A DIRECTIVE FOR GENOCIDE: GOVERNOR SHEMA AND THE METAPHOR OF COCKROACHES It started with a footage received through WhatsApp then updates on Facebook and other social media from individuals and institutional sources. Quickly the broadcast media followed suit with everyone condemning the overt description of opposition politicians in Katsina as COCKROACHES who shall be KILLED at sight by the Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shehu Shema. There is no limit to the implications of Shemas catastrophic directive to his person, Katsina State and the Nigerian polity. Something that most analysts seem to overlook however is that Shemas is a call for GENOCIDE. One thing that always features in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994 is the description of Tutsi minority as cockroaches by the Hutus. That image, exacerbated the feeling of mass murder on the former similar to the one that cockroaches suffer in households using insecticides. The image of murder, death and related havoc in relation to cockroaches is consistent in history, movies and literary works. THE FATE OF A COCKROACH by the Egyptian playrigght and philosopher, Tewfik Al-Hakim is a play I always like to read again. An interesting statement from SAVANT (A scientist cockroach character) reads: I have thought about this a lot and have hit upon a reason. The fact is that a strong link has been observed between the assembling of cockroaches in one place and the occurrence of catastrophes of a certain sort I want to believe, Shema, as a reasonably informed Governor, knows fully the potent of the metaphor of cockroach that is rooted in all contextual strata pointed above. He must, therefore, be deliberately utilising its resource in Hausa to cause chaos of immeasurable degree in his state out of political desperation. POINTER Shemas mood and statement in that savage address is indeed a pointer to the fact that the opposition is telling the ruling party in Katsina that it is no longer business as usual. Perhaps, General Muhammad Buhari will have the last laugh by having his party winning gubernatorial election in his home state for the first time in 2015.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 08:49:37 +0000