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Re - Chidi Amuta's Babangida And The Western Bypass

August 27, 2010

My initial reaction after reading your sermon on the hilltop was to ignore it and treat it as one of those stuffs by a PR consultant doing the job he’s paid to do. But on a second thought, ignoring it will amount to doing violence to myself and your so-called younger generations of yorubas who may swallow your concoction and accept it as the gospel truth.

My initial reaction after reading your sermon on the hilltop was to ignore it and treat it as one of those stuffs by a PR consultant doing the job he’s paid to do. But on a second thought, ignoring it will amount to doing violence to myself and your so-called younger generations of yorubas who may swallow your concoction and accept it as the gospel truth.

 

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I cannot begrudge you for doing your job. No, that will not be fair. But the way you go about doing your job should not denigrate a whole race. Mr. Amuta, who are you particularly trying to teach history, the Yorubas? You must be joking. you are not qualified. You should have stuck to your stated mission in the opening of your history book in the making by just paying tribute to your friend and benefactor.

If you had really researched your write up, you would have found out that the younger elements among Yorubas, who are in their early 20s and their 30s are the ones who cannot understand why there is so much opposition to Babangida. You cannot blame them since they were too young to remember the evils of Babangida days. But not those of us who were already in the university then and those who were already fending for themselves.

Are these younger elements the ones who had inherited prejudice and second hand wisdom? From whom did they get these, their parents? Why are you insulting a whole race just to do your hatchet job? Who are you to teach us what to hand over to our children? Are you saying our younger ones are so stupid they cannot even read history or at least check out what they pick up from their parents? My father told me Akintola was evil. I believed him then. Having consumed sizable materials on Nigeria political history, especially the Western Nigeria crisis of the 60s, I have no reason to challenge my father’s conclusion. He was right. I stand to be contradicted on this. There is no family bearing that name in my town today. Those who were bearing the name changed their names to other variants of “Akin...” Just like no one bears Judas any longer even among Jews.

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The problem with our country starts and ends with people like you who know too much and think others have no brains and therefore should be helped in reasoning their ways out of their self-inflicted troubles and challenges. Why are you so concerned about what we pass down to our coming generations? What distortions are you talking about? Babangida is pure evil without any redeeming feature. Is that a distortion? Is it only Babangida that we labeled evil? Is Obasanjo not in the same league? Are these facts or fictions? Why are we not against Col Umar even though he’s very close to Babangida? Since Obasanjo carried out his do or die election of 2003 in my state, has Ekiti known peace? Is that a fiction or fact? Where is the peace in Ogun, Oyo and Osun? What do you want me to tell my daughters, that Obasanjo is good, Babangida is good and Chief Awolowo was equally good? The real distortion will be to lump Chief Awolowo with Babangida and Obasanjo. Of what fellowship is light with darkness? Chief Awolowo cannot be in the same place with Babangida and Obasanjo. Chief Awolowo is good, simple logic should tell us that Babangida and Obasanjo are evil. The distortion will be to tell my children the three of them are good people. Teacher Amuta, please don’t teach us nonsense. Apologies to great Fela.

Please, you do not tell us when to start taking stock of anything. Are we so dumb to know? I suspect you are afraid the Yoruba coming generations may turn out to be “worse” than their parents on their stand on what you referred to as specific episodes of national history. Our stand has always been dictated not by what was passed down but by reason at every turn in our history. Did Abubakar Rimi not tell the Yorubas that Abacha’s political train to nowhere was moving and if Yorubas refuse to hop in, it will leave them behind? Where did the train end? Was Abubakar Rimi – the chief conductor in the train when it wrecked?

Being in opposition is never a sin. We have heard the argument that we should join the mainstream many times. The entire West save Lagos state and recently liberated Ondo state has been forced to be with the mainstream for over seven years now, what did we gain that would have been a colossal loss if we had not been with the mainstream? Nothing. We gained nothing except the harvest of violence, banditry, thuggery, and unprecedented corruption from the “mainstreamers”. That is not to say that those who were there before were saints. Teacher, you are trying to teaching us nonsense.

I continue to wonder about this Lagos press. How many of these media houses are owned by Yorubas? The reality is that both the print and electronic media in Lagos are mostly owned by non-Yorubas. From your assertion, how come that Yoruba elites control them?

