Read the full statement below.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSURELY, NOT AGAIN!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deployment of alarmist expressions such as \u201ctreason\u201d, \u201canarchist\u201d, \u201cpublic incitement\u201d etc. by Security forces have become so predictable and banal that they have become meaningless. Beyond the word \u2018revolution, another much mis-used and misunderstood word, nothing that Sowore has uttered, written, or advocated suggests that he is embarking on, or urging the public to engage in a forceful overthrow of government. Nothing that he said to me in private engagement ever remotely approached an intent to destabilize governance or bypass the normal democratic means of changing a government. I therefore find the reasons given by the Inpector-General, for the arrest and detention of this young ex-presidential candidate totally contrived and untenable, unsupported by any shred of evidence. His arrest is a travesty and violation of the fundamental rights of citizens to congregate and make public their concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is all so sadly d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. How often must we go through this \nwearisome cycle? We underwent identical cynical contrivances under the \nlate, unlamented Sani Abacha, when he sent storm-troopers to disrupt a \nplanning session for a similar across-nation march at Tai Solarin \nSchool, Ikenne. This was followed up by a personalized letter that was \nhand delivered by the State Security Services to me under their ummons, \nat their Abeokuta so-called \u2018Annexe\u2019 with near identical wording to the \nthreats contained in today\u2019s release from the desk of the Chief of \nPolice. At least, I was summoned, not subjected to a terrorist midnight \narrest. Some irony!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same pattern Pavlovian conduct manifested itself under yet \nanother supposed democratic ruler who personally declared that the \ngathering of civilians to deliberate on, and propose a constitution for \nthe nation was \u2018high treason\u2019, and would be resisted by the full rigour \nof state power if we persisted. The Inspector-General of Police \nmobilized his forces and issued inflammatory proclamations, but PRONACO \nwent ahead despite all the thundering from Aso citadel. Can the police \never learn anything also their tear-gassing and brutalizing of grieving \nmothers who marched peacefully to protest the deaths of their children \nin a plane crash inferno? Their mission, under that same regime, which \nwas simply to deliver a letter to government house in Lagos, demanding \ngreater safety in airline operations, yet such a rational intent, born \nof traumatic circumstances, was quashed on the sidewalks of a supposed \ntwentieth century nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And yet again, even a faceless cabal under yet another civilian \nregime refused to be left out of the insensate play of power. A march on\n Aso Rock calling for an end to governance by a ghostly entity was \nslated to be crushed, but fortunately, a conflicting balance of \ninterests decided in favour of a reduced trajectory of protest. And so \non and on and on, in a nation which continues to speak at once through \nboth sides of the mouth, spewing out the same Treason monotone, as if \nthis was a magic incantation that could substitute for the venting of \nmass feelings, even as collective therapy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May I invite the Inspector-General to wade through the daily journals\n of the past few weeks and months, read and digest the calls by numerous\n sectors of society \u2013 across professions and national groupings \u2013 for \ndemonstrations against the parlous conditions of society, all \nidentifying ills to which attention must be drawn, and urgently, through\n mass action? Demonstrations and processions are time honoured, \ndemocratic ways of drawing not only the attention of government to ills,\n but of mobilizing the public towards a proactive consciousness of their\n condition, and thereby exhorting civil society also to devise means of \nameliorating their condition through their own efforts? Religious bodies\n have urged such remedies, so have civic associations. The ready \nrecourse to arrests, incarceration and threats to civilians are \nultimately counter-productive. They alienate the citizens, erode their \nconfidence in governance responsiveness, and thereby advance the very \nextremist nightmare that security agencies believe they are acting to \nthwart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If we cannot learn from the histories and experiences of other societies, let us at least learn from ours. Freedom is not so glibly qualified. It cannot be doled out like slops of charity from soup kitchens. Let the Police stick to their task of protecting and managing protests, not attempt to place their own meaning and declaration of intent on bogey words like \u2013 revolution!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Courtesy: PREMIUM TIMES.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cBeyond the word \u2018revolution, another much mis-used and misunderstood word, nothing that Sowore has uttered, written, or advocated suggests that he is embarking on, or urging the public to engage in a forceful overthrow of government,\u201d Mr Soyinka said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,58,6,145],"tags":[338,337,339,336],"class_list":["post-1387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-opinion","category-politics","category-press-release","tag-abacha","tag-dss","tag-sowore","tag-soyinka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1387"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1390,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions\/1390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}