By Fred Chukwuelobe
Mocking the dead or mourning them is a personal choice. It has nothing to do with tribe or race. People react to the dead as they consider best. If the dead had a positive impact on their lives while alive, they mourn. Conversely, they rejoice or do none of the two. It is an individual choice to join in mocking the dead or in mourning the dead. It has nothing to do with Igbos as a people as some tribal irredentists have insinuated following former President Muhammadu’s death. People should not take their hatred for Igbos out on them at the slightest chance.
When former Head of State, late Gen. Sani Abacha died, people poured out into the streets of Lagos and elsewhere celebrating; mocking his death. Nobody tagged only Igbos to it. It was considered a nationwide reaction because those who have made it their duty to scapegoat Igbos felt entitled to join.
I recall getting ready for one of my Master’s Degree examination papers then when the news broke. I recall our lecturer rushing into the examination hall excitedly with the news. He kept jumping up and down in wild ecstasy, and asked us if we would like to go on with the examination or join in the wild celebration mocking the dead. We unanimously voted to suspend the examination and join in the celebration. Our lecturer was Edo. Our class was largely populated by Southerners.
The bulk of those rejoicing were those angry that Abacha played a key role in the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election believed to have been won by late Chief MKO Abiola. Nobody accused the Igbos, the Yorubas or the Hausa/Fulani of mocking the dead. We were united in the mockery.
Let’s come back to the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari and the response of a cross-section of Nigerians to the news.
There have been reports of celebrations by many people across the country, particularly on social media. There’s a video circulating online showing a jubilant crowd in Buhari’s native State of Katsina mocking him in death. Nobody has attacked them for mocking the dead. They are entitled to do so.
I have read a couple of scathing criticisms from some of our Yoruba friends abusing Igbos for mocking Buhari. It didn’t bother them if a few Igbo people were replicating what many of their people did in Abacha’s case. They have Igbophobia and it keeps eating them up. Thank God not all Yorubas are that silly.
To this set of tribal bigots, it has always been their lot to attack Igbos on anything that does not align with their thoughts and political gains. To them, Buhari aligned with their brother, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and by larger political calculations, with the Yorubas, making it possible for Buhari to become president and paving the way for their brother, Tinubu to succeed him. Therefore, irrespective of whatever shortcomings Buhari had as president – and there are many of them – he remained a hero to them. Anybody who says anything negative about him is automatically branded an enemy of the Yorubas by these bigots.
Let me make it clear: any Igbo man who feels compelled to rejoice over the death of Buhari has the right to do so. The late president hated the Igbo people. Igbo people hated him too. The hatred was mutual. Some Igbo people benefited from his administration despite the mutual hatred. Many others didn’t. Let each group choose how to respond to his passing. He called Igbo “dot in the circle,” whatever that means. He had nothing quotable to say throughout his life except to take umbrage at Igbo people.
I will not rejoice over his death nor will I mourn him. The reason is that, to me, neither makes any sense. He doesn’t know who is mourning him or who is rejoicing. Those alive who ought to learn a lesson or two on how people react to his demise won’t learn. It is not in the character of the typical Nigerian, particularly the political class, to learn any such lessons. Instead, they will make political gains out of it and make money organising his obsequies.
I read some scathing criticisms on Facebook by one Bode Mebude, a self-styled “Lead Canvasser
Western Region Revival Council.” According to the tribal bigot, in his hate piecd entitled “THE IBOS MUST STOP THIS HATRED!” Right now the internet is on fire, not because we lost our former president but the caustic vituperative comments on social media posted by mostly Igbos rejoicing in the death of President Buhari are repulsive!
The level of that heartlessness is what can blow up the country when translated into the Hausa language or forwarded to mainstream Hausa media.
We pray that the almajiris will not see them, otherwise the north will be too scorching for non-Hausas in Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and other towns, to the extent that the innocent ones won’t be spared.
The most annoying part is DJ Switch’s foul language and curses referring to Buhari as a motherf$$$!.
Even, these sons and daughters of hate descended on President Tinubu begging their cursed deities to kill him next after Buhari?
Well, to let you know, Tinubu will not die and by the special grace of our Alaales, he will complete his 8 years in sound health and live to see his enemies die one by one.
Mark you, there’s no going back on Nigeria’s return to regional governance or patapata every region will go their separate ways, so that any non Yoruba will require a visa to enter Lagos and if you have any property in Lagos, you can carry it to your state, as we are tired of cohabiting with criminals who flooded southwest in numbers daily.
It’s only the Yorubas that believe in one Nigeria than any other region, and with what is trending hotly on social media about the mockery of Buhari even in death, it must serve as a lesson to us in the southwest.
Sleep well brave heart, President Buhari.”
I feel pity for this Bode Mebude. I feel pity for those who have shared these misguided and idiOt outbursts on social media. When he and his ilk were rejoicing over the death of Abacha, he didn’t see anything wrong with that. He didn’t incite the North against the Igbos. He now sees an opportunity to do so because, to the bigot, Buhari is well-liked by the talakawas in the North, and his death and the reactions of some Igbos are another opportunity to scapegoat Igbos and score some cheap political gains; to pitch Igbos against the core North, and make some political gains out of it for his tribe. How ingenious!
To him and those who share in this climate of hate that eats them up: Igbos care less. Spew whatever you will, some Igbos have the right to express their feelings over Buhari’s death however they want. Just like nobody was gaslighted for rejoicing over Abacha’s case, nobody should over Buhari’s.
Death is one of the three constants of life. Everybody, including tribal bigots like Bode Mebude, will die one day. Let’s use our lives to impact on people, so that when we pass, their actions won’t hurt those they leave behind. They are the ones feeling the pains of the mockery and not the dead.
As for those Igbo people who feel the need to rejoice over Buhari’s death, it is their freedom to exercise such behaviours. The Igbos must not be scapegoated once again for making that decision.
If Nigeria decides today to return to “regional governance,” as Bode Mebude boasted in his hate speech, the Igbos will be more than willing to accept it.
