Mailafia: Gnawed By Social Media Hawks

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BY SIMON REEF MUSA

Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and presidential candidate in the 2019 polls, Dr Obadiah Mailafia, is not a man of mean reputation. Though an accomplished technocrat who could not survive the sharks of Nigerian politics when he left the African Development Bank (ADB) for the nation’s apex bank during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo, his irreconcilable differences with the then CBN governor, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, saw to his early exit from the CBN.

Amidst public outcries against the worrisome security challenges unsettling peace in various parts of the country, Mailafia is seen by some government officials as an agent provocateur who is still on the radar of the secret police after alleging that a northern governor was the commander of the dreaded Boko Haram, among other allegations.

Having been invited to the Jos office of the Department of State Services (DSS) over what the secret police describe as unsubstantiated allegations aired during a radio programme, the Oxford scholar has become the darling of social media hawks, with some of his views expounded to turned upside down to add fuel to smokes of secessionist drive. In the last few weeks, an article purportedly written by Mailafia has gained tremendous pull for discourse on various social media platforms. Those conversant with the writing style of the consummate technocrat would have easily noticed subtle additions unfit for his writing style.

Apart from various titles ascribed to the article shared in various social media platforms, in some of the platforms, the article has an introductory note that serves as a prologue where readers are informed that the article is a product of a research effort led by Dr. Mailafia.

The major thrust of the piece that comprises about 1,000 words reiterates that the Middle Belt is Christian dominated region and describes the Fulani ethnic group in unpalatable words. The erudite scholar and newspaper columnist tenders an unreserved apology to the Biafran people over the tragic Nigerian civil war that consumed the lives of millions of our citizens.

Added to the piece that has gained traction and attracted vicious debate in several forums, including a response from a certain Professor Zuru, the article does not fit into the matured and intellectual disposition of Mailafia. The article, among others, says: “Today, we put the whole world on notice: The Middle Belt has woken up. When our latter-day Janjaweeds are ready to fight their next civil war which they have planned meticulously over the years, let it be known that we have ordered our people throughout the length and breadth of the Middle Belt, on strict instruction, never to be a part of it, as we stupidly did in 1967-70.

“We foolishly served as the foot soldiers of the Caliphate, to our bitter shame and regret! We lost almost a million of our people fighting our brethren the Ndigbo; fighting for a Fulani Caliphate that, unbeknownst to us, considered us to be their sworn enemies and contemptible chattel slaves all along.

“Ndigbo, we are on our knees, begging you to forgive us for the sins we have committed against you against God and against Humanity. Please, forgive us our monumental follies of yesteryears. You are our Umunna across the Great River. We swear by the graves of our venerable warrior ancestors, the graves of the millions of your and our people who perished in Biafra land, and we swear by everything we hold most sacred, that we shall never stand against you in life or in death. Never again!

“To you, the Fulani genocidaires out there, you are on your own on that next civil war that you are planning against the glorious people that are said to be the Jews of Africa. We shall never be a part of it. Instead, they will be our allies in war and in peace. And we shall see how you will ever gain a free passage again through our territory to go and commit genocide in the South this time around!”

After reading the article, I became thoroughly convinced that the style of writing as shown in the above quoted paragraphs could not have been that of the savvy scholar who once contested for the presidency of Nigeria.

When I placed a call on him last Monday to verify his authorship of the piece of writing, the former CBN redneck summarily disowned its authorship but quickly told me that he recalled writing a text message last year in one of the social media platforms. After sending him the article for his review, he disowned the garbage and noted he could not have written close to 1,000 words as a text. Though he could not access the exact wordings of the text as he had deleted it over a year ago, he however told me that so many additions had been added for him to accept the piece of writing as entirely his own . However, he recalled condemning the pogrom that took place in the North during the dark period leading to the commencement of Nigeria’s civil war.

“How can I apologise on behalf of the Middle Belt to  the Igbos over the civil war when I am neither an official of the Middle Belt nor its spokesman?”, he asked.

Apart from the paragraphs that define the geographical location of what is presently known as the Middle Belt Region, the article was a misrepresentation of what Obadiah stands for and must have been an obvious attempt to expand the widening gulf of national differences to attract public sympathy for the promotion of secessionist agenda.

Just this week, former President Goodluck Jonathan was reported to have delivered a paper in the United States of America where he was quoted to have explained why the Niger Delta region won’t support the Biafran cause in the event of Nigeria’s break-up. In a swift reaction, his media minders have debunked the so-called speech and declared such a speech never took place.

Like President Jonathan, Dr Obadiah has fallen prey to social media hawks representing voices of various groups, including secessionist elements that are desperate to disunite and disintegrate our country. The Oxford-trained economist may be in the frontline of drawing attention to the raging insecurity and flood of injustice plaguing his country, but undoubtedly, the garbage being shared on various social media platforms as an article he authored is undeniably unfit for his status as an elder statesman. The objective of ascribing false quotes or writings to prominent public figures is to draw public sympathy and attract traction on a particular subject matter.

Amidst the clamour by secessionist groups to balkanise Nigeria, the traction on the article allegedly written by Mailafia is aimed at imposing legitimacy on pro-secession movements who are quick to see the disintegration of the country as the only solution to the myriad of challenges confronting us as a nation. The best way to reduce the efficacy of these social media hawks in spreading falsehood is to avoid writing short commentaries on social media platforms that could be injected with poisonous additions to deceive undiscerning members of the public.

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