It Is Midnight In Nigeria -By Muhammed-Bello Buhari

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
The sponsored attack on Deji Adeyanju yesterday by some pro-Buhari hoodlums is unacceptable and utterly despicable.

I’m still convinced that there is nothing more powerful to curb away & eradicate injustice in Nigeria than the tramp, tramp of marching feet.

What happened to him yesterday is an attack on Human Right and therefore stand condemned in the strongest possible terms.

Attack against protesters is not just a bad thing, it’s a cancer in the body politic which must be removed before our Democratic heath can be realised.

Just recently, a Court of Law was invaded; Journalists harassed, arrested and silenced; harsh laws were introduced by the National Assembly; Judges were kidnapped; and so many atrocities.
If you want a stop to demonstrations & protests, put a stop to Injustice;
Start obeying court orders; And release political prisoners.

It’s really an understatement to say that Nigerians are simply oppressed. We are smothering in a hermetic cage of poverty in the midst of very few affluent corrupt politicians.

It’s midnight in Nigeria, and the darkness is so deep that we can hardily see which way to turn. Is it the ‘quid pro quo’ government; the contemptible Executive who have specialized in open disobedience of Court orders? The Judiciary who lack the courage to be the guardian of Rule of Law? Or the Legislature that can’t stand up on the podium and speak truth to power?
Or the main opposition who themselves lacks the characters that embodies hope and change?

Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of oppression & injustice to the sunlit path of freedom, fairness & tolerance. Now is the time to lift our country from the quicksand of bad governance to the solid rock Good governance.

Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the U.S Civil Rights movement in 1959 said; “We can choose either to walk the high road of human brotherhood or to tread the low road of man’s inhumanity to man. History has thrust upon our generation an describably important destiny – to complete a process of democratisation which our nation has too long developed too slowly. The future of America is bound up in the present crisis…”

And so I’m going to say too that history has thrust this our generation an important destiny – to complete and cleanse the stained and tainted democracy in our dear country. The future of Nigeria is bound in the present crisis. And if Nigeria is ever going to be a fully democratized country, then it all depends on us.
The defenders of the status quo won’t let go easily, won’t yield, without a fight back, to the tramping marching feet of all those concerned about the future at stake. But will surely succumb to the collective will and duty of all of us as citizenry.

Today, no son & daughter of any politician is protesting! Not one of APC or PDP elites! And not one of our so acclaimed traditional leaders. But only the sons & daughters of the common man, the man who is left without quality education, basic amenities of shelter, food & clean water. Neither ambition nor Goals, but only to be hired as political hoodlums to either attack their fellow oppressed brothers or to hijack their franchise provided for them in the Constitution.

It’s really midnight in Nigeria!
This is no time for apathy or ethnicity!
This no time for party politics or empty philosophical debates about freedom on social media space!
This is a time for vigorous and positive action! Only when the people begin to act are rights in the Constitution given real life existence.

It’s true that if the common Nigerian accepts his place, accepts oppression, exploitation, and injustice, there will be peace. But it will be peace boiled down to lawlessness, tyranny, and anarchy; and if peace means this, I don’t want peace.
If peace means keeping my mouth shut and my conscience dumbed in the midst of oppression and Injustice, I don’t want peace.

It’s midnight in Nigeria, and I have decided that I won’t sit back and watch or keep my mouth shut, while darkness is overlapping my country.
We must all rise to the defenders of the status quo. We must all work to make a better Nigeria. We must do it because we all have conscience.
We are on the move now, we must remain awake through this challenging era.
Any real and positive change in the status quo depends on the continued and selfless action of the people.

Perhaps it is easy for those who are uneducated or beneficiaries of the status quo or from the elite class to support, celebrate, and justify the atrocities currently in motion in Nigeria, but only that it might be your turn very soon. Because power is transient.
I repeat, it’s transient!

By Muhammed-Bello Buhari
A Law Student of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria.
A Dodged Human Rights Activist and Advocate of Good Governance.
Contact: embbuhari@gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter: @mbbuharii
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