By Abdullahi Isah
I was sitting right at the corner of my room on that fateful day, following updates with keen interest; the fire outbreaks at two of the holiest and sacred worship centres to both followers of Christianity and Islam i.e. The Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Israel and Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.
No doubt, those two worship areas are important to global communities, especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem which is important to Muslims, Christians and Jews, while Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, is very sacred to Christians (Catholics).
Suddenly, my phone beep, which is a sign of message notification and it deafened my ear badly, I quickly browsed the message and the headline of the story made me to stop a little bit and gently nodded my head and softly asked my wife as though: Did you recognize the person in that picture, (pointing out to a phone in my hand without allowing her to see the caption of the story attached to the picture)?.
With my little surprise, she shook her head with suspicious smile on her face; was it not the same person that we saw some years ago, protesting in Abuja, when the then, secretary to the government of the federation, Babachir David Lawal was accused of corruption? I stared at her with surprise look on my face and shook my head, which is a signed of an acceptance of her response. She then, continued, what happen to him? I slowly opened my arm to allow her gaze at the headline of the story as follows: ’’Court sentences an activist to twelve years for defamation’’ Her unperturbed look really touches me, not just because she does not show concern to his plights, but her response in Hausa of ‘Rana dubu ta barawo daya ta mai kaya’ which means ‘thousand days for a thief and one day for the owner, made me to shed tears.
However, I responded to her with the following statement: ’’This guy is a professional dub star and propagandist; he eat, dine and wine with corrupt actors and their enthusiasts, he is eloquent and out spoken, convincing any person that does not understand his motive and mode of operation, he is a hypocrite and Sheep in wolf cloth, attacking any person that refuses to share looted fund with him, I once thought that, he is a good guy, fighting to liberate us from the greedy few that milk this country dry for many years, but I later unravel his true identity and ran away.
My association with him around 2014-15, to protest the continue onslaughts of Boko-Haram against innocent people of Nigerian state and its neighbouring countries, particularly north easterners. I participated in many meetings supervised by him in Kano and Kaduna, but unfortunately, during that interaction his dark secrets were exposed to us, in that vein, we eventually stopped attending any meeting organized by him and his co-comrades.
Perhaps, when I later learned how this guy became a mouth piece and paid agent of disgrace former secretary to the government of the federation, Babachir David Lawal, I respect my earlier decision of refusing to be involved in any fraud meeting or protest organized by him.
And one good thing, the Holy Qur’an had already talked about people like them and I quote: ’’When you look at them, their exteriors please you. When they speak, you listen to their words. They are as worthless as hollow (piece of timber propped up, unable to stand on their own. They think that everyone is against them. They are the enemies. So, beware of them. The curse of Allah be on them! How deluded they are from the truth.
Today in Nigeria, these types of people are one of the major problems confronting this country at this time due to some reasons highlighted below: People thought they are nice, committed and fighting to salvage them from slavery.
They thought that they are the only one that can liberate them; they relied on them on information gathering. But unfortunately, in reality, they are as bad as corrupt politicians and government officials too; some of them with the opportunity to participate in active politics are living witnesses. Do they really make any difference from those politicians that are accused of being corrupts? The answer is no! Some of them are even worse than those politicians.
Imagine if real comrades like Thomas Sankara, CHE GUEVARA, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Dr Yusuf Bala Usman and Gani Fawehinmi learned about those criminals that hide in activism and accumulate wealth for themselves and their family? What would happen? They will shed tears and be rolling in anger in their graves.
But before you crucify me, let me make it clear, I am not of the opinion that the NAHCON Chairman is not corrupt or IG Wala is completely wrong about his accusation, no! I am not even referring to anything as such, my concerned is about his claim of ‘holier than thou’ which in reality, he is not.
He is more unclean than many of the people he accused. And perhaps, who stops him from presenting the documents he alleged to possess at the court?
In my opinion, this judgement came at the right time and it will serve as a deterrent to other fake activists that feed fat to the detriment of people.
’’The only thing worse than a liar, is a liar that’s also a hypocrite’’—Tennessee Williams.
Abdullahi Isah is a Journalist and Public Analyst who can be reached on 08066048290
