Spread the love
The political trial of Hon. Abdullahi Ibrahim Halims has taught me many things I have kept in my brain-bag for life.
1. Character is returning to politics and political behavior:
In a world mired by judgemental people who forget every side of the story but hold on to one side of the story and forget their own shortcomings before making judgements about others; you need a friend (s) who will come through for you. You need a friend who would say, “hey man, I don’t know how deep this hole is, but we are going it together, if we die, we die”.
Most times in life, at the moment of our strife when laid on the cross for crucifixion, that is when we would know those who would stay to help push up our feet to see that we die a comfortable death or we would know those who have longed waited to see that we die because they’ve always questioned our living. Edward Onoja and Gov. Yahaya Bello has shown this. They didn’t jump ship. It is a strong message for the future and what is to come.
2. I have learnt that no matter how many people sing your worship songs and praise your character today, when an army of people rise against you, that is when their belief in the worship songs and prayers are tested.
I see how many of those who have shared his fliers online kept an absolute quiet when his case came up because they were worried about their own reputation.
I remember when many people cautioned me when I wrote an article questioning the implication of Halims in this case especially after he had won the primary elections even though those alleged criminals have been incarcerated for long. In painment for me, he was only implicated by a written statement. It means, somebody in jail somewhere today can just write my name in their statement to say I supplied them ammunition for robbery and the Police would just pick me up, parade me before the cameras to desecrate my humanity and I’d be destroyed even without trial or evidence.
I saw their caution, I looked into my own humanity and I cringed at how people would allow others burn for what candle they are even afraid to be lit in their own names. I tested my own resolve.
Halims is that kind of man that you’d put a call across to that you’re in Lokoja and the first question he’d ask you is “do you have a place to stay”? At one time, he charged at me for not calling him so he’d ask they give me a room in his hotel to stay. I don’t do that always because it is not comfortable, he runs a business and not a charity home.
I am not from Ankpa, I am just one social media influencer many people talk about and Halims is extending this benevolence. Besides that, I admire Halims strongly, amongst the politicians that has been in power, he stayed back in the state to contribute. He offers services, employs Kogites, the ones their friends and families would stay on social media somewhere in Abuja to type “there is no smoke without fire” about because someone somewhere fingers him in criminality without any evidence.
For me, I do not care if he is guilty or not, I would look at him from the shade of humanity he has shown me and the state I am so passionate about.
So if Halims is burning on this day, why should he burn alone when I have been part of his days of peace?
3. Many Good can be swallowed by one Evil because the heart of people are wicked:
Life is a pot of beans. Sometimes you can find cockroaches in it and have it eaten without knowing. On the day Halims was raised up for crucifixion, why did the town suddenly forget all his good deeds, the popular “humanitarian” tag some Kogi youths wear on people just to constantly fleece them of their monies. The deceit. The hails to pocket-plunder strategy. How can all he has done for you, his people and your people be swallowed all up in one day for something you, yourself cannot vouch if it is correct or not?
I thought even the Holy Quran admonishes that we do plenty good so that it can swallow our shortcomings? So in the moment of your adversity, especially when the world is against you, many people would forget every of your past sacrifices, they would forget the battles you fought for them, the grief your shared with them, they would become “community moralists” to extol their own self righteous character by hanging who everyone is hanging. But in the closet of their lives, we find rapists, we find thieves in religious garbs, we find women adulterators. We find witches and wizard who send turbulence into the lives of others in the spirit. They are part of those who tried to hang Halims.
4. “Halims is stingy”:
This is the popular phrase around town, especially the youths who can’t hustle him anymore. But I kept asking. Unlike those politicians without any visible businesses or those into shady dealings that Kogi youths wear the “humanitarian” tag on their necks so they can fleece them, how can Halims be like them when he stays in the state, draws survival from his businesses in hotels and filling stations, amongst other businesses sharing the same economy with everyone? If you say the economy is bad, why can’t it be bad for Halims?
How can someone who you accuse of rituals also be stingy? How can Halims be into rituals for blood money and he can also be stingy? How can he always be at his office in Lokoja, over seeing his businesses directly when he has one human being somewhere in his room that vomits crisp naira notes every time he needs money?
5. The stench of Backward Mentality in Igala Land:
Why do we think that because many people are lazy in Igala land, waiting for their Uncles and Government to give them jobs, others cannot survive legitimately doing other things without the way we think money can be made? Why is this hate to demonize what we don’t understand?
As you know, I can research even into the heart of the devil. I was scooping information about Halims some weeks ago. A friend of his who was his class mate revealed that as it when Halims left secondary school, young as he was, he already had a car and was married. He worked at Enugu. He was that kind of person with daring greatness. Someone who chose the path of his life from many years ago.
I see people who don’t even have half his service record, having opinions about him. I see many people say, “I wonder how these men spend their monies without any source of income”, but can you say this of a man who has been around for a long time?
6. Politics has no Morality:
This is a hard fact. If Halims was framed, it would be by people whose hearts have been mixed with coal and left for trailers to smoothen. Because of political position, someone can take the life and generation of someone and place it in flames. They can kill you openly or secretly. The heart of man is desperately wicked. So we need to know of this and be aware.
As for Halims, nobody would take responsibilities for his own frailty tomorrow. You won’t share his sins with him. None of you would. But your self righteousness and hanging of his name of life’s toils because of politics, especially on grounds no one at all is sure reflects the type of mind you have. It tells a story about why we are where we are as Igalas. It tells a thing or two about the message of hardwork we preach to our youths. It tells much about how we understand our own shortcomings. It tells how much we think that we are better than others because their own sins are different from ours and then it puts the final dot on what poverty mentality, witchcraft and Pull-him-down can do.
As you keep those things flying, recall that he is a husband of a wife, a father of children, a friend of humans, a contributor to life to say “you’re not alone in this race”, he is also a human like you. Every thing you aspire, he has such dreams. As you’re casting the stone, just the next minute, you could be next in line and in the moment of your own grief, you may not even have his type of strength to survive it.
You will be gone with all the make-belief-righteous life you try to make us believe you have. You would go without the opportunity for us to know the true stories.
Life is a pot of beans, anyone can be served a proton someday.
Hon. Halims, live again. Only God can judge you, me, ordinary human? I lack the capacity. Stay strong.
– Promise Emmanuel (Kogi Rebel)
Spread the love
