Comparing Elon Musk and Buhari’s Responses To Twitter

THE ALTERNATIVE with  Reno Omokri

Too often, I read or hear from people who say money cannot buy happiness, or that money is not that important, and I laugh.

Money is vitally important. In fact, the glue that holds a marriage together is not love. Love is abstract. It is like happiness. You demonstrate happiness by doing something. Either by smiling, laughing, or dancing.

You demonstrate love by giving something. And without money, it is hard to give or show love! When you buy your wife a new car, she will shout ‘oh my love!’ When your wife cooks a banquet for your birthday, you scream, ‘I love you baby’.

The truth is that money does most, if not all the work involved in demonstrating love. You don’t notice, because love takes all the glory.

If you say money is not important, then consider the following:

When Twitter annoyed  Buhari, he  banned Twitter.

But when Twitter annoyed Elon Musk, Elon bought a huge stake in Twitter, and offered to buy the whole company for $43 billion.

Now, tell me who is more powerful between a man who banned Twitter, and lost money, and the one who bought a stake in it, and made money?

Stop rationalising poverty. Instead, go and learn to make money, so you can use it to defend yourself. “Wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence”-Ecclesiastes 7:12.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Elon Musk is describing his move to seize control of Twitter as a mission to rebirth the “platform for free speech”. And if you have been paying attention to divide the  media lately, free speech is being eroded. Slowly, but surely and sorely.

 Buhari’s response to Twitter’s deletion of his tweet just goes to show that he is an immature person who cannot control his moods. Quite the contrary. Buhari is controlled by his moods. When he loses elections, he weeps, like a child who could not get candy. When he has a tiff with his wife, he consigns her to the ‘other room’. When this 5% agitates, he threatens them and calls them a “dot in a circle”. When his favoured ethnic group engages in banditry and terrorism, he encircles them with loving arms of protection. When he fails in his duty to provide the enabling environment to create jobs for Nigerian youths, he passes the buck, blames them, and calls our youths “lazy”.

The fact of the matter is that Buhari is a man-child who lacks emotional maturity, which is the one thing that is required in a leader. And Nigeria has borne the brunt of Buhari’s inability to control his moods.

Let me further illustrate his capriciousness and inconsistent behaviours. On Friday, April 15, 2022,  Buhari posted an Easter message to those of the Christian community who believe in Easter.

In that message, Buhari asked all Nigerians, irrespective of their religious leanings, to learn to forgive, like Nabi Isa (Alayhis Salaam), whom some Christians refer to as Jesus Christ. That admonition was quite commendable.

But does Buhari practice what he preaches?

Let us consider some facts. The Buhari government just forgave and gave pardons to former Governors Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame, of Plateau and Taraba states respectively, who were both convicted of  stealing billions.

Buhari has also refused to prosecute so-called repentant Boko Haramists, who he is instead now training. That is also an act of forgiveness.

While he is doing all these, the same Buhari is prosecuting Nnamdi Kanu, Sunday Igboho and Sheikh Zakzaky, to mention just a few.

My question to Nigerians, and even to Buhari himself, is this: How can you forgive thieves and killers, only to pursue freedom fighters and clerics, whose brand of Islam Buhari disagrees with?

Does this not portray Buhari as what in Islam is described as a munafiq?

Many people now ridicule Will Smith because he slapped Chris Rock, in order to preserve his wife’s honour, but when the repercussions came, the same wife said she did not appreciate what he did. He is like Buhari, who banned Twitter only to lose $1 billion. Who lost?

Yes, you heard me right. Buhari’s ill-advised and petulant Twitter ban that lasted from June 5, 2021 to January 13, 2022, cost Nigeria about a billion U.S. dollars in lost revenue, and at the end of the day, it gained nothing order than assuage the bruised ego of the president, whose inhuman and brutish tweet threatening to deal with the “Igbo in a language they understand” was taken down by Twitter on Wednesday June 2, 2021.

You can just imagine what Nigeria has been going through for the last seven years. A big baby and egocentric bully, who can dish it out, but cannot take it, thinks his puny power can extend beyond Nigeria, to the San Francisco based Twitter.

And now, Buhari is trying to sell continuity to Nigeria with his even lousiest echo, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Nigerians should never forget that Osinbajo said nothing about the December 2015 Zaria massacre of Shiites, about the Abuja murder of RCCG pastor, Eunice Elisha, about the Kano beheading of evangelist Bridget Agbahime, about the non-release of Leah Sharibu for not giving up her Christian faith, about the New Year’s Day Benue massacre of almost 100 people in 2018 by killer herdsmen, about the Lekki Massacre of #EndSARS protesters, about the #TwitterBan, about Buhari calling the Igbo “a dot in a circle”, about government’s supply of adulterated fuel that knocked thousands of cars, about the reopening of the Lekki Toll Gate, without justice being done, about the genocide in Southern Kaduna, or about the fate of the about 100 Nigerians still in the hands of terrorists after the Abuja-Kaduna train bombing. But now, Osinbajo wants Nigerians to say something about his ambition? Are Nigerians that gullible and forgetful? We will soon see!

Reno’s Nuggets

Dear youths,

When you graduate and get a job, don’t immediately leave your parents’ house to rent a place. If possible, stay with your parents. Endure any discomfort. Then save what you’d have spent on rent and use it as a capital to start a business or buy a home. Don’t be in a hurry to run when you have not learnt to crawl. If your parents live far from where you work, then move in with your siblings or any other close family member. Be humble. Respect who you live with. Accept nonsense. It is the price you pay to access much sense!

#RenosNuggets #FreeLeahSharibu