But what actually makes state violence more moral or more legitimate, than non-state actor violence beyond the assertion by powerful people that this is a fact? Maha Hilal queried. The simple answer in Nigeria’s case, which has most of her powerful people from one part of the country is: Nothing! Except the deluded and the liar, Nigerian state no longer hold that coveted monopoly of violence. The chicken in other words has come home to roast.
For a long while, the table to monopolize violence has turned albeit quietly on its head and those evil geniuses who rule Nigeria are just catching up with the rest of the world. “Nigerian rulers” Bamidele Ademola Olateju observed “may not be smart or intelligent but by God, they are very clever! It takes a certain imaginative quality to be clever. They are evil geniuses; only good at using their abilities for negative or harmful ends”.
Whenever Nigerian leaders decide to commit atrocities or gag freedom, they hide under the guise of National security. It’s same goofy rationale they provided for suspending Twitter. And now, the illegal invasion of Chief Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho’s house is being cloaked under same National security priority. Reading through DSS unlawful justifications for that invasion and destruction shows the country is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past which gives birth to the dreaded North Eastern Boko Haram sect and its North Western cousin, Bandits.
Though this is not the first time such operation will be orchestrated by the secret police, this counterintuitive tactic In other words is about to reach its tipping point which will open people’s eyes to the inherent danger of this regime, and that as long as these elements stay in power, the only set of people capable of undermining National security will continue to be dissenters from one part of the country.
The rest of the North can go about their Banditry and terrorism unabated. Of course, this is a fact. And an hypocrisy of the highest order. That the most powerful in the country determine who should be thrown into the gulag and who should be set free says more about the principle of fairness in the country. This north and south divides will deepened suspicion and even more than those real and imaginary threats expressed by the government continue to fuel instability and undermine its oft repeated National security.
Quite unfortunately, the ineptitude and incompetence of Nigerian state to nip the bud of persistence insecurity in the South western region evidenced in farmers and herders confrontation actually paved the way for a non-state actor, Sunday Igboho to steal the show from them. For flushing the killer herders from their hideouts, Sunday Igboho made himself the hero of the helpless Yoruba people and the villain of Northern political hegemons. His first real ‘sin’ therefore, was liberating the region from the shackles and manacles of killer herders.
Igboho dared the Northern oligarchs and Yoruba cryptofascist by exposing their underbelly which reek of hypocrisy and double standard yet such daring greatly doesn’t come cheaply as the invasion into his house through gestapo means shows. As Sunday Igboho grows in wings through his soaring popularity, the hegemons in power grow impatience — desperately hunting the man who has given them sleepless nights. And with the instrument of the state at their fingertips, chasing the man they love to hate became their main target. Given the ultimatum issued to killer herders from the forest, and his triumphant entry into the obscured Yoruba Nation agitation while adding flavor and thyme to the struggle increased his list of unforgivable ‘sins’.
Brilliantly leveraging on the IPOB separatist roadmap, and following the footsteps of Ken Saro Wiwa, Igboho quickly rose to prominence becoming the unelected leader of the struggle. His crowd pulling, hand waving, G-wagon riding rallies in Osogbo, Ado Ekiti, Akure are testament to his wide acceptability of his person and his course. He’s made himself a force capable of disrupting the established order. No longer will the establishment treat him with kids gloves.
In the eyes of ‘ONE’ Nigeria trumpeters, no sin is so grievous as demanding for the disbandment of the country. The Biafra war of 1967-1970 was fought because of it. With over two million Nigerians sent to journey of no return. And in the eyes of Northern hegemons, no sin is as unforgivable as daring to send chills down the spines of their kinsfolk destroying farm lands in other people’s ancestral lands. These two, combined with unbridled enthusiasm are enough to unleash the terror of Nigerian state on agitators and supposed liberators and not on the real threats to the country’s co-operate existence, that is the terrorists and the bandits and those mollycoddling them in public. This is the irony of the country Nigeria.
OYO101, Muftau Gbadegesin’s opinion on issues affecting Oyo State, is published on Saturdays. He can be reached via muftaugbadegesin@gmail.com and 09065176850.
