By Garba Musa
The #endbadgovernance protest that took place from August 1st-10th, 2024 has gone, but the ripples it caused is still widening on the waters of the River Niger. The dead have been buried and the blood and carcasses of destruction washed and cleaned long ago.
However, the memory of what transpired and the continued blames, comments and shenanigans of haters still drops into our social media handles.
In the midst of the #endbadgovernance protests, you may recall seeing some citizens, without knowing the gravity of their actions, secured and raised a flag purported to be that of the Russian federation. The color of the Russian Federation flag that I used to see in the media or in books or in magazines or in sporting meets is white and sky blue.
The one raised by the protesters in Kano appeared to have three colors, that is, white, blue and red, but they said it was the Russian federation’s flag. My concern is not the color of the flag anyway, but the insincere and hateful accusations by our southern compatriots.
As is usual with them, anything from the north is an abomination and they would be quick to rain insults and curse their whipping guys due to their in-depth hatred towards the northerners. After all, what is in flying a foreign flag that will elicit the castigation of a whole region, its people, civilization and everything from people who were discovered naked by the white colonialists.
What was it that they did not do during the #Endsars protests? They burn, they loot, they destroy and did other unprintable things. But no response from either the divisive southern press, or their selfish leaders. The north is their whipping boys and so they went to town with spurious accusations in a protest they planned and executed.
Many of us are aware of the Israeli flag raised in the office of the minister of the federal capital, the cantankerous Nyesome Wike during the October 7th 2003 infiltration of Israel by Hamas freedom fighters. A whole minister of the federal republic taking sides with a Zionist country in a secular nation like Nigeria and the haters kept mum as if nothing happened.
What kind of citizens do we have in this country? Too sectional, too shameless and eggrigariously selfish. Just imagine! Most churches in Nigeria fly the Israel Zionist flag in their churches and nobody has uttered a word of caution or complaint.
The Ibos have their own Biafran flag in a federation of constituent states and is flown freely in the south-east region without a hoot. Members of the Yoruba ‘Oduduwa republic’ have created their own flag and they fly it at some of their functions without restraint, nobody has yet said it was a bad omen or an act detrimental to the security or unity of the country.
However and most unfortunately, the southern haters have found it expedient and a right to dub the flying of a purported Russian federation flag during the #endbadgovernance protest in the north as traitors and the act as treasonable.
By this, it is obvious that either the northerners are being looked at as second class citizens in Nigeria or that they do not deserve the rights and privileges accorded them by the constitution of free speech and so on. Why did they not open their dirty mouth and accuse the top government official with the status of a federal minister of breaching the constitution of Nigeria.
And this was a man who, in a secular nation, named his state a Christian state and nobody called him to order from the section born to dominate the Nigerian economy and the press. He has breached part II, section 10 of the constitution. The Christian association of Nigeria (CAN), body of bishops, reverend fathers, pastors and even non-practicing Christians did not say anything. If it were the Governor of Kano state who renamed Kano a Muslim state, the roof of the sky would have since fallen due to the barrage of reactions and other innuendos from the haters.
Some people have no shame. So they went ahead and called for the fliers of Russian federation flag to be charged for treason. Among those arrested by the security officials is a 15 year old groundnut seller who was following the protesters in order to sell his wares and take the money home to enable the mother prepare their evening meal.
My heart was heavy with despair as I heard the mother crying in one of the radio stations monitored in Kano for the release of her innocent son. Can this happen in the south without their human rights watch or amnesty international talking loud and clear.
We in the north are an endangered species that are being hated and despised in spite of our kindness and love to our compatriots. A normal report of a divisional police officer (DPO) killed by soldiers in Zamfara state elicited dangerous and hateful comments from the southerners that the deceased collaborates with bandits without a report of an investigation on the incident. They even desecrated the Holy Qur’an on a simple issue. Just imagine!
How many southerners, especially of the Ibo extraction are being caught daily with illicit drugs brought to the north and or pirated outside the country and giving Nigeria a bad name. But to them, that is not a problem.
So what is this treason thing that the haters want our youths to be disciplined or charged with? According to the oxford dictionary the word ‘treason’ means the crime of doing something that could cause danger to your country such as helping the enemies during a war. If I understand the meaning of the word treason, does the flying of Russian federation flag elicit a treasonable action.
Are we at war with the Russian federation or protesting bad governance? But the haters’ jaundiced eyes have failed to sift the chaff from the grain because a Hausa/Fulani was involved. The 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria as amended, talked about treasonable felonies under chapter II section II and it is clear for everybody to see.
So why is the rule being enforced on the Hausa/Fulani while overlooking the IPOB, Nyesome Wike, the Oduduwa irredentists and members of the churches flying Israel flag even when the Jews are not Christians? It is simply hatred at play,all because they are fighting Palestinians, who unknown to many, consists a large percentage of Christians. One of the feared fighters against Israel was a Christian called George Habash, see?
I will therefore not relent in telling the truth no matter the insults that will follow from the haters as it is their trademark. There is a need for some people to be civilized enough and be truthful in dealing with national and subnational issues. In a situation where every and all economic activity is dominated by the Southerners, whether in private or public sector and the appropriation and greedy walloping of the North’s quota system and our seeming nonchalance at the moment, leaving us high and dry, will not continue in this way.
We are made poor and the laughing stock of those born to dominate the economy, the southerners. When Indomie saw the high population in Kano they wanted to build their factory there, but Obasanjo refused to give them license unless they build it in Ogun state (Otta) or Lagos and they agreed. But the consumers are in the north. The average southerner believes in drinking his garri and groundnut or ogiri.
How many people would have been employed in Kano and the thousands of mouths that may be fed. But they will never give us that chance. The Northern Nigeria flour mills Kano, an employer of thousands of northern people, deliberately removed its machines and moved them to Lagos and denied thousands of people employment opportunities in Kano. Yet they said we are lazy and poor.
It is in view of the above, a small fraction of what the southerners had planned for us, that I agree with some southerners calling for the dissolution of this contraption called Nigeria. In fact we have passed the date of dissolution in the year 2014. Let every nationality go its own way.
At least we shall have peace of mind and chart our progress in our own nation without discrimination.We will have a Nation where no drug merchant from the South may spoil the future of our youths with illicit drugs and hard substances.
I will not forgive any national assembly member from Kano state who cannot move for a referendum to dissolve the colonial creation called Nigeria. May the Almighty Allah bring succor to Arewa.
Musa lives in Kano
