Once again we are raising the alert as the first family continues to instigate election violence and ethnic radicalism in the country ahead of the general elections.
Nigeria’s first lady has while speaking in Calabar directly promoted violence against the opposition. Patience Jonathan told the small crowd in attendance as recorded on tape, to ‘stone anyone who promises them change.’ This referring to the opposition option and ‘change’ craving of Nigerians.
It is unconscionable that Nigeria’s PDP party, the president of Nigeria and his wife continue to invest in the promotion of election violence openly in campaigns across the nation. It can be recalled that we alerted the public earlier last month when the president, Goodluck Jonathan promoted violence while speaking in Bayelsa on the 6th of February this year. He at the time told the few youth in attendance at his rally to “bar the opposition from campaigning in the region.”
These instigations by the PDP leadership directly led to the bomb explosions, shooting and stabbing deaths and injuries of police officers and journalists at the Okrika (president’s wife’s hometown) APC opposition rally on the 17th of February.
To further on the ruling party promotion of deadly violence and intolerance the president’s wife made some unthinkable utterances in Calabar. Patience told those in attendance and had recorded for a larger audience, the hate message as follows: “Our people no dey born shildren wey dem no dey fit count. Our men no dey born shildren throway for street. We no dey like the people for that side.”
She was insulting the parts of Nigeria’s north where the wayward ‘Almajiri’ practice of child abandonment still occurs. The Almajiri crises is indeed a stain in certain regions and among certain families, but such social and cultural deficiencies are not unique to only certain parts of Nigeria. There are similar social and cultural issues across the nation and world. In parts of Nigeria we have high reported levels of domestic violence and spouse abuse; in some areas we have children lead poisoning, in some areas we have high rates of terror in others we have high rates of crime and child involvement in crime; in some parts of the country we have child branding as witches, while in others we have child slave labor and even child slave trade. It is illiterate, uncouth, reckless and criminal for politicians and political families to use the podium to preach intolerance and denigrate regions of the united nation.
The reference to the north as ‘that part’ with ‘that problem’ as Patience just did reminds of a similar reference made by her husband, the president of Nigeria while speaking in Namibia where he referred to the Boko Haram crises as a problem in ‘that part of the country,’ which was now becoming his concern because it may come to ‘our part of the country,’ as he said. We immediately raised an alert on this then, in March of 2014.
Nigerians are worried that with this type of open bigotry and open promotion of intolerance and electoral violence, should the incumbent win, Boko Haram would return and it would be once again supported by those Jonathan ‘dines with’ to be even more violent and deadly this time to continue its pogrom and decimation of the north, that has been strictly limited to the north of Nigeria in accordance to its sinister contract.
We once again call on the immediate resignation of the president for his promotion of violence in Nigeria. We call on the restraint of the first family and the proceedings of charges against them for directly promoting and leading to death and harm to Nigerian life at Okrika and beyond.
Dr. Peregrino Brimah; http://ENDS.ng [Every Nigerian Do Something] Email: drbrimah@ends.ng Twitter: @EveryNigerian
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