Nigeria is in the throes of agony. An agony that has compulsorily redefined our morality as we know it. It is also an agony that has put a question mark on what kind of responsibility do we have to society in times like this. It is an agony that has confused many, compromised quite a few and cannibalized some.
Yes, times like this when it has become fashionable to defend barefaced lies and falsehood. When deceit and duplicity are peddled with gusto. When respectable minds have been minced by the marauders of our morality. Times like this when shame is scarce and evil has become an object of edification. Times like this when speaking out and speaking up to challenge official lies and falsehood is an endangered endeavor.
This situation are enabled by those who on daily basis assault our sensibilities by defending the indefensible. Those who daily insult our intelligence by ascribing a different name to color black. Those who crave patience for incompetence. They denigrate our diction by ascribing odious meaning to the word “integrity.” On daily basis, they assail us with the saintliness of the devil. They are the apologists of tyranny.
To these apologists of tyranny, every truth told, every lie exposed, every inanity derobed, every incompetence laid bare, every kleptomania pinpointed and every wickedness condemned are “insultive”, “abusive”, “rude”, “disrespectful” and “belligerent.” They are thin-skinned. They are intolerant. They are censors of differing views. They are dictatorial. They are blackmailers.
To these apologists of tragedies permeating our polity, courtesy of Mohammadu Buhari, they want us to be grateful for being hungry. They want us to be thankful for being murdered. They want us to be appreciative for being maimed. They want us to feel indebted for the destruction of our farms in our villages. They want us to be pleased for being fleeced by the gang of bandits currently in Aso Rock. They want us to constantly shout “hallelujah” as a celebration of the tragedy in the country.
When you refuse to praise sing the charlatanism of these peddlers of misery in Aso Rock, their apologists resort to blackmail and name calling characterizing genuine critical views of their obvious acts as “insultive”, “abusive”, “rude”, and “belligerent.” Truth as facts means nothing to them. The evidence of squalor on the streets means nothing to them. The proofs of Fulani herdsmen holding the torsos of their mutilated Benue victims amount to nothing to them.
They want us to say nothing. They want us to look the other way. They want us to be silent at their chicanery. They flaunt their fourberie flagrantly and frown at any fret, no matter how fleeting. It was as if we were not in this country when the former first lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan was called “Shepopotamus” and other ugly names. Or when GEJ was ridiculed, insulted, abused, denigrated, dehumanized and lied against repeatedly.
Now as their Principal, the man Muhammadu Buhari and his bandit are deliberately and systematically destroying the country, they don’t want anyone to say anything. The fact that we are not lying against them the way they lied against GEJ notwithstanding. They’re allergic to being made aware of their misdeeds and incompetence as well as the barefaced corruption of various genre, especially the stealing part of it.
Their apologists want us to respect kleptomaniacs. They want us to praise thieves. They expect us to eulogize incompetence. They want us to adulate our being murdered. They want us to acclaim the deliberate officially condoned ethnic cleansing of Nigerians. They want us to exalt the raping and arson going on. They want us to shower encomiums on obvious lies, deceit, duplicity and false propaganda.
To these odious sentries, these twisted apologists, these intellectually discombobulated crumb eaters, only Mohammadu Buhari has the right to be corrupt and incompetent. We should continue to give him pass, tolerate him, endure him and make needless sacrifices as the country continue to groan. All the courtesies that were not extended to the less corrupt, weak and far less incompetent or for those grammatically challenged, a far more competent President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, are being demanded for the destructive certificateless President from Daura.
And when the obvious tragedies occasioned by Buhari’s incompetence and corruption are pointed out, these hungry hacks, like deranged mosquitoes from a contaminated pond, invade the space, shamelessly exuding fake decency and parlous preachment of “respect” for those who should be cooling off their feet in KUJE or KIRIKIRI. Adding insult to our injury, we are reminded that these misfortune peddlers also have “families” and should be accorded “respect” which they do not deserve in any way or manner. This is in disregard to millions of Nigerians families who have not only lost their “respect”, but also their dignities arising from the non payment of their wages, pensions and other emoluments. Those Nigerian families who have not just lost their “respect” but their lives, their limbs, their hands and their properties.
It is only a conscience dead in its track that would ask “respect” for the purveyors and peddlers of squalor, want, hunger, poverty, death, agony, and tears, regardless whether such are in the Aso Rock Villa or elsewhere in the country. The silent peddlers and tacit enablers of ethnic cleansing. The facilitators of the commission of crimes by tribesmen of Muhammadu Buhari who openly brandish AK-47s with which they take innocent lives and properties that do not belong to them.
These are sobering times. It is a season of anomie. It is a season when one questions the relevance of conscience and morality in our milieu. It is a time when one questions the role of fairness in the polity. It is a season when the purpose of politics has to be reviewed and recalibrated. It is a season that puts a question mark on our humanity. It is a season that also defines our character.
Providing excuses for repeated failures and incompetence, deodorizing lies, deceit, duplicity and false propaganda in the name of partisanship is a deliberate act of societal destruction. It is aiding and abetting the misery of our people. Those who engage in this are even guiltier than the residents of Aso Rock Villa who are the executors of the miseries and tragedies in the first place.
One should as usual, expect the horde of partisan blackmailers to torrentially descend like furious flurry calling this “insultive”, “abusive”, “rude” and “belligerent.” It won’t be anything new. But it can never be effectual. It is stale. Even then, what is wrong with belligerent opposition to and criticism of wanton waste of lives by Fulani herdsmen? Or the povertization of the people through idiotic policies and incompetence? Or the spread of miseries across the society as a result of official banditry?
Well, we did not give up until GEJ, a complete gentleman in many ramifications who was far less weak and incompetent, was pushed out of office. We will not give up until Mohammadu Buhari, an apotheosis of misery and tragedy is also pushed out and his misdeeds recorded for History. To his conscienceless apologists, before they ask for “respect” to be given to him, they should remember how they treated GEJ. They should also remember how many millions of Nigerians have had their dignities and “respect” taken away by Muhammadu Buhari.
Our fathers often contend – A murderer takes serious exception to anyone playing with a sword around his neck! It is an aphorism that should suffice for these apologists of misery and tragedy as epitomized by Mohammadu Buhari.
What a shame!
“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility – I welcome it.”
– John F. Kennedy, in his Inaugural Address January 20, 1961
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©Remi Oyeyemi
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