Friday, October 30, 2020

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari’s Trumpian Propaganda to Cover Up the Lekki Massacre

Arise O Nigerians series are worth the read but when the youth heed the call either by accident or by design, we are here defending the government who rolled out tanks to crush people for making a just demand for long overdue reforms - Femi Segun. For the mere fact that I disbelieved the supposedly eyewitness account of D.J. Switch should not imply that I support the shooting of #EndSARS protesters if it is proved that soldiers were actually present at Lekki Tollgate on the evening of 20 October 2020. Hitherto, there is no evidence to support the heroine role she ascribed to herself e.g., showing of blood-stained clothes she wore while carrying dead bodies of people shot by soldiers(?) to soldiers, and the pictures of the bodies of the, at least (?) 15, shot dead.

It would appear as if you intentionally misread or misunderstood what Arise O Nigerians is all about. Otherwise, you should have read the following in my response to Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, "Inhuman treatment of Nigerians by every administration in Nigeria did not start with Buhari's government and since yesterday's rogues are preening like peacocks in Nigeria's streets unpunished, the current crooks are undeterred to steal." If the youths have heeded my call, they would have allied themselves with Buhari's government to protest against the Judiciary for failing to adjudicate expeditiously on cases of corruption. Afterall, it is the failure of the corrupt judiciary to convict state robbers that is breeding characters not only in SARS but all other rogue officials in Nigeria irrespective of if they are, elected, selected, appointed, or employed. By the way, where was Nigerians sense of revulsion when the Supreme Court, in May 2020, nullified the conviction of the former Abia State Governor, (1999-2007), Orji Uzor Kalu, by the High Court in December 2019, on the ground that a wrong Judge pronounced the right sentence? The theft charge of N7.2 billion from Abia State against Kalu had been ongoing since July 2007 and he is just one out of hundreds of such cases. Orji Uzor Kalu, a former PDP Governor of Abia State, is now an APC Senator and what can Buhari do, personally, to prevent that without being branded a dictator? To me, #EndSARS protesters are just holding the fish by the tail contrary to a Yoruba aphorism that counsels a wise person to always hold the fish by the head (ológbón d'orí eja mú, òmùgò dí ìrù è mú).
S. Kadiri


From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Femi Segun <soloruntoba@gmail.com>
Sent: 29 October 2020 04:36
To: 'Chika Onyeani' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari's Trumpian Propaganda to Cover Up the Lekki Massacre
 
'; The over 20 innocent Nigerian youths died for nothing and the heart of Mr. Adepoju did not bleed because the president under whose watch the lives of over 20 Nigerians were wasted belonged to Mr. Adepoju's beloved PDP.' Alagba Salimonu Kadiri. 
Now I can see that all the tirades are borne out of sympathy for a political party whose members and key functionaries largely migrated from the party that has been blamed ad infinitum for the  current woes of Nigeria. My question remains, is there any difference between the APC and the PDP? Why are people splitting hairs over two associations largely made up of vampires, who are superintending over a people whose values have been largely destroyed by lack of exemplary examples of public minded leaders? And for a quick reminder, nobody organized a party for the clueless Jonathan when his Minister of Interior presided over the death of the 20 desperate Nigerians looking for an opportunity to at least write a test for a job position that might have been filled through the back door. I will push my thesis from relativization of evil to comparison of evil-when an evil is committed by the government that some people support, that evil can be condoned or should be condoned but when the same is committed by the government that some oppose, then all manner of excuses and rationalization are provided to explain the evil away. If indeed there is that understanding that the humanity of Nigerians has been serially assaulted by callous and rapacious ruling elites, there is no reason to celebrate or continue to defend this regime, of which the lead representative-GMB has been part of the problem since the 1960s. Defending him for any reason and for all reason as Alagba Salimonu Kadiri  has been doing for the past five years amounts to invariably contributing to the continuation of that dehumanization-what a contradiction. The Arise O Nigerians series are worth the read but when the youth heed the call either by accident or by design, we are here defending the government who rolled out tanks to crush people for making a just demand for long overdue reforms.  But the joy is that the journey has started.  I often tell my students that from the history of revolutions, they are never planned. They  happen spontaneously . We must also be clear that the problem with Nigeria is not only about leadership as Achebe noted in his book, the Trouble  with Nigeria, many of the citizens are as guilty as the leaders that they are adept at criticising. Just think of the corruption in the civil service, admission racketeering in many  universities,  the suppression of talents across the board, etc. The revolution that we need should be all encompassing and it must involve all. Value reorientation,  making room for differences in talents and ensuring that institutions work. I rest my case here.
Femi Segun.

