Buhari’s Trumpian Propaganda to Cover Up the Lekki Massacre
Farooq A. Kperogi
Saturday, October 24, 2020
Buhari’s Trumpian Propaganda to Cover Up the Lekki Massacre
By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
Twitter: @farooqkperogi
On October 20, I couldn’t sleep in my base here in the United States because I was glued to social media monitoring livestreams of the agonizing state-authorized mass massacres of peaceful protesters in Lekki, Lagos. I was crushed and despondent beyond description.
My situational insomnia was triggered by vicarious pains. The sights and sounds of young men and women being felled by live bullets by uniformed homicidal thugs caused me to imagine— and vicariously experience— the pain that the parents of the children who were being killed would go through when they find out about the murder of their children.
Although this Buhari-sanctioned, Tinubu-supported mass murder of unarmed and defenseless protesters was captured in real time on social media, archived on the web, and reported in the domestic and international media, the government isn’t only denying it now, it is causing people who witnessed it to question their own perceptual stimuli, recollections, and even sanity.
That is the propaganda tactic Donald Trump routinely deploys in America. He tells outrageous lies (he has told more than 5,000 lies since becoming president, according to several media houses that are keeping records!), repeats them ad infinitum, ignores rebuttals, and causes otherwise normal people to question the reality they live in and the evidence around them.
This propaganda and mind management tactic is called gaslighting. Its goal is to defamiliarize reality and the truth through intentional, in-your-face obfuscation of the facts—or through the popularization of what Trump’s former counselor Kellyanne Conway once called “alternative facts.”
In a January 2017 article for Psychology Today, Stephanie A. Sarkis, Ph.D., defined gaslighting as “a tactic in which a person or entity, in order to gain more power, makes a victim question their reality. It works much better than you may think. Anyone is susceptible to gaslighting, and it is a common technique of abusers, dictators, narcissists, and cult leaders. It is done slowly, so the victim doesn't realize how much they've been brainwashed.”
I’ve seen otherwise intelligent, critical people fall victim to the Nigerian government’s Trumpian gaslighting propaganda tactic over the Lekki massacre. Even though videographic evidence exists of the shooting of protesters in Lekki—and of real-time reports of military officers hiding corpses to conceal their murderous cruelty—I’ve seen a surprising number of people asking for evidence of the deaths of protesters in Lekki.
Before writing this column, I observed social media conversations about the government’s audacious denial of the Lekki massacre, and I was amazed by the number and types of people who were gaslit by the government.
Although gaslighting was initially studied in interpersonal settings, it has now been expanded to account for how people with political and coercive authority (such as presidents, heads of military organizations, etc.) and even symbolic power (such as celebrities and public intellectuals) can use their positions to muddy the waters and confound otherwise self-aware people.
The website “Healthline” tells us that gaslighting can cause people “to question their thoughts, memories, and the events occurring around them,” adding that “A victim of gaslighting can be pushed so far that they question their own sanity.”
It is the reason millions of Americans have become suckers for Trump’s absurd, easily refutable lies, and why millions of unreflective Talibangelical African Christians worship and believe him even though he isn’t a Christian and hates and disdains them because of their race.
Psychologists say the most potent solution to gaslighting is to recognize and accept that you’re the victim of a carefully planned emotional manipulation by people who have conscious and unconscious political, symbolic, or interpersonal dominion over you.
That acceptance frees victims from the burden of self-doubt and allows them to examine the facts and evidence around them. The unvarnished fact is that on October 20, CCTV cameras were turned off in Lekki and scores of protesters were shot at with live bullets by the Nigerian military. An undetermined number of protesters died.
The Punch of October 21 reported that “no fewer than seven persons” were murdered at Lekki and that “Many protesters were said to have sustained bullet wounds as a result of the attack that suddenly came just after the billboard on the tollgate and the streetlights around the premises were switched off.”
The paper also reported an eyewitness to have said, “They have killed more than seven people that I have seen with my eyes. They were killed with real bullets...”
Premium Times of October 23 also reported “Nigerian artiste, DJ Switch, who was present when soldiers shot at peaceful protesters in Lekki, Lagos, [on] Tuesday” to have said, “at least 15 people were killed in the shootings and that she and other survivors took the victims’ bodies to the soldiers who took them away.”
The Peoples Gazette, a professional, up-and-coming digital-native news outlet, reported that “the police in Lagos turned down [the] Nigerian Army’s request to hand over nine bodies from Tuesday’s massacre” and pointed out that “Amnesty International had reported 12 persons were killed by security forces on the same night, including 10 from Lekki military shooting.”
So the murder of protesters in Lekki by the Buhari regime is real. It isn’t mass hallucination. And it is disrespectful to the memories of the people who were senselessly murdered by the Nigerian military to question the truth of their death.
The blame for this gaslighting, of course, rests entirely with the government. Many of the peddlers of the government-approved falsehood that no one died at Lekki—or that accounts of what happened there are hyperbolized— are also victims of sophisticated emotional exploitation.
Tinubu is Complicit in the #LekkiMassacre
In an October 21 phone interview with Channels TV, Bola Tinubu tried to dissociate himself from the mass murder of EndSARS protesters in Lekki by asking, “Why will they use live bullets?” and proclaiming he “will never, never be part of any carnage. I will never be part of that.”
His condemnation of the massacre is refreshing, but he advertently or inadvertently enabled it in his blind pursuit of an increasingly implausible presidential ambition.
