The Nigerian Implication of Emmanuel Macron’s Slap

THE ALTERNATIVE With Reno Omokri

On Tuesday, June 8, 2021, 28-year-old Damien Tarel slapped French President Emmanuel Macron on the face while he was relating with crowds as he visited the Drome region in southeastern France.

The thing that most struck me about this event is that after an initial and obviously human shock, following which he was restrained by one of his bodyguards, while the assailant was blocked from assaulting him again, Macron recomposed himself and continued his meet and greet as though nothing had happened.

That there is leadership under fire. That is self-control. It showed an amazing ability to focus on the goal. It was a very teachable moment and I for one went away with a few lessons.

Of course, Nigerians who watched as the whole drama played out, naturally made comparisons between what happened with Macron and what obtains in Nigeria.
And many have said that if such a thing had happened in Nigeria, whoever tried it would be dead. That is not true. It is true that if anyone tried such a thing under President Buhari, they would likely have been killed by his security detail, but that is specific to Buhari, not to Nigeria.

How do I know? Because, a similar situation has happened in Nigeria in our recent past. Then President Goodluck Jonathan was stoned in Katsina on January 21, 2015, and again in Bauchi on January 22, 2015 and yet again in Yola, on January 29, 2015.

Stoning or physically assaulting a Head of State is a crime and you could be shot on the spot for committing that offence.
However, Dr. Jonathan personally ordered his security detail not to retaliate, and nobody was shot or beaten as a result.

My question to Nigerians is this: What would have happened if Buhari were in Jonathan or Macron’s position?
We all know the answer.
On December 12, 2015, Nigerian Shiites of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria held their annual Ashura walk, which is a usual and regular occurrence in the city of Zaria.

On that particular day, the then Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Turkur Buratai was in town visiting the Emir of Zaria and his convoy was briefly caught up in the Shiite Ashura walk, thus delaying him.

First and foremost, Buratai ought to have had some form of intelligence to know that his visit would clash with the Shiite Ashura, and should either have chosen another route, or picked a different day to pay his homage. That he did not do either was a failure of basic military intelligence.

In any case, Lt. General Buratai ordered soldiers to attack and destroy the headquarters of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, killing 348 Shia men, women, children and infants (Amnesty says more than a thousand were killed) and burnt their buildings and laid waste to their facilities.

Now, if that could be done to a religious group for merely blocking the way of an army chief, then you can imagine what would be done to anyone who dared slap that army chief’s Commander-in-Chief.

The issue is that as of today, Buhari has successfully taken Nigeria back to the 80s. He has banned #Bitcoin because of #EndSARS and not because of Nigeria (he said on his AriseTV interview that EndSARS was meant to remove him from office). He Banned Twitter, not because of Nigeria’s interests, but due to the fact that they deleted his genocidal tweet. He stopped foreign exchange repatriation for Nigerian students schooling overseas (except his own children). He closed our borders to goods and services coming from abroad, yet scrambled to London to see his doctors (until #HarassBuhariOutofLondon chased him back).

Buhari also has an open door border policy for his killer herdsmen kinsmen. Nepotism on steroids with Northern Muslim males heading the Three Arms of Government as well as the Ministry of Defence, the National Security Adviser’s office, Army, Airforce,Police, DSS, DMI, DIA, NIA and the EFCC.

He made a terror sympathiser, who rejoices when non-Muslims are killed, minister of communications to control our vitally sensitive national security data, and has now tasked him to negotiate with Twitter on our behalf. Foreign companies are fleeing Nigeria to Ghana, because in addition to the loss of our personal freedoms, Buhari has made us the world headquarters for extreme poverty.

So, while a right wing extremist may have slapped Mr. Macron, a feudal lord, in the person of Buhari, has slapped Nigeria right back to the 80s, and probably beyond.
And the funniest thing is that while slapping a Head of State in Buhari’s Nigeria may likely leave you dead, Damien Tarel only faced an assault charge for slapping Emmanuel Macron, and was sentenced to a prison term of 18 months, 14 of which were suspended.
This is just the difference between civility and barbarity.

And that barbarity is why I am rather disappointed with Governor Seyi Makinde, of Oyo state, who says he is seeking for an arms licence before arming Amotekun.
My question to Mr. Makonde is this: Who gave the killer herdsmen that are killing his people their own arms licence?

Makinde, be wise. Dead people cannot use arms licence. Defend yourself first by any means right now. You can worry about the licence later! If not, you will all die one by one at the hands of killer herdsmen, while their grand patron in Abuja is fixated on Twitter!
My candid counsel to Governor Seyi Makinde, who says he is waiting for an arms licence from Buhari, is that to make yourself vulnerable on the basis that you are waiting for an arms licence that is unlikely to come while Buhari is President is to commit mass suicide by default.

Mr. Makinde may want to dig up the record of General Buhari’s encounter with his predecessor, Lam Adesina, which occurred on October 13, 2000.

If Mr. Makinde reads through the records of that encounter, and is still waiting for an arms licence from Buhari, then the invariable conclusion is that Makinde is a man who does not learn from history. We know from history that such men repeat history.
If Governor Makinde did not watch Buhari’s Thursday June 10, 2021 AriseTV interview, then he better go and watch it.

Buhari’s heart is not in Oyo, or any other Nigerian state. His heart is firmly set on Niger Republic!

During the interview, Buhari boasted with pride that Niger Republic has discovered oil. With the same mouth he said he has first cousins in Niger Republic and that his administration is building infrastructure in Niger Republic to make the two countries closer.

The follow up question that Segun Adeniyi should have asked is this: Why is Niger Republic not using their oil wealth to build their infrastructure?
But anyway, back to Makinde. That interview should open Mr. Makinde’s eyes as to where Buhari’s heart is. For as Christ said:

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”-Matthew 6:21.
As I finished this piece, Buhari gave an interview to AriseTV on Thursday June 10, 2021 and insisted that he would still speak to the Southeast of Nigeria in the language they understand.

Let me now end this piece by saying since Buhari wants to speak to the Southeast in the language they understand, he should also invite Ahmad Isah, of Brekete Family, to interview him in the language he, Buhari, understands. After all, both Buhari and Ahmad speak and understand the same language!

Reno’s Nuggets

On your journey to success, nobody should know you are coming until they see you. So many people never arrive at success, because they told others when they were coming and how they would come. As a result, they never arrived at their destination. Be supersonic in your success. A supersonic plane flies faster than the speed of sound. By the time you hear it, it has already passed. Don’t tell people about your coming success. Let it be that by the time they hear of it, it has already happened!
#RenosNuggets #FreeLeahSharibu