STRAY BULLET. We Can’t Grow Like This By Ralph Omale

Today, I’m writing in response to Senator Shehu Sani’s claim about the allegation hauled against our esteemed former head of state in the person of our elder stateman, Yakubu Gowon by a United kingdom parliamentarian that he stole half of our CBN as false. In as much as I admire senator Shehu sani for claiming to always be on the side of ordinary citizenry all the time and respect our former head of state for always maintening a calm and neutral disposition in political issues since he left power, I must say here that senator Shehu sani got it wrong this time. One of the reasons why it is out of place is not because it came from senator Shehu sani.

1, It is because his defensive response came too early after the allegation was foisted on our highly respected elder stateman.

2 it is because senator Shehu sani is a very lenient man in his own right and know the backlash that this might generate in the public fora. This country has been living in self denial for a long time as a result of our defense mentality for anyone who seems to be our close ally and percieved political friends even though what they are alleged to done is wrong or right and whip those who are our enemies with cooked koboko. If that allegation was labeled against the current president of Nigeria, Shehu sani would have been the first person to concur even without verifying the authenticity of the allegation.

Shehu Sani is a respected public officer and should always thread with cautions because his views on national issues can easily be assimilated and digested by his followers even if it misleads. We have seen how he was molested by the Economic and financial crime commission when allegation was foisted on him by One Dauda something something of taking some amount of money in dollars from him without fulfilling their agreement. Pardon me for forgetting his second name. Don’t mean to be sarcastic though.

Shehu sani should have known better that the accused remain accused until it is proven otherwise and the best way to do this is not to jump on social media to exonerate or defend the accused. He knows that there are various mechanism where he could channel his views to in order to defend and vindicate the accused and not bombarding us on Twitter and Facebook media to say what he feel. This is another eye service (sychophancy) in the name of standing in solidarity with a political friend.

No matter how he feels he knows our father, our highly esteemed elder stateman, he should have waited for him to issue statement of denials be4 taking side with him. My people will always say ‘ it is only a baby in the womb that one can deny his allegation not the one who is already out of his mother’s belly. We all know that senator Shehu sani is not the media aid to Yakubu Gowon neither is he his lawyer. We expected his media aid or lawyer to come out to deny this allegation on their principal and not senator Shehu Sani. If we must grow as a country, we must shun this primitive political sentiment of standing in solidarity with any accused because you want to curry favor from him. This mentality of when it involved you or your friends, it is a lie but when it involved who are perceived not to be on the same side of political barricade with you, then it is true because Nigeria is a multi ethnic and multi religious country.

Indeed! A country of different tribes and tongues and we could easily whip up sentiment and emotions in the mind of our brothers and sisters thereby heating up the polity Note: this piece is not to say the allegation was true and it is not to say either that it is untrue. However,we live that for time to tell. This is STRAY BULLET to senator Shehu sani.

written by Ralph Omale a public affairs analyst.