THE CRIMES OF BUHARI By Wole Soyinka

THE CRIMES OF BUHARI

By Wole Soyinka

The grounds on which General Buhari is being promoted as the alternative choice are not only shaky, but pitifully naive. History matters. Records are not kept simply to assist the weakness of memory, but to operate as guides to the future. Of course, we know that human beings change. What the claims of personality change or transformation impose on us is a rigorous inspection of the evidence, not wishful speculation or behind-the-scenes assurances. Public offence, crimes against a polity, must be answered in the public space, not in caucuses of bargaining.

In Buhari, we have been offered no evidence of the sheerest prospect of change. On the contrary, all evident suggests that this is one individual who remains convinced that this is one ex-ruler that the nation cannot call to order. Buhari needs one remind anyone – was one of the generals who treated a Commission of Enquiry, the Oputa Panel, with unconcealed disdain. Like Babangida and Abdusalami, he refused to put appearance even though complaints that were tabled against him involved a career of gross abuses of power and blatant assault on the fundamental human rights of the Nigerian citizenry. Prominent against these charges was an act that amounted to nothing less than judicial murder, the execution of a citizen under a retroactive decree.

Does Decree 20 ring a bell? If not, then, perhaps the names of three youths – Lawal Ojuolape (30), Bernard Ogedengbe (29) and Bartholomew Owoh (26) do. To put it quite plainly, one of those three Ogedengbe – was executed for a crime that did not carry a capital forfeit at the time it was committed. This was an unconscionable crime, carried out in defiance of the pleas and protests of nearly every sector of the Nigerian and international community religious, civil rights, political, trade unions etc. Buhari and his sidekick and his partner-in-crime, Tunde Idiagbon persisted in this inhuman act for one reason and one reason only: to place Nigerians on notice that they were now under an iron, inflexible rule, under governance by fear.
The execution of that youthful innocent for so he was, since the punishment did not exist at the time of commission – was nothing short of premeditated murder, for which the perpetrators should normally stand trial upon their loss of immunity. Are we truly expected to forget this violation of our entitlement to security as provided under existing laws? And even if our sensibilities have become blunted by succeeding seasons of cruelty and brutality, if power itself had so coarsened the sensibilities also of rulers and corrupted their judgment, what should one rightly expect after they have been rescued from the snare of power.

At the very least, a revaluation, leading hopefully to remorse, and its expression to a wronged society. At the very least, such a revaluation should engender reticence, silence. In the case of Buhari, it was the opposite. Since leaving office he has declared in the most categorical terms that he had no regrets over this murder and would do so again. Human life is inviolate. The right to life is the uniquely fundamental right on which all other rights are based. The crime that General Buhari committed against the entire nation went further however, inconceivable as it might first appear. That crime is one of the most profound negations of civic being.

Not content with hammering down the freedom of expression in general terms, Buhari specifically forbade all public discussion of a return to civilian, democratic rule. Let us constantly applaud our media those battle scarred professionals did not completely knuckle down. They resorted to cartoons and oblique, elliptical references to sustain the people’s campaign for a time-table to democratic rule. Overt agitation for a democratic time table however remained rigorously suppressed military dictatorship, and a specifically incorporated in Buhari and Idiagbon was here to stay.

To deprive a people of volition in their own political direction is to turn a nation into a colony of slaves. Buhari enslaved the nation. He gloated and gloried in a master-slave relation to the millions of its inhabitants. It is astonishing to find that the same former slaves, now free of their chains, should clamour to be ruled by one who not only turned their nation into a slave plantation, but forbade them any discussion of their condition.
So Tai Solarin is already forgotten? Tai who stood at street corners, fearlessly distributing leaflets- he took up the gauntlet where the media had dropped it. Tai who was incarcerated by that regime and denied even the medication for his asthmatic condition? Tai did not ask to be sent for treatment overseas; all he asked was his traditional medicine that had proved so effective after years of struggle with asthma! Nor must we omit the manner of Buhari coming to power and the pattern of his corrective rule. Shagari’s NPN had already run out of steam and was near universally detested except of course by the handful that still benefited from that regime of profligacy and rabid fascism.

Responsibility for the national condition lay squarely at the door of the ruling party, obviously, but against whom was Buharis coup staged? Judging by the conduct of that regime, it was not against Shagaris government but against the opposition. The head of government, on whom primary responsibility lay, was Shehu Shagari. Yet that individual was kept in cozy house detention in Ikoyi while his powerless deputy, Alex Ekwueme, was locked up in Kiri-kiri prisons. Such was the Buhari notion of equitable apportionment of guilt and/or responsibility. And then the cascade of escapes of the wanted, and culpable politicians. Manhunts across the length and breadth of the nation, roadblocks everywhere and borders tight as steel zip locks.