On Oct. 17, it emerged that clueless Aso Rock insiders said Tinubu was behind the #EndSARS protests as a bargaining chip to get the APC presidential ticket in 2023. I pointed this out on social media, and Tinubu himself acknowledged it days later in his ChannelsTV interview where he said he was “being accused and reported to the Presidency that I was behind the protests, that I was a sponsor of the protests.”
To persuade Aso Rock power brokers that he was on their side, he issued a forceful press statement on October 18 disclaiming any connection with the protesters, saying the protests, in fact, "affected the "economy of Lagos State" (read: Tinubu's bottom line since he practically owns the Lagos State government).
But his disclaimer did little to assuage the suspicions of his Aso Rock masters. So on Oct. 20, he issued an even more forceful statement where he, among other things, said the Buhari regime had the right to "act with the requisite decisiveness and FORCE to restore law and order."
In other words, he gave his imprimatur to the military to murder protesters. What else can “decisiveness and FORCE to restore law and order” mean but state-sanctioned lethal violence?
On the night of Oct. 20, several unarmed, defenseless young men and women were murdered in cold blood in Lekki by the Nigerian military. Of course, given Buhari’s bloodstained history, he didn’t need Tinubu’s greenlight to extrajudicially murder citizens who challenged his dreadful ineptitude, but Tinubu’s endorsement made it easier.
Kennesaw State University
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com
"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will
DR SIKIRU ENIOLA
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Obinna .
Sent: Saturday, October 24, 2020 4:10:56 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari’s Trumpian Propaganda to Cover Up the Lekki Massacre
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Is there any visual evidence to this claim?
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
''1. Seven had died before her phone battery went off.
POSER 1.
No upload of the video or pictures showing the 7 dead she recorded before her phone went off.''
My Response: As you must be good at being able to take pictures in the dark even as soldiers are shooting at you, you ought to have been there so as to perform the feat you are demanding.
''15 corpses were laid at the feet of the Army
POSER 2
You couldn't have carried 15 heavy and stone cold bodies yourself. There must have been multiple people with you. One or two of them would have their phones on, even if hers is dead. With Nigerians penchant for filming people in danger instead of lending an helping hand, it's a no brainier to know that some people will not miss the opportunity to film the corpses. The videos or pictures of the corpses would have been trending on the Social media. But there is none.''
My Response: Same as above
POSER 3
''AK47 bullets piercing through bodies at close range will lead to so much loss of blood. An average human being has 4.5 litres of blood in his/her body. 15 people shot would have combined 67.5 litres of blood. That's almost three 25litre gallons.
Such loss of blood will create a sea of blood, which should have clotted on the road and visible for people to see. Channels TV was at the Toll gate the following day, Arise TV was there, no trace of blood on the road was reported. Many people have been to the Tollgate since then, there is no picture or video showing evidence of dried blood on the road.''
My Response: You need to find out who did the shooting, thereby dispersing the protesters and gaining control of the murder scene.
Are those not the best sources to ask?
Your 6th point makes it clear you believe a shooting
took place at the Lekki scene.
Are the best people to ask about possible clean up of the shooting scene not
those who put off all lights at the place before they commenced firing so as to obscure
the evidence of their atrocity?
''POSER 4
The military were killing people. People were scampering for safety. Yet in the midst of the volley of bullets, a couple of people were able to carry 15 corpses to where the murderous military men were shooting and they were neither arrested nor killed to erase witnesses. And none of those that carried the corpses either filmed it or took pictures.
She kept a bullet they pull out of the thigh of a victim.''
My Response: People like you would have been most helpful among
the unarmed, peaceful protesters who responded to the attack on them without any training in handing such situations, civilian
youth who thought that holding the Nigerian flag and chanting the national anthem
meant anything to the armed soldiers who approached them, a faith explaining their
remaining standing or seated even as the soldiers approached.
Your kind of person would not have needed to wait for any interval of action in which a bullet was pulled out of a victim but would have been alert throughout to the need to dodge bullets in the dark, dare the soldiers by carrying dead bodies towards them to show them the evidence of their inhumanity and take pictures on a powerful camera remaining fully or highly charged even as you had camped for hours in the open air.
''POSER 5
A bullet has the casing and the bullet at the tip of the casing. The bullet is made of lead. When it hits the thigh bone (Femur), the tip of the bullet, which is now a amber colour hot lead, dents. The bullet showed by the lady still has straight tip. My guess is, it was shot in the air and fell down cold to the ground.
She displayed many cartridges or bullet casings.''
My Response: The behavior of a bullet depends on the properties of the bullet, the angle of the shot and the material it is shot at.
A bullet is capable of penetrating flesh without being dented.
Helpful analyses of the behavior of bullets when fired may be found at the informative general interest site Quora and Wikipedia on bullets, from where this summation comes
Bullet design also affects what happens when a bullet hits an object. The way a bullet behaves when it hits a target is called 'terminal ballistics.' The make-up and density of the target material, the angle at which the bullet hits, and the speed and design of the bullet itself are all factors. Bullets are usually made to go into a target, change shape, and/or break apart. For a given material and bullet, the speed of the bullet is the main factor determining what happens.
''POSER 6. A bullet has the bullet at the tip and the casing attached to it.
The casing has gun powder in it and a primer to trigger and detatch the casing from the bullet once it is released from the barrel of the gun.
The casing drops close to the shooter. It is only the bullet that travels to hit the target.
Bullet casing is proof that guns were fired, which we all saw in the video. But the video showed that the bullets were fired upward and not horizontally.''
