The Cattle Rearer Chronicles — #LekkiMassacre: Unrepentant Dictator 3 - Reformed Democrat 0
20th October 2020…..20–10–2020…..a Tuesday evening in Lekki, Lagos that will forever live in the annals of Nigerian history. An evening during which members of the Nigerian army opened fire on unarmed peaceful protesters who had congregated at the Lekki Tollgate, draped in Nigerian flags and singing the national anthem. Patriotic Nigerians, mostly youths and therefore the future of the nation, were cut down by a hail of bullets bought with their money…..with taxpayer money. These soldiers didn’t baulk at the order to shoot at their fellow citizens, their fellow brothers and sisters. To them, it was as though these were the Boko Haram terrorists they have been fighting against for almost a decade, terrorists who had slain their brothers/sisters-in-arms and therefore there could be no mercy. This can be the only logical explanation for a group of soldiers sworn to protect their fatherland and fellow citizens, yet had no qualms turning on their own.
20–10–2020…..after 12 days of peaceful protests, the Muhammadu Buhari regime decided it was time to bare its fangs and sink them deep into the collective necks of those citizens who had shown the effrontery to demand for an end to SARS. A demand that was long overdue for an answer, a demand that the Police leadership and the government had paid lip service to for the past 3–4 years, a demand that was so mundane that it should have been a low hanging fruit for burnishing a tarnished legacy. But this is not how political actors in Nigeria think, especially not Major General M Buhari. Here, the legacy of military rule for half of the country’s time as an independent nation, remains strong and deeply rooted. Afterall, it is here under this same Buhari that over 300 citizens were killed and buried in unmarked graves for daring to block the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff…..for touching the chest of an Army General. Till today no one has been held to account and there has been no restitution. It is in this same Nigeria under Buhari that Dadiyata (a known critic of this despotic regime) has disappeared, leaving a young wife and daughter behind with no clue as to his whereabouts over the past 2 years.
Major General M Buhari made an address to the nation 2 days after the Lekki Massacre yet he refused to broach the topic. He pointedly refused to acknowledge the many dead and scores injured. As far he was concerned, he had given an order that was carried out and consequences be damned. Buhari has never understood democracy, as much as his handlers tried to position him as a “reformed democrat”. Buhari who said it was the fall of the Soviet Union that convinced him democracy was the correct form of government (he was 48 years old at the time he had his epiphany), only saw democracy as a vehicle for a return to power at a time autocracy was no longer in fashion. Once in office, he reverted to his old self (that thing about “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”). His paramount concern has been regime security and ensuring his hold on power, obviously still suffering from PTSD of his removal from office in 1985. To Buhari, protesters in the streets if left unchecked could lead to a downfall of his government a second time and therefore needed to be handled decisively. Unfortunately for Nigeria, no one has ever accused Buhari of having a sound intellectual bent which could have enabled him to find a positive solution to the matter at hand. Rather, as it is said, to a hammer everything is nail. He decided to send a message that would be heard loud and clear. As he said during his address, the response to the protesters by “accepting” to meet the 5for5 demands had been mistaken for weakness. It was time to show “strength”, in the only way he knows how.
Not only did Buhari send soldiers to the most peaceful protest zone and ask them to murder the citizens he is sworn to protect, there was an orchestrated withdrawal of security agents from several hotspots which allowed hoodlums and thugs to go on rampage. Two maximum security prisons saw jail breaks, several police stations were broken into with arms stolen and the stations set on fire. Banks, malls, small businesses and shops, even private residences bore the brunt as Buhari and his goons sought to ensure the breakdown of law and order that would justify his crackdown and potential declaration of martial law, which would not only put an end to the protests but also act as a deterrent to future protesters. To make matters worse, the government and its agents have gone on a disinformation offensive, denying the events of the Lekki Massacre. They have gone from denying Nigerian soldiers were there, to claiming they shot blanks and claiming reports of many deaths are fake news. Fortunately, we now live in an age in which the media and reporting has been democratized, the details of the Lekki Massacre are being captured and curated, already a wikipedia page has been created, see here.
This piece would not be doing the memory of those who lost their lives during the Lekki Massacre any justice if the ignominous role played by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu (the absolutely inept and morally bankrupt governor of Lagos state) was not brought to the fore. Sanwo-Olu it was who announced a 4pm curfew at 12 noon on a workday and then later changed it to 9pm. Before the curfew was to begin, the army had gone to work at the Lekki Tollgate and Sanwo-Olu did not see fit to do all he could to put a stop to it. As governor, he expects his citizens to believe he was not aware of the deployment, did not know when they moved from their base to the Lekki Tollgate. Of what use is such a governor that is oblivious to such major happenings in his state? And when he found out, what did he do? He first claimed no fatality and then later said only one person died at the hospital due to blunt force trauma to the head (in order words not due to a bullet).
His focus has been to absolve himself from blame and claim that as governor he has no control of security agents as they report to the federal government.
While he is right that neither the army nor police report to him, the buck stops at his table as the governor and chief security officer of Lagos state (the security votes he gets in his budget each year surely supports this). If he had been so inclined, he could have registered his disagreement on such an extreme course of action with the president and made a public show of defiance if his entreaties had fallen on deaf ears. He failed Lagosians and continues to fail by not owning up to this and ensuring the full truth comes out. In a federation that Nigeria is, he has no allegiance to the federal government. His oath is to the people of Lagos and he must do right by them or resign (in Nigeria it is too much to ask for impeachment as legislators are in bed with the executive).
Nigeria has had its fair share of heroes and the martyrs of the Lekki Massacre will forever be remembered, even as we are not yet able to mourn them properly, as many are yet to be identified (it is alleged that the soldiers took away many dead bodies to cover up their heinous act). Some of the heroes survived to tell the tale and ensured the story was not buried. Theirs is a great burden to bear as they saw their comrades cut down and now have to protect those memories in the face of a lying government and its collaborators. Special mention goes to DJ Switch who continues to be brave and patriotic when she has no reason to be. GOD bless and strengthen her…..she and others like her must be protected by all of us.
Finally, we must bear in mind these words attributed to Edmund Burke — “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
There are many who prevaricate on the manner in which to respond to the Lekki Massacre. They have seized on government misinformation and try to discredit the stories from survivors and journalists. Some justify their stance by querying why there are not many families looking for loved ones, as though we do not see the growing number of missing person announcements on social media. We must take note of these ones and ensure that we exact the maximum social penalty. They must be ostracized and treated as lepers. Governments come and go, influence is transient, but our memories must be like that of elephants……we must never forget those who chose to stand on the side of evil.
