WHEN SILENCE IS NO LONGER GOLDEN: SPEAK OUT AGAINST VIOLENCE IN YANA/MAINLAND AREA.
At the Stakeholders Forum of the All Progressive Congress , APC in the party Secretariat, Acme road, Ogba, Lagos last Tuesday, the leading light of the party, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu made it abundantly audible to the deaf and visible to the blind that any variant of violence must be eschewed by party faithfuls by any means necessary- apologies to Malcolm X. According to the Ashiwaju, incident of violent clash leading to the death of a party member in one LGA is highly condemnable. He enjoined members that the forthcoming LGA polls is an electoral contestation for the cohesion of the party and holistic development of the State and not a warfare.
Curiously, before this forum another rising sun of the party in Yaba/Mainland area, Comrade Wale BALOGUN has initiated peace process amongst warring factions in that community. This aptly confirms the well known fact that great minds think alike. The internecine violence has been on for more than a decade stoked, manipulated and used by unscrupulous persons for their devious and sometimes, greedy machinations. It is the type of sub-social stratum violence that is complicated and compounded. It revolves round self determination groups, confraternity associations, members of road transport unions and several lumpen grouplets disrupting businesses, communal fellowship and cooperation, social recreation as well as leading to the death of close to a hundred persons . In Apapa road, Otto, Oyingbo axis close to fifty persons were gruesomely killed while in Sango,Yaba, Makoko, Alagomeji, Iwaya, Abule Ijesha and Abule Oja more than forty innocent lives were cruelly and dastardly wasted. Thus, the peace moves by Wale BALOGUN was not only a step in the right direction but equally desired by all warring parties and long awaited. More importantly, peace is a vital desideratum for development and good governance.
After months of laborious efforts, sometimes at personal risk, BALOGUN finally brokered a comprehensive peace session on Friday, 12th. May at Iwaya. It was resolved to consolidate on the peace moves with another meeting in Sango axis on Sunday, 14th. May which would signalled to the entire community that there is peace at last.
Any reasonable, sane thinking person would expect that this peace initiative would be supported, deepened and fast tracked by all statesmen and community elders irrespective partisan colouration, religion, ethnic divides or even ideological differences knowing that protection of collective interest is the supreme law for communal survival and growth.
However, a well revered political leader in the same area, Hon. JIDE Jimoh must have read, be misinformed or misinterpreted the hand writing of this peace moves on the wall. In any case, Jay Jay ( not Okocha) as he is popularly called is an "honourable man". Hopefully not like. Brutus in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It is widely reported that this leader of the party in the area, by the virtue of his position as current member of House of Representative has asserted that if there would be any peace process, it can only be initiated by himself. This is very commendable because indeed elders are best suited to put down violent conflagration ravaging sons and daughters of any community. Despite admitting the existence of violent factions, he vowed to scuttle the peace process initiated by Comrade Wale BALOGUN . Haba, elders can not be in a market place while a new born baby has an oblong head me!!!
This write up would not have been necessary if Hon. Jimoh's has been empty bereft of the show of negative, brute force last Saturday. At the commemoration of the Lagos@50 in Evans square, Yaba by the Local Government, Jay Jay stormed the environs with armed, gun totting youth who shot sporadically with reckless abandonment just like the dreaded Book Haram sect forcing people to run helterskelter. Thankfully, no one died , many wounded and traumatized. Real time as a popular lyrics goes " they were not shooting bangas but sophisticated guns". Jay Jay threatened that the peace session scheduled for Sunday in Sango axis must not take place or the entire community must be prepared for bloodbath.
There is a wise saying that there is a time to keep and time to speak, we are at the auspicious juncture to speak out. Jay Jay has always been a parasitic political merchant in the corridor of power.
Unequivocally call on well meaning Mainlanders, traditional, religion leaders , CDA, traders, artesans, workers, youth and party stalwarts must constructively team up to clip the blood thirsty fangs of Hon. JIDE Jimoh before he becomes a hawk catching, nay, killing hapless in broad day light. It is time to speak out and rally round the peace move initiated by Comrade Wale BALOGUN in Yaba Mainland area.
