There is a famous saying that: “The law is an ass.” It is simply saying that the law, which in any case is not value-free, should not be applied in a rigid or stupid manner that goes against common sense. The Tinubu government should apply the same common sense it displayed on November 4, 2024 when it released the 29 children facing death sentence for public protests by immediately setting Ms Olamide Abiodun Thomas free
OLAMIDE Abiodun Thomas is a nurse. She went out with some protesters in October, 2024 to commemorate the ‘EndSARS’ mass protest against police brutality in which a yet- unverified-number of young people were murdered. The nationwide protests organised by youths which began on October 8, was brought to a brutal and bloody end on October 20, 2020 with the direct intervention of the gallant men of the Nigerian Armed Forces led by an identified General.
It was at this 2024 commemoration held at the Lekki Toll Gate epicentre of the protests Thomas and some youths were attacked by armed policemen. She suffered a direct tear-gas hit. As she gasped for breath, she could be heard in a viral video asking for more water to be poured on her and for ambulance service. She also said the police attack on her was unnecessary as she was fighting for the rights of the Nigerian people. Thomas also cursed those she claimed were trying to take her life by the brutal attack. She mentioned the Inspector General of Police, IGP, Kayode Egbetokun; the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, Spokesman Muyiwa Adejobi; and Seyi Tinubu, the son of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. She swore calamity will befall them and their families.
Obviously, it was not a ‘selfie’ so she didn’t shoot the video. But when the video surfaced, the government seemed enraged. Insult the son of the President? The police went on a hunt for Thomas. Thus, this victim of state brutality was transformed into a dangerous criminal.The police finally captured her on Friday, December 13, 2024 in Shomolu, Lagos and moved its trophy to Abuja.
The NPF accused the lady of cursing the President’s son, Egbetokun and Adejobi. Curse, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is “a solemn utterance intended to invoke a supernatural power to inflict harm or punishment on someone or something”. It further defined it as a “coarse or blasphemous word or phrase used to express anger or strong emotion.”
So, the Police accusation against Thomas is based on superstitious belief. Since Nigeria is a secular, not a theocratic state, I didn’t understand how a citizen can be arrested for cursing.
But I had not reckoned that the police under Egbetokun is an ingenious force that can nail anybody, including an angel.
Adejobi laid out the charge against the lady thus: “Raining direct curses on someone online is cyber-bullying, not expression of freedom or criticism. And cyber-bullying, which is even different from defamation, is a criminal offence and punishable.”
This indeed is novel and I think the Federal Government needs to recall the draft 2025 National Budget from the National Assembly because it did not make provision for the mass construction of prisons in the country. This is necessary because cursing is common at our bus stops, motor parks, and our roads. It is not uncommon seeing motorists cursing themselves. Such people should simply go to jail. In fact, we will need to triple the entire N49.7 trillion 2025 Budget because the number of Nigerians who curse daily may run into millions. There are in fact, nationalities in Nigeria for whom cursing is a part of their culture.
May I respectfully point out to the IGP that he needs to arrest a lot of soldiers as he has arrested Thomas because a lot of their songs during exercises contain curses. There is this one I have seen on some videos that goes: “Dansada ai, dansada burobaka!” It means that the police, which by the way, they regard as ‘women’ are idiots.
I am convinced that if Seyi Tinubu were the son of an akara(bean cake) seller in Gbagi Market or okpa trader in Onitsha Market, Thomas would not have been arrested. Her crime is that the person she insulted is the son of our dear President.
Let me state that there is nothing unique in a person being charged for cursing or disrespecting a sovereign. It is actually part of our history. Under colonialism, the shortest route to prison was to insult the British crown. In one of the most famous cases, Mallam Habib Raji Abdallah, a nationalist, was sent straight to prison for two years in the late 1940s for saying: “I have nothing against the person of George VI of England. But I hate the crown of Britain with all my heart because to me and my country men, it is a symbol of oppression, a symbol of persecution, and in short, a material manifestation of iniquity…I hate the Union Jack because, save Britain, wherever it goes, far from uniting, it creates a division. It feeds and flourishes on confusion and dissension. We must, therefore, have no more place for it in our hearts-this ugly representation of that satanic institution, imperialism.”
After independence, it became almost unthinkable for any Nigerian to be arrested for insulting or cursing a Nigerian leader, his spouse or children. Even under the cumulative 29 years of military misrule, Nigerians feared no repercussion for such act.
For me, the best display of this freedom was under President Goodluck Jonathan. Apart from frequently insulting him, his wife was the butt of jokes. My old teacher, Professor Wole Soyinka, is the best representation of the tolerance of that era. He had described the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan’s appearance in unflattering terms. At a press conference, Prof said his last word to her was: “Be a lady first, before being a First Lady; in fact, you cannot be a First Lady, without being a lady.” He described her as “…an unelected person, a mere domestic appendage of power…” The Nobel Laureate then added: “I am calling on the President now openly, publicly, please curb the excesses of your wife; (your) wife is an unconstitutional being…”
However, the All Progressives Congress, APC, administration under President Muhammadu Buhari would not tolerate such insolence from Nigerians. When in 2022, a student, Aminu Adamu, made an uncomplimentary tweet about the physical appearance of First Lady Aisha Buhari, he was abducted in Jigawa State on November 18, 2022, severely beaten, tortured and held in solitary confinement, then thrown into prison. When Nigerians rose in unison against the maltreatment of Adamu, he was taken before Mrs Buhari, and he apologised to her in a series of tweets.
There is a famous saying that: “The law is an ass.” It is simply saying that the law, which in any case is not value-free, should not be applied in a rigid or stupid manner that goes against common sense. The Tinubu government should apply the same common sense it displayed on November 4, 2024 when it released the 29 children facing death sentence for public protests by immediately setting Ms Olamide Abiodun Thomas free.
*Lakemfa writes from Abuja
