An epilogue to another tragedy

They thought they could embarrass the president. -How? – By releasing that report through the back door. -What do you mean? – Listen to the soldier. – The soldier – General al-Burhan? –  General Burhan ko, General Buhari ni! – There’s only one talking soldier worth listening to these days. –  And who is that? […]

They thought they could embarrass the president.

-How?

– By releasing that report through the back door.

-What do you mean?

– Listen to the soldier.

– The soldier – General al-Burhan?

–  General Burhan ko, General Buhari ni!

– There’s only one talking soldier worth listening to these days.

–  And who is that?

– The leader of Sudan’s 18th military coup.

–  Really?

– Yes, the Sudan finally ties with Nigeria on military coups in Africa.

–  I don’t care if General Boring is roasting his people for breakfast.

–  Oh, you don’t?

–  I can’t be bothered about Sudan with the rot here at home.

– So what rot at home?

– Imagine what Sanwo-olu and Tinubu were doing to Buhari’s foreign diplomacy! The President was out there asking the French to come and savour the peace haven he has created here, but boom, the Lekki Toll Gate panel unfurled its report in Lagos.

– The report was released at the right time, there’s no politics about it.

–  Yes there is.

–  How?

– They broke the protocol. Established commission findings are first released to the conveners who let tension die down before issuing a white paper.

–  You mean white lies and cover-ups!

–  These politicians chose to put the cart before the horse for one man’s political expediency.

–  How?

– We all know that the Emir of Bourdillon eyes the presidency, hence the strong desire to make a clean break from the mess they unfurled on us. So, what did they do but blame the one who was called to help?

– Let’s leave your wild conjectures aside and talk to the findings, the revelations of the panel.

–  Revelations!

– Yes, eleven identified dead, four missing and several hundreds injured. No wonder they were bent on burying the evidence.

–  The way you people spoke about the massacre, you would have thought that half of Lagos residents were wiped out. People have forgotten that it was Sanwo-Olu that invited soldiers to kill his own people.

– Massacre!

– Even one is a massacre when people operate outside the rules of civilised engagement. Your leader was happy to deploy trigger-happy agents because he perceived it as a coup. He ordered the army to do whatever they could to stem the simmering insurgency and to sweep the scene of crime clean.

– I wish such an order was given against Boko Haram insurgents, herdsmen running amok in all parts of northern Nigeria. I mean, only days ago, Cameroonian separatists encroached on our territory and killed many in Taraba. Then they issued a statement demanding that Nigeria severs its ties with Paul Biya. So how many people did al-Burhan kill in Sudan?

– I don’t know, I’m not Amnesty International!

– Ah, you should be. Remember the iconic words of Martin Niemöller in First They Came. It invites us to take selective elimination seriously. When you say that eleven does not constitute a massacre, remember the words of Dele Giwa on the quality of life versus the quality of numbers.

–  What did Dele Giwa say?

–  That one life taken in cold blood is as gruesome as a million that may go down in a pogrom, so let’s forget about numbers and talk about life’. Lives were lost in Lekki and the official liar cannot cover up the evidence.

– Let’s blame Unknown soldiers for the killings in Lekki.

– We know who asked for ‘help’ and who approved the request. We know the commander that gave the orders and executed peaceful protesters. We know they got promoted when they should have been court-marshaled. This life is not balanced.

– Uhm…

– We know how they swept the area clean after the act, and imposed martial law and a media blackout on relatives of victims.

– The concept of absolute freedom is a mirage.

–  Really?

– Nobody has quelled dissent here. We run a democracy – people are free to express themselves and indeed they do so daily – on the pages of newspapers, in the electronic and on social media. To quote Idi Amin – freedom of expression is guaranteed in Nigeria, what cannot be guaranteed anywhere is freedom after expression.

–   Is that something to be proud of?

– I’m just citing quotes like you. People write rubbish here every day without anyone bothering them.

– Dadiyata’s distraught wife and family members would not agree with your assertion; nor would the relatives of detainees and the disappeared. Do you think Omoyele Sowore would agree with you? Or Nnamdi Kanu? Or Sunday Adeyemo?

– All over the world, there are limits to freedom; that is what balances the scales of justice. There is no absolute freedom anywhere.

– Freedom is the universal ideal that humanity expects from its elected leaders.

– An ideal that does not practically exist anywhere. Tell me how Edward Snowden perceives freedom or Julian Assange or China’s Ai Wei Wei. So, even countries parading themselves as the bastions of democracy and freedom have been found wanting. Nations raised Special Forces trained to eliminate leaders who express thoughts and actions that differ from their ideal and Africa is the graveyard of people-oriented leaders like Thomas Sankara, Ahmed Ben Bella, Steve Biko, Murtala Mohammed and others…

– You should apply to join the Buhari Media Centre; they need your expertise. But why do people excuse the excesses of our leaders especially just because their wicked acts have spared them? No nation advances where citizens gauge freedom by how it affects them personally. The forces that annihilate your perceived enemies are lurking in the dark, waiting for the tables to turn.

–  The table never turns.

–  You think so?

–  Politics is a game of numbers and the numbers game would always favour one section over the other.

– The table always turns! It might take a while and look like it would last for eternity, but everyone gets their turns to wail.

–  So what should we do?

– Adopt Martin Luther’s dictum that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

scandals a dozen for less than a penny here.

– Maybe, but we are now citizens of a nation whose words are worth nothing. CNN has asked for apologies…what happens when the words of state actors cannot be trusted; when that state needs to amplify its truth to the world; trust has already been broken.

–   Forget CNN.  

–  Should I forget the calls for the resignation of the man who denied there was a massacre?

–  As long as the man who appointed him has implicit trust in him, he can keep his job.

–   Doesn’t image count for anything?

–  Not when you are a shadow. Image only counts when you are a substance. Okupe has not lost face, neither has Reuben Abati or David Attah. Every political jobber counts on our collective amnesia to make a robust rebound. They know we are quick to forgive, forget or pretend it never happened. Do you know any political big-wig without a sordid past?

–  Not many.

–   And so, this is just another epilogue to a series of tragedies.