Lo and behold, the chairman of the party, Chief Akinloye, strolled out coolly across the border. Richard Akinjide, Legal Protector of the ruling party, slipped out with
 qual ease. The Rice Minister, Umaru Dikko, who declared that Nigerians were yet to eat from dustbins – escaped through the same airtight dragnet. The clumsy attempt to crate him home was punishment for his ingratitude, since he went berserk when, after waiting in vain, he concluded that the coup had not been staged, after all, for the immediate consolidation of the party of extreme right-wing vultures, but for the military hyenas.

The case of the overbearing Secretary-General of the party, Uba Ahmed, was even more noxious. Uba Ahmed was out of the country at the time. Despite the closure of the Nigerian airspace, he compelled the pilot of his plane to demand special landing permission, since his passenger load included the almighty Uba Ahmed. Of course, he had not known of the change in his status since he was airborne. The delighted airport commandant, realizing that he had a much valued fish swimming willingly into a waiting net, approved the request. Uba Ahmed disembarked into the arms of a military guard and was promptly clamped in detention. Incredibly, he vanished a few days after and reappeared in safety overseas. Those whose memories have become calcified should explore the media coverage of that saga. Buhari was asked to explain the vanished act of this much prized quarry and his response was one of the most arrogant levity. Coming from one who had shot his way into power on the slogan of discipline, it was nothing short of impudent. Shall we revisit the tragicomic series of trials that landed several politicians several lifetimes in prison?

Recall, if you please, the judicial processes undergone by the septuagenarian Chief Adekunle Ajasin. He was arraigned and tried before Buhari’s punitive tribunal but acquitted. Dissatisfied, Buhari ordered his re-trial. Again, the Tribunal could not find this man guilty of a single crime, so once again he was returned for trial, only to be acquitted of all charges of corruption or abuse of office. Was Chief Ajasin thereby released? No! He was ordered detained indefinitely, simply for the crime of winning an election and refusing to knuckle under Shagari’s reign of terror. The conduct of the Buhari regime after his coup was not merely one of double, triple, multiple standards but a cynical travesty of justice. Audu Ogbeh, currently chairman of the Action Congress was one of the few figures of rectitude within the NPN. Just as he has done in recent times with the PDP, he played the role of an internal critic and reformer, warning, dissenting, and setting an example of probity within his ministry. For that crime he spent months in unjust incarceration.

Guilty by association? Well, if that was the motivating yardstick of the administration of the Buhari justice, then it was most selectively applied. The utmost severity of the Buhari-Idiagbon justice was especially reserved either for the opposition in general, or for those within the ruling party who had showed the sheerest sense of responsibility and patriotism.
Shall I remind this nation of Buhari’s deliberate humiliating treatment of the Emir of Kano and the Oni of Ife over their visit to the state of Israel? I hold no brief for traditional rulers and their relationship with governments, but insist on regarding them as entitled to all the rights, privileges and responsibilities of any Nigerian citizen. This royal duo went to Israel on their private steam and private business. Simply because the Buhari regime was pursuing some antagonistic foreign policy towards Israel, a policy of which these traditional rulers were not a part, they were subjected on their return to a treatment that could only be described as a head masterly chastisement of errant pupils. Since when, may one ask, did a free citizen of the Nigerian nation require the permission of a head of state to visit a foreign
nation that was willing to offer that tourist a visa?

One is only too aware that some Nigerians love to point to Buhari’s agenda of discipline as the shining jewel in his scrap-iron crown. To inculcate discipline however, one must lead by example, obeying laws set down as guides to public probity. Example speaks louder than declarations, and rulers cannot exempt themselves from the disciplinary strictures imposed on the overall polity, especially on any issue that seeks to establish a policy for public well-being. The story of the thirty something suitcases it would appear that they were even closer to fifty – found unavoidable mention in my recent memoirs, YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DAWN, written long before Buhari became spoken of as a credible candidate. For the exercise of a changeover of the national currency, the Nigerian borders air, sea and land had been shut tight.

