By Destiny O. Enabulele, MA
Nigeria will not be fixed by being nice to our oppressors.
Yet again, another Edo Council Chairman threatens to demolish a hotel for hosting NDC meetings. This is not governance. It is gangsterism inherited from Capo di tutti capi in agbada.
This APC handshake is getting beyond the elbow. It is no longer a case of “that boy calls you father, do not bear a hand in his death.” The aggression is brazen, shameless, and emboldened.
What began as persuasion has become reckless coercion. What began as party politics has become metastatic madness. This APC impunity is now a family progenitor, passed from governor to chairman, from chairman to councillor.
Edo was once the heartbeat of progressive opposition. Now, under APC, public parks are party estates, drivers are forced to wear caps, and hotels are threatened for hosting the opposition. Is this democracy or domestic colonization?
Nigerians, an elder does not sit at home and watch a tethered goat deliver. Edo people cannot remain silent.
If this ugly drift by APC is not checked, it will be likened to what my grandmother of blessed memory referred to as “a man that is after a snake will be on the run and the snake you are after will be on the run.” Confusion upon confusion.
The law guarantees in Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution, freedom of association. But APC acts as if the Constitution has been suspended in Edo when we are not in military rule.
Edo people, “a stitch in time saves nine.” The time to speak is now. Silence in the face of tyranny is consent.
Enough is enough. The French would say “trop c’est trop” while my Swahili friend says “imetosha.”
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