Edited
Professor Toyin Falola, a Nigerian scholar living in the US, is pursuing a deeply humanistic but idealistic path in relation to the Lekki Massacre.
Falola is calling for the resignation of the Buhari government and sending to the International Court of Justice at the Hague the army and police officers responsible for the Lekki Massacre.
I wonder why he did not call for the resignation of the governor of Lagos state, neck deep as that government official also is in the Lekki Massacre.
How should a person like myself respond to Falola, a seasoned historian of Nigerian and African history, better informed than myself of the culture of brutality that has too often shaped African governments, and yet who is demanding, in effect, that a mountain should be lifted and flung into the sea, in calling for the resignation of the government of Muhammadu Buhari and the prosecution at the Hague of the armed forces figures responsible for this carnage?
Falola is of course aware that he is calling, not only for the dissolution of a government but for the dismantling of a complex political architecture in which the entire country, particularly its political elite, are deeply implicated.
Falola's call will galvanize the cries of those in Buhari's Muslim North that EndSARS is directed agst their ethno-religious representative, Muhammadu Buhari.
It will mobilize responses like those of the Northern Governors Forum that the movement is being used as a means of change of national govt rather than its ostensible goal of police and political reform, a claim also made by the most prominent SW political figure Bola Tinubu.
Many of the generality in the Muslim North are likely to stand behind this belief, going from what I have been reading from this demographic on Facebook.
What will be the response of the Fulani nationalists, the Fulani supremacists, of Fulani herdsmen, their terrorist militia and of Miyetti Allah, coordinator and spokespeople of the Fulani herdsmen militia, openly justifying massacres of Nigerians, even as their patrons and leaders, composed of Nigeria's most elite Fulani, and whose bloodthirsty record is empowered by their ethnic kinsman Buhari who makes sure they are not even questioned by the police talk less prosecuted as they openly work as coordinators and spokespeople for one of the world's deadliest terror groups?
What will be the response of the Sarduana of Sokoto, head of Nigeria's Muslim community, of ex-central bank governor and ex-Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido Snusi, both patrons of Miyetti Allah, whose responses to the outrages by this terrorist network has been either silence, unhelpful comments avoiding the facts or disputed claims of anti-Fulani massacre in response to outright massacres by Fulani herdsmen?
A good number of the people massacred by these herdsmen militia and their lands seized are from the Middle Belt, yet the head of the Northern Governors Forum, and which led a delegation of support to Buhari, branding the protests as an attack on his govt, is Simon Lalong, governor of Plateau, whose state has been fighting a long war with Fulani herdsmen milita terrorism.
What will be the response of the Northern Muslim political and military establishment which Buhari has empowered in a manner unprecedented in Nigerian by placing them in charge of most of the organs of state?
It has taken Buhari decades of struggle to get to this point and the right wing of the Muslim North represented by Buhari years of struggle to reach here, a journey going through the paradoxical advocacy of Boko Haram building on Atiku Abubakar's threat of violent change to Nigeria bcs a Muslim Northerner, represented by himself, was not made PDP 2011 Presidential candidate and hence, practically certain President of Nigeria, to the Chibok crisis enabled by Borno state governor Kassim Shettima to the rebranding of Buhari by Southern Nigerian ideologues and his selling to the South enabling his 2015 victory.
Will those who see this victory as enabling themselves allow it to be taken from them in the face of killings that , in terms of numbers, are a fraction of what has been done by Fulani herdsmen militia in the Middle Belt and in Southern Kaduna?
What will be the response of El Rufai, governor of Kaduna State, described as another ethnicist Buhari at a smaller level?
Calling for the resignation of the Buhari govt without doing same for the Lagos state govt is likely to inspire charges of a form of conspiracy, particular since Falola is from the SW, the same region as Lagos.
Falola is likely to be focusing on the Buhari govt bcs he sees that govt as the apex and the all embracing point of the chain of responsibility for the massacre.
But is the Lagos state govt not the ground zero of these activities, with the army declaring they were called in by the Lagos state governor to enforce the curfew he had declared, even as the army denies that they did the killings, even in the face of even the incontrovertible evidence?
Falola is likely to be focusing on the Buhari govt bcs he sees that govt as the apex and the all embracing point of the chain of responsibility for the massacre.
But is the Lagos state govt not the ground zero of these activities, with the army declaring they were called in by the Lagos state governor to enforce the curfew he had declared, even as the army denies that they did the killings, even in the face of even the incontrovertible evidence?
A sustained call of the kind Falola is making may been as an attack on the Tinubu political dynasty, the most sustained SW political conglomerate after that of the legendary Ọbafẹmi Awolowo, a dynasty to which Sanwo-Olu the Lagos state governor belongs as a protégé of the centre of that dynasty, Bola Tinubu.
The successful prosecution of such a call implies the end of the APC, the party of the national government and the dominant party in the SW.
Yet, Falola is able to leap above these geo-political calculations and insist on the humanistic thing to do.
I salute you, brother.
