One of the most salient components of democracy is the freedom to
exercise your right to free speech. However in much of Africa where
democracy has been embraced, the exercise of this fundamental freedom
can come with a number of challenges from those who hate democratic
freedoms and would rather canvass for demagoguery. Nigeria, under the
current administration, has witnessed the elevation of demagoguery to a
statecraft, and to a very ugly dimension.
The above intriguing facts have just played out in the last couple of
days since the insinuations gained heightened currency about the
alleged release from life sentence in prison of a notorious terrorist
convicted for the murder of over 50 worshippers in December 2011 at the
Catholic Church in Madala, near Abuja known simply as Kabiru Sokoto.
When these speculative stories circulated on social media platforms,
the group I head known as Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria
(HURIWA) took it upon itself to openly demand accountability from the
Federal Government so as to clear the confusion building up around this
allegation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s setting of the terror
mastermind free.
In order to put all these in their proper logical contexts, readers
need to be reminded that these rumours began the moment the president
gave clear indication of a prisoners swap deal with Boko Haram
terrorists two weeks ago in Nairobi, Kenya.
President Buhari had confirmed the readiness of his administration to
enter into this swap deal for the release of the nearly 200 Chibok
school girls allegedly kidnapped over two years ago by those terrorists
who are now demanding prisoners exchange for their hostages to be freed.
Some media reports in the past had listed Kabiru Sokoto as one of the
terror masterminds whose release is being demanded by the hierarchy of
this nefarious gang operating from the North-East of Nigeria.
Also on President Buhari’s tweeter handle, he gave clearer condition
that the involvement of foreign non-governmental organisations in the
negotiations with Boko Haram terrorists was imperative.
So the saying by the people of old that ‘there is no smoke without
fire’ finds a very scientific basis in the above scenario surrounding
the rumored release of one of the most notorious and dangerous
terrorists ever convicted in the last five years since the serial
attacks on civilian and government targets commenced.
It would then amount to revisionism and indeed an act of wickedness
for anyone to categorise the insinuations surrounding the alleged
release of Kabiru Sokoto as a hatred for Mr. President.
It is both lawfully permissible and indeed constitutionally
guaranteed that the people of Nigeria are entitled to quality
information from the government whose only legitimacy and authority are
drawn from the same people. So why should any commentator dabble into
the arena of barefaced partisanship by dismissing the rational concerns
of Nigerians as an act of “hatred” for President Buhari?
Section 14 (2) (a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended)
unambiguously states as follows: “Sovereignty belongs to the people of
Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its
powers and authority.”
Again, from the same section aforementioned we are told as follows:
“the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in
accordance with the provisions of this constitution.”
Proceeding further, in Chapter four of the constitution and
specifically in Section 39 (1), the fundamental freedom of expression is
expressly guaranteed thus: “every person shall be entitled to freedom
of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and
impart ideas and information without interference.”
The idea that some persons apparently out of sheer mischief could
pick up their pen and brand those seeking information about Kabiru
Sokoto’s current status as “haters” of President Buhari is unfortunate.
It is a sharp reminder of what the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire
brought out in his work on the theme of the relationship between the
oppressors and the oppressed and capped it up in his philosophical
treatise by saying that: “during the initial stage of the struggle, the
oppressed tend to become oppressors.” He then challenged us all in the
following beautiful words: “the greatest humanistic and historical task
of the oppressed is to liberate themselves and their oppressors.”
Look at it this way, Kabiru Sokoto was convicted for the gruesome
slaughter of nearly four dozen Catholic worshippers and the symbolic
timing of that wicked act of terrorism was during the Christmas Mass to
mark the birth of Jesus Christ.
Amongst those who were cut down in their prime by the car bombs
planted and detonated by the terrorists, which included Kabiru Sokoto,
as affirmed by the Court, were little babies, women and the elderly.
This is a serious crime against humanity and no reason whatsoever could
be adduced for any grant of presidential pardon for such a callous
criminal. What is the crime of those Nigerians who raised the concerns
on social media that Mr. Kabiru Sokoto has been set free?
There is absolutely no crime in embarking on public inquisition about
a civilian government that the people brought to power, particularly
when the head of this government has been quoted as saying that he would
embark on prisoners’ swap with Boko Haram terrorists.
To borrow from one of the greatest thinkers the World has ever seen,
Mr. Frantz Fanon, I believe that the best way to erect a formidable
democracy in Nigeria is for those of us who have the privilege of
accessing the media to decolonise our mental state and begin to see
political office holders as people who must render proper accountability
to the people about every one of their actions.
For anyone to equate or interpret the inquiry on the whereabouts of a
convicted terrorist like Kabiru Sokoto with the ‘hatred’ of the
president of Nigeria is as good as falling into the trap of exhibiting
the “tendency of the oppressed peoples to mimic the behaviour and
attitudes of ruling elites which amounts to demagoguery.”
There is nothing untoward to have asked President Muhammadu Buhari to
tell Nigerians if he has freed the only Boko Haram terrorist convicted
for the killing of over 50 worshippers at the Madala Catholic Church
near Abuja.
Readers must recall that it was only a few months back that Justice
Ademola Adeniyi of the Federal High Court, Abuja, sentenced Mallam
Kabiru Abubakar Dikko a.k.a Kabiru Sokoto to life imprisonment, and as
at 2015 he was being held in Kuje Prison following his conviction over
his role in that 2011 Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic
Church, Mandalla, Niger State.
The blast in respect of which he was given life conviction claimed about 44 lives and wounded 75 others.
To be candid it would amount to dancing on the graves of the innocent
souls slaughtered by these terrorists for the current government to
enter into a sort of satanic arrangements to set free a man who plotted
the bombing of a Catholic Church, resulting in the slaughter of scores
of Nigerians, including babies and the elderly.
Moreover the current Federal government has so far failed to
aggressively prosecute the terror suspects in detention but has decided
to engage in subterranean deals with dreaded armed terrorists for
whatever considerations, which are however unconstitutional, illegal and
undemocratic. This same group has continued in its killing spree of
innocent Nigerians and coercing innocent minors to be sent out as
suicide bombers under the influence of drugs. Only today, reports are
circulating of a new threat by Boko Haram terrorists to kidnap President
Muhammadu Buhari.
There is therefore no hatred in asking President Buhari to address
Nigerians and clear the impression that his government has decidedly
released a hardened terrorist convicted for his crimes against humanity,
even when political prisoners like Mr. Nnamdi Kanu are languishing in
prison. The Nigeria Prisons Service is said to have debunked the
speculations about Kabiru Sokoto only after these rumours swirled around
for some time, and our group took the gauntlet to decently ask for
clarification, which some persons are interpreting as hatred for Mr.
President, as if he belongs to them exclusively.
Let the Nigerian government allow credible non-governmental bodies
and select private and public media to empirically verify the veracity
of the government’s counter claim that Kabiru Sokoto is still serving
the life sentence. This is not too much a demand in a democracy whereby
the government is by the people, for the people and of the people, as
Abraham Lincoln, the post independence president of the United States of
America, famously defined it.
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