My Response: The video did not show that bullets were fired upward.
''5. OBSERVATION:
DJ Switch did not look into the camera throughout the filming. A body language, which shows that one is either lying or not sure of what he/she is saying.''
My Response: You should have been there and looked into the camera as you were being shot at under fire in the dark while sending live images and voice on your phone.
You should also have been there and made a video after the fact as you recalled the anguish of the experience and looked more intently at the camera so as to demonstrate that you are being truthful.
''6. REQUEST:
a. The 15 People that were allegedly killed are not ants. They are full blooded human beings. That we have not seen videos of a pile of bodies is a mystery. I hope DJ Switch and those who carried the corpses will show us pictorial or video proofs to corroborate her story.''
My Response: You need to find out who did the shooting, thereby dispersing the protesters and gaining control of the murder scene.
Are those not the best sources to ask?
''b. I hope she would be summoned by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Enquiry to present her video and pictorial evidences so that justice can be served to those that were killed, if it is ascertained that there were fatalities at Lekki.''
My Response: DJ Switch has presented all the evidence she has to
offer.
The people who should be summed are the Lagos State governor, the commander of
the troops who did the shooting and the people who put off the lights and billboard
at the toll gate to explain their roles in that horror and why did what they
did.
''I AM WORRIED BY THE USE OF LANGUAGE BY THOSE WHO SAT IN THEIR ROOMS OUTSIDE NIGERIA, CONSUMING VIDEOS AND PICTURES WHICH ORDINARILY WE EXPECTED YOU IN THE ADVANCED COUNTRIES TO CROSS CHECK.''
My Response: As is clear from the self-serving character of the poor logic you have employed in this piece of yours, may you not be described as a defender of inhumanity, an abusers of your intellectual powers, struggling to whitewash evil?
The more you defend these horrors, the greater the likelihood their creators will be further empowered and one day do you unto you as they are doing to others.
It was done to Shiites
but Shiites are a fringe and exotic brand of Nigerian Islam far from the lives
of many, so it may have seemed to some.
It was done to IPOB, but they are a renegade group of secessionists in the SE
not worthy of much attention beyond the need to suppress them, so some may have
thought.
It has now been done in the heart of Lekki, an affluent neighborhood in Nigeria's economic capital Lagos.
But the Lekki protesters are
people who had bitten off more than they could chew, asking for too much,
giving the impression of trying to change the govt by making sweeping and
impossible demands for change of Nigeria's political system, though
depicted as being for the benefit of all, even as their movement was
hijacked by hoodlums who took advantage of their protest even
though the Lekki protesters were not destructive, leading the govt to
put them down, so as to prevent any further hijacking.
Anyway, who knows who really did the shooting of the protesters and
even if we admit the shooting took place, how are we sure
anybody was actually hit by bullets, as some views are asserting.
When this kind of treatment reaches your doorstep, the understanding could be that you were once loyal but have become an inconvenience who should be removed for the good of all.
It is always for the good of all, these eliminations.
Meanwhile, the eliminators are the few who feed fat on the commonwealth meant for all.
Thanks
toyin
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAHqryX0ZBsp4vHWbMJYRzE6FQtJB32YQACiceft395a0Kk-uQQ%40mail.gmail.com.
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
''1. Seven had died before her phone battery went off.
POSER 1.
No upload of the video or pictures showing the 7 dead she recorded before her phone went off.''
My Response: As you must be good at being able to take pictures in the dark even as soldiers are shooting at you, you ought to have been there so as to perform the feat you are demanding.
''15 corpses were laid at the feet of the Army
POSER 2
You couldn't have carried 15 heavy and stone cold bodies yourself. There must have been multiple people with you. One or two of them would have their phones on, even if hers is dead. With Nigerians penchant for filming people in danger instead of lending an helping hand, it's a no brainer to know that some people will not miss the opportunity to film the corpses. The videos or pictures of the corpses would have been trending on the Social media. But there is none.''
My Response: Same as above
POSER 3
''AK47 bullets piercing through bodies at close range will lead to so much loss of blood. An average human being has 4.5 litres of blood in his/her body. 15 people shot would have combined 67.5 litres of blood. That's almost three 25litre gallons.
Such loss of blood will create a sea of blood, which should have clotted on the road and visible for people to see. Channels TV was at the Toll gate the following day, Arise TV was there, no trace of blood on the road was reported. Many people have been to the Tollgate since then, there is no picture or video showing evidence of dried blood on the road.''
My Response: You need to find out who did the shooting, thereby dispersing the protesters and gaining control of the murder scene.
Are those not the best sources to ask?
Your 6th point makes it clear you believe a shooting took place at the Lekki scene.
Are the best people to ask about possible clean up of the shooting scene not those who put off all lights at the place before they commenced firing so as to obscure the evidence of their atrocity?
''POSER 4
The military were killing people. People were scampering for safety. Yet in the midst of the volley of bullets, a couple of people were able to carry 15 corpses to where the murderous military men were shooting and they were neither arrested nor killed to erase witnesses. And none of those that carried the corpses either filmed it or took pictures.
She kept a bullet they pull out of the thigh of a victim.''
My Response: People like you would have been most helpful among the unarmed, peaceful protesters who responded to the attack on them without any training in handling such situations, civilian youth who thought that holding the Nigerian flag and chanting the national anthem meant anything to the armed soldiers who approached them, a faith explaining their remaining standing or seated even as the soldiers approached.
