I will start this initial reaction to the anarchy that nearly descended on the Senate by addressing Senator Shehu Sani: Senator, turning a blind eye to acts of impunity and intimidation of dissenting voices in the Senate Chamber at the same time claiming to be the voice of the reason does not make you an idiot. But equating allegiance to the corrupt leadership of Bukola Saraki with patriotism certainly makes you a thug. And thugs don't often notice that they're thugs, usually because they're also idiots.
I will start this initial reaction to the anarchy that nearly descended on the Senate by addressing Senator Shehu Sani: Senator, turning a blind eye to acts of impunity and intimidation of dissenting voices in the Senate Chamber at the same time claiming to be the voice of the reason does not make you an idiot. But equating allegiance to the corrupt leadership of Bukola Saraki with patriotism certainly makes you a thug. And thugs don't often notice that they're thugs, usually because they're also idiots.
When the gangsters led by Senator Ovie Omo-Agege removed the mace, Shehu Sani, our saint, ready to lay down his life for the Master thug, Saraki, insisted that “the Senate must not adjoin.” He then “removed [his] waist belt …to serve as a mace for [them] to continue” sitting. The question is, where was Shehu Sani’s “waist belt” when Senators Ovie Omo-Agege were shut down merely for expressing himself? This freedom of expression is what Senator, Shehu Sani has touted as his banner as an activist. What has Bukola Saraki done to our saint-Senator Shehu Sani?
No doubt, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege definitely erred in leading the thugs that made away with the mace at the Nigerian Senate. He and his gangsters should face the consequences of whatever law they may have violated. Having condemned the actions of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, it is also worthy to note that the impunity at the Nigerian National Assembly has been going on unchallenged and is no longer healthy for a functioning democracy. The thugs will keep doing whatever pleases them and suppress freedom of expression and association without any form of checks, even by breaking of the law as Senator Ovie Omo-Agege just did.
But, by orchestrating the disappearance of the mace at the Nigerian Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege was simply telling Saraki that “I was raised in Warri and I guess that is one of the special breeding grounds for gangsters.”
The Nigerian Senate is composed of a violent set of senators devoted to Saraki and have attracted thugs and fake firebrands like Shehu Sani and Dino Melaye who enjoy drama and confusion. They intimidate members at will and are lucky that unlike the President’s before him, President Buhari has chosen not to use the full scale of the state security apparatus on his opponents at the Senate.
When I saw the statement issued by the Nigerian Senate that Senator Ovie Omo-Agege is attempting to overthrow the Senate, I remembered my good friend Tupac Shakur, who once said: “Somebody help me, tell me where to go from here cause even Thugs cry, but do the Lord care?” Are Saraki and his co-thugs in the Senate shaken? Is there a Nigerian Senator willing to match his thuggery with thuggery? Should Nigerians care?
In all these, what I found unacceptable is that the saint as a political thug, Senator Shehu Sani, has, as usual, capitalized on the disarray of the moment to present himself as “our Savior”. I have said this before and I will repeat it here: Senator Shehu Sani is undermining his credibility or what is left of it by joining the thugs in the Nigerian Senate led by Bukola Saraki. He is sending a terrible message to activists itching to join Nigerian politics that it’s okay and that they should not be ashamed to team up with thugs and keep quiet in the midst of injustice.
Shehu Sani is acting like a kid among some pretty thugs who see themselves as heroes by shielding the impunity at the Senate. The Nigerian Senate has been taken over by brutal thugs and gangsters whose lust for power and the loot that flows through the National Assembly will make them do anything including committing murder. Unfortunately, Senator Shehu Sani is part of that Senate leadership run by thugs that is notorious for shutting down freedom of expression.
Finally, that the Nigerian Senate is a gangsters den is no longer in doubt. Bukola Saraki will go down in the history of the Nigerian National Assembly as a man who rather than breeding intelligent senators transformed the Senate into a house of thugs and idiots. The Nigerian Senate is now a vacation center for political thugs ready to silence any opposition within. You will be made a fodder for the wolves if you dare open your mouth wide without the express approval of the Lord of the Senate, Bukola Saraki.
The Nigerian Senate thrives in confusion. They enjoy the looting with impunity when we ‘kill’ ourselves on social media over their incompetence or otherwise. But, the Nigerian people will never be intimidated by agbada wearing thugs in the Nigerian Senate starting from the chief, Bukola Saraki through the saint that sinned, Shehu Sani and the Warri boy that stole the mace Senator Ovie Omo-Agege. We will not be confused by their acts of confusion meant to distract us from the impunity in the Senate.
We need to remind them that we are not idiots during the 2019 elections. If only we can leave the politics of religion and ethnicity that they have used to divide and hoodwink us for years. If only we can unite around candidates that will usher in a new era in Nigerian politics. If only we can convert our own thuggery in social media to political capital and reject APC and PDP in 2019. If only we can…
Together, we can.
You can email Churchill at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @churchillnnobi