Nothing was supposed to move in or out, not even cattle egrets. Yet a prominent camel was allowed through that needles eye. Not only did Buhari dispatch his aide- de-camp, Jokolo later to become an emir – to facilitate the entry of those cases, he ordered the redeployment as I later discovered – of the Customs Officer who stood firmly against the entry of the contravening baggage. That officer, the incumbent Vice-president is now a rival candidate to Buhari, but has somehow, in the meantime, earned a reputation that totally contradicts his conduct at the time. Wherever the truth lies, it does not redound to the credibility of the dictator of that time, General Buhari whose word was law, but whose allegiances were clearly negotiable.
On the theme of double, triple, multiple standards in the enforcement of the law, and indeed of the decrees passed by the Buhari regime at the time, let us recall the notorious case of Triple A Alhaji Alhaji Alhaji, then Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. Who was caught, literally, with his pants down in distant Austria. That was not the crime however, and private conduct should always remain restricted to the domain of private censure. There was no decree against civil servants proving just as hormone driven as anyone else, especially outside the nation’s borders. However, there was a clear decree against the keeping of foreign
accounts, and this was what emerged from the Austrian escapade. Alhaji Alhaji kept, not one, but several undeclared foreign accounts, and he had no business being in possession of the large amount of foreign currency of which he was robbed by his overnight companion. The media screamed for an even application of the law, but Buhari had turned suddenly deaf.
By contrast, Fela Anikulapo languished in goal for years, sentenced under that very draconian
decree. His crime was being in possession of foreign exchange that he had legitimately received for the immediate upkeep of his band as they set off for an international engagement. A vicious sentence was slapped down on Fela by a judge who later became so remorse stricken at least after Buhari’s overthrow that he went to the King of Afro-beat and
apologized. Lesser known was the traumatic experience of the director of an international communication agency, an affiliate of UNESCO.

 Akin Fatoyinbo arrived at the airport in complete ignorance of the new currency decree. He was thrown in gaol in especially brutal condition, an experience from which he never fully recovered. It took several months of high-level intervention before that innocent man was eventually freed. These were not exceptional but mere sample cases from among hundreds of others, victims of a decree that was selectively applied, a decree that routinely penalized innocents and ruined the careers and businesses of many.

What else? What does one choose to include or leave out? What precisely was Ebenezer Babatope’s crime that he should have spent the entire tenure of General Buhari in detention?
Nothing beyond the fact that he once warned in the media that Buhari was an ambitious soldier who would bear watching through the lenses of a coup- detat. Babatope’s father died while he was in Buhari’s custody, the dictator remained deaf to every plea that he be at least released to attend his father’s funeral, even under guard. I wrote an article at the time, denouncing this pointless insensitivity. So little to demand by a man who was never accused of, nor tried for any crime, much less found guilty. Such a load of vindictiveness that smothered all traces of basic human compassion deserves no further comment in a nation that
values its traditions. But then, speaking the truth was not what Buhari, as a self-imposed leader, was especially enamoured of enquire of Tunde Thompson and Nduka Irabor both of whom, faithful to their journalistic calling, published nothing but the truth, yet ended up
sentenced under Buhari’s decree. Mind you, no one can say that Buhari was not true to his word. Shall tamper with the freedom of the press swore the dictator immediately on grabbing office, and this was exactly what he did. And so on, and on, and on.

Political Engagement- A New Approach By Mallam Nuhu Ribadu

 
Protocols…: I confess to feeling inspired with every visit to this institution that shaped my perception of life and grounded my entire intellectual development. This intellectual development is not only a debt I owe to my teachers who have formed me but a challenge to me to go out there and influence society for the benefit of those to come.

For this, I must say thank you! I thank my teachers, of the academic, the moral and even the political, who showed me the virtues of honesty and commitment to serving humanity. And for the students who consider me a model worthy of their time and regard today, my gratitude to you is as large as our great institution. We are gathered under this shade today because somebody found the wisdom to lay the foundation for this institution. Ahmadu Bello University is an institution with a weight of history that challenges us to do justice to whatever comes our way. We learn, from this, that at any time in history, someone has to make a sacrifice for successive generations. Our diversity in this prestigious institution, across ethnicities, religions and regions, stimulated by remainders of the legacies of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, after whom our institution is named, instills an all-inclusive spirit in us such that we end up as tolerant and understanding wherever we find ourselves in private and public engagements. You must consider yourselves lucky for being a part of these distinguished Nigerians as among you I see future political leaders, advocates of change, captains of industry and technocrats—the hope of our country!

