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It is in the international charter on Human Rights and, indeed, in the constitution of all civilized countries that everyone has freedom to air his/her opinion.
It is in the international charter on Human Rights and, indeed, in the constitution of all civilized countries that everyone has freedom to air his/her opinion. In other words, there is Freedom of Expression. But in as much as there is provision for rights, there is provision for obligations, and it is a known fact that one's rights terminate where the right of someone else's begins. In essence, the freedom to express one's opinion stops where it brings someone else personality into disrepute.
The right of Iliya Musa Dawayo, who claimed to be an indigene of Yobe and a resident of Damaturu, to express his views on political happenings in his state is not in dispute, the way he, however, did not draw the line between expressing his opinion in an article "Yobe: Dawn of a new beginning" published in Daily Trust of Friday 1, 2007 and attacking the personality of Senator Usman Albishir and Alhaji Adamu Maina Waziri, who are both seeking, at the Elections Tribunal sitting in Damaturu, the upholding of their rights, and battling against what they believe is injustice and presenting what many see as a just case.
In fact, Dawayo and his sponsors' motive for the write-up remains largely unknown, for they need to be asked what is wrong in taking a case that a candidate and an aspirant at an election feel strongly about to a constitutionally recognised medium of adjudication, or do they rather want Albishir or Waziri to resort to violence to have back what they believe was a robbery of a mandate that Mamman Ali is holding on to.
Dawayo, said "the good people of Yobe State have decided and chosen Senator Mamman Ali in concert as their governor, but the cartel that wants to run the state via Albishir cannot give up; with woefully rejected candidate of PDP would not allow Yobe State to move forward….." one is left to wonder the logic behind the reasoning of Dawayo and his co-travellers. Are they afraid of their past, for it is often said that a building, nay anything, on faulty foundation is meant to crumble, or are they surely defending the wishes of the people of the state? It is right to ask them who appointed them the advocate of the people of Yobe? Or are they afraid of the tribunal that is threatening to demolish their so-called mandate built on a house made of a pack of cards, that they have now resorted to acting against known rule of not being pre-judicial.
It is often said that whoever lives in a glass house should not throw stones. As Dawayo praised Ali as a crusader of anti-corruption, he tries, albeit unsuccessfully, to paint Albishir, a demon that dwells in corrupt hell. It is believed that Dawayo is highly educated but was just being mischievous, but if the opposite is the case, he may need to be thought the meaning of corruption and who is seen as being corrupt. But as in the case of the ANPP governorship primaries in Yobe, a loser toed the path of dishonour by not accepting the wishes of the chieftains of his party who voted at the primaries by applying underhand and often time falsification of facts to get the winner denied of his mandate.
Luckily, enough for the loser, he found a willing tool in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), the national leadership of the All Nigeria People Party(ANPP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), who jointly colluded to deny the winner his crown. But unfortunately for them in a society full of wicked people, there is always a few righteous one who could always be approached for succour. The judiciary provides a great example of the righteous one in this instance by upholding justice and asking that justice must be done to Albishir. The demons of doom were, however, not done yet as they make sure he was denied a slot on the ballot papers. No wonder they are out to deny him an avenue to contest should he win at the court and their house of deceit would have been finally demolished.
After all persuasions to Albishir to drop his fight for justice failed, the former governor, Bukar Abba Ibrahim, who has been a close friend of Albishir for over four decades for personal political gains instigated a purported expulsion of his long-term friend from the party. But the path of the wicked is always laid with thorns. In doing their evil machination, they forgot to cover their track well, or how else would you describe their mistake. In the constitution of the ANPP, the power to expel a serving senator lies with the National Executive Council (NEC) which must ratify the decision of the National Working Committee (NWC), but this was not the case in the Albishir's case. Bukar Abba was believed to have connived with a faction of Albishir's Nguru constituency of the party to initiate the so-called expulsion, no wonder well meaning individuals from the constituency, including the party executive, have distanced themselves from the farce, saying it was the orchestration of a few, masterminded by some powerful forces in the state.