It has become imperative for me to clear some issues as regards a campaign I led earlier in March 2016. The campaign sought to bring to the attention of Nigerians and especially the Federal Government the realities on ground and what was in our minds likely to happen in the nearest future.
It was bound to threaten the ‘peace’ we currently enjoy as a nation in whole despite the pockets of violence that we continue to witness in the country in various locations like the North East where most occurrences have gone under-reported, the Agatu communities where Fulani Herdsmen continue to maim and kill and some other minor clashes between citizens of the Federal Republic for one reason, cause or the other.
I had earlier decided to keep mute about this piece until I read Dr Peregrino Brimah’s article which addressed the issue howbeit in a way I considered un-balanced. He asked some questions and I feel a sense of obligation in answering those questions and putting this matter to rest not because of today but because of tomorrow. Dr Brimah’s articles have influenced my thoughts to a reasonable extent and I will say the name of his ‘organisation’ -Every Nigeria Do Something (ENDS) has embodied what I have tried to do for my country and what I keep on doing.
Dr Peregrino Brimah’s article can be found here http://www.news24.com.ng/MyNews24/cowards-linking-shia-muslims-to-boko-haram-as-they-linked-buhari-20160310
I consider my name and my reputation my only assets both in this life and in the one I will not be a part of when I am gone and it is with this in mind that I hope to make this clarification and put the matter to rest.
March 8th, we launched a campaign #NoToShiitesExtremism where we invited bloggers, newspaper correspondents and TV, the narrative we drove and that we hoped Nigerians were going to join was that our society needed to be proactive with the way the Shiites were being treated in the hope that they do not look to armed means in securing justice.
The hashtags that we adopted on Twitter were #NoToShiitesInjustice and #NoToShiitesExtremism and in one simple tweet, our message was this
https://twitter.com/juded27/status/707506215115427840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
There are a few tweets that stated categorically what my stand was. Nigerians and the Federal Government needed to know that if we say we wanted peace, we cannot toil with the idea of justice. We have seen it with BH, Terrorists Organisation all over the world have confirmed it in their histories and up till this day, we know that Injustice is a direct path to Extremism/Terrorism in any form.
https://twitter.com/juded27/status/707137428360925184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/juded27/status/707235220676845569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/juded27/status/707234983270883328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/juded27/status/707255515412172800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
. . . And Even Dr Brimah seemed to agree with me on exactly the point I was trying to make
https://twitter.com/EveryNigerian/status/707371723381940224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/EveryNigerian/status/707375274934009856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
9th of March, We continued, this time with the hashtag #NoToShiitesExtremism, and again, the message was simple and clear.
2. My message is simple
Injustice is being done to the Shiites
They can easily become Extremists
Then to Terrorists#NoToShiitesExtremism
— JFK | Raising New Leaders for Political Change (@JudeFeranmi) March 9, 2016
https://twitter.com/juded27/status/707626569007808512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/juded27/status/707627059728814080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The text of the conference I addressed on March 8th was published on more than 10 popular blogs including a newsrescue.com whose agenda I still find it hard to understand. That article can be found here http://ynaija.com/shiites-islamic-extremism-terrorism-what-nigeria-must-do/
https://twitter.com/juded27/status/707503586335432704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Every statement attributed to me by unpopular blogs including vanguardngr did not come from the campaign I led nor the press conference we called.
Here is a link to a comment I made on Facebook after the video of the face off appeared online in 2015 https://www.facebook.com/PastorLiberty/posts/10207314612360245
Today, I stand by all those words and tweets I made. I have not deleted them, and I don’t plan too
To Dr Brimah’s questions, I would like to think that the best persons to ask those questions will be either Niger Delta militants who took to arms after an unjust overriding of their societies to defend whatever it is that they were defending or Boko Haram fighters. I would think that the former are more accessible, seeing that some of them, if not most, have repented of their ways.
Those who fan the embers of extremism and terrorism know that perceived injustice is a good source of fuel and that is why waterboarding and carpet-bombing states where terrorists groups reside have not and will not put an end to terrorism.
Please, if you have come this far in reading my clarification, Please note how the hashtag on the banner is not #KickAgainstShiitesExtremismShiitesTerrorism or whatever it is that some bloggers put on their blogs quoting the campaign.
How a twitter-savvy me would even come up with that kind of hashtag is beyond my comprehension in the first instance.
For NEWSRESCUE.COM who claim that I offered them N12,000 to publish an article that tens of other blogs published is what I have tried to rationalize since their article came up. My conclusion is to tell myself over and over again that they are not the enemy. They are only victims of a society that has frustrated everyone and in a bid to break even, an issue as controversial as security is good enough for them to embark on even if they have to malign some of us in the process. How this frustration travels all the way to the United States from where they operate is what is beyond me.
In the journey to make our country a better place so that some of us won’t have to leave the shores of our fatherlands in search of greener pastures, we would face a lot of obstacles, we would attract friends and like minds and we will attract enemies. For those of us who insist things can be better if only we are proactive and persistent, we will have more enemies than friends.
In the end, if Nigeria remains as it is right now 100 years from now, It will not be as a result of our not overcoming the traps and the hurdles they set for us nor will it be as a result of our refusal to attempt to make things better. For whatever reasons political analyst will be giving by that time, They will not be able to say that we did not try.
May God Bless The Federal Republic of NIGERIA.