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By Fred Chukwuelobe
Patience Goodluck Jonathan carried her weight about as First Lady, spoke poor English, was abused and she equally abused her husband’s opponents in no small measure. Remember she called Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, “you this Hausa boy!”
Yet, she never arrested anybody, never tortured anybody, never jailed anybody.
Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, the current First Lady, who we thought was different, was abused by a small boy. She bared her fangs, got the small boy arrested, tortured and detained.
Some people on social media are justifying it, especially our brothers from the North. Many from the South are keeping quiet because ‘na dem dem’.
Well, na dem dem truly. However, “the man dies who keeps silent in the face of tyranny”.
We are in the year 2022. Civilisation has passed the stage where people in power apply brute force to settle little issues.
The First Lady has the right to be angry over the allegation the boy made in his post. But at her level, being the wife of the President, she should have developed a thick skin to absorb such insults, particularly coming from a university student.
Her action, to me, feels like killing a fly with a sledgehammer. Nothing less. It demeans her.
She could have petitioned the police, have the boy arrested and tried. That is civilisation. To treat him the way she’s done is beneath her and her status. It is wrong.
Oftentimes, the people vent their anger on the government and public officers when they feel their welfare is not being catered for by the people in power. It is frustration.
Patience Jonathan was the butt of many jokes and insults. Her “there’s God o”, “continue”, “na only you waka come” and many lines are materials used frequently by skit producers. She has never felt the need to exercise her powers, even while in office.
Public officers and their relations must learn to suck in insults and allegations from small people. It is normal. When it comes from the powerful in the society, action is required. Not from a small student somewhere.
That brings me to the case of the student of Nasarawa State University who impregnated a lecturer. The student was expelled and the lecturer left to continue to defile other students.
Absurd.
Two things: if the student was underage, the lecturer was guilty of having sex with a minor.
Secondly, if the student was an adult, then it was consensual sex, in which case there is no case submission. The two adults should be allowed to sort out their big belle matter.
You see this society? It is primitive and our leaders and all of us are guilty.
This is where the civil rights groups, with their dollars, ought to play a prominent role. But they are too busy seeking who to support in the elections to remember that an injury to one is an injury to all.
Wherein lies freedom of expression and of association? These are guaranteed by our extant laws.
If you feel hurt, seek redress in the courts. Resorting to barbarism is in itself barbaric. It belongs to the animal kingdom.
Nigeria is not, should not be an animal kingdom.