As philosophers teach, everything changes. So we don’t need a political philosopher to spell out that there is dynamism in our politics. Our politics is an interpretation of who we are, what we are and the things we stand for. The presently unclear phase of our political disharmony is the issue we must reflect on today—and that we must do together. The dynamism of modern politics is one further excited by the reality of the internet and a consequent increased participation of the youth in political and civic matters. But the place of the youth in our democratic space is jeopardised when the elite in our State decide to model our government after a gerontocracy—a government by the old and for the elderly. Ours is a system in which new and modern ideas are denied a chance to grow and mature. The tragedy of our democracy is that it is one in which the yearnings of the youth are stamped down in order to perpetuate a tyranny of interests. Tyranny it is when acertain slim range of people impose their private interests on the majority; tyranny it is when the agents of change are left on the cliffs of unemployment, poverty, insecurity, substandard education and, worse still, policies destroyed by our heritage of corruptions.

It is, however, understandable that our youth have lost hope in the leadership of this nation; a sane society is known by the opportunities it provides for the youth. But I must offer that the youth should not allow themselves to be drawn into any campaign that attempts to colour the internal borders of our country. We are doomed as a nation the moment the youth get hoodwinked by the bickering of bitter politicians who ride to relevance on sentiments that only inspire distrust among citizens. My experience so far in politics has taught me that age does not guarantee maturity to responsibly play the role of a patriot in an atmosphere of tensed political antagonisms. Thankfully, this is the Age of the Internet; borderless interactions in and out of cyberspace have opened a new door of social and political influences for the youth and the oppressed. This age of information has revealed that no people can ever be entirely wrong at the same time; the evil among us are so because of certain disorders in their superficial orientations, education or even mental state. That Boko Haram insurgency was launched in the north does not incriminate the entire northerners or Muslims; neither is kidnapping and the previously ill-famed militancy in the south crimes of the entire people of Niger-Delta. Similarly, the recent massacre of our security officers by certain elements of the largely good-natured Eggon people of Nasarawa state must not be adopted in interpreting the ethnic identities of these people. There is no man on this earth who smiles at the injuries on his body. And these militants, kidnappers, extremists and other agents of exclusions among us are injuries on the collective body of the nation. These events only call out loudly for careful and people-centered leadership. This is our call, and we must be fair to our history.    

Who we are… in Democracy
The biggest illusion we have lived in as a people is believing the cry heard from various corners that Nigeria is an unnatural entity coerced together—a sort of Frankenstein state. I have no doubt that this is a very, very inaccurate judgment. The truth is far simpler—there is not a single region in what is now Nigeria that was home to just a single ethnic group living all by themselves before the coming of the colonialists. Exclusive ethnic identities are inventions of our political advocacies and relevancies. Nigeria was a stretch of land hosting many city-states and cosmopolites, where in the south-west the Ijebu and the Egba people didn’t consider themselves as one, talk less of as Yoruba. In the south-east, it was a taboo to infer that the people of, say, Arochukwu and Onitsha were one—none accepted identification as Igbo. The Hausaland too was not monotonous as today’s Hausamen from Kano and Katsina would rather identify with their city-states than with any corporate ethnicity. But while they each had their distinct identities, they also welcomed anyone who could come and contribute to the city or state, they welcomed anyone who desired to be a citizen. So why these unnatural and suddenly insurmountable walls of ethnic exclusivities? We live in the saddest form of self-deceit, that this or that region of Nigeria favoured by someone or the other would remain one if we allowed the secessionists and ethnic irredentists get their cartographers working against our country’s map.

There is no country in this world whose borders simply surrounded a people of the same identities, wishes and desires. Our ability, in spite of the divides, to come to a consensus or sacrifice a cause or compromise a stance, is what makes us anation. But we have chosen to play the politics of exclusion where the trust of the people is first for their kinsmen or religion before alignment with the nation. This dangerous departure from patriotism, which saw to rise in ethnic advocacy, nepotism, bigotry and militancy, has been used by enemies of change to subdue and destroy any quest for the Nigeria of our dreams—a Nigeria where we abandon our bloodline in our service to the nation.

Who we are in a democracy is not ambiguous; it is a single identity vested with the same rights for all, rights of equal citizenship! We are citizens, just citizens, not Hausa-Fulani, not Igbo, not Yoruba, not Jukun, not Ijaw, not northerners, not southerners, and no matter our protests, no matter our influence and affluence, we all must have just a single vote in a participatory democracy.

What we are… in Democracy
What are we? We are Change! We are the scattered, and mostly unfamiliar and unrelated citizens, in who lie the same purpose, in who lie the hunger for a functional society, in who lie the dream of a new Nigeria. Change, in this time of political anarchy, is the wisdom to see through the propagandas designed to destabilise the country. Change, in this trying time, is the strength to stand together despite the blowups of bombs-per-meter-square in our land.

