As we approach the October 1 nationwide peaceful rally, we are succumbing to the tragic evils of dictatorship in a representative democracy. The newest jolt to an angry, divided, and fragile nation is the plan by General Muhammadu Buhari to kill the October 1 peaceful rally.
If there’s a single consensus about Buhari’s regime, it is that the government isn’t working. Buhari’s highest education is high school. It should come as no surprise that he is sorely lacking in sophistication, knowledge of the world, understanding of government and a rudimentary grasp of economics.
Buhari remains blissfully ignorant on a range of subjects. He surrounds himself with dim yes-men, who know little more than him. His Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, who knows more than him, trembles at the prospect of correcting their “Great leader.” Buhari behaves with a shocking propensity with reckless violation of the constitution, brazen despotism, naked nepotism, outward bigotry, unrivalled cruelty, and profound wickedness. Indeed, Buhari is a sadist.
After five years in office, you’d think he would have learned something may be the rudimentary practices of government. May be read the constitution and acquaint himself with the constitutional guarantees of Nigerians for freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of association, freedom to protest, and freedom to demand accountability and good governance. You don’t have to be a psychiatrist or an educator to conclude that Buhari is incapable of performing the functions of his office. Maybe Buhari is not compromised. Maybe he is not mentally ill. But simply dumb.
By contrast, Osinbajo is brilliant, educated, well spoken, civilized, and sophisticated. He’s a professor of law. As a professor of law, you’ll be right to assume that he knows the law, especially the constitution. Logically, as the Vice President, you’ll think he will educate and interpret the constitution to his boss. He will advise him on the rights granted to Nigerians by the constitution. One wonders how a learned professor of law can be part of a repressive regime where a single individual dissolves everything democratic before our eyes. Is he as dumb as Buhari? Who is the dumbest – Buhari or Osinbajo?
Osinbajo should have insisted and prevailed on the illiterate and primitive dictator that the constitution grants Nigerians the right to protest, to demonstrate, scrutinise, and criticise Buhari. That laws and court decisions are to be obeyed by Buhari. That Buhari is not above the law and has no power to hold Nigerians indefinitely in detention without trial. We expect Osinbajo to always remind the deaf tone tyrant that this is democracy.
The countdown to the October 1 rally has begun. Will Buhari allow Nigerians to demonstrate peacefully? Will Buhari send his death squads after innocent Nigerians for exercising their constitutional freedom? Will Osinbajo prevail on Buhari that it is the constitutional right of the people to rally peacefully without being arrested and detained? The world is waiting and watching.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