Your kind of person would not have needed to wait for any interval of action in which a bullet was pulled out of a victim but would have been alert throughout to the need to dodge bullets in the dark, dare the soldiers by carrying dead bodies towards them to show them the evidence of their inhumanity and take pictures on a powerful camera remaining fully or highly charged even as you had camped for hours in the open air.
You would also have been helpful in advising the army to eliminate everyone at the scene so as to avoid witnesses, and face the greater outcry arising from the massacre of hundreds of protesters at the Lekki toll gate.
You could have helped deliberate on whether to leave the bodies there and decide whom to blame for the killings or dispose of the bodies and face a global outcry over the disappearance of such a large group of people arrest or some some of the protesters, thereby risking making them symbols of defiance of oppression even more powerfully so than they already are.
''POSER 5
A bullet has the casing and the bullet at the tip of the casing. The bullet is made of lead. When it hits the thigh bone (Femur), the tip of the bullet, which is now a amber colour hot lead, dents. The bullet showed by the lady still has straight tip. My guess is, it was shot in the air and fell down cold to the ground.
She displayed many cartridges or bullet casings.''
My Response: The behavior of a bullet depends on the properties of the bullet, the angle of the shot and the material it is shot at.
A bullet is capable of penetrating flesh without being dented.
Helpful analyses of the behavior of bullets when fired may be found at the informative general interest site Quora and Wikipedia on bullets, from where this summation comes
Bullet design also affects what happens when a bullet hits an object. The way a bullet behaves when it hits a target is called 'terminal ballistics.' The make-up and density of the target material, the angle at which the bullet hits, and the speed and design of the bullet itself are all factors. Bullets are usually made to go into a target, change shape, and/or break apart. For a given material and bullet, the speed of the bullet is the main factor determining what happens.
''POSER 6. A bullet has the bullet at the tip and the casing attached to it.
The casing has gun powder in it and a primer to trigger and detach the casing from the bullet once it is released from the barrel of the gun.
The casing drops close to the shooter. It is only the bullet that travels to hit the target.
Bullet casing is proof that guns were fired, which we all saw in the video. But the video showed that the bullets were fired upward and not horizontally.''
My Response: The video did not show that bullets were fired upward.
''5. OBSERVATION:
DJ Switch did not look into the camera throughout the filming. A body language, which shows that one is either lying or not sure of what he/she is saying.''
My Response: You should have been there and looked into the camera as you were being shot at under fire in the dark while sending live images and voice on your phone.
You should also have been there and made a video after the fact as you recalled the anguish of the experience and looked more intently at the camera so as to demonstrate that you are being truthful.
''6. REQUEST:
a. The 15 People that were allegedly killed are not ants. They are full blooded human beings. That we have not seen videos of a pile of bodies is a mystery. I hope DJ Switch and those who carried the corpses will show us pictorial or video proofs to corroborate her story.''
My Response: You need to find out who did the shooting, thereby dispersing the protesters and gaining control of the murder scene.
Are those not the best sources to ask?
''b. I hope she would be summoned by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Enquiry to present her video and pictorial evidences so that justice can be served to those that were killed, if it is ascertained that there were fatalities at Lekki.''
My Response: DJ Switch has presented all the evidence she has to offer.
The people who should be summed are the Lagos State governor, the commander of the troops who did the shooting and the people who put off the lights and billboard at the toll gate to explain their roles in that horror and why did what they did.
''I AM WORRIED BY THE USE OF LANGUAGE BY THOSE WHO SAT IN THEIR ROOMS OUTSIDE NIGERIA, CONSUMING VIDEOS AND PICTURES WHICH ORDINARILY WE EXPECTED YOU IN THE ADVANCED COUNTRIES TO CROSS CHECK.''
My Response: As is clear from the self-serving character of the poor logic you have employed in this piece of yours, may you not be described as a defender of inhumanity, an abusers of your intellectual powers, struggling to whitewash evil?
The more you defend these horrors, the greater the likelihood their creators will be further empowered and one day do you unto you as they are doing to others.
It was done to Shiites but Shiites are a fringe and exotic brand of Nigerian Islam far from the lives of many, so it may have seemed to some.
It was done to IPOB, but they are a renegade group of secessionists in the SE not worthy of much attention beyond the need to suppress them, so some may have thought.
It has now been done in the heart of Lekki, an affluent neighborhood in Nigeria's economic capital Lagos.
But the Lekki protesters are people who had bitten off more than they could chew, asking for too much, giving the impression of trying to change the govt by making sweeping and impossible demands for change of Nigeria's political system, though depicted as being for the benefit of all, even as their movement was hijacked by hoodlums who took advantage of their protest even though the Lekki protesters were not destructive, leading the govt to put them down, so as to prevent any further hijacking.
Anyway, who knows who really did the shooting of the protesters and even if we admit the shooting took place, how are we sure anybody was actually hit by bullets, as some views are asserting.
When this kind of treatment reaches your doorstep, the understanding could be that you were once loyal but have become an inconvenience who should be removed for the good of all.
It is always for the good of all, these eliminations.
Meanwhile, the eliminators are the few who feed fat on the commonwealth meant for all.
Thanks
toyin
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAHqryX0ZBsp4vHWbMJYRzE6FQtJB32YQACiceft395a0Kk-uQQ%40mail.gmail.com.
DR SIKIRU ENIOLA
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Are you able to prove that?
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Obinna .
- Why is the Army saying "no soldiers were at the scene" ?
