On the night of 12th December 2015 in the city of Zaria, Kaduna
state, Sheik El Zakzaky, the leader of the 10 million-strong Shia muslim
community in Nigeria, was shot, brutalized and dumped in a wheelbarrow.
He barely escaped with his life but sadly, according to Iranian
government sources and the New York Times, his wife, two of his sons and
no less than one thousand of his shia muslim followers were not so
lucky.
That alone speaks
volumes but what is more important to note is the fact that this is one
of the most brutal and callous events in the history of our country. It
was premeditated, well-planned, well-orchestrated and well-executed.
Homes were bombed and burnt to the ground and innocent and defenseless
men, women and children were slaughtered in an unrelenting frenzy of
violence.
After the carnage the bodies of the victims were left in
the compound of the houses and in the streets and gutters for carrion
birds to feed on and for street urchins and petty thieves to rob. This
was indeed a sordid and shameful chapter: it was not only mass murder
but it was also a crime against humanity. Those that were murdered were
targeted simply because they were Shia Muslims and simply because,
earlier in the day, some of them had mounted a road block which
obstructed the convoy of the General Burutai, the Chief of Army Staff.
It
is very clear that by this act alone the Chief of Army Staff, under
whose orders these men were acting, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is
the Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces, and every single officer and
soldier that took part in the massacre are guilty of war crimes and
crimes against humanity and are therefore candidates for the
International Criminal Court at the Hague. Our leaders must be
accountable and it is my fervent prayer and desire that the whole matter
ends up their and that both Buhari and Burutai are called to justice.
What
makes the whole matter worse is the fact that there was no mention of
the episode on BBC television or CNN and there was no sense of outrage
in our country about what these people had been subjected to. One
wonders what happened to our sense of decency and our ability to
empathize with those that are suffering and that have been subjected to
injustice? What happened to our sense of responsibility, our sensitivity
and our compassion? Yet it doesn’t stop there.
Two days before
the tragic events in Zaria a man was granted bail by two separate courts
in two separate criminal matters in Lagos. However the minute he
stepped out of the court premises he was confronted and apprehended by
operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC),
violently manhandled, dragged off the streets, bundled into a waiting
van, given the beating of his life and whisked away to an unknown
destination.
According to our constitution this man is presumed
innocent until proven guilty and up until now he has not been found
guilty of any crime. Worse still the operatives did not have an arrest
warrant and what they did was manifestly unlawful. Yet despite that,
again there is no sense of outrage in our country about the treatment
that this man was subjected to. Again it doesn’t stop there.
Approximately
one month ago a man was granted bail and given permission to travel out
of the country by the Federal High Court for medical treatment. Yet as
he proceeded to do so he discovered that the Department of State
Security (DSS) had laid siege to his home. They refused to let him step
out of the gate, they traumatized his family and they criminalised and
demonised him in the national and international media.
After a
month of confining him to his home they eventually stormed his house,
overwhelmed his security men, roughed him up, dragged him out feet
first, threw him in a waiting car, abducted him and carried him away to
an unknown destination. All this happened in violation of an order of
the Federal High Court and despite the fact that he had not been found
guilty of any crime by any court in the land yet there is no sense of
outrage in our country.
Again it doesn’t stop there. A man obtains
a court order that the Department of State Security (DSS) must not
under any circumstances enter his home yet they ignore that order, force
their way into his house, shoot bullets everywhere, terrorize and
manhandle his children, beat up his wife and ”bite” her like a dog,
throw their belongings into the streets and finally violently evict him
and his family from the premises and into the streets and there is no
sense of outrage in our country. Again it doesn’t stop there.
A
man is arrested by the EFCC, he is maligned and convicted in the media
by what are, more often than not, false allegations and spurious
confessions that are skillfully leaked to the press by his tormentors
and captors.
After days in detention he is eventually charged and arraigned before THREE separate courts for virtually the same offences all in an attempt to break, humiliate and shame him. He is subjected to all this despite the fact that he is deemed innocent until proven guilty yet there is no sense of outrage in the country over the matter. Again it doesn’t stop there.
After days in detention he is eventually charged and arraigned before THREE separate courts for virtually the same offences all in an attempt to break, humiliate and shame him. He is subjected to all this despite the fact that he is deemed innocent until proven guilty yet there is no sense of outrage in the country over the matter. Again it doesn’t stop there.
A man is arrested and detained by the
Department of State Security simply because he expresses his desire for
the establishment of a new nation called Biafra. He is kept in solitary
confinement and denied access to his lawyer and family members for weeks
on end. His lawyer goes to court and the court grants him bail and
directs that he should be released on reasonable terms and conditions.
All those terms and conditions are met but instead of abiding by the
court order and releasing him the DSS keeps him in detention for a
further three months.
