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Emergency Rule in Plateau State-- A Postmortem By Femi Olawole DELAWARE, U.S.A
The
recent declaration of an emergency rule in plateau State has already
become a fait accompli. For
those few, influential individuals who instigated the ethnic/religious
mayhem, it’s all over but the shouting.
And for the other ethnic champions, religious fanatics and the
professional anarchists who readily sponsor similar violent clashes in
other parts of the nation, they are better advised to look for different
pastimes. In
spite of the attendant noises (for and against) in the wake of the
emergency declaration, it’s important that we remind ourselves of some
salient matters arising: The
representatives of the Nigerian people, both in the Senate and the House
had voted to endorse the president’s action.
Voting in the two legislative chambers cut across party, ethnic
and religious lines. The
distinguished members had to put their petty political squabbles aside
to instill sanity in the nation’s body polity.
In fact, the House leader, Abdul Ningi’s motion for debate on
the issue is noteworthy here. He
recalled that the House had, in the past, passed eleven resolutions that
condemned ethnic clashes and that Plateau State was one instance over
which the president was attacked for inaction.
According to him therefore, it would amount to a policy
somersault if the same House failed to back the president in his
decisive action this time around. Without
gainsaying the fact, both the president and the governor are Christians.
Yet, the president refused to be blinded by the religious
sentiment. And neither did
the governor pretend to suffer from a persecution syndrome upon the
emergency declaration. The
governor has since accepted the president’s decision.
Moreover and significantly, he has pledged his unflinching
loyalty to the president. The
action of both the president and the governor are not only commendable
but should also be a lesson to all of our other leaders and those who
aspire to lead in such a multi-faceted nation.
The
same thing however could not be said of the numerous commentators in the
newspapers and the internet web sites.
Worse still, while the many newspapers’ articles had the grace
of being edited for decency and decorum, those on the internet were
simply a replica of the Plateau riot.
The only difference was that instead of guns and machetes, many
of the internet commentators freely made use of childish emotional
outbursts and intellectual brigandage. In
one category were some Christian (or Crusaders?) who were always more
interested in protecting the great status of their faith than the lives
and properties of the victims of each religious clash.
Whereas, based on his philosophy while on the earth plane, Jesus
Christ must by now be embarrassed by the attitude of these hypocritical
followers. And even if the
president, the VP, the entire members of the legislative houses and
other government functionaries were all antichrist, did any of the hate
mongering commentators have superior resources than the great avatar
himself to protect the Christian faith?
The
next category of commentators consisted of those whose position on the
issue was self-serving. These
are Christians who also champion the interests of their ethnic sections. The only way they think they can realize their sectional
goals is by making a career out of abusing Obasanjo and the political
leaders of other sections that are considered to be inimical (or
obstacles?) to the interests of their sections.
To them, persuasion, compromise and alliance are instruments of
the coward. Political power
must be achieved through blackmail and war mongering.
The Plateau State incident was therefore just another opportunity
for them to indulge in their habitual spate of nay saying, paranoia and
abject negativity.
And
there was the peculiar mess in the reactions of those in the last
category. Here were some
Muslims and hegemonists who had never seen anything good in
Obasanjo’s administration. Yet,
they have now suddenly found it convenient to be temporarily
inconsistent in their criticism merely because the president’s action
in Plateau State was considered favorable to Islam and their ethnic
interests. One such
commentator even admitted that this was the first time he would ever see
anything good in Obasanjo’s government.
Curiously, a few others in this category had tactfully expressed
support for the president’s action by simply resolving to keep mute.
Their senses of expression will however be restored as soon as
the president acts against their religious or sectional interests in
future. It’s
quite pertinent here to ask all these individual elites how many
personal, ethnic and religious interests they expect the president to
favor in a nation of over 100 million people spread over 300 different
ethnic sections before he is objectively evaluated?
The answer, I guess, is blowing in the wind.
Interestingly,
these are highly educated and matured (?) individuals we are talking
about here. It’s rather
unfortunate and grossly shameful that the public opinions of such
persons on very sensitive national issues could so blatantly be
influenced by personal, religious and ethnic sentiments.
It therefore made one wonder what the fate of our nation would be
should some of these overtly biased commentators ever get onto the
saddle of leadership in the near future?
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