If you missed part 1, please click here. Permit me to begin the
second part of this essay with a word from Dr. Shuaib Musa Zaria, who is a
leading member of the Shiite Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) and who is a
close
confidante and associate of Sheik El Zak Zaky, the wounded and detained
leader of the Shiite Muslim community in Nigeria. I have his permission to
share his thoughts and words. On 4th March 2017 he wrote,
“Since the brutal clampdown
on innocent people of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria in December 2015, things
went out of Buhari’s hands. The economy went haywire and everything
deteriorated. In December 2016 the court declared that Sheikh Zak Zaky’s
detention was unconstitutional and he must be set free. Rather than order for
his immediate release, the court gave 45 days within which he must be released.
At the time many of us felt it was an unnecessary delay.
The grace period
nevertheless slowly passed and elapsed on the 16th of January 2017. Now Buhari
didn’t comply with the court order. We reached out through well-meaning people
but he would not concede. He was quoted as saying “either him or me”, reference
to the fact that it would be only over his dead body that Sheikh Zakzaky would
be free. Now note that from the very day the grace period given by the Court
elapsed, Buhari never functioned as the President again. It ended on a Monday.
Even the Federal Executive Council meeting of the 18th never held. He was flown
out the following day, where he remained incommunicado as well.
The blood of over a
thousand innocent Shiite Muslim citizens massacred and buried in mass graves is
haunting him. He will never know peace. He will never be well. Vengeance is of
the Lord indeed”. This is a frightful testimony and contribution and it is
indeed food for thought. One wonders what lessons we can learn from Dr. Shuaib
Musa Zaria’s profound insight and moving account.
Surely there are many.
Again one wonders what lessons we can learn from the story of the great Julius
Caesar’s pitiful end as our President is struck down by a strange, undisclosed
and unidentified illness and lies incapacitated, incommunicado and indefinitely
in a London hospital as we approach the ides of March? In this case it appears
that it is not Marcus Brutus and the sixty treacherous Roman Senators that have
plunged their knives into an ageing body but rather the angels of the Living
God.
It happened to others that ruled
our country in the past who had a similar dictatorial disposition to President
Buhari and who trod the same vicious and ruinous path. Yet sadly few will
remember that because few read history in Nigeria and even fewer are ready to
learn from its lessons. It also happened to Herod, Sennacherub, Nebuchadnezzar,
Pharaoh, Jezebel and countless other kings and queens in Middle Eastern and
Jewish history and the Holy Bible.
The principle is simple and
clear: if you touch the anointed of the Lord or His people or if you seek to
thwart His plan for our nation He will either kill you immediately or He will
turn you into a zombie and a walking dead. That is the awesomeness of His
power: no man can stand against Him. Today in Nigeria the Angel of Death stalks
our very own tyrant like a vulture stalks rotting meat, yet despite that the
demons that control his underlings, lackeys and minions refuse to relent and
are still baying for the blood of the weak, the defenceless, the innocent and
all those that oppose him.
I am not Spurinna: I am
neither a seer nor a soothsayer. Yet today I am constrained to publicly
proclaim a divinely-inspired admonition to our President and that admonition is
as follows: I urge and warn him to beware the ides of March AND THEREAFTER.
I am led by the Holy Spirit
of the Living God to tell him that March is a month of make or break for him.
In order to make his peace with God before going into eternity he must desist
from his wickedness, he must repent of his evil, he must forgo his tyrannical
ways and he must make his peace with ALL the people of Nigeria and with the God
of Heaven. He must remove all bitterness and hate from his heart and He must
forgive ALL those that he believes have offended him over the last 80 years of
his long and eventful life so that he too may be forgiven of his many sins by
God.
He must appease the souls
of his many victims and reach out to the families of those whose breadwinners,
wives and children were murdered and destroyed under his watch either as a
war-time military commander, military Head of State or civilian President.
He must bring to a halt the
hideous ethnic cleansing and evil religious agenda that has been set in motion
and that has indeed flourished ever since he came to power in 2015. He must
order the arrest, disarming, distmantling, destruction and indeed total
annihilation of the bloodthirsty vampires, the demons from hell and the
barbaric beasts that have come to be known as the Fulani herdsmen and the
Fulani militias. He must free himself from and permanently eschew all forms of
secret association and covert ties with radical Islamist terror groups. He must
free ALL dissenters, opposition figures, political prisoners and prisoners of
conscience, including Colonel Sambo Dasuki, Sheik El Zak Zaky and Mazi Nnamdi
Kanu.
He must stop persecuting
his perceived enemies and he must desist from ALL politically-motivated and
baseless criminal prosecutions. He must respect the judiciary and the
legislature, he must stop intimidating the press and he must allow the
opposition to flourish and operate in a free and fair atmosphere and
environment.
This is an admonition and
warning borne out of a genuine concern and what we Pentecostal Christians call
“agape” love for a fellow human being who is facing the biggest challenge of
his life. It comes from a humble compatriot who wants nothing from the
President, who has no fear of his government, who reveres and fears only the
Living God, who has faith in the power of that God, who is ready to speak the
truth no matter what the consequences may be and yet who views him with
compassion and who considers him to be a worthy adversary.
The bitter truth is that
President Muhammadu Buhari is literally fighting for his life and sadly he is
surrounded by many Marcus Brutus’ and dozens of treacherous political sons and
daughters today. Many of those that he loves and that are close to him are
already talking about his death in hushed and whispered tones behind his back.
They are already contemplating their future and their prospects in a Nigeria
that is without him. Their hidden knives are not only laced with the most
potent and powerful poison but they are also very long and very sharp.
That is the disposition and
mind-set of the numerous Marcus Brutus’ that plague and surround Buhari today
as he lies on his sickbed battling the demons of infirmity. Some of them are
even hoping and praying to be appointed as the new Vice President when and if
he passes on. Others are already publicly declaring their interest in running
for the Presidency in 2019 and they are quietly preparing their arsenal and
building up their war-chest for the next elections.
Their behaviour reminds me
of how Alexander the Greats’ generals gathered like vultures around his
deathbed, squabbling over his massive estate and the vast Greek empire as he
lay there helplessly dying. Buhari’s men are already sharing his political
empire, his power of patronage, his properties, his chattels and his clothes
amongst themselves even though they constantly make public statements pledging
their support for and loyalty to him and even though they keep wishing him well
before the world.
The truth is that deep down
only few of them really care. What most of them are interested in is holding on
to their various positions if the President returns to his job or in doing a
deal with his successor and heir apparant if he does not. These court jesters
are just pretending to love him.
They are operating in
deceit and they are merely counting his days because they believe that those
days are numbered. They have no loyalty to President Buhari and they have no
honour, integrity or decency in them. They do not love him but instead they
love what he can do for them or give to them. That is the reality of the power
game, politics and life generally and it is a truism that all men of power and
those that are in the corridors of power have to accept and live with whether
they like it or not.
Meanwhile we are
approaching the ides of March and much will happen then or soon thereafter. I
hope that the President gets well and that he returns back to Nigeria because
the truth is that Acting President Yemi Osinbajo is making the job of those of
us in the opposition a little more difficult because he is getting a few things
right. I pray that God touches Buhari’s heart and opens his eyes to the folly
of persecution and tyranny.
After all he is a human
being and he deserves a measure of mercy. I pray that he receives the same
level of compassion and mercy from God as he gives to others, particularly his
perceived enemies. I pray that God’s counsel will stand and that Nigeria will
breath again with or without him. I pray that he will not end like Julius
Caesar and that the Marcus Brutus’ around him do not have their way.
(CONCLUDED).
By Femi Fani Kayode
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