23RD OF MAY, 2021
BY: CHIEF MIKE OZEKHOME, SAN, OFR, FCIArb, LL.M, Ph. D, LL.D
INTRODUCTION
I know you people in the corridors of power don’t bother about reading or
hearing from we lesser mortals. You love listening to yourselves, fawners,
bootleggers, bootlickers, contractors, influence-paddlers and genuflectors. I
am not one. Fortunately. But, give me some minutes and read this this my
humble open letter in the form of my column contribution. This is because
aside being a patriot, pan-Nigerian, Constitutional Lawyer, Human Rights
Activist and Pro- democracy campaigner, I am also an avid and voracious
reader, writer, Essayist, archivist and historian. Aside law books, I also
write long essays, poems, articles and books on sundry matters, such as
literature, history, native laws, customs and traditions. I presently write 6
columns for 6 different newspapers EVERY WEEK, some since 2014.NON-
STOP!
WOLE SOYINKA, BROTHER JERO AND KARL MARX
I once read Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka’s “JERO’S
METAMORPHOSIS”, a play staged in 1960 (I was barely 2 years old
then), and published in 1963. I also read Soyinka’s “THE TRIALS OF
BROTHERS JERO”. In the former play, Jero was in possession of a
confidential file which revealed government’s plans to transform the beach
into a public prosecution ground and tourists’ centre. The satirical play was
about the willy ways Jero tried to unite all the church leaders operating at
the beach and make them form one church, with him as the sole leader.
Soyinka was satirically decrying the hypocritical way Nigerians practised
the Christian religion. He was shocked at the obsequious and
unquestioning devotion that converts and adherents displayed towards
their manipulative spiritual leaders. In “The Trials of Brother Jero” first
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published in 1964, Soyinka mocked the proselytizing Church preachers
who did not even have churches (as did brother Jero) and so preached in
public places. He highlighted the transformation of these leaders with
religious titles of Bishop, Pastor and Prophet, to military titles such as
General, Colonel, Sergeant, etc. He depicted church leaders as deceptive,
corrupt, fraudulent, politically ambitious and abandoning their flock in
pursuit of merchantilistic and mundane cravings. Thus, Like Karl Marx,
Soyinka satirised these crafty preachers who deceived their sumnabulistic
followers. The play exposed the contradictions in blind faith and slavish
following, and satired the too many social and political imbalances in
Nigeria of the 60s. The ills Soyinka kicked against in the early 60s are even
worse today. Have u not seen viral videos where so called Pastors urinated
in the mouths of their hypnotised worshippers, or farted on their faces, or
sat on their heads, with other members washing his legs on their heads?
They are told that is the only way to get rich or see paradise. Religion had
been termed opium of the people by Karl Marx, used as an instrument to
fight wars as beast in Europe, instead of using it to give solace to the soul
of man. Soyinka had theorised along that line.
EL-RUFAI AND I: BEFORE BEFORE
Welcome, Mallam El Rufai, the cerebral Quantity Surveyor Governor of
Kaduna, once upon a time an otherwise jolly good fellow. I consider you my
dear friend. I don’t know if you still do, me, based on our different world
views and obvious glaring deological differences. As Minister of the FCT,
you were uncompromising against corruption and defacement of the Abuja
master plan. Not ready to play ball with the legislative arm on financial
gratification, you were promptly declared a persona non gratia by the
NASS, and banned from holding public office for 10 years. You immediately
consulted me. I met with you and my good friend, Senator Uba Sani, at
your Life Camp home. On your instructions, I headed for the Federal High
Court, Abuja.I won the case. The NASS appealed. I also defeated the
NASS at the Court of Appeal, Abuja. That was how you, Nasir came back
to public reckoning, to have been able to contest and win election as
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Kaduna State Governor in 2015,and then 2019. I don’t know if your present
beyond-the-clouds office will allow you remember this piece of history. But,
the cold, hard records are there.
WORKERS AND EL-RUFAI’S GRADUAL METAMORPHOSIS
Now, El Rufai,you, have metamorphosed, like brother Jero. You now see
yourself as a tin god, a powerful deity, to be appeased by human sacrifices
in terms of toying with citizens’ welfare.
El Rufai, you had sacked over 45000 workers. You did not care about their
families and dependants in these horrific harsh economic times unleashed
on Nigerians by your clueless and anti-people APC Government. The
workers kicked, as they are entitled to in any democracy; even under
totalitarian military juntas. You flexed your tiny mosquito muscles and
played Louis X1V of France (of the ‘L’ etat ce’st moi’ – I am the State’-
fame). Ayuba Wabba, NLC President, gathered his Kaduna flock workers,
like a hen, her chicks, and called out a Kaduna State strike. You, El Rufai,
will hear none of it. Your authority had been challenged by lesser mortals.
To you, a civil strike amounts to economic sabotage, and Ayuba Wabba
must be apprehended and tossed into jail like a common criminal. You
even placed a handsome reward, an expensive ransom, on Waba’s head.
You are a Governor who has so far refused to pay ransom to free your own
innocent University Students kidnapped from their University, right under
your nose. Five of them have since been butchered. You were not touched.