At the Stakeholders Forum of the All Progressive Congress , APC in the party Secretariat, Acme road, Ogba, Lagos last Tuesday, the leading light of the party, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu made it abundantly audible to the deaf and visible to the blind that any variant of violence must be eschewed by party faithfuls by any means necessary- apologies to Malcolm X. According to the Ashiwaju, incident of violent clash leading to the death of a party member in one LGA is highly condemnable. He enjoined members that the forthcoming LGA polls is an electoral contestation for the cohesion of the party and holistic development of the State and not a warfare.
Curiously, before this forum another rising sun of the party in Yaba/Mainland area, Comrade Wale BALOGUN has initiated peace process amongst warring factions in that community. This aptly confirms the well known fact that great minds think alike. The internecine violence has been on for more than a decade stoked, manipulated and used by unscrupulous persons for their devious and sometimes, greedy machinations. It is the type of sub-social stratum violence that is complicated and compounded. It revolves round self determination groups, confraternity associations, members of road transport unions and several lumpen grouplets disrupting businesses, communal fellowship and cooperation, social recreation as well as leading to the death of close to a hundred persons . In Apapa road, Otto, Oyingbo axis close to fifty persons were gruesomely killed while in Sango,Yaba, Makoko, Alagomeji, Iwaya, Abule Ijesha and Abule Oja more than forty innocent lives were cruelly and dastardly wasted. Thus, the peace moves by Wale BALOGUN was not only a step in the right direction but equally desired by all warring parties and long awaited. More importantly, peace is a vital desideratum for development and good governance.
After months of laborious efforts, sometimes at personal risk, BALOGUN finally brokered a comprehensive peace session on Friday, 12th. May at Iwaya. It was resolved to consolidate on the peace moves with another meeting in Sango axis on Sunday, 14th. May which would signalled to the entire community that there is peace at last.
Any reasonable, sane thinking person would expect that this peace initiative would be supported, deepened and fast tracked by all statesmen and community elders irrespective partisan colouration, religion, ethnic divides or even ideological differences knowing that protection of collective interest is the supreme law for communal survival and growth.
However, a well revered political leader in the same area, Hon. JIDE Jimoh must have read, be misinformed or misinterpreted the hand writing of this peace moves on the wall. In any case, Jay Jay ( not Okocha) as he is popularly called is an "honourable man". Hopefully not like. Brutus in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It is widely reported that this leader of the party in the area, by the virtue of his position as current member of House of Representative has asserted that if there would be any peace process, it can only be initiated by himself. This is very commendable because indeed elders are best suited to put down violent conflagration ravaging sons and daughters of any community. Despite admitting the existence of violent factions, he vowed to scuttle the peace process initiated by Comrade Wale BALOGUN . Haba, elders can not be in a market place while a new born baby has an oblong head me!!!
This write up would not have been necessary if Hon. Jimoh's has been empty bereft of the show of negative, brute force last Saturday. At the commemoration of the Lagos@50 in Evans square, Yaba by the Local Government, Jay Jay stormed the environs with armed, gun totting youth who shot sporadically with reckless abandonment just like the dreaded Book Haram sect forcing people to run helterskelter. Thankfully, no one died , many wounded and traumatized. Real time as a popular lyrics goes " they were not shooting bangas but sophisticated guns". Jay Jay threatened that the peace session scheduled for Sunday in Sango axis must not take place or the entire community must be prepared for bloodbath.
There is a wise saying that there is a time to keep and time to speak, we are at the auspicious juncture to speak out. Jay Jay has always been a parasitic political merchant in the corridor of power.
Unequivocally call on well meaning Mainlanders, traditional, religion leaders , CDA, traders, artesans, workers, youth and party stalwarts must constructively team up to clip the blood thirsty fangs of Hon. JIDE Jimoh before he becomes a hawk catching, nay, killing hapless in broad day light. It is time to speak out and rally round the peace move initiated by Comrade Wale BALOGUN in Yaba Mainland area.