Few can dispute the fact that President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Ebora
Owu, was one of those that brought President Muhammadu Buhari to power
in 2015.
Without Obasanjo’s wholesale and comprehensive endorsement Buhari would have failed woefully at the polls three years ago.
Yet, in my view, today the Ebora Owu has absolved
himself of this grave and monumental error by standing up to speak truth
to power at great risk to his safety, fortunes and welfare and by
sending our President an explosive, damning and much-awaited missive
telling him that he has failed woefully, admonishing him to get off his
“high horse of leadership” and advising him not to attempt to run again
in 2019.
I am delighted and indeed proud of what the Ebora has done and I commend
and congratulate him for finding the courage to say what those of us
that have been at the forefront of the struggle against President Buhari
have been saying for the last three years. My friend and brother
Governor Peter ‘The Rock’ Ayodele Fayose gallantly led the charge and
said it. Pastor Reno Omokri said it. Dr. Reuben Abati said it. Professor
Abubakar Sulaiman said it. Col. Abubakar ‘Dangiwa’ Umar said it.
Governor Nyesom Wike said it. Senator Ben Murray-Bruce said it. Mujaheed
Asari Dokubo said it. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu said it. Yours truly said it.
And a number of others said it.
And each and every one of us that did, in varying degrees, have faced
all manner of insults and threats and have paid a heavy price for doing
so. Yet we have no regrets because no matter what happens tomorrow
posterity will judge us kindly and history will recall that, when it
mattered the most, we stood for the people, for the truth, for justice
and for equity and we resisted and opposed racism, ethnic hegemony,
religious bigotry, naked tyranny, oppression, mass murder, genocide,
ethnic cleansing and the relentless attempt to subjugate and enslave our
compatriots and our nation. We welcome President Obasanjo and others to
the honorable and noble ranks of conscientious dissenters,
non-conformists and men of courage. Yet as refreshing and inspiring as
his letter was I respectfully disagree with just one aspect of it.
I believe that his categorisation and condemnation of the main
opposition party was unecessarily harsh, misplaced and regrettable. And
neither do I accept the assertion that the PDP “procured” a judgement at
the Supreme Court. The continous attempt to demystify, demonise, demean
and destroy the PDP, which the APC and the Buhari government set in
motion as one of its cardinal policies three years ago, is certainly not
the way forward. If anything those that got it wrong three years ago
and that supported Buhari should be thanking the PDP for having the
insight and fortitude to recognise the insincerity of purpose and
glaring incompetence in Buhari and his APC at a very early stage when
they stubbornly refused to do so.
They should also be thanking a few of us for providing a viable, strong
and virile opposition to a man that can best be described as a maximum
dictator who has no respect for the rule of law or the tenets of
democracy and a party that was contrived and conjured up from the pit of
hell. Yet outside of that faux pax I believe that the Ebora Owu’s
intervention was not only welcome but also timely. His counsel has
removed whatever little was left of the spiritual foundation of the APC
and the Buhari government and it has stripped them naked before the
civilised world. Today they are nothing but a sorry bunch of peopleo
living on the fading glory and diminishing power of an “all-conquering”
ethnic hegemonist .Simply put, they are nothing but a shell of their
former selves.
Baba Obasanjo’s intervention also creates the potential for a new
beginning and a massive and purposeful realignment of political forces
that may end up saving Nigeria. Let us hope that thousands of others
that have hitherto been hiding under their beds out of fear of Buhari
will follow the Ebora’s lead and find their voice. Yet if we really want
to ensure that Buhari does not return in 2019 we need to go much
further than offering wise counsel or letter-writing. The truth of the
matter is that this whole issue goes far beyond party politics: it is a
struggle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. I say
this because what we are faced with is pure tyranny and unadulterated
evil.
4 As a matter of fact it is probably the greatest evil that we have ever
known in our entire history. Quite apart from the sheer duplicity,
double-speak, greed, mendacities, double-standards, nepotism, ethnic and
religious motivations, clanishness, cruelty, incompetence and
monumental corruption of the Buhari administration, under their watch
more people have been slaughtered by the security forces and by
state-supported and protected ethnic militias like the Fulani terrorists
and herdsmen than at ANY other time in our history outside the civil
war.