On Wed, Oct 28, 2020 at 5:31 PM Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:
​Sentimentalists think with their hearts while realists think with their brains. The former deal with wishful achievements while the latter deal with hard facts. For a sentimentalist, plain truth or fact can catch up with him/her without realising it. For expressing my disbelief that Farooq Kperogi's narrator, D.J. Switch, actually delivered dead bodies of protesters said to be shot dead by soldiers to soldiers at Lekki Tollgate, on 20 October 2020, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju tried to ridicule my disbelief with sarcasm. Hear him, "Of course, if you are so bold as to carry dead bodies under the heat of deadly bullets flying around you in the darkness of night, you should be able to recall the exact no (number) of bodies in the pandemonium." Normally, when shootings started everyone in the crowd had to scamper for safety but on the contrary, Mrs. D.J. Switch claimed to have collected the bodies of dead victims of the shootings, together with her co-survivors, and handed them over to the soldiers. If this were true, she must be able to tell us how many dead bodies she delivered to soldiers at the scene, instead of telling us that 'at least 15 people were killed in the shootings.' So Mr. Adepoju's sarcasm ended up corroborating my belief that Mrs. D.J. Switch was only trying to act a heroine that she was not without realizing it. Since those that were shot dead which she carried to the soldiers were not bloodless, she should be able to show the clothes she wore at the incident drenched with the victim's blood as evidence. 

Mr. Adepoju proceeded to ask me, "Are you on the side of humanity or of inhuman argument? Are you defending heartless people who would have killed you (if) you had stood in their way as the victims did?" When I started writing the series, ARISE O NIGERIANS, it was because I felt Nigerians were passive onlookers to those who are dehumanising them by stealing funds appropriated for their socio-economic welfare developments. I was on part VII when #EndSARS protests started. Therefore, where I stand about the inhuman living conditions under which Nigerians and, in fact, all Africans have been subjected to live by our so-called leaders, is not a secrete to anyone who ever cared to read what I have been writing. Inhuman treatment of Nigerians by every administration in Nigeria did not start with Buhari's government and since yesterday's rogues are preening like peacocks in Nigeria's street unpunished, the current crooks are undeterred to steal. While wailing on current Lekki incident, where were you in March 2014 when over 20 Nigerian jobseekers were trampled to death? If you have forgotten, may I remind you that the Minister of Interior under your beloved brother, President Goodluck Ebelechukwu Jonathan, was Abba Morro who had arranged recruitment into the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) for 4,000 vacancies. However, 675,675 application forms were sold at non-refundable N1,000 to each applicant who were to take part in written recruitment examination. The examination centres throughout Nigeria were jam-parked on the examination date and in the ensuing stampede, over 20 Nigerian youths were crushed to death. Subsequent investigations showed that the contract for the recruitment examination was awarded to a firm named Drexel Technical Nigerian Limited, which was not qualified to handle such a contract because, according to the law, it was not registered with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAS). The 675 million, 675 thousand naira, realised from the sales of forms were shared by the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Interior, Mrs. Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia, a Director in the Ministry of Interior, Mr. Felix O. Alayebami and a Hausa man who owned the firm, Drexel Tech Nigeria Limited. It was said that the Hausa man withdrew over N300 million from the sales of the forms and disappeared into thin air. It was not until February 2016 that Mr. Moro and his two accomplices were charged to court for fraud. They have since been granted bail by the Court and as usual their cases remain inconclusive. The over 20 innocent Nigerian youths died for nothing and the heart of Mr. Adepoju did not bleed because the president under whose watch the lives of over 20 Nigerians were wasted belonged to Mr. Adepoju's beloved PDP.

Finally, you wrote, "It would seem that the time is ripe for some to ask these questions on account of their increasingly desperate withdrawal into arguments that even a secondary school student would not hold." The type of educational prowess you lay claim to above was evaluated in pidgin English by the late Pa Michael Imodu thus, "A no go school, i better for me, because people wey e go school, e no get sense and na them de for government. If people wey e go school get sense, Nigeria e no go be like this."  
S. Kadiri       


From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com>
Sent: 27 October 2020 20:48
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari's Trumpian Propaganda to Cover Up the Lekki Massacre
 
There is great wisdom here-

''For Farooq to write that the #EndSARS protesting Nigerian youths are resolute, persistent, fearless, implacable, and determined to crush everything and everyone that stands in their way, he must either have had foreknowledge that the protesting youths are armed or he was indoctrinating them to engage in armed struggle with the Federal government.''

