Lagos — In less than three years of being on the saddle as President and Commander in Chief of the armed forces of Nigeria, traducers have not stopped killing President Umar Musa Yar’Adua in the eyes of their warped minds.
Since Mr President was rumored to have died during his campaign for office prompting the out gone President Olusegun Obasanjo to place a call to him in his sick bed in Germany, the rumor machine is still grinding.
Hitherto, it was the late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the first president of Nigeria that held the record of being a serving or ex president of Nigeria rumored to have died several times before he eventually passed away peacefully.
Only a couple of weeks ago, the founder of “Better Life For Rural Women” and the wife of former military president Ibrahim Babangida, Mariam was rumored to have died in far away United States of America when indeed the woman was alive. Interestingly, when her husband, General Ibrahim Babangida, a serving military president of Nigeria had to go for surgery in German for an ailment in the foot, there was outpouring of sympathy and goodwill from Nigerians but several years after that noble gesture, his adorable wife Mariam is being wished dead when she is indeed in the hospital recovering from cancer .
The difference between the sympathetic attitude of Nigerians towards Babangida some twenty years ago and the wicked rumor about his wife Mariam’s death gives the impression that the driving force behind the rumors may be more political than ordinary. As a military president, Babangida did not have political foes, but having indicated interest in getting into the murky waters of politics in 2003, he earned political enemies wicked enough to wish his adorable wife dead.
There is a general belief amongst some unscrupulous politicians that in politics, the use of any weapon against the enemy is fair. So vicious attacks by political opponents is not new in Nigeria or any other clime for that matter, but it is pushing it a bit too far when the opposition keeps announcing the death of a sitting president as a political tactic aimed at diminishing his political status and clout.
In a politically sensitive society, matters of life and death are considered very sacred and personal such that when a politician tries to score cheap political points by denigrating an opponent on issues of mortality, the electorate would swing their votes against such a traducer.
For instance John Chretien, a former Prime minister of Canada and a war veteran, who suffered from some facial injuries earned the sympathy of the electorates and went on to win the election after his opponent, considered a front runner, made a snide remark about his disfigured face.
In the United states of America, although, President Barrack Obama was very much aware of the fact that his rival John McCain was well over his prime since he was an octogenarian, Obama never referred to the age difference or the injury on McCain’s leg, sustained during the Vietnam war in the course of his campaign, because it might have won McCain some sympathy that could have swung the election in his favour.
The important point is that, issues that bother on our humanity and mortality should not be used as political weapons, because sometime, someday, somehow, somewhere, each and every one of us will die.
Just like the great Zik of Africa outlasted those who wished him dead, by God’s grace, Yar’ Adua may just outlast those who have been wishing him dead before his time.
Be that as it may, I have had cause to suggest in past articles and proposals that Mr. President’s public and social engagements should always be made public as much as possible so that his antagonists would not get the opportunity of setting the evil agenda of death for him.
To that end, one would wonder why the information about Mr. President’s health just released by his personal physician, Dr Salisu Danye was not in the public domain much earlier? Incidentally, the few occasions that the president’s iterinary was published ahead of his trip abroad, based on advice, the rumor mills did not have fuel to fire their engines but this time around, rumor mills kicked into action because Mr. President’s people did not fill the gap of setting the correct agenda.
As my good friend, Segun Adeniyi, the presidential spokesman recently lamented, “We can’t legislate against rumor”. Indeed, God forbid that the obnoxious degree no 4 of 1984, promulgated by former military head of state Muhamadu Buhari that unjustly hounded into jail, two fine journalists – Nduka Irabor and Tunde Thompson from the Guardian Newspaper stable, should be re-acted simply to curtail the activities of journalists who work in concert with opposition parties to pollute the Nigerian political space with morbid tales.
To be fair to Buhari, political jobbers who wish their leaders dead could be good excuse for the draconian media gag decree of those dark days in Nigeria.
While l agree with Adeniyi that we can’t decree against, rumor, there are two steps that can be taken immediately to stem the tide.
Firstly, as the mass media in Nigeria struggles to achieve self regulation, the proposed Freedom of Information Bill, FOI being resisted by Government and the Abike Dabiri driven, media-phobic Nigeria Press Council bill, NPC, should be synthesized with a view to finding a common ground between the media which is the fourth realm of the estate, the legislative and the executive arms of government. If possible, the judiciary and Segun Adeniyi, from the presidency should wade in, to save the day.
Clearly, it is only a well defined and functional media regulatory authority that can rein in the nefarious ambassadors of doom in politics and in the media who are hell bent on throwing decency to the dogs in order to achieve the inordinate ambition of scuttling our hard earned nascent democracy.
Secondly, as most of the rumors are sent via text messages by unidentified persons , the plan to register GSM phone users as it is currently being done in South Africa should be stepped up to make people accountable for their actions in the cyber space. Once the two platforms for disseminating falsehood are regulated, the rumor mills will die.
Finally, President Yar’Adua has been reported as expressing sadness about the rumor of his death and perhaps Mariam Babangida too would feel equally sad that at a time when they should be receiving encouragement from fellow Nigerians for speedy recovery from their illnesses, [as mere mortals they don’t have control over their lives], unscrupulous elements are capitalizing on their handicap to heat up the polity.
Onyibe wrote from Abuja.