Lesley Gene Agams
Lesley Gene Agams
If you read The Punch of today, April 23, you will find that non-natives in Kano say they may be suing Buhari and Shekarau, the Kano State governor, for inciting violence by urging “the masses to protect their votes”. Having suffered terrible losses in ...the post-election riots up north,
I believe the group, Leaders of Ethnic Communities Resident in Kano State, have every good reason to seek justice. But I also believe if the reason for suing is that people were encouraged to protect their votes and therefore resorted to violence, the defendants’ list MUST be expanded to include civil society groups, all the top opposition parties as well as the Nigerian government. For a while now, I have expressed concern about the numerous campaigns that called on people to protect their votes. Long before the elections and since the violence broke, I have questioned the call for protection of votes considering that those who make this call do not understand the potential it has for inciting violence. Where there are good intentions, its advocates do not seem to realise that this country is too sophisticated for peaceful protests. Lending credence to my arguments, our minister of information and communications, Labaran Maku, on Wednesday reportedly attributed the violence to the mobilization of voters to protect their votes. Mr. Maku said politicians should have preached peace during their campaigns instead of calling on voters to protect votes. Following his comments, I think the group in Kano should drag Mr. Maku into the suit to tell why he is earning money as minister of information and communications if he could not read the danger in the campaign he now criticises. Mr. Maku should tell the Nigerian people why he did not speak out until scores of people were brutally murdered and properties worth hundreds of millions were destroyed. He should tell us why he let his ministry drive us to this crisis that threatens our unity. Let’s face it, as the man in charge of information and communications (and in many ways national orientation), Mr. Maku did a terrible job in preparing Nigerians for the polls. He let others do the job for him; now he complains they preached the wrong message. Where was he when they were saying these things using media that he regulates? I am not suggesting Mr. Maku should have gagged the opposition. I am suggesting he should have sponsored counter-ads telling Nigerians why it was risky to protect votes or at least how they should protect votes... But no, he like many other clueless people in our government, was waiting for the blame game. Only yesterday, The Sun and other media published a statement by the ACN saying there will be dire consequences that haven’t been imagined if the PDP rigs the governorship polls. From experience, this statement means there will be violence if the PDP wins in states where the ACN THINKS it should win. Yet, Mr. Maku will not act; he will wait for the Wednesday FEC meeting to brief reporters that “the utterances of some politicians further heightened the political unrest we have seen”. Let us not be deceived, by urging people to protect their votes by all means necessary, many of us are culpable in the violence up north. We must now learn from that bitter lesson and prepare for the task on Tuesday and what will come with it.
I believe the group, Leaders of Ethnic Communities Resident in Kano State, have every good reason to seek justice. But I also believe if the reason for suing is that people were encouraged to protect their votes and therefore resorted to violence, the defendants’ list MUST be expanded to include civil society groups, all the top opposition parties as well as the Nigerian government. For a while now, I have expressed concern about the numerous campaigns that called on people to protect their votes. Long before the elections and since the violence broke, I have questioned the call for protection of votes considering that those who make this call do not understand the potential it has for inciting violence. Where there are good intentions, its advocates do not seem to realise that this country is too sophisticated for peaceful protests. Lending credence to my arguments, our minister of information and communications, Labaran Maku, on Wednesday reportedly attributed the violence to the mobilization of voters to protect their votes. Mr. Maku said politicians should have preached peace during their campaigns instead of calling on voters to protect votes. Following his comments, I think the group in Kano should drag Mr. Maku into the suit to tell why he is earning money as minister of information and communications if he could not read the danger in the campaign he now criticises. Mr. Maku should tell the Nigerian people why he did not speak out until scores of people were brutally murdered and properties worth hundreds of millions were destroyed. He should tell us why he let his ministry drive us to this crisis that threatens our unity. Let’s face it, as the man in charge of information and communications (and in many ways national orientation), Mr. Maku did a terrible job in preparing Nigerians for the polls. He let others do the job for him; now he complains they preached the wrong message. Where was he when they were saying these things using media that he regulates? I am not suggesting Mr. Maku should have gagged the opposition. I am suggesting he should have sponsored counter-ads telling Nigerians why it was risky to protect votes or at least how they should protect votes... But no, he like many other clueless people in our government, was waiting for the blame game. Only yesterday, The Sun and other media published a statement by the ACN saying there will be dire consequences that haven’t been imagined if the PDP rigs the governorship polls. From experience, this statement means there will be violence if the PDP wins in states where the ACN THINKS it should win. Yet, Mr. Maku will not act; he will wait for the Wednesday FEC meeting to brief reporters that “the utterances of some politicians further heightened the political unrest we have seen”. Let us not be deceived, by urging people to protect their votes by all means necessary, many of us are culpable in the violence up north. We must now learn from that bitter lesson and prepare for the task on Tuesday and what will come with it.
By: Atom Lim
It is about time too because the spirits of those INNOCENT YOUTH CORPERS, CHILDREN,MEN AND WOMEN KILLED will not rest until JUSTICE PREVAILS, BUT THIS SHOULDN'T ALSO STOP THE GOVERNMENT FROM DOING THEIR JOB TO CURB THIS TERRIBLE VIOLENCE TAKING PLACE ALL OVER NIGERIA ESPECIALLY IN THE NORTH......
ReplyDeleteby abby ojo