governor".
I guess that is Mai Chanji for you. When one considers the economic situation things are even worse. Mr. Oshioke Audu, a public commentator, put it well when he posted the following words on Facebook. He wrote,
- "Twenty years ago the South African economy was 7.5 times the size of the Nigerian one. At the end of 2012 the South African economy was only 1.4 times the size of the Nigerian one. By 2014 Nigeria officially became Africa's number one economy and the 23rd in the world. Then the APC took over with inept Buhari in 2015. By 2016, Nigeria is now the 40th world economy and the third in Africa".
What a tragedy! Yet no-one captures it better than a young and courageous politician from Anambra state by the name of Prince Henry Nwazuruahu Shield who wrote the following on Facbook:
- "Recession does not speak politics. It is simply a result of one man's ignorance about the management of the economy. A robust economy benefits both APC supporters and PDP's. We need to agree that Buhari is the SOLE problem of Nigeria".
This insightful young man has hit the nail on the head. Permit me to conclude this contribution by touching on a matter that has brought many of us in the Christian community immense sorrow.
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Southern Kaduna is on fire and its people are being slaughtered on a daily basis by blood-sucking Fulani herdsmen. Despite this the Federal Government has done nothing to abate it or to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The truth is that those that commit these heinous crimes and their powerful rich friends that secretly buy them arms and that covertly encourage, protect and support them are nothing but the sons of Lucifer: they are the seed of Al Shaitan.
Pastor Luka Ubangari was one of their latest victims. His cold-blooded murder in southern Kaduna a few days ago by Fulani militants together with the slaying of Pastor Eunice Elisha by Muslim fundamentalists in Kubwa, Abuja a few weeks back means that in the last 3 months no less than two Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Pastors have been butchered by islamist terrorists in northern Nigeria.
The government's slow response, irresponsible attitude and inexplicable refusal to clamp down on them has further emboldened the Fulani terrorists and militants. This is dangerous and unacceptable.
The matter is simple: if the government does not do something fast to stem the tide of violence and provocative acts of terror, self-help and self-defense will be the only recourse left for those that are being subjected to genocide and ethnic cleansing.
I hope that Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye and Vice President (Pastor) Yemi Osibajo, both of RCCG, both of whom I have immense respect and affection for, are taking note of this gruesome and tragic horror movie as it unfolds.
I hope that they are also taking note of the body count of Pastors and believers that is slowly building up.
Ditto my friend and brother Pastor Tunde Bakare of Latter Reign Assembly and Pastor Kumuyi of Deeper Life, both of whom have expressed their support for President Buhari in the last few days in spite of the sheer carnage that members of their wider flock and Christian brothers and sisters are being subjected to all over the country on a daily basis by the President's kinsmen.
Things have got so bad in this respect that Mr. Babatunde O. Gbadamosi, a Lagos-based businessman and social commentator, accurately reflected the mood of the nation and the growing anger when he wrote the following words on Facebook. He said,
- "Buhari is condoning organised genocide in Nigeria. And Nigerians are too scared to speak out".
The latest development is that eight Christian polytechnic students were burnt alive in Zamfara state for allegedly making "blasphemous comments" against Prophet Mohammed. Clearly the madness is spreading.
I hate to say "I told you so" but I guess that we all have to live with the consequences of the choices that we make. That is "mai chanji".
Those amongst us that are still "too scared to speak out" and that live in a state of perpetual bondage and fear have much to learn from the words of Alexander the Great, one of the greatest kings and warriors that ever lived. He said "conquer your fears and you will live forever!"
The people of Nigeria have much to learn from those words.
May He that rules in the affairs of Heaven and earth and who holds the universe together by the power of His word arise in defense of His children.
May the souls of the servants of the Living God and Christian believers that were cut short by the agents of the evil one in the last few days and weeks rest in peace.
May the Lord God of Hosts, the Ancient of Days, the Man of War, the Seven-fold Spirit of the Living God and He that holds the four winds of the earth in the palm of His hand avenge them speedily.
Olufemi Olu-Kayode is a Nigerian politician, essayist, poet and lawyer
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