 ''Crush'' necessarily implies force of arms, not of persuasion or compulsion through civil disobedience.  

Thus, even though the only weapons seen in the hands of the Lewki toll gate protesters were their mobile phones, they may have hidden guns on them, information Farooq would have gained through insider sources.

 Thus, even though the videos showed the soldiers shooting at a crowd of chanting youth, ''no one can say for sure who actually started the shootings at Lekki Tollgate, in the evening of 20 October 2020''as the master of inverted logic argues.

 Of course, if you are so bold as to carry dead bodies under the heat of deadly bullets flying around you in the darkness of night, you should be able to recall the exact no of bodies in the pandemonium.  

There comes a time in a debate when its vital to pull back and examine one's motivations.

Are you on the side of humanity or of an inhuman argument?

Are you defending heartless people who would have killed you had you stood in their way as the victims did?

When your role in this historic issue is recalled and perhaps invoked years later through the long memory of the Internet, would that role represent your better self?

It would seem that the time is ripe for some to ask these questions on account of their increasingly desperate withdrawal into arguments  that even a secondary  school student would not hold.

''When defenders of a government find themselves recurrent compelled to justify or excuse terrorism commited by agents enabled by that government  or to justify or argue away muders commited by that government, those defenders need to look closely at the nature of that government and see if it represents their own values''.

thanks

toyin


On Tue, 27 Oct 2020 at 19:39, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:
​Femi Segun, 

The supposed eyewitness accounts of death casualties at Lekki Tollgate, in Lagos, on 20 October 2020, referenced by Farooq Kperogi was one Nigerian Artiste named D. J. Switch. An eyewitness who claimed to have picked dead bodies together with his friends and handed them over to soldiers must be able to tell, exactly, how many dead bodies were handed over to the soldiers. An eyewitness narrator cannot, and should not, as D.J. Smith has been made to say that "at least 15 people were killed in the shootings." Farooq and his D.J. Switch cannot speculate people into graves, morph whims into corpses and ask us to mourn phantoms. That stand does not make anyone intellectually inferior to me.

On Saturday, 17 October 2020, Farooq Kperogi wrote an article titled #EndSWAT/#EndSARS Youth Steamroller and Theory of Rational Ignorance. Farooq Kperogi's profile of the protesting Nigerian youths is hereby reproduced in bold capital letters by me : LIKE THE LITERAL STEAMROLLER, THIS NIGERIAN STEAMROLLER IS MASSIVE, RESOLUTE, PERSISTENT, FEARLESS, IMPLACABLE, AND DETERMINED TO CRUSH EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE THAT STANDS IN ITS WAY. ITS (YOUTH'S) CONFIDENCE IS BUOYED BY ITS LACK OF FEAR OF LOSS BECAUSE IT HAS NOTHING TO LOSE. THE VAST MAJORITY OF YOUNG NIGERIANS FEEL INDESTRUCTIBLE BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN DESTROYED. YOU CAN'T DESTROY WHAT IS ALREADY DESTROYED. For Farooq to write that the #EndSARS protesting Nigerian youths are resolute, persistent, fearless, implacable, and determined to crush everything and everyone that stands in their way, he must either have had foreknowledge that the protesting youths are armed or he was indoctrinating them to engage in armed struggle with the Federal government. In that wise, no one can say for sure who actually started the shootings at Lekki Tollgate, in the evening of 20 October 2020.
S. Kadiri


From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Femi Segun <soloruntoba@gmail.com>
Sent: 26 October 2020 04:09
To: 'Chika Onyeani' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari's Trumpian Propaganda to Cover Up the Lekki Massacre
 