After the three months have expired they
take him to a different court and apply to keep him in detention for yet
another three months. The new court declines to grant that order and
instead directs that he should be released unconditionally and with
immediate effect. On hearing about the order of the court the supporters
of the young man went to the streets in many cities in eastern Nigeria
and started celebrating and jubilating.
This did not go down well
with President Buhari’s security agencies and consequently they shot
dead five of the man’s young supporters in Onitsha simply for
jubilating, singing solidarity songs and dancing in the streets.
Meanwhile
DSS have refused to abide by the court order and up until the time that
I am writing this essay the man has not been released and he remains in
their custody. All this has happened to this man and his followers yet
there is no sense of outrage in the country about what they have been
subjected to.
When one considers all these events one is at a loss
for words. Is this really a democracy? I have come to the conclusion
that this is a government of sadists, run by sadists and for sadists.
Not only do they place no stock or value on the sanctity of human life
but they also relish in their impunity and their lack of respect for the
rule of law.
They are cowardly, wicked, malicious, petty,
insensitive, vicious and, worse of all, manifestly incompetent. They are
a government of liars, run by liars and for liars. They malign the
weak, harass the defenseless, torment the poor and punish the innocent
but God will see their end. They are soft on Boko Haram whilst they
murder shia muslims, christians, Biafrans, the young, the old, the weak
and the vulnerable.
They defy court orders and mock the judiciary.
They abuse power and defy the word of God. They rejoice when others
suffer and they take pleasure in the misfortune of their adversaries.
Instead of being just and true they are perverse in all their ways.
Instead of seeking peace, moving the country forward and facing the
business of governance they have chosen to tread the path of
destruction, persecution, discord, strife, witch hunts, lies,
demonization and war. In a futile attempt to distract the world from
their own failures they seek to inculcate and establish an atmosphere of
fear and intimidation and thereby silence their perceived enemies and
detractors.
Yet no matter how many people they incriminate,
criminalise, malign, humiliate, misrepresent, beat and lock up, no
matter how many people they kill, no matter how many people they abduct
and throw out of their homes, the fact remains that the the country is
still falling apart and our economy is still going to the dogs.
No
matter what lies they tell and no matter what entertainment and
palliatives they feed us with to keep us grinning and distracted, the
value of the naira is still at its lowest in its 42 years of existence,
the security situation is still terrible, Boko Haram is still waxing
stronger, the morale of our soldiers is still getting lower, the price
of food is still rocketing, the fuel queues still persist and poverty
and hardship pervades the land like never before.
The Buhari
administration is indulging in wickedness and the abuse of power,
violating the civil liberties and human rights of its own citizens,
murdering its own people , dividing the country, witchunting and
intimidating its perceived enemies, making a mockery of justice and the
fight against corruption, rejecting peace and all that is wholesome and
true and, like the biblical Pharoah, they are provoking the wrath of the
Lord and playing with fire. As He did with Pharaoh, Nebudchadnezzar,
Jezebel and Sennacherub God will surely break them and bring them down.
He
will avenge the dead, He will vindicate the innocent and falsely
accused, He will prove Himself mighty in battle and He will grant them
no mercy. Shame and woe be unto all those that have chosen to dine with
the devil by joining and supporting this government. The bible says
there is no peace for the wicked. There is no fellowship between light
and darkness. There is no agreement between good and evil. There is no
commonality of purpose between the just and the perverse.
There is
no accord between the compassionate and the heartless. There is no bond
between the kind and the wicked. I would rather die than join or
support a government of heartless men and closet fundamentalists. I have
no doubt that by the time this is all over the Nigerian people will
regret the choice that they made earlier this year and they will beg for
a true democrat and peace-loving man to be elected into office. Like
the proverbial frog that is slowly being boiled in water but that does
not even feel it,our people are being taken for a ride by the Buhari
administration.
To distract them from his governments’ monumental
failures the President feeds them with a daily dose of lies, falsehood
and sensational and unsubstantiated allegations about the so-called
corruption of key players in the previous administration. Sadly the
people lap it up with joy and accept the tales they are being told
without question, reason or exception. They forget that allegations are a
dime a dozen and that trial by media does not often result in a
conviction in a diligent and responsible court of law.
Meanwhile
as this obscene circus show of branding everyone but himself as a crook
and feeding the innocents to the lions continuous, President Buhari is
destroying the lives of the people, ruining the economy,crushing his
opponents, silencing his detractors, discrediting his adversaries and
dividing our nation. He is also breaking the spirit of our country and
turning us into a laughing stock before the international community.
The
bottom line is this: Nigeria has been transformed into a gestapo-like
police state where state-sponsored lies and propaganda hold sway and
where fear, coercion, blackmail and intimidation is the primary tool of
governance.
May God grant us the courage to take back our country and may the forces of light, truth and justice prevail in our land.
Written and compiled by Femi Fani-Kayode.
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