NewsRescue
As the global pressure mounts on the perpetrators of the Zaria massacre, so also do the ridiculous and evil campaigns of calumny increase in number and ferocity. The so-called protests are being sponsored across Nigeria and carried widely in the nation’s dailies. All attempting to paint a picture of terror on the 10 million Shia Muslim peaceful minority population of Nigeria.
A certain Jude Feranmi did his, carried on TV and print media. He claimed his mission was to prevent the oppressed Islamic movement from resorting to terror. The question I ask him is, is he too a potential terrorist? Being oppressed too, as we Nigerians all are, is Jude Feranmi a potential terrorist? Can I call Jude Feranmi a potential killer extremist? A media release claimed that Jude was paying blogs thousands to carry his message. What a rich Jude.
Some women also, apparently with a lot of cash to spare, wore branded shirts and carried well printed banners putting the detained Zakzaky’s picture beside Boko Haram. Dozens of similar messages have been promoted by unknown elements across the official media…the same expensive media that doesn’t publish our articles.
Just Like They Slandered Buhari
The shame of it is that the last person and last administration I would have expected to allow such slanderous campaigns be promoted freely is Buhari. President Buhari was a victim of the same campaigns. Indeed at a time he was the least prospective candidate with the slimmest chances of ever becoming President considering the degree of well broadcast slander against his person by no other than the same agents perpetrating it today against the Islamic movement.
People like me invested our invaluable time in research and our personal thousands of dollars and published and broadcast detailed releases exonerating Buhari from the libelous campaigns. Remember the “An attack against Boko Haram is attack against the north,” slander era? Some viral messages I authored and co-authored were used by his own campaign organization in its Buhari FactChecki website to defend him from the slanderous allegations. A viral video my organization released that captured the moments after the bombing attempt on him, proved that he was a victim and it was not staged.
But today, under his watch, his government is permitting and some elements of it are actually sponsoring the same campaigns against others. It is a pity.
Cowards
They are cowards. It is cowards that malign you behind your back. While Zakzaky and his wife remain legally kidnapped, i.e. held without charge and devoid of legal, medical or family access; the cowards slander them. This is cowardly behavior when you say bad things about a person who cannot defend himself; and most so, when it is you who shuts him from access to speak. Who is afraid of Zakzaky? Why will they not allow access to him so he and his wife can speak in their defense and almost certainly lace the coffins of their persecutors?
When Boko Haram and pseudo-Boko Haram, aka Fulani terrorists kill people, ‘they’ plead with them and refrain from arresting them, typically decreasing the numbers killed by them in dangerous fictitious media releases. They try to paint them in better light, hardly arrest them and give them light sentences if at all. But the Islamic movement which in its 37 years of existence has never killed a single person is receiving the full brunt of their most filthy propaganda productions. Perhaps if the Islamic movement like all other Nigerian ethnic and religious groups, resorted to deadly violence, they would have had better favor in the eyes of their persecutors. We must however thank God these 10 million are some of the most patient of human beings on the planet. Through similar persecution through the military era and even when three sons of their leader were killed, they never became terrorists. They say, blessed Jesus said in rare gospels, once when he was asked why he did not revenge against those who persecuted him, that “you can only spend of the currency you have,” and that he did not have that currency. These Shia do not seem to have that violence currency their oppressors are loaded with. We praise God for that.
The cowards are making Zakzaky a hero. More people are paying attention and learning about this persecuted minority, realizing their global exemplary perchance for peace. Who would have thunk that that same scorned Buhari who was globally described as the sponsor of Boko Haram, would some day become the President of Nigeria? Perhaps to ‘their’ surprise, the similarly scorned Zakzaky and his wife and the remaining illegally detained, wounded and burned Nigerians will someday become leaders of the nation; and if not, more likely than not, the 10 million Shia Muslims of Nigeria will determine who gets elected in the next election round that catches up with us sooner than we can imagine. How time flies.
Just like Jonathan can no longer raise his head; and Alex Badeh eats beans in Kuje prison, the cowards will be put to shame or my name is not mine. Because the God I worship is a merciful God who says, “Fear the prayer of the oppressed, even if he is a disbeliever, for there is no barrier (between it and Allah [the God]).” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim).
Dr. Peregrino Brimah @EveryNigerian