OAA  SA, Ogbeni SK
I don't know the methodology  that  you use in your fields of study, but as a Social Scientist, I go to the field  to collect data through interviews, Focus Group Discussions and others. An eye witness account of what happened on any issue  would pass for one of these methods of data collection. Despite the possibility of bias, which is usually controlled for through established procedures for validity tests, these data collection methods are reliable tools for any research.   You are free to claim that any one who disagree with you is intellectually inferior to you. In the context of he ongoing geopolitical permutations in Nigeria, I came to the conclusion that Afonja as a senior military officer of the old Oyo empire would have passed for a military intellectual, yet he sold his heritage after being bitten by subterfuge of those whose mentality  and strategies are that of  born to rule. There will always be the likes of Afonja in every generation. We had Justice George Sodeinde Sowemimo   who sentenced Chief  Awolowo despite the odds against that sentence. We had Abimbola Davies in the days of June 12 election debacle . This time will not be different. But as the Governors of the Southwest states said after their meeting on this issue on  Sunday, there are counter forces against the Afonjas of this time. Let that sinks. . 

Femi

On Sat, Oct 24, 2020 at 7:12 PM OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com> wrote:
Dr Eniola.

We appreciate your level headed analyses in the face of relentless provocation.  This is what intellectuals do.  Many intellectuals in Nigeria prefer hysterics and frenzy when they receive news and information that goes against the grain opting for predictable sensationalism to justify prejudices.  This is acceptable only from unlettered people.



OAA




Mr President you took an oath to rule according to the Constitution


Where are the schools to promote the teaching of the country's lingua francas?



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.



-------- Original message --------
From: DR SIKIRU ENIOLA <drsikirueniola@gmail.com>
Date: 24/10/2020 23:23 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari's Trumpian Propaganda to Cover Up the Lekki Massacre

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (drsikirueniola@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
Got this from another platform. What do you all think

...meanwhile

Olajide Abiola ~

Mob seige does not work with me. If you like rally the entire hordes of hades. I will state my views as succinctly as possible. It is your personal anguish to interpret my writs as individually deemed.

It is unfortunate what a genuine advocacy has degenerated into. It is also unfortunate and needless regarding all lives lost since the beginning.

In the last few hours a few rumoured deaths and arrests have been debunked. This is what I am happy about. This is what I hoped for. The Governor of Lagos has visited the hospital where injured protesters are said to be receiving treatment. I am also glad that some have been discharged and others had mild to moderate injuries. It is also good that the numbers aren't body bags. I pray for the quick recovery of the two persons said to be in intensive care. 

I am also glad that DJ switch was not shot dead nor arrested. Glad that has been debunked. Same with Eniola Badmus. And also the person in the attached screenshot who was one of those said to have been killed by soldiers. Every bad news refuted is a thing of joy. 

People shared 5 videos and links with me.

The first one: Soldiers firing

What I saw was soldiers firing blanks with flares pointing upwards. At least, if there us any basic thing I should know, it is what a live armor or blank armor sounds and looks like. While they fired into the air, there were chants by the protesters. How will I watch the video and then in good conscience state that soldiers were killing or masacred the people in that video? With all the shots fired, the protesters chanted in defiance. So, apart from the shots from the blanks and the chats from protesters, can anyone say they saw people dropping?

Second one: Channels TV video and Photo

A Channels TV correspondent was at the scene and he talked to two protesters with blood stains on their body. It was said that they sustained injuries. There was no dead body filmed. The Channels TV correspondent also took photos of shells. The picture is simple and straightforward. They were shells of blanks. Ask any soldier to corroborate it.

Third video: Sitting guy surrounded by others

I saw that the leg of someone on the seat was been held. Those who shared the video said they were trying to remove bullet from the leg. There was no background story to it. It was just said that it was gunshot and they were trying to extract it. 

4th Video: Video recorder in hospital

There were frantic movements in the room. I was initially afraid while viewing it because I was told 11 people were lying dead or groaning in pain from gunshots. The video only showed people moving frantically about. It didn't show the body of anyone. I saw that the recorder tried to enter another room in the hospital but he didn't. The video ended there.

5th Video: DJ Switch Live and recorded video

I saw the later end of the livestream and took my time to view the recorded one. I could hear the person streaming say 'let them keep shooting", "sit down" "sit down". While I was looking out for the killings people talked about I was also praying not to see dead bodies. People's lives are too sacrosanct to be used as collateral damage. 

I was abundantly clear that use of live ammunition would be a reprehensible act that stands condemned, but I will condemn only what I can ascertain to be true.

If people are not massacred and it turns out to be false, this is capable or heightening tensions and aggression....over what? Fake news? 

