Opinion: Arise O’ Compatriots By Akinleye Segun

While some were still basking in the euphoria that the prisoner of conscience, Omoyele Sowore, had finally regained his freedom from the tentacles of the lawless Buhari-led federal government, Nigerians recorded another low when on Friday, in broad daylight, men of the Department of State Services (DSS) desecrated the hallowed chambers of the courtroom in a Gestapo-like manner to kidnap Omoyele Sowore, who had only regained his freedom less than 24 hours earlier, following a release order by justice Ijeoma Ojukwu.

President Buhari has shown over time that he has no regards for the rule of all, a major tenet of every democratic government. His unconcealed disdain of the pillars of democracy is legendary to none. From his utterances, actions and silences on fundamental issues, he keeps spitting in the faces of his dwindling followers, reminding them daily that they are also accomplices in the woes that have befallen the nation under his watch.

Everything he did as a military dictator, he has outdone as a semi-military one, under the shroud of democracy. While he was the military head of state, on his directives, the home of the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo, was ransacked in the middle of the night, and his international passport seized. Backtrack to 2015, the homes of judges were also raided in the middle of the night in his self-acclaimed fight against corruption. Nigerians have been subjected to a steady deterioration in the general standard of living with his many anti-people policies, just like it was in 1984. Who remembers Tai Solarin, Adekunle Ajasin? Now, we have Omoyele Sowore, Sambo Dasuki and many others, waiting to join the growing list. A man irredeemably stuck in the past has no way of ever leading a nation as complex as that of ours.

The record of his gross abuse of power and total disregard for the constitution, if measured in kilometres, will be longer than the longest bridge in Africa. But now is not the time for measurement; instead, it is a time to awaken every right-thinking Nigerian to stand up against the tyranny that has unfolded in our sleepy eyes. Our overcomplacency has fed the monster that seeks to devour us all.

This is beyond Omoyele Sorowe. This is beyond you and I. This is a fight for the soul of Nigeria. This is a clarion call to the nation to rise and defend what is left of our ailing democracy. From the draconian Anti-Hate Speech Bill to the Social Media Bill, both disguised as a way of check-mating the social media space, Nigerians, irrespective of tribe, religion or political leanings should voice out and resist all manners of tyranny in whatever guise.

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What we have before us is a gradual descent to the General Sani Abacha era, a time where Nigerians experienced its darkest period under a ruler. In a sane country, the head of the criminalised DSS would be fired today for the brazen act of thuggery and impunity on the judicial arm of government. The attempt today was to further intimidate the already cowered judiciary, the last hope of the common man.

Now that the once hallowed haven of the common man has been defied, with the legislative arm, headed by a yes-man and a notorious mace thief as its vice, already in the pocket of the rascal and lawless executive branch, then, it is high time the common man found another sanctuary.

Like a river that cuts a new path whenever it meets an obstacle, Nigerians must find a new sanctuary in our collective voices. With our voices, our pens, our social media handles, we will defeat tyranny and its agents. Now, is the time to obey the clarion call. Arise, O compatriots and defend your fatherland from the forces of oppression.