- Why were the lights and billboard turned off at the toll gate only on that day - the protesters had been at that location for days and were the lights turned off on other nights too?
- Who shot the video showing the Army at the scene (army or civilian) and where is the rest of the video? Why isn't there a more detailed video showing more of what happened?
- Who and where is Brig General Omata and why did he say he only arrived to stop the soldiers and Lt Col Bello led the soldiers, not him? This is consistent with some statements from those present.
- who ordered the Army to the scene? Sanwo-Olu has confirmed that there were soldiers at the scene
- were statements and videos from doctors and hospitals showing that they assisted the wounded all fake?
- why is the focus solely on body count?
- should the Nigerian Army be deployed to shoot at civilians (blanks or no blanks, sideways or downwards) under any circumstances?
Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2020 7:02 AM
Salimonu Kadiri
Sent: 24 October 2020 06:34
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari’s Trumpian Propaganda to Cover Up the Lekki Massacre
OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2020 7:02 AM
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''1. Seven had died before her phone battery went off.
POSER 1.
No upload of the video or pictures showing the 7 dead she recorded before her phone went off.''
My Response: As you must be good at being able to take pictures in the dark even as soldiers are shooting at you, you ought to have been there so as to perform the feat you are demanding.
''15 corpses were laid at the feet of the Army
POSER 2
You couldn't have carried 15 heavy and stone cold bodies yourself. There must have been multiple people with you. One or two of them would have their phones on, even if hers is dead. With Nigerians penchant for filming people in danger instead of lending an helping hand, it's a no brainer to know that some people will not miss the opportunity to film the corpses. The videos or pictures of the corpses would have been trending on the Social media. But there is none.''
My Response: Same as above
POSER 3
''AK47 bullets piercing through bodies at close range will lead to so much loss of blood. An average human being has 4.5 litres of blood in his/her body. 15 people shot would have combined 67.5 litres of blood. That's almost three 25litre gallons.
Such loss of blood will create a sea of blood, which should have clotted on the road and visible for people to see. Channels TV was at the Toll gate the following day, Arise TV was there, no trace of blood on the road was reported. Many people have been to the Tollgate since then, there is no picture or video showing evidence of dried blood on the road.''
My Response: You need to find out who did the shooting, thereby dispersing the protesters and gaining control of the murder scene.
Are those not the best sources to ask?
Your 6th point makes it clear you believe a shooting took place at the Lekki scene.
Are the best people to ask about possible clean up of the shooting scene not those who put off all lights at the place before they commenced firing so as to obscure the evidence of their atrocity?
''POSER 4
The military were killing people. People were scampering for safety. Yet in the midst of the volley of bullets, a couple of people were able to carry 15 corpses to where the murderous military men were shooting and they were neither arrested nor killed to erase witnesses. And none of those that carried the corpses either filmed it or took pictures.
She kept a bullet they pull out of the thigh of a victim.''
My Response: People like you would have been most helpful among the unarmed, peaceful protesters who
responded to the attack on them without any training in handling such situations, civilian youth who thought that holding the Nigerian flag and chanting the national anthem meant anything to the armed soldiers
who approached them, a faith explaining their remaining standing or
seated even as the soldiers approached.
Your kind of person would not have needed to wait for any interval of action in which a bullet was pulled out of a victim but would have been alert throughout to the need to dodge bullets in the dark, dare
the soldiers by carrying dead bodies towards them to show them the evidence of their inhumanity and take pictures on a powerful camera remaining fully or highly charged even as you had camped for hours in the open air.
You would also have been helpful in advising the army to eliminate everyone at the scene so as to avoid witnesses, and face the greater outcry arising from the massacre of hundreds of protesters at the Lekki toll gate.
You could have helped deliberate on whether to leave the bodies there and decide whom to blame for the killings or dispose of the bodies and face a global outcry over the disappearance of such a large group of people arrest or some some of the protesters, thereby
risking making them symbols of defiance of oppression even more powerfully so than they already are.
''POSER 5
A bullet has the casing and the bullet at the tip of the casing. The bullet is made of lead. When it hits the thigh bone (Femur), the tip of the bullet, which is now a amber colour hot lead, dents. The bullet showed by the lady still has straight tip. My guess is, it was shot in the air and fell down cold to the ground.
She displayed many cartridges or bullet casings.''
My Response: The behavior of a bullet depends on the properties of the bullet, the angle of the shot and the material it
is shot at.
A bullet is capable of penetrating flesh without being dented.
Helpful analyses of the behavior of bullets when fired may be found at the informative general interest site Quora and Wikipedia on bullets,
from where this summation comes
Bullet design also affects what happens when a bullet hits an object. The way a bullet behaves when it hits a target is called 'terminal ballistics.' The make-up and density of the target material, the angle at which the bullet hits, and the speed and design of the bullet itself are all factors. Bullets are usually made to go into a target, change shape, and/or break apart. For a given material and bullet, the speed of the bullet is the main factor determining what happens.
''POSER 6. A bullet has the bullet at the tip and the casing attached to it.
The casing has gun powder in it and a primer to trigger and detach the casing from the bullet once it is released from the barrel of the gun.
The casing drops close to the shooter. It is only the bullet that travels to hit the target.
Bullet casing is proof that guns were fired, which we all saw in the video. But the video showed that the bullets were fired upward and not horizontally.''
My Response: The video did not show that bullets were fired upward.