I sincerely hope that those who have rallied their goons to pour invectives and in anguish over my position to thread with caution and allow facts to emerge can eat their heart out. 

It is the same way I supported peaceful protests but urged caution. If erring on the side of caution is interpreted as defence of government or support for Buhari, it simply shows you are worse than what you fight.

Government cannot cover up the massacre of people with known identities. The identity of everyone SARS killed, and those that have been tragically lost during these protests are known. May their soul continue to rest in peace while government works to bring all erring officers to book.

—————————————————

One by one, the frenzied reportage of last night, with twisted falsehoods, are getting refuted.

God bless Nigeria.

On Sat, Oct 24, 2020, 6:58 PM Femi Segun <soloruntoba@gmail.com wrote:
Dr Eniola,
Please can you provide a  counter evidence to what eyewitnesses to this tragedy provided? I think it is the height of insensitivity to trivialise issues involving human lives. If Buhari did so for whatever reason, why should intellectuals  like you join in this charade? What other evidence are you expecting that lives were brutally wasted by shameless and inhuman autocrats masquerading as democrats other than the eyewitnesses account of people who protested? Despite the initial thoughtless denial by the Governor of Lagos State, he has also acknowledged that people died in the shooting. Or are you also doubting his claim?  I am pained and disappointed that a member of this forum can join in the denialism of the herds of flippant and callous Buharists. If only a member of their family was among the people murdered, perhaps, they will be more reasonable and compassionate. Let's be careful. Please visit the Punch website for a life account of one of the people who recorded the killings. 
O mase o

Femi


On Sat, Oct 24, 2020 at 12:23 PM DR SIKIRU ENIOLA <drsikirueniola@gmail.com> wrote:
There are enough information in the media space to have mitigated this incendiary comments. We should endeavour to analyse issues towards the stabilization of national security. All the information contained in this write up are mere exaggeration of facts. All lives matter and it is agreeable that modesty should guide scholars at critical times of national crisis.

On Sat, Oct 24, 2020, 1:57 PM Farooq A. Kperogi <farooqkperogi@gmail.com> wrote:

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Buhari's Trumpian Propaganda to Cover Up the Lekki Massacre

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

On October 20, I couldn't sleep in my base here in the United States because I was glued to social media monitoring livestreams of the agonizing state-authorized mass massacres of peaceful protesters in Lekki, Lagos.  I was crushed and despondent beyond description.

My situational insomnia was triggered by vicarious pains. The sights and sounds of young men and women being felled by live bullets by uniformed homicidal thugs caused me to imagine— and vicariously experience— the pain that the parents of the children who were being killed would go through when they find out about the murder of their children.


Although this Buhari-sanctioned, Tinubu-supported mass murder of unarmed and defenseless protesters was captured in real time on social media, archived on the web, and reported in the domestic and international media, the government isn't only denying it now, it is causing people who witnessed it to question their own perceptual stimuli, recollections, and even sanity.


That is the propaganda tactic Donald Trump routinely deploys in America. He tells outrageous lies (he has told more than 5,000 lies since becoming president, according to several media houses that are keeping records!), repeats them ad infinitum, ignores rebuttals, and causes otherwise normal people to question the reality they live in and the evidence around them.


This propaganda and mind management tactic is called gaslighting. Its goal is to defamiliarize reality and the truth through intentional, in-your-face obfuscation of the facts—or through the popularization of what Trump's former counselor Kellyanne Conway once called "alternative facts."


In a January 2017 article for Psychology Today, Stephanie A. Sarkis, Ph.D., defined gaslighting as "a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. It works much better than you may think. Anyone is susceptible to gaslighting, and it is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders. It is done slowly, so the victim doesn't realize how much they've been brainwashed."


I've seen otherwise intelligent, critical people fall victim to the Nigerian government's Trumpian gaslighting propaganda tactic over the Lekki massacre. Even though videographic evidence exists of the shooting of protesters in Lekki—and of real-time reports of military officers hiding corpses to conceal their murderous cruelty—I've seen a surprising number of people asking for evidence of the deaths of protesters in Lekki.


Before writing this column, I observed social media conversations about the government's audacious denial of the Lekki massacre, and I was amazed by the number and types of people who were gaslit by the government.


