We lie truly and
genuinely in order to unravel a huge complication that we got
into; We truly tell the lie as the truth and the truth as the
lie.
In the backdrop of political killings taking place in the North, East, West, South and beyond, it appears that old scores
are settled in cold-blooded fashion. The likes of Bola ige,
Funsho williams, Dr. Marshall Harry, and so many others have
been killed. This has alerted the free thinking Nigerians;
irrespective of their political convictions, to rise against the
brutal murders committed in the name of politics. Despite the
committee being appointed by the government, to probe into the
politically motivated killings, it is also essential that the
agreement between the government and
the police should be amended to safeguard those who fear
repercussion during the time of peace. It should also be ensured
that the monitoring mechanism in place is empowered to
investigate and report to the authorities any complaints
received in regard to political intimidation and killings.
During the period
of peace or cessation of hostilities it has been widely seen
that " peace as violence by another name" ( The title of the key
note speech delivered by Dr.Arjuna Parakrama on 7th February
2003 at the Cornell University , Itahca USA ). Does peace give
the so-called politicians a "licence to kill" their political
opponents? It is contemptible that the Nigerian Government has
been impotent in its duties of keeping peace, especially during
the violence in the Niger delta, let alone the assassinations.
The political killings and violence were much during the time of
Abacha that was an aggressive leadership rather than a peace
keeping leadership. In the context of political killings in
Nigeria , we cannot simply rule out the allegation that the late
Funsho williams commonly called "captain" , could have been
killed by his fellow aspirants for the position of a Governor.
Despite being defeated in the general elections in 2004, . Given
the history of PDP one cannot
also rule out possible conspiracy theories implicating the AD in
political killings, such as that of The "Captain".
No body would have
forgotten as to how Gen.Zia ul hag , the former President of
Pakistan was killed in the air; leaving minimal impact on his
supporters to react violently on his death. I tend to look back
at the time where the high profile and young Muslim politicians
were ruthlessly targeted and eliminated by the Tamil militants
in the North and East. Since the emergence of Tamil militarism
in the North and East , the first Muslim politician who was
killed was Mr. Ramlan , the former Commissioner of Eravur Town
Council. He was killed in 1990,
allegedly by the Tamil militant group who had their Muslim
members in Eravur. Williams, a former engineer who became
chairman of the National Maritime Authority, had run for
governor twice. Posters emblazoned with his face and "Lagos
2007" are plastered throughout the city, though he had not
officially entered the race.After a recent building collapse in
Lagos that killed 20 people, Williams toured the site, offering
aid to survivors and blaming government corruption for the
disaster.Political assassinations and the use of armed youth
gangs to intimidate opponents have become common in Nigerian
politics. Human Rights Watch estimated that more than 100 people
were killed in election-related violence during Nigeria's last
general ballot, in 2003.Earlier this month, a candidate for
governor of Plateau state was abducted and shot to death on his
way home from a political rally. No arrests have been made.
Oil-rich Rivers state also has seen a spate of bombings aimed at
the houses of prominent politicians and their families. Police
said they were investigating three attacks in the last two
months.
"The current upsurge in political killings sends a clear and
unmistakable signal of what to expect as the elections draw near
and during the elections proper", Nigeria's largest human rights
group, the Civil Liberties Organization, said in a statement
Friday. All what we look for is the truth not the lie.
Abolarin Damilola Oluwatobi
LeadCity University
Ibadan, Oyo State
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