By:Femi Fani-Kayode
On August 3rd 1857, in what can only be described as one of the most
profound, moving, passionate and inspiring speeches in human history,
Frederick Douglas, the former black slave and the great freedom fighter
and philosopher said, inter alia, the following:
“Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of
the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her
august claims have been born of earnest struggle.
The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time
being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does
nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who
want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder
and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many
waters.
This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may
be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found
out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon
them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or
blows, or with both.
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they
oppress. In the light of these ideas, Negroes will be hunted at the North
and held and flogged at the South so long as they submit to those devilish
outrages and make no resistance, either moral or physical.
Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly
pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs
heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal.
We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by
our lives and the lives of others”.
These powerful and insightful words are as true and as relevant today as
they were 150 years ago when they were first spoken.
They are words that have universal application to humanity and that have
been recited and repeatedly chanted like a haunting and inspiring mantra
by virtually every notable prisoner of conscience, freedom fighter and
agitator for equity, liberty and human rights over the last one hundred
and fifty years.
They are particularly relevant in the Nigeria of today where tyranny and
injustice runs deep, where any form of resistance or opposition is
regarded as subversion and is met with brutality and lethal force and
where any telling criticism of the ruling APC party, government officials
or the President is regarded as “hate speech” that must be supressed.
Permit me to give just one example of the latter in this contribution
which, in my view, clearly reflects the nervous and obsessive disposition,
the sheer madness and the sociopathic narcissism of the Buhari
administration.
.
A few days ago I had a revealing, probing and in-depth interview with a
leading television station about President Muhammedu Buhari, his record in
office over the last two years, his health and his governent.
Lai Mohammed, our notoriously excitable and mendatious Minister of
Information, was so upset and disturbed by the contents of that discussion
that he personally called the television station that recorded it and told
them that the government would close them down if they dared to air it.
His call was followed by an equally threatening one from the chief
executive of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation who issued the same
threat.
Yet it did not stop there. Femi Adesina, the President’s spokesman, almost
defecated in his pants when he got a whisper of some of the things that I
had revealed and he wondered out loud how I managed to get all the facts
and information that I shared during the interview.
He begged the station not to air it as well and also threatened them with
dire consequences if they did so. Sadly the station in question got cold
feet, succumbed to the threats and fell for the blackmail.
I am not surprised by this and neither do I blame them for doing so. I say
this because they, more than any other, have been subjected to all manner
of harrasment over the years yet despite that they remain one of the most
balanced, professional, forthright and courageous media outfits in the
country till today.
They are indeed the first amongst equals but they also know the monsters
that they are dealing with when it comes to the Buhari administration and
they appreciate the fact that they have to be extreemly careful even when
it comes to reporting what are essentially notorious facts.
They have to be even more careful when it comes to allowing strong
opposition figures like yours truly and other non-conformists and
perceived enemies of the government to use their powerful platform to air
their personal opinions and strong dissenting views.
The truth is that this government is vicious and dangerous and, in my
view, they are only one step away from “disappearing” (Argentinian style)
media practitioners, publishers, essayists, columnists and writers that
are not prepared to bow down to their unholy will and lick their filthy,
unclean and unwashed posterior.
Simply put they are a chicken-hearted government that are terrified of
their own shadow.
They are a government of uncircumcised Philistines who were put in power
by heathans and unbelievers and who attract and enjoy the support of every
low-life and apostate from the south side of hell.
Nothing terrifies them more than public scrutiny and the glorious light
of accountability and truth.
From the top to the bottom they are all the same: gangsterish and paranoid
charlatans who flourish in darkness and who thrive in division, conflict,
lies, deceit, suppression, threats, murder, violence and intimidation.
Femi Adesina’s cowardice and perfidy particularly is nothing new. This is
the same man that threatened the publisher of two leading national
newspapers to close my weekly column and that has been begging and
offering inducements to virtually every online magazine that I write for
to stop publishing my essays.
That is how fearful, feeble, powerless, shameless, cowardly and paranoid
the Buhari government has become. That is the level of their depravity and
that is the level that they have degenerated to.
They cannot take criticism and they cannot bear any form of factual and
in-depth analysis of their abysmal and woeful performance.
They do not have the stomach or intellectual stamina for a strong and
lively challenge, for what I would describe as “hardtalk” or indeed for
any form of virile debate and contentious public discourse.
Simply put they behave like a congress of baboons and a colony of monkeys.
They always run away from a real fight and a real debate and they are
terrified of those that are ready to take them on.
Instead of attempting to defend themselves in the court of public opinion
they seek to silence the opposition by the power of their might and they
seek to supress dissent, muscle the media and bury the truth.
Despite their sheer desperation to hold on to power at any cost and to
cower the people and in spite of their despicable, tyrannical and
inglorious mindset I have the following to say to them: like satan, your
time is short.
You oppress the people and whip them into line, not by good works or
inspiring leadership, but through the usage of nothing but intimidation,
lies, threats, blackmail, disinformation, witchunts, fear, hate, division
and terror. Your tactics are as despicable as they are deplorable.
Yet despite your subjugation and tyranny it will soon be over for you. The
earth and the heavens have rejected you, the elemental forces oppose you
and the Nigerian people secretly despise you. This is the doing of the
Lord and it is marvelous in our sight.
You cannot wash away the blood that you have shed. You cannot erase the
memory of your failures and your atrocities and those that you have
humiliated, destroyed, insulted, tortured, incarcerated and subjected to
persecution and the most vicious and callous media trials.
You cannot silence the voice of the voiceless, you cannot intimidate the
servant of truth and you cannot supress the champion of the oppressed.
The finger of the Lord has marked you down for shame, torment and
destruction and the sword of the Lord has wounded you beyond redemption.
The rats were just the beginning. More miracles and wonders will soon
come.
The truth is that no matter how hard you try to put out the raging fire
and the crisis of confidence that has afflicted you it will not stop.
Your days are numbered and your end is nigh. The Ancient of Days has
spoken and He shall perfect it.