*Call for his arrest for inviting shutdown of Nigeria through revolution, mass action
*Expose Sowore as ethno-religious agent of destabilisation
*Say Universities’ teachers must listen to government that borrows loans to develop country
*If your strikes are about rebuilding education sector, don’t lead demolition of it, ASUU told
*Sympathise with affected Nigerian students, ask them not to misdirect angers but ask ASUU justification for strikes
*Says government must begin crackdown on corrupt officials, ‘evil’ university managers to save Nigerian students
By KEMI KASUMU
A controversial online newspaper publisher, who allegedly “plotted a coup” to change the current government of Nigeria shortly after winning re-election in 2019, Omoyele Sowore, himself a partaker and loser in the election, has been accused to be taking advantage of grouses of Nigerian students to repeat his misbehaviour despite that he was magnanimously forgiven by President Muhammadu Buhari and let off the trial for his crime against the nation the first time.
Sowore is generally believed to be fronting for some foreign collaborators aiming at seeing to either bringing Nigeria’s leadership back to the hands of locals they can continue to control to make development impossible for the country or collapsing the nation permanently. Appreciation has therefore gone to the security and intelligence communities for being proactive enough to foil their plots each time they made attempt.
Described as an “unrepentant coup plotter for ethno-religious reasons”, who must now be properly handled by the law, Omoyele Sowore has been accused as an agent of some sadist ethno-religious extremists that are just bent on ensuring that Muslim or Northerner must not be seen at the Presidency of Nigeria or they make the country ungovernable for him.
Justifying their position, one of them who would not want to be mentioned said, “It has always been like that. Apart from going to social media where some of them loosely said of all the aspirants lately, across the parties, there is no one among the Northerners that is quality enough to rule Nigeria but all from the South are quality, it is in the blood of some Southerners especially those working for Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), not to see the North or Muslim in power, reason they have, for the past seven years, sabotaged President Muhammadu Buhari’s government and even pretend not to see his unprecedented achievements.
“Well, this is the time to show the world that Northerners are more mature politically, socially, religiously, educationally and intellectually because, against their cries all around from Afenifere to Ohaneze Ndigbo and even the religious extremists among them, the North is not interested in retaining power except they, Southerners, say they do not want power in 2023 and there can be no vacuum in nature.
“Let them continue to insinuate. We will continue to look at them but God, who is owner of Nigeria, will not give them success to destroy the country by their sadism and hypocrisy against fellow citizens. The North is not enemy of the South. If it is, how come they were Northerners who, assisted by God, made Jonathan President in 2011 despite intraparty grouses of wanting to make Nigeria ungovernable for him, and still went ahead and bought APC forms for him few days ago to return to power? Forget about how those same Southerners that should appreciate the North are twisting the narrative.
“I know you see how they are killing our people, killing their cows and destroying their economies in the South East? I hope you also see how the only intervention even some Southerners from South West can make is to say, ‘if they are killing you and your cows in the East, is it a must you must continue to go and stay there?’ Is that not hypocrisy?
“What are those Yoruba trying to say? That Igbo have issued Hausa-Fulani a quit notice and so they should leave. But when some youths did it in the North, although our leaders shut them up, these same Yoruba interventionists, their lawyers, media and civil societies nearly collapsed the internet airspace of the country saying ‘how can it happen?’ But now, they are approving the quit notice by Igbo people issued to Northerners. If you cannot judge this as a Journalist, God has a way he judges things and will judge those that indulge in this evil way. If we Northerners are supportive towards ourselves, we are not the ones that say Southerners should not help their fellow tribesmen within the permissible of the law. How come they must hold us responsible for their backwardness all the times? Go to Niger Delta, Buhari even tried to help develop the place, see how it ended. Who is doing who?
