Yesterday, I bore my mind on the question "CAN NIGERIA STILL REMAIN A CORPORATE ENTITY" on this page. I got some reactions and I want to share those reactions first before I further my discussion today under the subject "VIOLENT PROTESTS Vs RATIONALE THINKING". I am leaving out the names of those who made comments for the purpose of their confidentiality.
"When Buhari came to campaign in Minna last year he made some inflamatory statements and most of the people that were following him were thugs and indian hemp smokers who were brandishing all kinds of dangerous weapons on d streets of Minna."
"I'm afraid not. What our voting said is, we a better off separated especially those from the South. They put their region ahead of the country and continuing like this won't be good for the country. At least a good deal from the north look beyond region and ethnicity and shown their desire for the country to be a corporate entity"
"when i told my bosom friend that am not going to vote Saturday for any of the available presidential candidates less did i know that i will a subject of the fury of the political thugs sent out by the inciting comments of our revered political juggernauts......my home was vandalized.....but i escaped with my family miraculously.....what else will I contribute to this discussion without giving away the venom on my spleen......i have no comments.....i just dey laugh"
After taking my readers down memory lane, I merely laid a foundation for a sustained discourse on the NIGERIAN QUESTION using the recent post-elections violence in northern Nigeria as a platform. Today, I just want us to reason randomly against the backdrop of the violent destruction of lives and properties in the name of protests. But first of all, let us look at the comments of the three respondents I pasted above.
The first respondent is a lady and lives in Minna, North Central Nigeria. She emphasized the inflammatory campaign strategy adopted by the Congress for Progressive Change candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari. Those who were in the majority at such campaigns were said to be thugs and "miscreants" brandishing all kinds of dangerous weapons on the streets. I attest to this because here in Kano, few weeks to the elections, some of the CPC supporters went on rampage on the day their presidential campaign was scheduled for Kano and they did a lot of damage. CPC is therefore suggested to be home to some very violent and uneducated and unprincipled charllatans who follow General Buhari fanatically. Anyone desiring to challenge this should write back and make your comments.
The second respondent is a male and appears to be in love with the person of General Buhari and also believes that the north is innocent of my position that it has not dealt well with other Nigerians in the NIGERIAN PROJECT. He rather claimed the south is putting their region above others. I disagree with that allusion on the following grounds:
1. When the military and other civilian leaders in the past from the north dominated the power equation in Nigeria, the south never took up arms to murder northerners living in their domain. The June 12, 1993 presidential election which produced a muslim/muslim ticket in the persons of MKO Abiola and Babagana Kingibe was overwhelmingly voted in the south. Can the north, today vote for a Christian/Christian ticket? The answer is definitely no. Buhari/Idiagbon were a pair of muslims who led the country as a military regime. Nobody complained. These and other examples validates my argument that the north is pursuing a religious agenda in politics and this is wrong. It is their attitude that most of the time fuels the animosity that the south is beginning to have about anyone from the north.
2. Today, in Benue ACN, there is a Christian/Muslim ticket seeking to lead the state. Benue is a predominantly Christian populated state. Can Kano for instance ever present a Muslim/Christian ticket? Be the judge! Lagos which is completely cosmopolitan in nature has had a Muslim/Christian ticket for the past 12 years! As a matter of fact, Lateef Jakande is a Muslim. Yet, in the same Lagos, Christians are in the majority. Is the Islam practised in the south different from the one practised in the north? Be the judge!
3. Our respondent also said the north made a deal. I am not aware of any deal. The overwhelming vote from the North was for Buhari. The South and the middle belt voted for Goodluck Jonathan. Someone should give those who voted for Goodluck some measure of intelligence. It is a democracy! Did Buhari sincerely believe he was going to win the elections?
WHAT WERE THE PROTESTERS ANGRY ABOUT?
While the results of the elections were being announced, protests began to build up across the north. Buhari was winning in the North, Goodluck was winning in the South. Were the protesters angry that the south were voting their choice candidate? What was the issue really? Some people said they were angry that the election was being rigged! That is a subject I want to treat in the next blog. But even if the election was being rigged, there were legitimate means of pursuing their grievances with the process. The courts! Whatever happened to rationale thinking? While they protested, they did not do a protest march with placards. They protested with clubs, knives, sticks, bonfires, arson, killings, and burning of churches! The people who were killed... what were they dying for? What was their offence? The Christians whose properties were looted, burnt or destroyed and in many cases killed. What was their offence? Do they work for the INEC? It is meaningless, senseless and barbaric.
I am more bothered when those who should know better are justifying the violent protest by saying "they were responding spontaneously to the rigging of the election". That is absolutely meaningless. I took the pains of discussing this because parents, elders and the elites in the north who were actually fanning the embers of violence had no liver to call a spade a spade. They were busy calling those they sponsored "thieves, hooligans and vandals" who were only interested in "looting peoples' properties". Foul! Hooligans can't afford a 50 liter jerican of petrol (N5,000 in some cases) to burn one church down (and over 15 churches were burnt in a particular area alone in Kano!) Where would a group of non-entities afford say N100,000 to buy fuel to systematically burn down churches if they were not funded?
My Muslim friends and associates rather than think along this line are trying to defend their region as if I am against them. No! Far from it... I am being objective and having lived in the North for 21 years, I believe this place has become home but I am being made to feel like I am not welcomed because I am a Christian and think differently. For God's sake, this is the 21st century and we are in a democracy! If my rights as a citizen is limited because I live in a state outside my home state, then we should begin to think differently about the Federal Republic we call Nigeria.
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