Comrade Richard Tersoo Mnenga writes IN DEFENCE OF EL-RUFAI for the Jonathanians to abuse him.....but enjoy.......... The arrest and detention of former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasiru Ahmed El-Rufai by the State Security Services SSS is not a surprising thing to me, I was only amused with the reasons advanced for the action of the security operatives who claimed his recent utterances were a threat to peace in our dear country Nigeria. Such a callous reason was really amusing as it is meant to interpret that Nigerians are indeed, pixilated and can be taken for ride at any slightest opportunity. We have had several leaders in Nigeria whose protégés took advantage of been close to the corridors of power to behave like outlaws, but this is more rampant in the present administration of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan where a few of his apologists have suddenly become demigods but I will come to this in a moment. I am certainly sure that the arrest of the Deputy National Secretary of APC, Mallam El- Rufai is nothing but a plot to piss- take not only him but the platform he represents in the current political arrangement in Nigeria; however, this should not bother anybody as such a barbaric exhibition will not be happening for the first time. The witch-hunt of political opponents in Nigeria did not start today; it started since the first republic when Nigeria became a sovereign nation. Many political heavy- weights had suffered this in the hands of the ruling government; the first to be noticed was the incarceration of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the leader of the defunct Action Group (AG) in the first republic who was jailed together with his ally Chief J.S. Tarka, the leader of the defunct United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) both in the first republic on charges of treasonable felony. Their incarceration was not far- fetched from the threat they posed to the ruling government of NPC. When the great Tarka stood firm for the creation of a Middle Belt Region, he was opposed by the ruling party and his northern kinsmen did not hide their strident opposition to this. Out of his stiff opposition to this, the then Minister of Defence, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu told his teeming supporters at an NPC rally in Kano that “Any attempt to split North will result in Bloodshed” the statement widely reported in the Nigerian Citizen of January 15, 1965 page 1 was liable of causing a serious mayhem in the country but unlike Awolowo and Tarka, he was not charged for treasonable felony. The Defence Minister who was earlier brought back to the government in 1964 by suppression and oppression saw that as a means of paying back to his masters; when the date of the 1964 general election was approaching, the Minister who sought to represent Sumaila constituency in the Federal House of Representatives was declared unopposed as his opponent in the race, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi was arrested and detained few days to the election on flimsy excuses. These undemocratic actions cost the country its first democratic experiment. This display of superiority by the government in power continued in the second republic when the NPN used government machineries to intimidate political opponents perceived as posing a threat to their victory in the forthcoming 1983 general election. The unpatriotic act led to the numerous crises witnessed in the country which was used by the military as one of their reasons for truncating the second republic, the end of which all Nigerians felt the negative consequences. When democracy was restored back in Nigeria in 1999 after a long military rule, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo used the same myopic practice to silence his major opponents and this brought a lot of instability in the country; the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was used as a tool to go after political opponents and this created a lot of animosity and suspicion amongst the political class which heated up the polity. After these harsh experiences, it is expected that Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, being the supposedly most educated president Nigeria has ever produced would tow the path of justice but the reverse is the case; it rather regrettable that this crude style of politicking has become more pronounced in his administration. Two of his kinsmen are at the fore front of inciting violence amongst Nigerians as 2015 draws near. The first outburst came from Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dokubo when he publicly declared that “If Goodluck is not re-elected president in 2015, there will be no Nigeria”; he didn’t stop at that, he dared the security agencies to summon courage and arrest him if they feel his statement is uncalled for. As Nigerians waited with enthusiasm to see the reactions of the security agencies, the matter died down. Chief Edwin Clark who is by all standards, supposed to be an elder statesmen has suddenly turned to an ethnic jingoist; he has severally uttered some treacherous words that are capable of stirring up anarchy and morbid hatred but to the best of knowledge, he has never been arrested or invited for interrogation by the State Security Services. When Clark was a Minister over Thirty Five years ago, many of us were not born, we only read of his meritorious services to nation; for him to have digressed from what he was popularly known for, it has clearly shown to us that Nigeria is indeed, hungry for men of timber and caliber. If El-Rufai could be arrested by predicting that there would be crisis in Nigeria and many people will die going by what is happening in Rivers State and other places, then it has clearly shown how Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has adopted impunity as the guiding principle of his administration by leaving Clark and Dokubo to be freely masquerading themselves as demigods. El-Rufai’s predicament was based on the current situation in Rivers State where the Commissioner of Police has become the Chief security Officer of the State and an agent of PDP, that if this continues unchecked, there will be crises and many people will lose their lives and there is no truth other than this. While we condemn violence by barbarians who hide under the canopy of religion and politics to kill and maim innocent citizens, we advise President Goodluck Jonathan to use his supposed intellectual capital to avoid politics of parochialism, ethnic jingoism and petty mindedness which has brought the culture of impunity as order of the day. Comrade Richard Tersoo Mnenga Pfeffingerstrasse 12 Basel 4053 Switzerland
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 06:43:15 +0000
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