Change, in this time of distrust, is the maturity to disregard the theories of stereotype artists who heap the failure of a nation to a particular region or people, to an “other”, a “someone else” who is not “one of us”. Change, in this era of internet evolution and revolution, is the maximisation of the privileges offered by the internet in which every man with a laptop or tablet or mobile phone has a valid voice that must be heard.

The debate has always been that online representations of Nigeria in cyberspace do not capture our social realities in the actual world. While I agree that cyber-Nigeria is not our absolute portrait since our non-literate fellow countrymen in their teeming millions have been left out of its political exchanges and interactions, we must recognise the power and influence of the internet users on the psyche and struggle of the nation. Globalisation is not just a word, and as slow as it is in Third World Nigeria, it has interposed unimagined twists of events we have only been reading in foreign tabloids in Nigeria. Globalisation is a teacher of the good and the bad, and today the influences are no longer passed just through the privileged bourgeoisie. The increase in internet access enhances the speed of dispersion of ideas. It happened in Tunisia. It happened in Egypt. It’s happening here… But, we must be devout apostles of change to realise our dream of Change! ;

What we stand for… in Democracy
Democracy loses its allure when it is perceived as a forte of the rich—through oligarchic eyes. With such a mindset, the people themselves make democracy expensive and destroy it. The moment you task your candidates with paying to earn your votes, you lose your moral right to question his excesses. I agree with the Australian political theorist, Professor John Dryzek, when he explains the essence of democracy, thus: “Democratization… is not the spread of liberal democracy to ever more corners of the world, but rather extensions along any one of three dimensions… The first is franchise, expansion of the number of people capable of participating effectively in collective decision. The second is scope, bringing more issues and areas of life potentially under democratic control… The third is the authenticity of the control…: to be real rather than symbolic, involving the effective participation of autonomous and competent actors”.

To democratise Nigeria, we must understand the powers we refuse to explore. The “tyrants” in democracy are actually individuals from amongst the people, but when they become agents of electoral malpractices and political dishonesty, the dice turns up against the people from which they have come. When I say “people”, I don’t mean just the voters. The electoral officers who comply to rig a fair election abuse their chance at creating a saner nation while damaging the trust and hopes of an oppressed people of whom they are members. Politics is not magic; it’s a calculation of the good and the wrongs we do in the quest of power.

Here is where we need to come together to make our democracy work; let us drop any form of identity that introduces us as something other than “citizens”, and let us drop any citizenship that asks for anything other than “Change” for the better. Let us destroy any institution that preaches divisions and exclusions. Unless we put our patriotism away from greed and any undemocratic advocacy, our collective struggle to install a popular government will remain a mission impossible.

Approaching the Modern Democracy
Traditional political engagements were, until the coming of the internet revolutions, carried out largely by the civil societies and opposition political groups. But the internet has introduced a medium not only for instant dissemination of information and broader based interaction, but one that has also offered us a new space for the gestation of political ideologies, mobilisations and revolts.

The trigger of this internet-based political revolution is, perhaps, the suicide of Tunisia’s Mohamed Bouazizi, a young vendor whose singular act to protest repeated harassment by the local police punctured the overstayed dictatorship of that North African country. Bouazizi’s death would not have been noticed without the internet, and social networking sites from where cell phone photograph of the dead vendor stirred up the anger of fellow citizens. The defeat of Ben Ali by the protestors sent a message to other similarly oppressed people, a message that went beyond the North Africa territories.

What has this got to do with Nigeria, you ask? The Bouazizi Effect is not only an instigator of Arab Spring, it taught disgruntled citizens worldwide a way to take their anger beyond cyberspace. It taught the loudest way to condemn anti-people policies. It taught Bahrainis to demand for a freer political clime… It taught the Egyptians to demand for a new president… It taught the Libyans to take up arms against their president whom they not only overthrew but killed… It taught the Yemenis to oust their president. And, welcome back home, it inspired Nigerians to take to the street in their revolt against the removal of fuel subsidy in January 2012.

While the decision to challenge unpopular policies is laudable, absolute orderliness is not expected from angry young men on the streets. This is where we must rub minds, like family, to find a way out of this mess; how do we end this reign of corruptions and insensitivity to the plights of the common man without subjecting any of us to the bullets of those asked to send us back to our houses in which we find miseries and hopelessness? How do we tell our political leaders that a thing is missing without getting shot? I use “we” because I’m just as passionate and concerned as you and YOU! I use “we” because if we allow ourselves to be divided into “Us” and “Them”, the possibility of winning this war is null. The exclusionists who invented “them” to stop us from forming a formidable political “we” are the people we must fight, and there is just one way to achieve this: Citizen Engagement!

