The Igbo people have a saying that “the man the gods want to kill they first make deaf” making sure that he does not listen to reason.
By the 10th day of continuous protests across the country, one thing is certain; the Government both at the Federal and State level either have no clue on how to handle the situation or they are being mischievously pretentious or outright stupid. Actually, it could be all the above because we have witnessed responses from governors and the Presidency that clearly any sensible person would see through the bullshit and realize that there is no sincerity in their action.
Today at the Enugu protest, while waiting for the Governor to address the protesters’ alleged paid thugs joined the protest and when the Governor arrived he began to address the paid thugs and refused to answer any questions from the actual peaceful protesters. Yes, you guessed right he probably paid the thugs to come and act as protesters so that he could play to the gallery.
Celebrity artist popularly known as Phyno was present at the gathering and raised the alarm using his Twitter account.
A classic move I remember too well, as Masters students when the time comes to defend the thesis it is a common practice to invite your friends or lecturers who are your friends to sit through the presentation and then ask you questions you have already rehearsed with them so as to impress members of the thesis panel.
This move outside the academic circle has been mastered by public officials and is employed whenever they do not want to be held accountable by their citizens.
The actions of the Enugu State governor who presides over a state with so much tourism potential but no visible leadership is not surprising at all especially because while he was evading answering questions from the Enugu protesters, his counterpart in Anambra State the infamous “Isi shampoo” was releasing allegedly staged prisoners from the infamous Akwuzu SARS detention centre.
Watching the video it is very clear that the detention centre had been cleaned up before his arrival.
This in fact is not the problem, the problem is that the Governor knows clearly what has been demanded of by the Anambra protesters to be done to the Akwuzu facility; EXCAVATION and his actions today have not addressed those demands. Adding salt to injury he turned to the protesters and asked them to stop protesting as he had by visiting the detention centre carried out their demands. Very funny.
The response of a majority of public officials to the demands of protesters leaves a sane mind confused; are they clueless or just dumb.
The Presidency and State Government are obviously deaf because their response to the demands of the protesters have been totally the opposite of what the protesters want. Their attempt to placate the protesters by carrying face value interventions show that they have grossly underestimated the will of the people to see through these protests. Hopefully, their insincerity and pretentious ignorance does not consume them.