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| *Lai Mohammed |
By Ochereome Nnanna
In 1996, when the first phase of the Liberian civil war was ending, one of the warlords, Brigadier General Yormie Johnson (who personally killed former dictator, the late President Samuel Doe) wrote a pamphlet where he recorded his random musings about the war and his philosophical attitudes to some issues connected thereto. He titled the book: The Gun That Liberates Should Not Rule.
His argument is that
a liberator’s role is to remove the problem and then give way to those who have
the capacity to correct it. If the gun that liberates mounts the throne, it
will turn the liberator into a dictator. While most of the warlords who drove
away Doe from power (such as Charles Taylor) jostled for leadership, Johnson
simply came to Lagos the Hague
However, there are
those who would fiercely disagree with Johnson’s argument. They would ask: What
is the point of putting your hide on the line to drive away the perceived source
of a nation’s problems if you cannot pick the courage to show you can do
better? The tendency of most people who participate in getting rid of an
entrenched ruling class is to entertain the feeling of legitmate entitlement to
be part of the government that replaces it. Let’s face it: The 2015
presidential election was historic. The removal of a ruling party from power
through the polls rather than through the gun barrel was hitherto seen as an
impossibility in our political cosmos. But it happened.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed was the voice of the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), which performed the feat of dethroning the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). You and I know that during elections, the truth is usually forced on a compulsory leave by all contestants. What remain are cleverly dressed-up falshood, hyperboles, false promises, false statistics, angelic characterisation of mere mortals and their dressing up in borrowed robes, diversion of attention from things that matter and the playing up of inanities to fool the gullible voter; in short, PROPAGANDA and its sly accoutrements.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed was the voice of the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), which performed the feat of dethroning the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). You and I know that during elections, the truth is usually forced on a compulsory leave by all contestants. What remain are cleverly dressed-up falshood, hyperboles, false promises, false statistics, angelic characterisation of mere mortals and their dressing up in borrowed robes, diversion of attention from things that matter and the playing up of inanities to fool the gullible voter; in short, PROPAGANDA and its sly accoutrements.
