If Dapo Olorunyomi is held for following up on a story like this, it is the lowest we can sink in reasonable expectations. Visit Dubai and die. See street after street of innovative and creative development and what we do at home is to arrest reporters!
Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi is the silent voice behind PREMIUM TIMES, a news outlet that needs no introduction. For some reasons, he has become the target of a high-handed clampdown on free media operations in Nigeria. A few days prior, Omoyele Sowore of Sahara Reporters, was the prime target. We all stood up in arms and protested the perceived effort to silent a versatile voice. The tempo was reduced and no charges were filed. A Commissioner was redeployed. We were subsequently served a bribery menu and a friendship-turned-sour that required goodwill mediation. In the interest of fairness and objectivity, we all understood the need to take the requisite time to investigate the veracity of the serious accusations.
Now, what menu are they going to serve us on Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi? What is his crime?
If the information making the rounds is true that the infamous report on General Buratai’s property in Dubai is the central piece of discontent fueling spurious charges, constituted authority will better be advised to desist from stretching the bounds of fortune too far.
Visiting Dubai for the first time to celebrate the New Year 2017, the first thoughts that crossed my mind when I saw developmental wonders, were:
“African, particularly Nigerian politicians who visit Dubai, should always bury their heads in shame whenever they return home. Rather than bury their heads in shame, they flock to buy properties in Dubai. This is not just insensitivity. It is ignorance. It is illiteracy. It is the dearth of intellectual capacity.”
Now my reasons: Dubai comprises two cities separated by a river called The Creek. One side of the river houses the typical ancient Dubai city as it was from time. It bears the hallmark of a typical Middleeastern city that can be found in Lebanon, in Istanbul, in Damascus, etc. The other part of The Creek was raised from the dust of the desert to an ultra-modern city that seeks to surpass even New York. The resource you may want to ask, is nothing but OIL MONEY.
Here we are in Nigeria hardly able to provide stable electricity. A sane politician who sees it and reasons would return home in shame vowing to do his bit to emulate the example. Not the Africans. Instead, they go there to buy properties. Be they the Iboris, the Igbinedions or the Buratais, they are all the shame of an entire nation.
If Dapo Olorunyomi is held for following up on a story like this, it is the lowest we can sink in reasonable expectations. Visit Dubai and die. See street after street of innovative and creative development and what we do at home is to arrest reporters!
Frisky Larr, a journalist, is author of Africa’s Diabolical Entrapmentand the more recent Lost in Democracy.
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