''5. OBSERVATION:
DJ Switch did not look into the camera throughout the filming. A body language, which shows that one is either lying or not sure of what he/she is saying.''
My Response: You should have been there and looked into the camera as you were being shot at under fire in the dark while sending live images and voice on your phone.
You should also have been there and made a video after the fact as you recalled the anguish of the experience and looked more intently at the camera so as to demonstrate that you are being truthful.
''6. REQUEST:
a. The 15 People that were allegedly killed are not ants. They are full blooded human beings. That we have not seen videos of a pile of bodies is a mystery. I hope DJ Switch and those who carried the corpses will show us pictorial or video proofs to corroborate her story.''
My Response: You need to find out who did the shooting, thereby dispersing the protesters and gaining control of the murder scene.
Are those not the best sources to ask?
''b. I hope she would be summoned by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Enquiry to present her video and pictorial evidences so that justice can be served to those that were killed, if it is ascertained that there were fatalities at Lekki.''
My Response: DJ Switch has presented all the evidence she has to offer.
The people who should be summed are the Lagos State governor, the commander of the troops who did the shooting and the people who put off the lights and billboard at the toll gate to explain their roles in that horror and why did what they did.
''I AM WORRIED BY THE USE OF LANGUAGE BY THOSE WHO SAT IN THEIR ROOMS OUTSIDE NIGERIA, CONSUMING VIDEOS AND PICTURES WHICH ORDINARILY WE EXPECTED YOU IN THE ADVANCED COUNTRIES TO CROSS CHECK.''
My Response: As is clear from the self-serving character of the poor logic you have employed in this piece of yours, may you not be described as a defender of inhumanity, an abusers of your intellectual powers, struggling to whitewash evil?
The more you defend these horrors, the greater the likelihood their creators will be further empowered and one day do you unto you as they are doing to others.
It was done to Shiites but Shiites are a fringe and exotic brand of Nigerian Islam far from the lives of many, so it may have seemed to some.
It was done to IPOB, but they are a renegade group of secessionists in the SE not worthy of much attention beyond the need to suppress them, so some may have thought.
It has now been done in the heart of Lekki, an affluent neighborhood in Nigeria's economic capital Lagos.
But the Lekki protesters are people who had bitten off more than they could chew, asking for too much, giving the impression of trying to change the govt by making sweeping and impossible
demands for change of Nigeria's political system, though depicted as being for the benefit of all, even as their movement was hijacked by hoodlums who took advantage of their protest even though the Lekki protesters were not destructive, leading the govt
to put them down, so as to prevent any further hijacking.
Anyway, who knows who really did the shooting of the protesters and even if we admit the shooting took place, how are we sure anybody was actually hit by bullets, as some views are asserting.
When this kind of treatment reaches your doorstep, the understanding could be that you were once loyal but have become an inconvenience who should be removed for the good of all.
It is always for the good of all, these eliminations.
Meanwhile, the eliminators are the few who feed fat on the commonwealth meant for all.
Thanks
toyin
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
The video evidence shows bodies on the ground.
An eye witness gives an estimate of the dead bodies she saw.
People remain missing after the incident, identified people whose names are given and are being searched for.
The simple laws of possibility indicates a massacre took place.
Dare Taiwo examines various evidence which he sees as supporting his theory that there was no massacre.
I demonstrate the nullity of his arguments, where he is arguing for the improbable.
Feel free to remain at the level of party loyalty in the midst of a human tragedy and an assault on the soul of the nation.
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
The Lekki Massacre is a defining feature of SW politics going forward and thus could be central to the fortunes of the APC in the South-West, in the nation as a whole and perhaps for even the fortunes of the PDP, these being the two major political parties in Nigeria.
It is likely to be strategic to the future of Nigeria.
EndSars is the latest struggle in a geopolitical configuration fissured by various struggles for identity within or in opposition to Nigeria or for redefining Nigeria, struggles represented by such militant groups as the Niger Delta militants, such terrorist groups as Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen militants and their Miyetti Allah handlers and peaceful protesters for system change as EndSars agents and peaceful agitators for referendum in the name of breaking away from Nigeria as represented by IPOB.
The Political and Military Networks Enabling the Lekki Massacre
Questions About the Role of the Lagos State Governor
Questions About the Role of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Pivot of SW APC, the State and National Ruling Party
Agents of Civil Unrest as Political Instruments
Boko Haram used this orientation in marketing themselves to the Northern Muslim populace between their 2011 resurgence and the 2013 state of emergency when their appeal to the Northern Muslim populace had worn off.
Muhammadu Buhari on the War Against Boko Haram as ''War Against the North'' and on Boko Haram as the Work of the
Handing over is done through concerted support, enabling a massive no of votes to be delivered to an agreed candidate, an alliance between the Muslim North and the SW that was strategic to Buhari's 2015 victory and which some in the SW are hoping will favour the region in 2023.
Mental Gymnastics and the Lekki Massacre
I salute the wisdom of the person writing this-
How many could they kill and sustain the global outcry?
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Femi Segun
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Obinna .
OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Intellectual Summersault in Disguise as Careful Reasoning
''You asked should Nigerian soldiers be deployed to shoot at civilians. The clear answer is No. But soldiers have been deployed to most states of the federation by this administration. Last night soldiers were deployed in the UK to intercept a ship carrying civilian stowaways. Whether they shot or not would be determined by the reaction of people they found on board. They did not because the people on board did not violently resist arrest.''