As long as you include the Lagos state govt in this call, you are worthy to be counted among the idealistic youth of the EndSARS protests.
Meanwhile, please you should consider not coming to Nigeria this year or the next so these people you are moving against don't unleash their frustration on you.
thanks
oluwatoyin vincent adepoju
On Sat, 31 Oct 2020 at 15:56, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:
Professor Toyin Falola, a Nigerian scholar living in the US, is pursuing a deeply humanistic but idealistic path in relation to the Lekki Massacre.Falola is calling for the resignation of the Buhari government and sending to the International Court of Justice at the Hague the army and police officers responsible for the Lekki Massacre.I wonder why he did not call for the resignation of the governor of Lagos state, neck deep as that government official also is in the Lekki Massacre.How should a person like myself respond to Falola, a seasoned historian of Nigerian and African history, better informed than myself of the culture of brutality that has too often shaped African governments, and yet who is demanding, in effect, that a mountain should be lifted and flung into the sea, in calling for the resignation of the government of Muhammadu Buhari and the prosecution at the Hague of the armed forces figures responsible for this carnage?Falola is of course aware that he is calling, not only for the dissolution of a government but for the dismantling of a complex political architecture in which the entire country, particularly its political elite, are deeply implicated.Falola's call will galvanize the cries of those in Buhari's Muslim North that EndSARS is directed agst their ethno-religious representative, Muhammadu Buhari.It will mobilize responses like those of the Northern Governors Forum that the movement is directed against the President who emerges from their ethno-religious constituency.Many of the generality in the Muslim North are likely to stand behind this belief, going from what I have been reading from this demographic on Facebook.What will be the response of the Fulani nationalists, the Fulani supremacists, of Fulani herdsmen, their terrorist militia and of Miyetti Allah, coordinator and spokespeople of the Fulani herdsmen militia, openly justifying massacres of Nigerians, even as their patrons and leaders, composed of Nigeria's most elite Fulani, and whose bloodthirsty record is empowered by their ethnic kinsman Buhari who makes sure they are not even questioned by the police talk less prosecuted as they openly work as coordinators and spokespeople for one of the world's deadliest terror groups?What will be the response of the Sarduana of Sokoto, head of Nigeria's Muslim community, of ex-central bank governor and ex-Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido Snusi, both patrons of Miyetti Allah, whose responses to the outrages by this terrorist network has been either silence, unhelpful comments avoiding the facts or disputed claims of anti-Fulani massacre in response to outright massacres by Fulani herdsmen?A good number of the people massacred by these herdsmen militia and their lands seized are from the Middle Belt, yet the head of the Northern Governors Forum, and which led a delegation of support to Buhari, branding the protests as an attack on his govt, is Simon Lalong, governor of Plateau, whose state has been fighting a long war with Fulani herdsmen milita terrorism.What will be the response of the Northern Muslim political and military establishment which Buhari has empowered in a manner unprecedented in Nigerian by placing them in charge of most of the organs of state?It has taken Buhari decades of struggle to get to this point and the right wing of the Muslim North represented by Buhari years of struggle to reach here, a journey going through the paradoxical advocacy of Boko Haram building on Atiku Abubakar's threat of violent change to Nigeria bcs a Muslim Northerner, represented by himself, was not made PDP 2011 Presidential candidate and hence, practically certain President of Nigeria, to the Chibok crisis enabled by Borno state governor Kassim Shettima to the rebranding of Buhari by Southern Nigerian ideologues and his selling to the South enabling his 2015 victory.Will those who see this victory as enabling themselves allow it to be taken from them in the face of killings that , in terms of numbers, are a fraction of what has been done by Fulani herdsmen militia in the Middle Belt and in Southern Kaduna?What will be the response of El Rufai, governor of Kaduna State, described as another ethnicist Buhari at a smaller level?Calling for the resignation of the Buhari govt without doing same for the Lagos state govt is likely to inspire charges of a form of conspiracy, particular since Falola is from the SW, the same region as Lagos.Falola knows of course that a sustained call of that kind implies an attack on the Tinubu political dynasty, the most sustained SW political conglomerate after that of the legendary Ọbafẹmi Awolowo, a dynasty to which Sanwo-Olu the Lagos state governor belongs as a protégé of the centre of that dynasty, Bola Tinubu.He is also aware that the successful prosecution of such a call implies the end of the APC, the party of the national government and the dominant party in the SW.Yet, he is able to leap above these geo-political calculations and insist on the humanistic thing to do.I salute you, brother.As long as you include the Lagos state govt in this call, you are worthy to be counted among the idealistic youth of the EndSARS protests.Meanwhile, please you should consider not coming to Nigeria this year or the next so these people you are moving against don't unleash their frustration on you.thanksoluwatoyin vincent adepojuOn Sat, 31 Oct 2020 at 12:47, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:--Read below: we must call for an international investigation team, demand the resignation of the Buhari government, and send some army officers and police to The International Court of Justice for prosecution.
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