Too much blood has been shed. Too much suffering and devastation has
been wrought and inflicted. Too much has gone wrong. The very root of
our foundation and our source of strength and unity has been tampered
with and damaged almost irreversably over the last three years. What
this government represents is far more entrenched, determined,
bloody-minded, dangerous and devastating than anything we have ever
known or that we have ever been confronted with in our entire history.
They are not only ruthless but they are also relentless. If anyone
doubts that they should read the words of the Minister of Defence when
he attempted to defend, justify and rationalise the activities of the
Fulani herdsmen. I said this during the 2015 Presidential campaign and
many refused to listen. I am saying it again today.
Buhari and those behind him will not go down without a fight yet they
must be stopped before they cause more damage They must be stopped
before they ignite a second civil war in which brother will kill brother
and to which there will be no end. We must avoid this at all costs and
we must settle our many differences in a peaceful and civilised way
through dialogue, fair play, justice, restraint, understanding, free and
fair elections and, most important of all, the restructuring of our
nation.
We must also be ready to confront the tyranny in the land and face down
the evil wherever and whenever it raises its ugly head. Those that
choose to play down the dangers of our situation and that have turned a
blind eye to the gravity of the unfolding crisis would do well to
consider the words of Mr. Abdulazeez Adeniyi Sulaiman. He wrote,
“Buhari’s legacy of bigotry and ethnic hatred is set in stone. There is
no amount of makeover under the sun that can change that. Fulani
herdsmen set a 150-acre palm plantation ablaze in Oyo state”.
Disturbing? Indeed. Yet no-one has managed to capture the mood better
than Mr. Nnaemeka John who wrote the following on 21st January, “I love
the Fulanis! Our political scientists take time to study Machiavelli,
Gramsci, Shaka the Zulu, Hans Morganthau’s ‘Power’, Guevara et al
ignoring a rare and unique political philosophy in our midst- “the
Fulanism-Jihadism!” See how they took Hausa land, took Ilorin, used and
dumped Ken Saro Wiwa, used the Tivs, Igalas, Idoma’s et al and dumped
them. Unongo is now a wailing wailer, David Mark has lost his voice,
Gemade is lost, Audu is still somnambulistic, Fani-Kayode is screaming,
Olu Falae is now a chronic wailer: learnt they visited him again
yesterday.
Na so life be? Now, let it be known all over southern Nigeria, that the
march to dip the Koran into the Atlantic ocean has began in earnest. Any
obstacle will be ruthlessly dealt with They closed the Chapel on the
Rock at Aso, our Christian Vice president, explained it away. They
released murderous Boko Haram members, without any kind of penal
measures into society, we hissed and went about our normal businesses.
They paraded our people accused of corruption in handcuffs like common
criminals, we kept quiet.
They picked up Nnamdi Kanu, whose words pierced their conscience,
exposed their plans and cried to the world; they handcuffed him, like a
common criminal while Boko Haram kingpins, who have murdered hundreds,
appeared in court unfettered, we only grumbled. They sent herdsmen to
cause havoc in our homelands, rather than defend ourselves, we begged
them to stop killing us in own ancestral homes.
They pushed further by appointing only their own into the National
Defence Council, something that has never happened before, not even
immediately after the civil war, all we did was murmur. They took on
unarmed IPOB, proscribed them, labeled them terrorists and militants,
politically correct people hailed them and clapped for them. For the
jihadists, it was a sign that the time has come, the time to implement
the time tested strategy that worked in Ilorin, Lebanon, Turkey and
several other places.
Since it is now very obvious, that the people have been cowed,
intimidated and politically outsmarted, it is now time to introduce the
Trojan horse, under the guise of cattle colonies. They will take the
people’s lands, develop them with proceeds from oil, gotten from the
people’s land and hand them over to their people.
They will move in with their families, one man to four women, each woman
have at least five children, in twenty years time, they’ll outnumber
the Aborigines, use their numbers to get strategic political positions
and declare an Islamic state. Sounds like fiction? No! That’s exactly
how Lebanon moved from a very popular trading and beautiful tourist
country that it was, to the ruins and debris laden country that it is
today.
The Christians in the South have a choice, they either hand over the
colonies to the Jihadists, sorry government, and convert to Islam or say
“No!” to the colony project and begin to prepare for the consequences.
To be forewarned, is to be forearmed! God help That rage is like a
massive volcano that is waiting to erupt and explode.
And when it does not one of the perpertrators or the objects of its hate
will escape the wrath of its burning lava. The message is simple and
clear: “we shall not be conquered”.