Although gaslighting was initially studied in interpersonal settings, it has now been expanded to account for how people with political and coercive authority (such as presidents, heads of military organizations, etc.) and even symbolic power (such as celebrities and public intellectuals) can use their positions to muddy the waters and confound otherwise self-aware people.


The website "Healthline" tells us that gaslighting can cause people "to question their thoughts, memories, and the events occurring around them," adding that "A victim of gaslighting can be pushed so far that they question their own sanity."


It is the reason millions of Americans have become suckers for Trump's absurd, easily refutable lies, and why millions of unreflective Talibangelical African Christians worship and believe him even though he isn't a Christian and hates and disdains them because of their race.


Psychologists say the most potent solution to gaslighting is to recognize and accept that you're the victim of a carefully planned emotional manipulation by people who have conscious and unconscious political, symbolic, or interpersonal dominion over you.


That acceptance frees victims from the burden of self-doubt and allows them to examine the facts and evidence around them. The unvarnished fact is that on October 20, CCTV cameras were turned off in Lekki and scores of protesters were shot at with live bullets by the Nigerian military. An undetermined number of protesters died.


The Punch of October 21 reported that "no fewer than seven persons" were murdered at Lekki and that "Many protesters were said to have sustained bullet wounds as a result of the attack that suddenly came just after the billboard on the tollgate and the streetlights around the premises were switched off."

The paper also reported an eyewitness to have said, "They have killed more than seven people that I have seen with my eyes. They were killed with real bullets..."


Premium Times of October 23 also reported "Nigerian artiste, DJ Switch, who was present when soldiers shot at peaceful protesters in Lekki, Lagos, [on] Tuesday" to have said, "at least 15 people were killed in the shootings and that she and other survivors took the victims' bodies to the soldiers who took them away."


The Peoples Gazette, a professional, up-and-coming digital-native news outlet, reported that "the police in Lagos turned down [the] Nigerian Army's request to hand over nine bodies from Tuesday's massacre" and pointed out that "Amnesty International had reported 12 persons were killed by security forces on the same night, including 10 from Lekki military shooting."


So the murder of protesters in Lekki by the Buhari regime is real. It isn't mass hallucination. And it is disrespectful to the memories of the people who were senselessly murdered by the Nigerian military to question the truth of their death.


The blame for this gaslighting, of course, rests entirely with the government. Many of the peddlers of the government-approved falsehood that no one died at Lekki—or that accounts of what happened there are hyperbolized— are also victims of sophisticated emotional exploitation.


Tinubu is Complicit in the #LekkiMassacre

In an October 21 phone interview with Channels TV, Bola Tinubu tried to dissociate himself from the mass murder of EndSARS protesters in Lekki by asking, "Why will they use live bullets?" and proclaiming he "will never, never be part of any carnage. I will never be part of that."


His condemnation of the massacre is refreshing, but he advertently or inadvertently enabled it in his blind pursuit of an increasingly implausible presidential ambition.


On Oct. 17, it emerged that clueless Aso Rock insiders said Tinubu was behind the #EndSARS protests as a bargaining chip to get the APC presidential ticket in 2023. I pointed this out on social media, and Tinubu himself acknowledged it days later in his ChannelsTV interview where he said he was "being accused and reported to the Presidency that I was behind the protests, that I was a sponsor of the protests."


To persuade Aso Rock power brokers that he was on their side, he issued a forceful press statement on October 18 disclaiming any connection with the protesters, saying the protests, in fact, "affected the "economy of Lagos State" (read: Tinubu's bottom line since he practically owns the Lagos State government).


But his disclaimer did little to assuage the suspicions of his Aso Rock masters. So on Oct. 20, he issued an even more forceful statement where he, among other things, said the Buhari regime had the right to "act with the requisite decisiveness and FORCE to restore law and order."


In other words, he gave his imprimatur to the military to murder protesters. What else can "decisiveness and FORCE to restore law and order" mean but state-sanctioned lethal violence?


On the night of Oct. 20, several unarmed, defenseless young men and women were murdered in cold blood in Lekki by the Nigerian military. Of course, given Buhari's bloodstained history, he didn't need Tinubu's greenlight to extrajudicially murder citizens who challenged his dreadful ineptitude, but Tinubu's endorsement made it easier.

Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
School of Communication & Media
Social Science Building 
Room 5092 MD 2207
402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com
Nigeria's Digital Diaspora: Citizen Media, Democracy, and Participation

"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will

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