Listening
to president Muhammadu Buhari's independence day broadcast, I was left
wondering if there is any section of our law book that mandates the President
to always gift his employers with threats whenever he wants to address them as
against speaking in conciliatory tone as a way of fostering unity and nation
building.
After
spending over 100 days abroad, treating a yet to be named ailment with millions
of public fund, president Buhari came back to the country, not to de-escalate
tension but to escalate it by reading the riot act to everyone and anyone.
Yesterday, he told the same path in his independence day broadcast. A shame, isn't it?
Aside
from reminding us of how he took part in killing over 2 million Biafrans during
the Biafran war and threatening to kill more in his idiosyncratic arrogance,
the Daura born ex-soldier again showed his deep-seated hatred and generational
grudges for the people of the Southeast.
But
he added small "jara" today by playing the now boring, tiring and
outdated Divide and Rule card by promising to look into the agitation in the
Niger Delta while swearing he would unleash thunder and lightning on the
"hot-headed" and "irresponsible" people of Southeast.
In
reference to the Nnamdi Kanu-led Biafra agitation in the Southeast, president
Buhari said and I quote,
"I
am disappointed that responsible leaders of these communities do not warn their
hot-headed youths what the country went through. Those who were there should
tell those who were not there the consequences of such folly"
Just
so we are clear, only a man whose very existence rests on violence will
interpret a call for a referendum as a call for war.
IPOB
is not asking for war. They are asking for a referendum which is the right of
indigenous people recognized by all laws known to man. And the group is neither
armed nor violent. No act of organized violence has been attributed to IPOB so
far. All they do is stage rallies which have never witnessed even a stampede
despite the large crowd.
And
most importantly, the Biafra agitation draws its very oxygen from two things:
1.
The refusal of some very powerful but retrogressive elements in the North to
allow for a genuine restructuring of the country to enthrone justice, equity,
fairness, and merit.
2.
President Buhari's highly divisive, vindictive, and mostly commonsensical
bankrupt utterances, actions, and inactions since he assumed office as
president
Having
stated these, I have some questions for president Buhari:
How
many of his "hot-headed" Boko haram kinsmen did he warn when they
(the Boko Haram terrorists) were killing, maiming and bombing schools, markets,
churches, police and military installations with the attendant harvest of
blood, something they are still doing even as I type this? How many? The answer
is nil.
Instead,
he (Buhari) was busy going from one radio house to another, defending the group
rated the deadliest terror group by global terror index. Buhari didn't just
defend them, he made it clear that any attack against the terror group was an
attack against the North. In return, Boko Haram nominated him (Buhari) as their
mouthpiece in a failed peace talk with Jonathan government.
Since
assumption of office, it is on record that he (Buhari) has released numberless
Boko Haram senior commanders imprisoned by the previous govt of Goodluck
Jonathan.
As
I write, the Fulani herdsmen who share the same religion and region as
president Buhari have continued to kill and maim only people living in a
Christian dominated area, with govt-sponsored impunity.
Rather
than warn these "hot-headed" Fulani terrorists, president Buhari has
continued to protect them with a special military taskforce.
How
can such a man retain the mindless audacity to call Igbo leaders
"irresponsible" for not warning their youths who are only protesting
the grave institutionalized injustices of the Nigerian state being aggravated
by his own nepotism and clannishness??
Between
President Buhari and Southeast leaders, who does the "irresponsible"
cap look better on?
Let
me remind President Buhari that he and all those who are opposing Restructuring
are the biggest catalysts of secession.
By actions and inactions, he (Buhari) has divided Nigeria in a way a
million Nnamdi Kanu could never have been able to.
Those
who think the Biafra agitation can be quelled with guns, tanks, intimidation,
and cheap blackmail are grievously mistaken. Even if it is just an Igbo man
that is left standing in this Lugard Cage, as long as the injustices and
state-sponsored killings which necessitated the 1967 Biafra still persist, that
one Igbo man will still cry towards Biafra.
A
wise man once said and I can't agree more, "peace can only be a child of
an intercourse between justice and truth."
President
Buhari must understand that any peace that is not a native of justice can only
be a peace of the grave yard which is no peace at all.
Charles Ogbu, a
socio-political analyst, writes from Port Harcourt.
Source: saharareporters.com
No comments: