Yinka Olujimi
President Muhammadu Buhari may have observed the dramatic lowering of tension across the length and breadth of the country since his eventual decision to obey court orders for the release of activist journalist Omoyele Sowore, and the collateral benefit to that effect enjoyed by former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki.
In view of his administration’s penchant for needless own goals, however, one will not be surprised if he continues to seek enemies in wrong places. Before the release of Sowore and Dasuki, the Buhari administration had needlessly, and stubbornly, attracted to itself a growing army of foes, both locally and internationally. But, those are not the real enemies. Like a person irrevocably committed to self-immolation, the administration had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory; making friends of enemies and vice versa.
The president had apparently been convinced that he was being buffeted by implacable foes, left, right, and centre. This seems to have been the guiding principle of many actions by his administration in the last five years or so. For instance, friend-turned political foe, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is an open book, and his desire to occupy the president’s seat is nobody’s secret. He is, however, no longer a threat to Buhari’s equal desire for the office since the General is already enjoying his second term in that office. His frequent press statements criticizing the policies of the Buhari administration notwithstanding, Atiku is not the enemy.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was an ally of the incumbent who became a bitter critic as Buhari most disappointingly rolled from one self-inflicted crisis to another, especially as cronyism and ethnic and religious favouritism became the order of the day. Take it or leave it, however, Obasanjo is not the enemy.
Sowore’s news medium, the saharareporters, played a major role in the emergence of Buhari as president, wresting power from the then sitting President Goodluck Jonathan.
In 2019, however, the journalist sought to deny Buhari second term in office by contesting the seat with him. When he lost, Sowore took to activism by offering to lead a street protest called Revolution Now. Jittery, and intent on proving loyalty to the president and not necessarily the state, the Directorate of State Security (DSS) went on overdrive, arrested Sowore and clamped him in detention.
Thank God for a relentless civil society and apparent pressure from the international community, especially the United States, Sowore is out. But, the President needs to know: the journalist is not the enemy. Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, Sowore’s lawyer Femi Falana (SAN), and the army of activists commenting both offline and online against the misdeeds of the government are not the enemies.
If President Buhari truly wants to identify his enemies, and protect himself against them, he should look inwards. The enemies are the automated praise singers, who applaud every move of his, fair or foul. As military ruler, Buhari was noted for ordering arbitrary arrests and detention of citizens by the secret Police, then named the National Security Organisation (NSO). Today, as an elected President, he has allowed the Directorate of State Services (DSS), toe the same path of infamy, arresting and detaining citizens at will.
In doing so, the DSS believes that it is acting in the president’s interest. The president seems to share that view. But of a truth, the organization has so far acted against the best interest of not just the president, but the country as well. The DSS took Nigerians for granted, believing that the people could be cowed into submission. The arrest and continued detention of Sowore was supposed to serve just that purpose. Unfortunately for the organization, it underestimated the resolve of the Nigerian people to defend their rights, and that of the United States to intervene, with thinly veiled threat of sanctions against the administration. By showing greater allegiance to the President than it has done to the country, the DSS has unfortunately shown itself to be an enemy of the President. It has so far shown commitment to putting a dent on the image of the President, long after his tenure, as a leader who has no regard for human rights.
In the same league is the army of praise singers who know, or ought to know, that the DSS action would lead the Buhari name to infamy yet prodded him on. The same people who had little or no voice in support of Buhari prior to the 2015 election when Obasanjo, Soyinka, or Sowore held his banner aloft, became his rabid supporters, barking at anyone who urged caution. The more Buhari took anti-people decisions which were sure to pit him against the international community, the more they hailed him towards perdition.
Of course, the biggest enemies of the president are the members of the so-called cabal who pull the strings, and send the DSS on the slave errand. Perhaps, the decision to pull back on the Sowore matter and release of Dasuki is an opportunity for a new start for Buhari to keep his enemies at home in check. Perhaps…
PDP and the hypocrisy game
“What is exciting about the directive to release these people? Has this changed their penchant for disobedience of court orders and the rule of law? This government has shown to the world that it is only interested in doing things its own ways regardless of the place of law and democratic order. “They felt the heat of national and international pressure; so, there was nothing more for them to do than to order their immediate release. Nigerians are not fooled by this and the government knows it.”
The statement above was attributed to the National Publicity Secretary of main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kola Ologbondiyan, in reaction to the release of activist journalist Omoyele Sowore, and former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki on Tuesday this week.
Forty-eight hours after it was reported when this column was going to bed, Ologbondiyan was yet to disown it. So, one is left with no choice but to take it as the true representation of his views in the interview with the newspaper. Everything attributed to the PDP spokesman is good, only that it does not lie in his mouth or that of the party he represents.
Reason: I am yet to read a report of the opposition party condemning a similar action by Ben Ayade, the PDP Governor of Cross River State who has procured the arrest and prosecution of another journalist, Agba Jalingo for criticizing the spending habit of his administration. Rather than present itself as a moral opposite of the ruling party, the PDP has shown itself to condone the same high-handedness as exhibited by the Buhari Federal Government.
•Ologbondiyan should be told: Park well, Nigerians are no fools.