Kogi: Aisha Buhari Should Disclaim Bello

By Comfort Obi

Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari, owes Nigerian Women a duty. And, because she is, also, referred to as the mother of the nation, she owes Nigerians a duty.

That duty is to quickly put a disclaimer on the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello. It is to roundly condemn him, and publicly rebuke him for stripping women of their dignity and self esteem.

When a child misbehaves, it is the duty of the mother to condemn and chastise that child. One of the reasons we are in this sorry situation as a country, and a people, is that a number of mothers condone their children’s bad behaviour. They condone evil.

Your child with no means of livelihood comes home, suddenly, rich, and you don’t ask questions. Instead, you celebrate him/her as having done you and the family proud. Our late mothers, or grandmothers, who were in the habit of going through our belongings, and asking questions about anything they suspected they did not buy for us, or we couldn’t afford, legally, must be turning in their graves to see the jamboree going on.

Gov. Bello is Mrs. Buhari’s beloved son. And, so, deserves to be chastised by her. She should ask him questions – questions like, “My son, how did you win your election? Did you soil your hands? Did you encourage violence?”

Stories out of Kogi give the impression that Mrs Buhari’s beloved son, Bello, thoroughly misbehaved, and shamed her.

For the records, Bello’s reputation has never smelt of roses. It has always been a burden to his political party, the APC, and all those who conspired to inflict him on Kogites. But it worsened in the run-up to the governorship election held on November 16.

Nigerians always knew that the governorship election in Kogi and Bayelsa would be violent. But nobody expected the level of violence wrought on the people.

The Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, had told us not to worry. He had promised us the police would be on top of everything. He had said any ballot box snatcher risked being shot. He had more than hinted such people would lose their lives. So, why should anybody have worried?

To reassure us, the IGP unleashed an unbelievable number of Policemen to both states for election duty – over 30,000 per state. There were, also thousands of security personnel from the military, immigration, customs, road safety, etc. So, some comfort?

Security personnel, along with INEC, delivered, to us the most despicable election in the history of Nigeria. Aside from the heist that was brazenly carried out, in some cases, in connivance with, and in the presence of security personnel, guns cracked like claps of thunder. Bullets flew from left, right and centre. Voters ran helter- skelter to save their lives. Policemen and soldiers, allegedly, joined in the snatching and stuffing of ballot boxes.

He is the head of the Police, in charge of our internal security, who had deployed more than 60, 000 Policemen for the election. He, it was, who assured Nigerians of a peaceful election. And now, there he was, embarrassingly, telling Nigerians that fake policemen overwhelmed and over-ran the policemen he deployed.

The IGP did not quite put it that way. But he looked Nigerians in the face, and told them that those who snatched ballot boxes, and shot to high heavens, killing and maiming innocent Nigerians, and scared voters from exercising their voting rights, were fake policemen.

So, one is tempted to ask: Where were the IGP’s police? From where did the fake police get the uniforms? Where did they spring from? How come they were not confronted by the IGP’s Police? Or, did they run away on seeing the fake ones? Lord, have mercy. What was the use in deploying policemen if they were going to be there while fake policemen held sway? How many of the fake policemen were arrested and interrogated?

Both Kogi and Bayelsa suffered the same fate – the same scenario for which winners should not be proud. The same blood stained victory.

In many places, there was no voting. No election. Most Nigerians know the truth, and for that, are not proud of the outcome.

So, why am I calling on the First Lady to disclaim Bello, the INEC-declared winner of the Kogi governorship election, and not Bayelsa’s David Lyon too.

It is because Kogi state was not only engulfed in violence that defied all understanding, women were also inexplicably targets of the violence that gave Bello victory.

The first target was the governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Natasha Hadiza Akpoti.

Beautiful. Articulate. Sure-footed. BIunt. Bold. Full of confidence, Akpoti just wanted to exercise her right as a free Nigerian citizen – her right to vote, and be voted for.

She just wanted to try her luck. Who knows? She posed no threat to any of the two main candidates of the APC and the PDP.

I did not expect her to win. I wonder if anybody sincerely expected her to win, or make any impact. Not even her followers. Indeed, I wonder if she expected she would win.

But Akpoti was fun to watch, and listen to. In the land of beasts, she was the human face. She was harmless. She had followers who just loved to see her beautiful face, and hear her well articulated message. None of those was going to translate into votes.

Yet, she was a target for thugs, allegedly, loyal to Bello. Her opponents did not like her voice. Or her face. Mere seeing her face and/or hearing her voice irritated them.

