Freedom After Speech

By Abu Onyiani

In an article published by Ajispeaks on the 15th of April 2023, I wrote about the debilitating malady of unnecessarily violent cult groups in the University of Benin, and the anguish it has caused to students. The next morning, a sunday, I was awoken by a call from my sister, a magistrate who hates phone calls as much as God hates Satan. She had seen the link on a WhatsApp group, and had immediately read the article.

She was obviously alarmed by what she termed recklessness on my part, and as she pointed out to me, it was best to avoid speaking about these issues because the security capabilities of Nigerian armed forces is akin to the Chelsea Football Club defense that has just lost 5 matches in a row, almost non existent. A few minutes later, my mum called me, petrified by the fact she had just been told I dared authored an article that talked about cultism. I had to explain to both of them that my article was meant to elucidate on the nefarious state of affairs of students in Uniben, including the cultists who are themselves victims of circumstances surrounding their environment. That calmed them down to a level that was condusive for me, but they had cautioned me sternly to avoid trouble, as there is currently a cult war in Benin City as I write this.

This sums up the Nigerian society.

In the build up to the 2023 General elections, voters from the South East and North East were lambasted by masochistic barbarians masquerading as social media influencers who demanded that they should first condemn Boko Haram and IPOB, before talking to them. These statements reeks of bitterness, bile and a total disregard for human life especially as it is the same thing as asking these guys to sign a death warrant, as we often jovially remark in our local English parlance.

The government of Nigeria has failed Nigerians in terms of offering security, and freedom of expression. Today makes it 3 years since Mubarak Bala was unjustly Incarcerated for trumped up charges because he dared challenged beliefs held by muslims, who themselves have spoken against other religions too.

Whereas Mubarak Bala’s father is his son’s own main antagonist, Dadiyatta, an Activist who has been kidnapped by the armed forces because he lambasted El Rufai’s policies could not attend his late mother’s funeral, whose dying wish was to see her son again. Up until now, there are social media chatter that Dadiyatta has been executed, just as in the same vein, some adult Nigerians have boasted on social media that they will kill Mubarak Bala if he is released.

For a government that cannot provide actual freedom after speech for it’s population, it is evidently easy that many militias will spring up and utilise the vacuum left by our incurably inept leaders, to control, oppress and bully others.
In some area in Nigeria, especially in the South, berets of certain colours are an exclusive right of some cult groups. Even dressing in some colour combination can be life threatening as some obviously misguided brain dead monomaniacal sadists will attack you for flying their colour. Some days ago, on my way back from the gym, I had sat down in the company of a few friends about two streets away from mine and I ordered my favourite beer, Hero. I was very tired and it is common superstition amongst athletes who are not teetotalers to drink beer after sporting activities because it helps them rehydrate faster. I have a habit of tearing labels off any beverage I am taking, and when I did that, someone from nowhere walked up to me, out of concern to warn me that the privilege of removing labels from bottles of beer were an exclusive privilege of men (cultists). I was disgusted, and I asked him if the number one goal of cultism in Nigeria wasn’t to stop oppression. He nodded, but failed to reply when I asked him if it wasn’t oppression to attack a person because he removed the label of a bottle of beer he bought with his own hard earned money.
With the right amount of support, a person can form his own militia and begin to control his own area without interference from the government. The government itself is culpable for encouraging and allowing these reprobates to flourish. Money meant to strengthen the armed forces are stolen and stashed in soakaways. Curiously, they seem more likely to attack and wiretap critics than actual criminals.
I do not like Nnamdi Kanu’s politics, and Facebook posts on my wall from years ago are enough evidence to support this assertion, yet, I also do not appreciate the fact that a court granted him bail, but the DSS have failed to release him. We are talking about him because he is high profiled, like Dadiyatta and Mubarak Bala, but for everyone of these high profile captives, there are hundreds of others languishing in various Nigerian dungeons, for the crime of speaking out against the status quo.
Yet, evidence has shown that the government prefers to caress and mollycoddle terrorists and militants. Why is Mubarak Bala still held in captivity in a nation where Boko Haram murderous terrorist are rehabilitated in camps where they provide them with good food, uniforms, and lubricants in case they need to masturbate? To cap it, they pay them a severance settlement fee when they are out of these camps, yet, an Activist like Omoyele Sowore, understandably garrulous in response to the subhuman treatment meted on innocent Nigerians by a government of glorified thugs and riggers is a victim of a state sponsored witch-hunt. Many of his supporters have been molested, and he himself has been shot at, on his buttocks by an over zealous policewoman, whose actions was never even verbally condemned by the authorities in a social media post.

There is no freedom after speech in Nigeria, and it is best that you provide means to protect yourself.

Free Mubarak Bala.