The Meaning of Political Engagement
My commonsense understanding of engagement in a democratic polity is the realisation of one’s rights, having studied and understood the deficiencies inherent in a system from which expectations of satisfaction have been unsatisfied. Political engagement is inspired or justified by one’s decision to discharge his or her constitutional responsibilities in an attempt to either react to an unpopular reform or policy or merely embark on a personal quest to contribute one’s quota to agovernment found wanting.

In our response to the dynamism of present politics, the traditional engagement that tasked the civil societies and opposition parties with engaging incumbent governments and their reforms or policies, we must pander to the non-violent form of citizenship mobilisation popularised by Bouazizi Effect. Mind you, I do not mean setting oneself ablaze to register a grievance. I mean exploring the power of our numbers, from the internet to the physical landscape, to investigate and challenge a political injustice; I mean defying attempts by exclusionists to tear us apart in our campaign for an ideal candidate; I mean understanding that for achieving impact, an engagement in cyberspace is not enough until it is propounded and taken to the actual world. Here again, we have a task before us: Citizenship Mobilisation.

Nigeria: Engaging the Modern Politics
In 1999, we welcomed a democracy with a hope of building a civilian government in which every citizen is an active participant. A decade later, our democracy was led into chaos where the “Who” and the “What” of our identifications are colourfully worn to pronounce our differences and divides. This is a masterfully orchestrated bang that opened the Pandora box we have tightly secured since the unfortunate events of the Nigerian Civil War—in fact, since before then! We have existed as a nation struggling to forgive itself of the mistakes of yesterdays, but while we struggled with this, our democracy has become modelled into an avenue where sentiments are highlighted by pro-exclusion politicians to corner the votes of their kinsmen because they cannot do so on grounds of their individual reputation or records. This careless stratagem is a pathway to self-destruction begging for our collective, and very immediate, effort at snatching our future from the hands of those who ride on such ethnic and religious and regional sentiments towards self-enrichment.

The challenge ahead is enormous. The challenge is for us to form networks that will engage and destroy the evil missions of the exclusionists and agents of anarchy among us. In a time of anarchy, everybody is a politician. This is a time of anarchy. In a time like this, we should have no identities other than ordinary Citizen. We are citizens of a world challenged, a people confused and abused, a nation whose resources is misused by leaders whose major worry is the amount of dollars in their bank accounts. The situation is one of psychological abuse, existential abuse. My antidote for this monstrous reality is also psychological:

First, while it has become really difficult to set aside our ethnic identities in discharging our civic responsibilities, we must know that in a democratic space, our only identity especially when we gather around ballot boxes and in the service of the nation is our citizenship: “Nigerian”. We must be conscious of this identity, it defines a patriot.

Second, always have in mind that politics is not magic. And that people are responsible for the governments that happen to them. If the electorates wear their patriotism to vote in a popular candidate, the electoral officers too must know that their manipulation of figures is a betrayal of trust and their fellows awaiting them at home. No candidate can rig an election without complicity of the people.

Third, offline and online political engagements are compulsory ventures of every citizen of a troubled country. Though, I have always maintained that Nigeria is a Third World country and, for this, we must not be carried away on the social media.A percentage of Nigerians who have no internet access is important. In every decision, and agenda, we aspire to pursue, they must be in the know.

Fourth, membership of social and political groups and networks including community volunteerism is the surest way of fixing our weakened bonds and salving our rivalries. The more we meet to discuss personal and public issues without pandering to the designs of the exclusionists, the more we understand and forestall propagandas fashioned against us. The new Nigerian, irrespective of his origin, must be a part of any network that analyses and tries to influence public policies or government.

Lastly, let us have in mind that we are now in a sinking ship in which we alone understand, and can reestablish, the hydraulics of our statecraft. Let us have in mind that we are all politicians in this storm.

Conclusion
The reality of modern Nigeria is one that challenges us to drop any other identity aside from that of Citizen in our effort to rescue the ship of state from this stormy sea of chaos. All the destructions in the guise of inter-ethnic, inter-religious and inter-regional clash are traced to politics and this supports my earlier declarations that every citizen of a troubled country must become a politician. A politician is a conscious citizen of a country, a politician is first known by his citizenship, a

politician is young and old, a politician is poor and rich, a politician is a thinker and volunteer, a politician is employed and jobless, a politician is a humanist and patriot, a politician is a teacher and student, a politician is you and I.