“Under one of them that wants to be President now, they arrested over 400 Northerners, including their women and children, tagging them Boko Haram and made them drink their urine only for the governor to say Northerners in the state must now carry ID Card to live their. That same man wants to rule Nigeria today. Sincerely speaking, it can be concluded that the South succeeded in rubbishing the North with all they did with President Buhari’s government and his achievements, despite that his own people, tribe and religion, have been at the receiving ends of all these challenges and they are still accused of being responsible for the problem of Nigeria. If you want the unkillable voting power of the North, is it by all of these evils and hypocrisies you do against them that you will get their vote? We are not angry, but we are saying that all of these must stop!” He said.
These reactions came on the heels of the comments credited to Omoyele Sowore, who advised Nigerian students affected by the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ strike to express their frustration with the lingering industrial action by “shutting down everything with mass action.”
He was being countered to explain what “shutting down everything with mass action” means, if not to further strengthen their effort to finally create the impression that Nigeria never gets better under a Northern President.
Sowore, while reacting to the announcement by ASUU to embark on a fresh 12-week roll-over strike on Monday, via his Twitter page advised the affected students to come together and teach “inhuman” political leaders a big lesson, until the higher institutions are well-funded.
“Nigerian youths/students must teach these inhuman political rulers playing Russian roulette with their future a BIG lesson.
“Let the organising start now, shut down everything with mass action, stop everything until our higher institutions are well funded #WeCantContinueLikeThis.
“They’re doing this because their kids don’t attend Nigerian universities! #Revolutionnow!,” he wrote.
But in the countering, our respondent said: “I had to take my daughter outside this country to be able to secure a university admission for her. Under three years now, she will finish. Her senior, who entered university long before her in Nigeria are yet to graduate. So, I am a victim of ASUU strikes as well. But I look beyond government for the problem unlike the likes of Sowore want us to accept. It is a lie.
“Go to any Nigerian university and come back to tell us what you see. Did it just start today? When vice chancellors would were backing and refusing to prosecute students who were into cultism, killing fellow students, forcing them into being initiated and when for reason of cult wars schools shut down for weeks, where did you turn your face? When lecturers were making graduating difficult for students especially female ones just to show power that they could decide their academic success and failure in life, were you there to raise a voice?
“When this ASUU was reaching the agreement of 2009, was this President Muhammadu Buhari government that they reached it with? Although government is continuum, but when Jonathan came and money from oil windfalls was being mismanaged and millions of dollars were being donned out to traditional rulers and church leaders in Southern Nigeria at a time they had enough to do what ASUU appears to be striking for now, were the lecturers complaining? They did not complain because, on the sideline of their basic duty of teaching to produce future builders and leaders for Nigeria, they were feeding fat from the wealth of the nation and with that, they were being able to rig elections for them until it became impossible any longer to do, in 2015.
“So, why is it now that they know how this government has been borrowing loans due to economy situation caused by past mismanagement joined with Coronavirus pandemic globally, to be able to work and they see what the loans are being used for, why is it then that these lecturers want to collapse this country? The President has severally challenged you, if you have evidence that I have stolen your money, bring it out. You can’t bring one out yet you don’t want to cooperate with him to develop this country.
“It is therefore clear that you are either working for opposition to politicise the national interest of this country or that you are working with foreign agents to destabilise the country as we now see in Sowore’s call for “shutdown of everything with mass action”. This is the reason we are asking the students, whom Sowore is inviting to revolution, to ask ASUU to justify why they want to demolish education system in Nigeria.
12 months still enough to turn things around
“As for government, there is the need to stand your feet on the ground and permanently rescue Nigerian students from both government officials who are corrupt and university teachers and managers who would not want the country to develop through the school.
“Beyond the school, President Buhari should take actions he would not want to take and cut all these evil ones across the sectors to sizes. Let marketers of food items be cut to sizes. Let politicians using thugs be cut to sizes. Rescue Nigerians across the regions from these evil ones so that your successor will not be the one to carry the glory of your good works. Normally, you should know that after you have left and are succeeded by Southerners, all the sabotage will stop and then they will say things were bad because Buhari did not know how to do it. So, do it now!” He called.