So what is the use of your list of “Yoruba best sons and daughters” that serve Babangida government? Are you saying they were not actually qualify to serve but because of Babangida’s love for Yorubas, he appointed them or are these people originally from Senegal or Ghana? Were these people plucked from obscurity and have a massive favour done them by Babangida? What’s wrong with your reasoning? What manner of sophistry is this? This is the kind of reasoning you hear from motor park touts. It’s people like you that destroyed our country because of your stomach.

By the way, what appointment did Wole Soyinka get from Babangida, FRSC? You are a dangerous person. Why are you distorting history? The whole idea of road safety commission was that of Wole Soyinka. He just built on what he was doing in the “maja maja” days in old Oyo state under Bola Ige and sold it to Babangida. You may feign ignorance of that but the facts are there. It is now clear that it’s your like that the Yoruba younger generations should run from so that you don’t feed them distortions, prejudice and second hand wisdom.

We know you have so many facts just like your benefactor about everything that is wrong with Nigeria. That’s why he should come back and rule. He knows what to do this time. Listen to yourself. After eight years of absolute dictatorship and he could not fix Nigeria, it’s now that he will do it. If your principal cannot tell us the full story of June 12 and Dele Giwa, you should be able to tell us with the fullest confidence of all the facts at your disposal and without fear of contradiction.

Bringing Shonekan to the picture confirms that opolo e ti dorikodo – your reasoning has turned upside down. Shonekan? Do you know what the yourubas call his government, fidie? Ask a yoruba friend to explain the disdain in that word to you.
Wake up now. What’s wrong with you? Interim government to an elected government, exchange velvet gown for jute sack? Is that your own sense of natural justice? You are a clown. Do your children read these things? Are they really proud of you and your means of livelihood? Or they are already infected with this virus too? With your level of education, you are better off in business of kidnapping rather than ridiculing yourself because of the crumbs from hilltop.

Chief Awolowo never got the presidency of Nigeria and the country is better for it today? What a country, what a people!!!

“It took Babangida to bring the Yorubas to the mainstream and put one of their sons (Obasanjo) at the summit of national politics” We should be forever grateful to the evil man for doing that. If Babangida had wanted to atone for the sin of June 12 annulments and appease the Yorubas, he knew it was not Obasanjo to support. Obasanjo did not disappoint the Yorubas. No, he performed exactly the way we expected. We are still reaping the great harvest. Chidi, please join us in the daily sumptuous feasts the yourbas have been having since joining the mainstream.

After Abiola died, he gave us Obasanjo to compensate us. E pagba soorun, e gbori e siboji, oore wo lese lehin ori tie tibe? You behead an elder in the scorching sun and took his head to a shade, what favour are doing for a severed head? You took our son and gave us omolangidi back.

Just because we are not likely to support Babangida, “South West is gradually ossifying into a political bypass” But we are still in your mainstream now. Can’t we choose who to vote for? Political bypass ko, political bus stop ni.

Let me tell you the truth, South West has been devastated in the last eleven years. What we’ve been guiding against since independence is lost. We’ve lost almost everything in Obasanjo years of locust. Babangida may get support if only you people can work with the other thieves in Yoruba land. So stop insulting our race. Look out for fellow bandits and link up with them. With enough dough, they will sell whatever remains of Yoruba land. They will help you kill, maim, snatch ballot boxes and intimidate the rest of the population. You have nothing to fear. The days of Wild Wild West are gone. Babangida is a master of violence. A crash course for his thugs in the west, personally facilitated by him will go a long way. But some of us will never waiver. We will not join evil. We will tell our children the truth. They will learn history from our mouth first before people like you could teach them nonsense. They will check out the truth when they grow up. But for now, let us bring our children up in anyway we want. Don’t be too concerned whether we feed them distortions. You cannot cry more that the bereaved. Preach the Babangida gospel truth to your children.

Mr. Amuta, have you asked Babangida what his manifesto is and what concrete plan he has? He has nothing to offer. But for you, you can continue to make money off him. You are only doing your job.

When the Israelites entered slavery voluntarily in Egypt, it took the almighty hand of God to free them. Nigeria may also voluntarily enter Babangida’s slavery, but I know God will NOT rescue us from him. It will pass from him to his son.

Wait a minute; are you not the same Chidi Amuta who wrote Prince of the Niger?
Oh! Why am I wasting my time on you? Can a leopard change its notorious spots?

Vulture.

Taiwo Atoki lives in Lagos.
[email protected]
 
 

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