Sowore: A diagnosis

DIAGNOSIS

I think I know part of the source of Sowore's problem. It's his lawyer.

Being radical can sometimes be a problem; it blinds us from reason and distorts facts. Femi Falana spoke at a function and talked about the current obstacle before his client Sowore. He said the SSS allowed Sowore to call him and he asked his client if the SSS were going to charge him for treason. Falana suggested that the government would be foolish to pose a treason charge because Sowore had committed no crime.

Falana went ahead to say that he only had to call PMB as his witness since he called for a revolution in 2011 following the success of the Egyptian revolution in dethroning Hosni Mubarak. His claim was that Buhari endorsed and was advocating for what happened in Egypt.

Here's the problem. Falana may just be acting the lawyer in court to win an argument but the truth is that the statement he is banking on will guarantee his loss. He completely ignored the context; this may be deliberate or otherwise.

With respect to Egypt, Mubarak had been President in Egypt for 30 years in what can be said to be a quasidemocracy. He emerged through 5 elections during that time; the first four 'elections' had him as the sole candidate while the last one had two others and he still got almost 90% of the vote count. The people eventually revolted and stood their ground because his son was posturing to inherit the kingdom. This led to Mubarak stepping down and his son giving up his ambition.

Buhari following the 2011 event commended the people of Egypt for being resolute and he also praised the Egyptian forces for not turning on the people. That statement which was delivered by Odumakin had it  clearly stated that even though PMB urged Nigerians to learn from the Egyptian revolution, he admonished the people to carry out theirs through the ballot box and not by upstaging the incumbent like it happened in the Nile nation. This part is what pro-Sowore folks cleverly leave out when they cite that document.

One fellow on a Facebook thread where the video of Falana's remark was being lauded went ahead to post the photograph of a Punch newspaper story which was captioned "Tinubu calls for revolution." He wrote that Tinubu would be the next witness after Buhari. Why many Nigerians fail to read beyond headlines is something worth investigating. The story had it in black and white that Tinubu's call was for a "Common sense revolution." He urged the people to return to decency,  probity, transparency and fairness but some Nigerians don't want to know.

They keep arguing that Sowore only meant peaceful protests but no one can say that what he meant was revolution through the ballot box or a common sense revolution. He used terms like self-immolation, sacrifice and 'unbelievable amount of sudden change.' He talked about not being afraid of death; should anyone on a peaceful protest be afraid of dying? Let's assume he gets charged for treason which I don't think is necessary; will he not have to explain the boast by one of his lieutenants to the SSS that the agency would cease to exist on Tuesday (i.e. August 6) because of the revolution?

Some funny people have used this time to resume their campaign for Goodluck Jonathan, telling Nigerians how tolerant he was of opposition during his time. They readily point to the APC's November 2014 protest against the PDP led government as a pointer to Buhari's hypocrisy https://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/11/buhari-amaechi-others-protest-rally-fg/amp/. They forget that politics was in full swing then. They also forget that the PDP in the build-up to the 2019 borrowed from the APC 2015 playbook. The defected like some did in 2014/ 2015 to weaken the ruling party and they also had their own protest rally to INEC on account of the Osun election and the subsequent elections https://youtu.be/k9jASR4BXBM . Did Buhari stop them from protesting? Some people will say anything to hang a canine.

Will Sowore because of the hepatic enlargement caused by his lawyer stand his ground instead of yielding because he wouldn't want to appear to have compromised before his followers? Eedris Abdukareem, Dede Mabiaku at al will not last on this potential marathon with him. Eedris already warned Area Fada not to show face; they could have benefited from his syncope special powers. Adeyanju is cheering from the rooftop, he has a positive history of prolonged haricot exposure that he won't want to relive. Dino Melaye  has no script or soundtrack for this episode of gbòròmirò; Yele dragged him on top ABU certificate so Dino is probably praying for Buhari to punish him on his behalf. Dino is focused on being governor, he built a church in memory of his mother and has been in the spirit dropping scriptures on Twitter. I'm certain he has no time for revolutions that will lead to ordinary Nigerians looting his car dealership. Ben10 Murray-Bruce is occupied with electric cars and dual citizenships for his kin; Yele will be a distraction especially when they are trying to get their back-end server working. Falana will quote sections on his behalf and his son Falz will release a revolution track. At the end of the day, nothing will happen; Yele, Fela, Oby and co will meet to form him from again in 2022 but it will be too late.