Thank you very much.


BEING AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT A PUBLIC LECTURE ORGANISED BY THE STUDENTS REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL (SRC), AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY (ABU) ZARIA WITH THE THEME “YOUTH: THE FULCRUM OF EVERY SOCIETY” ON SATURDAY JUNE 8, 2013

Woolwich’s Killing, Illusion of the Conspiracy Theorists and an Appraisal of War on Terror

By Semiu A. Akanmu

Without mincing words, the killing of the British soldier named Drummer Lee Rigby by a Nigeria-descendant Briton; Micheal ‘Mujahid’ Adebolajo on the street of Woolwich has opened another historic, though unfortunate page in the socio-political directory of terrorism. Nigerians at home and in Diaspora through our cyber spaced geographical entity have been analyzing, criticizing and diagnosing Terrorism, Terrorists and the war on terror in view of the ugly but awakening incidence. The unofficial ‘press statement’ made by this murderer and his ‘argument’ to justify this crime has undoubtedly and so expectedly took our mind to Al-Qaedanism; the Machiavellian movement of Islamism.

The Islamists in their reductionists’ view diminish Islam to Politics and Jihad; they are otherwise called advocates of Political Islam. This parochial perspective has made their approach to Jihad an infected methodology, opening pores for penetrators to hijack their struggle, mis-direct their focus, and hence invalidate the legitimacy of their advocacy.  Their mis-placed priority has always results in high level of thuggery, brigandage and barbarism. This is one of the reasons why those who are well- informed about their ills will not be caught with surprise when these so-called Jihadists are found robbing and kidnapping. In view of the present configuration of the global socio-political landscape, Muslims see implementation of Shari’ah as an end from certain means like uncorrupted evangelism of the message of Islam, healthy human relation and role modelling for human emulation, while the Islamists believe in the use of force as the only means to Shari’ah. The earlier they know the rate at which Muslims’ fold in countries like Iran, Iraq, Syria, Nigeria and Pakistan is shrinking, while that of countries like UK, USA, Canada, France and Australia is swelling, the better for their sensibility.

The new verge of our social discussion has passed a gauntlet unto us. This is a non-evasive responsibility of educating people generally and Muslims specifically about an adoptable classifying and separating tool to know and tell people that Muslims are different from Islamists, while Islam and Islamism are non-substitutes. While some of us are not comfortable with the nomenclature, the reality that has caught up with us signals that we have been heavily infiltrated internally and externally, and it is high time we stood up to take our liability, and stop playing the blame trade games.

Though, suggesting ‘Burdens on Muslims’ will be a better caption to Kila’s essay titled ‘The Burden of Islam’, I cannot do but to agree with Kila’s submission. Muslims must know there is a burden on them. There is a burden of re-educating and re-orientating, an assignment of renaissance consciousness of enhancing our emotional intelligence. We cannot be responding violently to provocation either in the name of blasphemy or injustice. The buccaneers and vampires among us: from Al-Shabab in Somalia, all franchises and network of Al-Qaeda globally, our own dreadful Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria to the self-determining secessionists like Moro Front in Southern Philippine, the local militant group of Narathiwar in Southern Thailand, Tuareg rebels in Northern Mali should spare us this shame. Your political interest and economy-driven struggle should be pursued without hanging on the name of Islam what so ever. Abu Aaliyah has put it so aptly that “Terrorism is to Jihad as Adultery is to Marriage”. I am not of the training to delve into issues of core Islamic Jurisprudence, but those who wish to know so as to ascertain the thin line could link it up here.         

As the horrific and sadistic Woolwich killing came in, the most embarrassing and utter display of effrontery is the reactionary conspiracy theory that intend to disregard and falsify that an insane walking stock has dragged our identity once again in mud. In spite of the fact that this claim did not emanate from UK-based Muslims, but the rate at which folks in Nigeria are sharing and referring to Femi Fani-Kayode’s Illuminati-linked conspiracy is not only disappointing, it further tells the extent at which we have allowed emotional attachment to our faith to veil our reasoning arsenal. Those who know FFK’s public commentaries’ history will not deny the fact that he is lost in the wilderness of metaphysics, mysticism and mythology. I was expecting the same bashing he received when he said Obama is an anti-Christ, and thus responsible for the experience of hurricane disaster in the United States, but the different reaction to similar illogical submission shows how dependent minded our reasoning have become. We need to ask cogent questions as reliability tests for these claims: even if the killing that was not denied by members of the murderer’s family and the Britain Muslims’ community was stage-managed, were Michael’s participation in protests, previous encounter with police, his travelling to Kenya expected as en route to Somalia stage managed?  Such cheap and feeble conspiratorial theories can only sell to those who have allowed sentiment to paddle their cerebral boat. This conspiracy theory is an illusion!!

