BY MOHAMMED MUSTAPHA
The English man was not wrong to assert that you can give dog a bad name so that you can hang it.
This is exactly what the Nigerian nation woke up to on Monday, 12th of May 2022.
A very terrible and inciting audio surfaced on the social media, cursing Muslims and asking them to be killed. The speaker who was very angry, did not mention his name. But it was the voice of an adult male, who was either sponsored to carry out a mischievous assignment or has his personal agenda of disturbing the fragile peace in Nigeria, which has taken its toil on the socio economic development of the country especially the northern Nigeria for more than a decade.
Such threats include armed robbery, Boko Haram, Banditry, kidnappings, ethnic and religious conflicts among many others.
The audio was accompanied by a one paragraph accusing the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal as the angry man talking against the Muslim citizens of the country.
The release of the audio and text, followed the recent Sokoto crisis in which a young student, Deborah Yakubu, lost her life after an unfortunate incident, which would have been handled by the authorities in the state.
Many gullible listeners were carried away by sentiments and high emotional outburst after listening to the purported audio. Millions of them have never met Babachir, nor can anayse the voice to realize that it was concoction to create false allegation and another crisis in the country.
For those of us who know Babachir for years, had a lot of doubts when we listened. We were able to analyse the voice and even compared our analyses with others in the same circle who know him very well too.
It was so shocking to know that that voice, was not from Babachir Lawal. Babachir Lawal has not mastered the fluency of Hausa language that way. Babachir speaks hausa with fulfulde accent in his voice, contrary to the voice of the man who carried out that mischief. Who commanded the Hausa language very well like a Kano or Kaduna man.
The gentleman they tried to pull down, was the highest political office holder in the North east before he was relieved from office unceremoniously, as a result of some unsubstantiated allegation.
His times in the office and even before he got there, were memorable as no single incident of discrimination against any citizen was ever recorded, Muslim or Christian, southern or northern.
It therefore came to so many citizens as shock, for some people who needed to be examined by a highly qualified psychiatrist, to organise and execute this message in order to tarnish his image, and cause crisis among neighbours, who have lived all their lives for over a century together.
Beside leaving the exalted office of the SGF, his political and social standing has not diminished among the good citizens of this country. He has millions of admirers and thousands of followers, who would not be fooled by this smoke screen of hatred, design to tarnish his standing among the good people of Nigeria.
His standing was the reason that many of the presidential aspirants, sought to consult and associate with him, but he has already made up his mind to work with the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Therefore, associating his name with the negative audio, would not be unconnected with people who are angry with his capacity, to deliver the person he chose to work with.
Secondly, his influence in Adamawa state, his state of origin, is still so strong. Using religion at this time is meant to have an undue advantage over him.
on a final note, Nigerians, not just Muslims and Christians in the north need to realise that God loves this country and its people. The various crisis in the country whether it was political, economic, ethnic or religious would only end up in death and destruction.
The common enemy if Nigerians is not religion. Our common enemy is underdevelopment which include poverty, hunger, disease, lack of portable water, electricity, unemployment among others and not Babachir Lawal.
What unites us as Nigerian citizens, are greater than what divides us.
…Mustapha, a peace advocate of over 20 years, is a journalist based in Abuja. mustrakko@gmail.com
