“I Am Strong Enough To Rumble Unruffled” – Dele Farotimi

By Adesina Soyooye

A defiant Dele Farotimi has let it be known that his tango with Chief Afe Babalola is just beginning.

The activist and Lawyer was arrested in his office in Lagos by the Police, and taken to Ado Ekiti where he was placed in Police custody for a couple of days and later dragged to a Magistrate Court from where the Magistrate threw him into the Prisons pending the granting of bail.

His offence: Aare Afe Babalola, a Senior Advocate  of Nigeria, petitioned the Police and claimed that Farotimi labelled and slandered him in a book he authored which dwelt on corruption in the Judiciary.

On the first day of his appearance in Court, Farotimi was surprisingly, and to the outrage of not a few Nigerians, handcuffed.

The humiliating way he was

treated, swayed huge sympathy for him with a number of high profile Nigerians, including, it was alleged, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, His Lordship, Hassan Kukah, intervening. Apparently, their intervention cut no ice with Babalola who insisted on his pound of flesh.

Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 Presidential Election, in a bid to break the ice visited Babalola. But the ice was not broken, and Farotimi was kept in Prison for weeks.

Finally when he was granted bail on December 20, it was with stringent conditions. His international passport was seized. His bond was put at N30 millions. And he was not to grant any press interviews.

But apparently, Farotimi is not one to be caged. A couple of days ago when he spoke, he broke down, and cried. He shed near- uncontrollable tears.

Not a few people felt that his spirit has finally been broken; that his incarceration has weakened him; that he has lost his fighting spirit.

But on Sunday, in a post on X, Farotimi was defiant.  He said he was ready for war, and strong to rumble unruffled. The tears he shed on television, he put down to tears of joy; he said it was in appreciation of the support he got from Nigerians all over. And he assured that he was ready for war. He said he would fight any principalities and powers; that he was not cowed.

Titled “I’m ready for war”, Farotimi declared:

“I am strong enough to rumble unruffled against principalities and powers, but I am human enough to retain the capacity to shed tears of joy in appreciation of the grace of God, expressed in the concerted efforts of fellow victims.

“My battle axes are newly sharpened, my guns primed, I am ready to war.

“My resolve was NEVER tested, but I was waiting for next round of the fight to commence.

“I KNEW that the first round had been lost by those responsible for my imprisonment.”

And speaking on YouTube in appreciation of Nigerians who supported him, he said:

“We stopped being human because we became Nigerians. They divided us, and we fell for it. Because you would not see me as a Yoruba man, you spoke for me.

“You would not see me as a Christian, you spoke for me. Because you spoke, Nigeria could not happen to me.

“You found your voices, I became you and in our collective, we could not be silenced.”

Farotimi’s travails began with the release of his controversial book,  “Nigeria and Criminal Justice System”