''The case why soldiers are deployed to so many states has to do with the violent nature of how many Nigerians deal with group conflict. I am sure you are well aware of the armed bandits scenario in Nigeria and herdsmen/ farmers conflicts. Each govt reacts differently to situations they find themselves in.'' - Olayinka Agbetuyi
Yet, the army went in there and shot point blank at them continuously for about 30 mins,
using live ammunition,
and continued the shooting even in the morning.
On who should be assumed to be innocent and acting in good faith, if it is being insisted that should be done for the govt, that should also be done for the protesters.
Abi?
Oga, people like you are why dictatorships thrive in Africa, in particular, and in some other parts of the world. So called intellectual support from various quarters. People using their education in fostering inhumanity.
toyin
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Obinna .
Gloria Emeagwali
On Oct 26, 2020, at 14:59, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:
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Femi Segun
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More info On Oct 26, 2020, at 14:59, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:
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Femi Segun
Lekki: The story of Bashorun Gaa, by Lasisi Olagunju
Everything Nigeria finds impossible to do, the Lekki protesters did: Orderliness, organisation, security, equity and equality.
They forged peace and flaunted it with good music. They provided electricity for themselves to charge their phones.
Food was available; there was water for all. There was no class, no creed. Everyone was fed without favour in an atmosphere of decorum. They cleaned up their space after each day of protest.
Gaa’s cruelty in leadership, his fall and what followed birthed separatist agitations that ultimately crashed that empire. Everything within 60 years.
The sick got medicare; the scared got assurance. They cared for one another, they looked out for one another. There was no North, there was no South. There was no Muslim, no Christian.
No poor, no rich. They were all Nigerians united by the zeal to change their story.
Their security was invisible and effective. Was there a record of theft? No. There was no record of stealing. One person reportedly forgot his phone with another protester; that holder ran to the internet, raised his hand and was located by the phone owner.
They were offered bribes, they rejected bribes. They showed the bumbling leadership how to lead and lead well.
We lost that opportunity to be great using that model. Pernicious Nigeria invaded that island of calm and sanity; it hoisted its traditional flag of death and turmoil and, since then, everyone has been panting in fear and dread.
What the Asiwaju of Lagos said was worse than Buhari’s silence. He victimized the victims. Like Brutus’ dagger in Ceaser’s torso, it was the unkindest cut of them all. But such attitude is captured in recent history too.
The floodgates of anarchy are now open. Flood waters of fear now invade homes and offices, public and private. Rioting, looting and killing have replaced the songs of peace from protesters. That is what you get whenever peace is broken up with violence as our country did that Lekki assembly of young men and women. What else should those youths do? Their demands were not unreasonable. They wanted security, peace and good governance. They acted all their demands before our very eyes. They chose a captivating catchphrase: EndSARS to prove that they were a generation of deliverers.
They pursued their dream so admirably that they shamed our pretenders to governance. Through the excellent conduct of those peaceful protesters of Lekki, we saw clearly that the leaders we have are a compound failure. Even the dumb is now convinced that Abuja is a hope raiser, hope killer; smasher of hope on the hard surface of greed and hubris.
Muhammadu Buhari is the greatest of the losers here. With every failed messianic leader comes anarchy. Check history. From imperial Rome to Louis XVI’s France and back to this space, rain and thunder of bad leadership, state failure and people’s revolt are always inseparable.
There was a powerful man in history called Bashorun Gaa. He was the prime minister of Oyo empire that stretched from here to today’s Ghana. He was a people’s man who said he loathed the power and the privileges of kingship. He was an anti-corruption tzar and a defender of rights.
Samuel Johnson wrote that Gaa “had great influence with the people and a great many followers…” The people “considered themselves safe under his protection from the dread in which they stood of kings.”
The empire trusted him and distrusted their king. Slowly, steadily, he grew in fame, power and privileges. He became Kabiyesi without being an Oba. He was the sovereign, the unquestionable. And he knew it and acted it. He became a very bad man holding the land and its people in contempt and disgust. He did his things so much that everyone knew he was the very meaning of impunity.
When Gaa started his years, the empire was at the very top in prosperity and peace. Then he grew big and powerful and plunged his dagger into the belly of his people.
Freedom disappeared, first piecemeal, then completely. He was alerted that his ways won’t lead to good; first he ignored, then he silenced the counselors. He was deaf to the voice of the old and the young. He was blind to the sun setting before dusk. His gaze was on his own forehead and the magic guile that had never failed him. The empire was built on a foundation of dissent and freedom. He outlawed both. Big and small men who dared him, Gaa extinguished their fire the way the Lekki protesters had their light switched off. He was nemesis to peace and sanity and justice.
When you are king, the Yoruba say you don’t go look for money ritual again unless you want to become Olodumare (God). Gaa was more powerful than the oba but he still wanted more. History said this happened in 1774. For his rituals, he needed a deer (Agbonrin) but the prime minster picked the oba’s only daughter, Agboin, as food for his gods.
Was that not why peaceful protesters were immolated by the Nigerian state last week? The Nigerian government needed consolidation of power and elite privileges. It thus cracked down on the gathering of complainers.
Gaa murdered that princess of peace because he wanted to preserve and grow his powers, and with that, he ended his luck.
His home went up in flames; the empire rose and roasted him and his memory. Gaa’s cruelty in leadership, his fall and what followed birthed separatist agitations that ultimately crashed that empire. Everything within 60 years.
Violence and looting are not acceptable anywhere. They are condemnable and stand condemned. What happened on Saturday across Nigeria was tragic.