When the court threw out her disqualification by INEC, Bello and his supporters, according to her, promised her hell on earth. She had accused Bello of plotting to kill her. What befell her confirmed there was fire in the smoke she saw, and cried out about.

Her office and the headquarters of her political party, the SDP, were burnt down. Everything in sight, including computers and fans and chairs and documents were razed.

Akpoti alleged that the razing of her office and party headquarters was the handiwork of Bello’s men. She alleged that the mayhem was supervised by armed Policemen who made sure nothing was saved.

The reason for that wicked deed was because she is a woman – a common woman. So, how dared she challenge Bello and co. in a contest. A mere woman, why should she want to be a governor?

In all that, I never heard about, or read any condemnation of the evil that was being done to Akpoti from First Lady Aisha Buhari. Not from any of Bello’s harem. Not from Dame Pauline Tallen, Minister for Women Affairs. And, not from the leadership of the National Council of Women Societies.

And, it came soon, unbelievably, before the IGP, Governor Bello, the Chairman of INEC , and the cream of Kogi’s political stakeholders.

The IGP and INEC had arranged a peace meeting with the leadership of all political parties and their candidates. Akpoti was one of them.

But they wouldn’t let her in. As she made to enter, all hell was let loose. Thugs, allegedly, loyal to the APC, swooped on her. They booed her. They called her names. A free woman. You know, once Nigerian men call a woman a free woman, they think they have killed her. Yet, not a few of them patronise the red light.

So, they called Akpoti a free woman. They molested her. To save the day, Policemen present, threw tear gas at them, which even affected their IGP.

Mrs Buhari must either have read about these, or heard about them. But she said not a word against the intimidation and humiliation of one of the few women, bold enough to dare contest a political office.

Instead, the First Lady went to Lokoja to campaign for Bello’s victory. She went to ask Kogites to vote for Bello. She made excuses for Bello’s failures, and promised better days ahead for the people, under Bello. She did not condemn the harassment and intimidation of Akpoti. She did not ask them to leave Akpoti alone. If she had, perhaps, the grossly murder of the Kogi PDP woman leader, Salome Abuh, might not have happened.

Election day, and with all the violence and incredible things that followed, Bello was declared winner. It was a victory soaked in violence, molestation and blood. A victory stained.

It went beyond cursing, calling of names and molestation to the killing of Mrs Abuh. She was murdered in a most cruel manner, in her house.

This woman was inside her house, her home, when political thugs set her house ablaze. They stopped her from coming out. So she screamed, and screamed until she died in a most horrifying manner. No help came.

Bello issued a half-hearted condemnation of the evil deed, a couple of days later. There was no word from Mrs Buhari, Minister Tallen, or the NCWS. And no arrests.

But 24 hours after President Buhari found it in him to ask the police to fish out Abuh’s killers, almost a week after the deed, Police announced the arrest of six people, allegedly, connected to her murder.

The interpretation some people are giving it is that the Police was waiting for the President’s marching order before going after the killers. That did not want to spill the milk, unless given a green light to do so.

True or false, the truth is that women politicians, unless those in Bello’s party, and those who agree with him, are not safe in Bello’s Kogi State. They are endangered.

For what happened to Akpoti and Abuh, nobody should have congratulated Bello. The stained victory should not have been celebrated at all. But Bello celebrated in a big way.

He went to Aso Rock, and was given a red carpet reception. He took victory photographs holding a Certificate of Return, soaked in blood, with the President and the embattled APC National Chairman, Adam’s Oshiomhole. And they were all grinning from ear to ear. How could they?

Not a few Nigerians admire Aisha Buhari for her bluntness. They admire her for speaking truth to power – even when it concerns her husband, his government, and the APC. She is loved for that. They know her as a no-nonsense woman.

She should publicly condemn Bello for what has happened to Akpoti and Abuh in Kogi.

She should not be seen associating with anybody in government who treats women shabbily. Bello did not personally molest Akpoti. He did not personally murder Abuh. But he did nothing to protect them. He condoned the circumstances that led to Akpoti’s humiliation and Abuh’s murder.

An injustice done to one woman is an injustice done to every other woman. Nigeria’s First Lady should show her anger by publicly rebuking Bello. It will be no hate speech.

As for Tallen, so far, there is no sign that she would champion the cause of women. Perhaps, it is too soon. But she can start now. Let her show she can by insisting that an Akpoti and an Abua must not happen anywhere else.

She is Nigeria’s Minister for Women Affairs, not APC’s Women Affairs Minister.

But back to Mrs Buhari, she has built a reputation. She should never be seen with hater of women, a man who cannot protect women. Give him a red card by issuing a disclaimer on him.