The other day, I had cause to wonder
why the people who support
continuity, i.e. more of Goodluck
Jonathan, are also usually the ones
who are quick to support a
disintegration of the country. Some
are in deep anger, rehashing stories of
the past and complaining loudly about
Lord Lugard amalgamating the region.
Some others talk about ‘pure
federalism’, which is another way of
saying ‘we do not want to share
whatever is in the ground in our
territory’. Yet others talk about the
last confab as a linchpin for their
passion of separation and revenge. A
final group populate the Goodluck
Jonathan Campaign Group, whose
main strategy consisted in the use of
scare tactics, and sordid horror
images on TV and in newsprints,
meant to set the people of this
country against themselves by
reopening and reinfecting old wounds.
Never has a more irresponsible
campaign been run as has been run by
PDP. I know a few people who have
put these evidences together and a
few of our ‘big men’ may have to
answer to the ICC, in the event of any
post-election violence. Talk about
destroying a delicate country put in
one’s charge!
I had cause to marvel about that
situation and concluded that it was
very similar to a story in the Holy
Bible where two women approached
King Solomon, both laying claim to
one child. Call that baby ‘Nigeria’.
Anyway, King Solomon came up with a
bright idea to determine who really
owned the child. He brought out a
long machete and asked the ladies
“why don’t I just split the baby in two
and hand you both half both ways,
equally?” One of them immediately
replied. “Please don’t sir, dear King. I
would rather surrender the baby than
watch him die. Let her have it!” That is
me. That is APC. The other one
however said she didn’t mind if the
baby was killed and split in two. That
is PDP. That is Jonathan and his
supporters. I have never seen a gang
of crazier people assembled for one
campaign. Fani-Kayode, Fayose,
Okupe, Abati, and a recent addition,
one Mukhtar Alex Daniyan (MAD for
effect), who behaved like he was
hooked on hard drugs in a recent
youth debate. PDP does have them!
But two weeks to the postponed
election – a postponement that merely
heightened tensions in the land and
concretized the already hardened
positions of Nigerians – I have the
privilege of standing back once more
to survey the polity. And again,
another picture emerges, that is again
reminiscent to what had happened in
Biblical times. I hope our pastors –
many of whom are on the dollar-
sharing gravy train of the PDP – are
still using the Holy Bible as their
reference document? I am also
referring to those pastors, as well as
Imams, that tell us all God wants is for
us to ‘pray for our leaders’, who
somehow have forgotten the roles
played by the prophets in the Bible in
checking the excesses of different
Kings, and the position of Jesus
Christ and Prophet Muhammad (SAW),
towards oppression, corruption, and
mismanagement. None of the good
prophets ever sat around, refusing to
do anything. Incidentally only Prophet
Jonah comes to mind as one who tried
to abdicate his duty. He ended up in
the belly of the whale.
The real big story has to do with
when the children of Israel were
fighting to leave Egypt and the
Pharaohs will not let them go. God
sent Moses to fight for the Israelites.
Now Moses was an old man (like
Buhari). The Egyptians were very cruel
to the Israelites, even though they
had much money. They were only
interested in using the Israelites as
slaves to toil, and lift heavy stones,
with little rewards (like the Nigerian
thieving elites, robber barons, and
crony capitalist and their enablers in
government are using the majority of
poor Nigerians, owing salaries yet
bragging to win votes). Moses’ role
was not to get into the Promised Land
with the Israelites, but at least to free
them from slavery and bondage. We
have always said to naysayers that
Buhari’s coming is symbolic. He may
not transform Nigerian into paradise in
four years but he will surely set this
country on its path, and stay the hand
of oppressors, by God’s Grace, insha
Allah. I believe strongly that Buhari
will enable a more egalitarian and just
society where inequality of income will
not consume all of us; a society that
cares for its most vulnerable, where
the abundance of the land reaches
almost everyone. This is not to say
the rich will not stay rich. But
hardwork will count for something.
This analogy is made more pungent,
with the number of clogs that PDP
and its forever oppressing friends are
throwing in the wheels of this
impending change. Very much like the
seven plagues with which God tried to
force the hands of the Egyptians. Only
now in reverse form. Wickedly so.
In our instance, we have seen how
many people who support the
‘continuation’ of oppression, blind
revenge, prejudice, ethnic and
religious stereotyping, financial
mismanagement and greed in Nigeria
have come up with all sorts, just to
ensure this Moses does not lead us
out of oppression. Let me recount:
Initially, they said he was a military
dictator; that he will put everyone in
jail or kill them. They made
documentaries of those he sentenced
to firing squad for trafficking drugs
(which also kill others). Then they
made a lot of hue and cry over his
school leaving certificate, or lack of
one. We almost all went deaf! Then
they transited, while keeping all these
tribulations going on, and twanging
the chords of hate in the hearts of
Nigerians, to his health. They forged
health reports bandying several
diseases around; from Parkinsons to
Prostrate Cancer, concluding that it
was Testicular Cancer. Unlike the Holy
Bible, when it was God that was
manufacturing the plagues, from boils
to toads, to compel the Egyptians, the
traducers of our people are the ones
churning out, one dastardly chicanery
after another. They have no love,
respect, or fear of anyone or anything.
Only a fear of being discovered and
made to recompense the people.
Then they tried to stop the elections.
And so they rushed to courts. There
has to be something that can be done.
A legal plague perhaps. An armada of
suits lay in court. Okupe, Fani, Fayose,
all swear on their mothers’ graves that
no matter what happens, they, the
agents of Pharaoh, will NEVER allow
the people of Nigeria to exit the
dungeon where we are locked. Never,
they swear, will they allow Buhari lead
Nigeria! It doesn’t matter what the
longsuffering people of Nigeria, who
have waded to decades of penury,
whose monies are used by a few to
become the biggest shoppers abroad,
who revel in Byzantine opulence,
think!
As we speak they are still ‘turning
tricks’. “Sack Jega!”, “Stop the Card
Reader!”, “Postpone once more!”,
“Buhari must withdraw!”, “Disqualify
him!”, “Let the military take over!”.
What will we not see or hear? Fayose
published a living man’s obituary
earlier. Then capped it by disgracing
his own mother as a ‘pampers-wearin
g’ bed-wetter. All to keep the children
of Nigeria in the land of slavery!
But certainly, they will come to the
threshing floor. The wheat will be
separated from the chaff in Nigeria. We
are full of prayers, and hope, and
resolve, that this country will be
better run and that equity will come
upon the land. Let us pray, that when
God himself shall visit this country
with his very wrath, that we and ours
be passed over, as the children of
Israel were once passed-over.
LET MY PEOPLE GO!

By Tope Fasua.

Hmmm... Lovely piece. Kudos