The rest live in daily terror, fear of death and fear of fear. Their parents are
tired of crying. Their oceans of tears have dried up in supplication to god El
Rufai, to help save their innocent children. You, El Rufai, will not budge.
Like the Pharaoh of Egypt, you will not let your people go!
NOW THIS
THE FURY OF KADUNA STATE WORKERS
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Now, the workers carried out their threat. They downed tools. Swaging
Emperor Nero El Rufai will take none of the ‘nonsense’. Pronto, you fired all
Nurses from level 14 downward, for daring to participate in the collective
strike. Nigerians, can you believe that? I cannot, myself?
The workers nonetheless took to the streets in a peaceful protest, waving
banners. Yes, as done by innocent Nigerians who had waved Nigerian
flags and banners in a peaceful protest and were horrendously mauled
down at the Lekki toll gate in October, 2020.
What did your El Rufai’s Government do next? It panicked, instigated
violence, employed a horde of weed-smoking, cudgel–carrying, machetes-
brandishing and stones-hauling street thugs and urchins to unleash
violence and mayhem on these peaceful protesters. The security agents
were there, watching, enjoying themselves. They ‘siddon look’. Never
mind that Ayuba Wabba ,NLC President, had sent SOS to the Director,
DSS, Abuja, Director, DSS, Kaduna branch and the DIG of Police, Kaduna
State. That is Nigeria’s sorry State. Complete nadir.
Free advice for you, swashbuckling Deity, El -Rufai. You should not dare
arrest the NLS Chairman, or dismiss the Nurses. You have changed from
the sweet guy I used to know and gradually, not suddenly, become
dictatorial and despotic. You are reminding us of Hitler and Musolini. I am
genuinely shocked as to how such a well read, exposed and travelled man
like you, who once self-exiled himself from Nigeria for fear for his life, has
metamorphosed into a full-blown tyrant and intolerant absolutist god that
must be worshipped, because of the intoxicating effect of power on you, as
an aphrodisiac. Why have you developed an insatiable bacchanalian
appetite to inflict sufferings and misery on Nigerians, especially your own
citizens that you govern?
CERTAIN RIGHTS ARE INALIENABLE
Let me tell you this. The rights to life, dignity of the human person, personal
liberty, fair hearing, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and
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association and freedom of movement, etc, are basic human rights
guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution. They are respectively contained in
sections 32, 33, 34,35,38,39 and 40 of the1999 Constitution of Nigeria. At
least, your tyrannical Government has not yet abrogated this Constitution.
These rights are also universally recognised under the United Nations
Declaration of Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and People’s
Rights, the European Charter on Human Rights, the American Convention
on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and other international instruments.
AND THIS
THE RIGHT TO PROTEST IS A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT
The right to protest without even seeking Police permission has been
serially upheld by Nigerian appellate courts. See the cases of IGP V ANPP
(2007) AHELR 179 (CA);(2007) 18 NWLR (PT 1066) 457, at pages 49I-
499, per Adekeye, JCA (as she then was?; AG FEDERATION V
ABUBAKAR (2007) 10 NWLR (PT 1041) 1,92-93; OSADEBEY V
AG,BENDEL STATE (1991) SCNJ 102,218.Mallam, I read to my chagrin
that you have allegedly offered to pay handsome ransom for the arrest of
Ayuba, the NLC Chairman. Let me advise you to rather use the ransom for
the release of the helpless and unfortunate Boko Haram- kidnapped
students of your state. If you yield to my advice, you would not be doing
anything new at all. After all, you once told shocked Nigerians how you had
to pay humongous ransom to the rampaging Fulani armed bandits that
poured into your state from neighbouring African countries in 2015, to
enable the 2015 presidential elections hold. I have therefore been
incredulous and nonplussed as to your sudden pretended Janus votle-face
“haram” or revulsion against payment of ransom, even to free the
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endangered souls of vulnerable school children who were kidnapped under
your very despotic Government. Out of these, 5 had already been brutally
killed in cold blood. Can you really sleep, or fold your legs on the mat to
pray to Allah? What will you be praying for? I can no longer understand you
elites in Government and how you suddenly change once you taste the
intoxicating liquor of power .Or, can you, Nigerians? El Rufai, why are you
playing brother Jero? Why are you acting out Idi Amin, Emperor Bokassa,
Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot? Why have you shredded your
beautiful garments of empathy and dorned the dictatorial apparels of
Saddam Hussein, Ivan The Terrible, Kim 11 Sung, Ayatollah Khomeini,
Nero, Ghenghis Khan, Mao Zedong, Ivan 1V, Lepold 11 of Belgium and
Attila The Hun? Why Nasir? Why, El Rufai? Why, Ahmad? Just why, for
God’s sake?
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“Civilization must stand up and combat the current collapse of governance,
the rise of violence, and the spread of chaos and fear in many parts of the
world”. (Rudy Giuliani).
LAST LINE
Fellow Nigerians, synergise with me every week, to put our heads together
on how to retool Nigeria. Right here on “The Nigerian Project”, by Chief
Mike A. A. Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, FCIArb, LL.M, Ph. D, LL.D.