The looting crowd in Jos was on CNN. It is a very complicated matter. We lost our values. Nigeria failed its people. I reviewed the chaos of the last few days with an elderly friend. He showed no surprise that things deteriorated so badly. He asked me: Is it not true that if you ignore problems for so long, they often become unsolvable and come back to bite you?
Is it also not true that more than 60 percent of Nigeria’s 200 million population belong to the subset we call youths? Many of these young ones do not have education; many who have good education have no jobs, no homes, no social welfare and no hope.
Those neighborhood children you don’t care about today are the ones who would rob your home in the future as adults. Ask Northern Nigeria. It sowed the wind of Almajirai, it is harvesting the whirlwind of murderous terrorists.
Martin Luther King Jr said “a riot is the language of the unheard.” Those neighborhood children you don’t care about today are the ones who would rob your home in the future as adults. Ask Northern Nigeria. It sowed the wind of Almajirai, it is harvesting the whirlwind of murderous terrorists.
The South is experiencing youth rebellion now because it abandoned its heritage of good behaviour. Why is compassion dead in Nigeria? What has happened to the ethos we grew up with where it took a village to raise a child? When a nation grows a population of the pauperized, the forgotten and the disdained, it should expect an earthquake.
What did the Lekki protesters do to deserve bullets? Was it their message of hope or their songs of praise? Songs and music are tools of freedom; they bond the disparate and build communities of anger. That explains why 18th century slave owners in some British colonies banned drums which they characterized as weapons.
But they failed. They failed because the human spirit was built to reject oppression. Check the history of the improvised body music, Hambone. When a people feel enough is enough, they always start softly with songs, then they wail. The state cracks down on them and their music, then the poor copy the state and unleash mayhem.
Why would the Nigerian state use thugs and soldiers to attack peaceful protesters? You can’t cheat and oppress and decree silence.
Ancient Sparta had the helots, a caste of slaves who enjoyed no rights but suffered all wrongs. They rebelled.
The country called Haiti is a product of rebellion of slaves against their French owners. There was the year 1318 Peasants’ Revolt in England which won the rebellious serfs more rights and a reform of feudalism.
What history records as the French Revolution of 1789 started precisely as this EndSARS revolt. It started with hunger in homes and abundance in the palace.
Antoinette, Queen of France, was told that her subjects had no bread, and, with scorn, she said: “Let them eat cake.” Hunger and anguish ravaged the people, the palace threw lavish parties. Then followed the Great Fear (la Grande peur), the kind being felt today by Nigeria’s middle and upper classes.
There was an epidemic of hunger across France while the ruling caste dined in ostentation. Only the wise knew that the mass hunger would soon explode as anger in volcanic proportions.
Discontent with the French monarchy was widespread but still no one cared; King Louis XVI’s economic policies were as anti-poor as what you see today in Nigeria. There were poor harvests, drought and disease but the palace lived big. The people begged for reliefs and balms and got scorned.
The king responded to the misery of the people with heavy taxes as palliatives. France’s rural peasants grumbled, the monarchy ignored them; the urban poor protested peacefully, the state shot at their peace.
Desperate French citizens then stormed the Bastille, raged and razed France’s political landscape. They brought la Grande peur. Rioting, looting and killing took over the streets of France. Like Bashorun Gaa, King Louis XVI lost everything, completely.
Some scholars were asked to give a formula for leadership failure. They came up with a single word: arrogance. The arrogance of Antoinette’s ‘Let them eat cake’ was in Buhari’s ‘speechless’ speech of last Thursday. It left the hopeful hopeless.
There were shootings, death and injuries in Lekki and across other protest venues. The president’s speech writer pretended nothing happened. Senator Bola Tinubu, who was aware that Lekki had casualties was casual in dismissing them
There were shootings, death and injuries in Lekki and across other protest venues. The president’s speech writer pretended nothing happened. Senator Bola Tinubu, who was aware that Lekki had casualties was casual in dismissing them: “Those that had suffered casualties during the gunshot need to answer some questions too. How were they there? How long were they there? What kind of characters were they?” What the Asiwaju of Lagos said was worse than Buhari’s silence. He victimized the victims.
Like Brutus’ dagger in Ceaser’s torso, it was the unkindest cut of them all. But such attitude is captured in recent history too.
Uganda, Liberia, Ivory Coast. Egypt’s ex-President Hosni Mubarak suffered arrogance of power. He told anyone who cared to listen that he knew Egypt better than anyone else. His folly ultimately tumbled his plane. He was that Egyptian president blasted by the lightning of the Arab Spring.
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Obinna .
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2020 7:02 PM
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Salimonu Kadiri
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Salimonu Kadiri
Sent: 27 October 2020 04:09
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Are you defending heartless people who would have killed you had you stood in their way as the victims did?
When your role in this historic issue is recalled and perhaps invoked years later through the long memory of the Internet, would that role represent your better self?
It would seem that the time is ripe for some to ask these questions on account of their increasingly desperate withdrawal into arguments that even a secondary school student would not hold.
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Electricity was through solar chargers, to the best of my knowledge.
OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Are you arguing for evidence of violence by protesters there?
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Obinna .
OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari’s Trumpian Propaganda to Cover Up the Lekki Massacre
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Buhari’s Trumpian Propaganda to Cover Up the Lekki Massacre
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2020 7:02 PM
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Salimonu Kadiri
Sent: 27 October 2020 20:48
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Femi Segun
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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Salimonu Kadiri
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
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