Igboho, Sowore and deliberate provocation

 

By Thirmizhi Imam

The so-called Yoruba Nation agitator - Sunday Igboho and the Sowore of reckless Sahara Reporters will remain in the minds of conscious Nigerians as against of provocation against Muslims.

When the narrow-minded Afenifere went overboard in their desperation to save their ethnic champion, Sahara Reporters made itself a willing tool in this dangerous adventure. Afenifere has been well-known for tribal jingoism and ethnic-biased media campaign for decades. It is therefore clear that both Afenifere and Sowore's anti-Muslim publication was deliberate, in order to provoke Muslims. Their goal in this misadventure, is to hurt the sensitivities if Muslims as part of a calculated plan to destabilize Nigeria.

The raging signatures campaign that Facebook should shut down Sahara Reporters from that social media platform is a lesson for all reckless publishers.

This provocative and disgusting publication by Sahara Reporters, in their desperation to promote the criminally-minded Sunday Igboho is not the first one. In recent past, Sowore's Sahara  Reporters once reported that a Nigerian Muslim leader of the Izala sect - Sheikh Bala Lau was dead. This white lie expectedly annoyed the Nigerian Muslim believers and compelled Sheikh Bala Lau to initiate legal action against Sahara Reporters. Why should Sowore and his Sahara Reporters always be in the forefront of publishing negative and false stories against prominent Nigerian Muslims? Why should they the one taking the lead in promoting ethno-regional campaigns from Sowore's immediate constituency of the Southwest? Why should Sahara Reporters be so abusive of the professional ethics of factual and unbiased reporting of news and events about Nigeria? Going by the events of recent years, it would seem that Sowore, using his Sahara Reporters, has demonstrated the highest form of recklessness by giving prominent mention to primitive, ethno-regional misdaventure of Sunday Igboho. This is unmistakably, the most-disgusting journalism.

Sunday Igboho will go down in history as the man who started a campaign of calumny against a Nigerian government in which they are biggest beneficiaries of policies, programmes and lucrative contracts. It is obvious that the economic benefits derivable from the current administration in the country have been hijacked by Sunday Igboho's ungrateful brothers and sisters. Both the North, Southeast and  Southeastern parts of Nigeria have exhibited maturity with their silence over the brazen domination of benefits accrueable from the Federal Government's economic policies.

It is indeed time to caution the Afenifere troublemakers, who are bent on making a hero out of Sunday Igboho - a man whose name has become synonymous to the disturbance of peace and national unity. It is time to call on the overzealous Sowore and his reckless media company to shed their false toga of ethical journalism by spreading cheap lies and promoting blasphemy. This is utterly unacceptable, discourteous to Muslims and their holy prophet and threatening to national stability. This nonsense must end now.