That is that as it is. If we will not be suffering from reasoning and judgemental amnesia, we have to look critically, we owe our conscience the need to view in holistic, the cause and effect forces that are interplaying in this much touted terrorism, terrorists and war on terror. Sanusi Lamido and Bill Clinton must be judging with economy specificity when they thinly analyzed and linked Nigeria’s religious crisis to deprivation, poverty and unemployment. This submission is too shallow to proffer lasting solution to the country’s socio-economic life that had been short-changed with killing, maiming and destruction of property.

In June, 2012, I conceptualised the nation’s religious crisis into a researchable model, where I elicited religious misconception, religious mal-admonishment and religious bigotry as dependent variables that cause religious crisis (Independent variable). Though, I created a link from religious mal-admonishment to religious misconception, religious bigotry is a trait that is naturally developed by some social extraneous variables like arrogance, egocentrism and unhealthy rivalry. It is on this note, I supported and still supporting Religious speech censorship. Hate preaching that is capable of inciting violence should be outlawed, and defaulters must be severely punished. There is always a price for peace.

On the other hand, I elicited perceived injustice, poverty, education and political plot as moderating variables. If not for poverty and lack of education, the demented brains called Boko Haram would not have found such fertile land of recruiting their foot soldiers. Reports in the media now and before showed that many of these so-called Jihadists are after pecuniary advantages. My personal encounters with Somalians, Yemenis and Iraqis have further cemented this opinion that materialism is always the next driving force when brainwashing falls unsuccessfully.

We cannot erode perceived injustice and political plot in this causal framework. The self-confession made by Hillary Clinton that the ‘Mujahideen’ are created by them in this video is just one out of numerous accounts that have implicated the Western world in the woes of these troubling countries. CIA and the Third world: A Study in Cryptodiplomacy by Satish Kumar and The Third World Calamities by May Brian are few of the good reads for those who want to know how the grip of the western imperialists’ forces work. Just as I have argued in some of my writings, there is possibility of being used and thinking you are still on just own self-defined struggle, not knowing it is serving the purpose of some invincible and invisible hands. These hands are controlling the press, and the discrimination in news reportage is certainly one of the perceived injustices.      

Perceived injustices or injustices concretely cannot be downplayed as a factor fuelling religious crisis. The double standard in the public appraisal, the stereotypic handling and stigmatization of Muslims are second to none: from the press to how the public see issues that affect them. The cold reception that greeted the genocide of about 2,500 Bangladeshi Muslims and thousands Rohiggya Muslims massacred by the Buddhists cannibals is a pointer to this selective condemnation.

  We cannot be sincere and serious about ending religious crisis while injustice still prevails. Invasion of sovereign countries to unseat legitimate governments because of flimsy and non-existing excuses have been a tool of igniting the zeal of Islamism. The occupation by the western imperialist forces, raping women, killing children and looting their treasury are enough to whim sympathy and subsequently enhance suicide bombers’ recruitment. It will be a mere lip service in our quest for peaceful co-existence if this conundrum is not given a holistic assessment and full fledge medication. Peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice.

Having said this, to say the war on terror has become the war of terror is not off track. It will only be joining those voices that have been able to see beyond their noses. Glenn Greenwald reported Michael Moore to have said that: “I am outraged that we can't kill people in other counties without them trying to kill us!”. Following the link will certainly inform any discerning readers that U.S and allies are imperialists who are only interested in subjugating the economic might of the countries invaded. However, the so-called ‘Mujahideen’ in their arrogant claiming of the September 9/11, 2001 WTC bombing has made the continuous invasion a justifiable acts in the eyes of the majority. The influence of press in this regard, cannot be under-estimated.

In as much as sane minds must condemn the Woolwich killing in strong terms and discard any attempt by conspiracy theorists to make it a hoax, ending religious crisis or religion-induced killing must be apprehended within the comprehensive framework as suggested. Muslims must intensify their efforts in re-presenting the ideals of Islam that is devoid of emotional laxity. The public must be wary of taking sides hastily going by what they are fed with by the media. The bell of justice has neither relative nor families; it must be rung where injustice is found. Doing this is the only way to deter the whole world from going blind.