While I watch and keenly follow the Ekiti gubernatorial melodrama and how Ukelle/Izzi are being ripped apart by the fetters of communal kerfuffle, my mind is involuntarily redirected to Bertrand Russell's words on marble about FREE THOUGHT AND OFFICIAL PROPAGANDA in respect to the DEFENCE OF THE REALM ACT OF 1914.
Russell opined that, "war was always a great evil, but in some particularly extreme circumstances, it may be the lesser of two evils".
I've observed in dismay that the people in most warring communities in our clime are subscribing to Russell's postulation of seeing war as an option in extreme condition rather than relying on amicable mechanism of conflict resolution. Dr. Martin Luther King believed war is never an option in times of dispute. This fact is never in contention.
On a daily basis in our nation, unimaginable happenings are tearing us apart. Things are falling asunder. Rumours of war, killing, robbery, political defection and all sort of evils are being peddled online. Some are just the latest facts, while others are mere doctored and jaundiced piece of news by politically pixilated and puckish folks to cause resentments amongst the people. This is actually working. So annoying!
Few days ago, Ukelle south in Yala local government area of Cross River State was besieged and ransacked by the rampaging militia allegedly hired by the Izzi people of Ebonyi State in a renewed reprisal attack. The pillage was enormous. Scores were reported to have died. The entire community was said to be sacked. The effects of the fracas are untold. Villagers are starving. Fear is their daily companion. Government is accused of delayed action. Hapless citizens are relocating in droves for their dear lives.
Yesterday, I watched a video clip of the garrulous governor of Ekiti State wailing and wallowing in pain over the alleged assault and battery done on him by some ghost police officers. He cried and I pitied him. That was the first time I saw an incumbent governor crying. The "almighty" Peter —the rock was broken by teargas! A solid rock dissolved by gaseous reaction. What a political reaction! "I'm in pain. If anything happened to me, IG should be held responsible", cried Fayose.
In a swift solidarity moves, the People Democratic Party, PDP organized nationwide protests to register their complaints to the appropriate quarters. They complained of political intimidation and harassment. We were all witnesses to the action movie premiered in 2014 in Ekiti. We know the protagonist and the antagonist. We saw how the military was used to intimidate the then governor, Fayemi.
FG wasn't magnanimous in being neutral. I vividly recall how a plethora of folks made jest of me when I expressed contempt over government's misdemean. They didn't know that the world is like a looking glass that gives to everyman the reflection of his own face. They forgot that the law of cultivation states that man can only reap whatsoever he sows. He who pelts another with pebbles, asks for rock in return.
Ekiti is considered by many as the home of intellectuals. They're said to have the highest number of professors and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SANs in Nigeria. I heard that an average family in Ekiti can boast of at least a professor; medical doctor, an engineer, a barrister (SAN), etc. I don't know the veracity of such assumption. But election in that state of the enlightened is always barbarous. Uncultured. A negation of the state's motto: fountain of knowledge.
It was in Ekiti that the REC was adopted and later released during election. He resigned and a lady took over. The lady couldn't announce the results in the state. She was flown to Abuja. It was there she announced the results. It was in Ekiti a man was seen brandishing cutlasses in the air during electioneering and when interviewed, he introduced himself as a professor of Animal Science.
If Fayose cried of being slapped and teargassed, Fayemi had equally wailed of being intimidated and brutalized by federal backed coercive apparatuses in 2014. At least, these videos are in public domain. Yesterday, Fayemi wept as he was counting losses at the debris of his campaign office that was set ablaze by hoodlums allegedly loyal to Fayose.
Men, these days have been quite bad with the political 'Fay' in Ekiti State.
In the heat of this political rumpus in Ekiti, nay Nigeria, not a few have been negatively influenced via false stories on the internet. The internet, social media to be specific has been carcooned and is seriously aiding the balkanization of the Nigerian States.
For the love of Nigeria, let's stop political intimidation; hate speech, religious intolerance, ethnicity and tribal prejudices, selective justice and winner takes all syndrome. Let's promote the philosophies of egalitarianism.
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