Years ago, I watched a recording of the live performance of Ola Rotimi’s famous 1971 play Kurumi, starring the formidable thespian, the late Jimi Solanke, as Kurumi himself. It was a long time ago, but one scene still stands out in my memory: when the tortoise is heading for a senseless journey, and you say to him, “Brother Tortoise, Brother Tortoise, when will you be wise and come back home?” The tortoise will reply: Not until I have been disgraced!” That scene was made especially memorable because of the talking drummers on the stage who sonorously re-echoed the last part of that proverb with their drums, “…Disgraced! Disgraced! Not until I have been disgraced!” If I can find those drummers, I’d like to hire them and have them replay that part again, this time in front of the DSS headquarters. Following DSS’ announcement that they are suspending their “cyberbullying” case against news publisher, social activist, and AAC presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, they will deserve such derision.
If there is an organisation that repeatedly plays the role of “brother tortoise” in its hounding of an individual, it is the DSS. For some reason, it never seems to think through its tactics, and so they return from the legal front covered in dirt, dust, and disgrace. The saga that culminated in its latest battle began with taking umbrage at Sowore’s describing Bola Tinubu as “criminal”, which—as far as I am concerned—is not the most outrageous thing one can say to a president, but the DSS took it personally. When threats to make him take down the post did not work, it issued an ultimatum to Meta, Inc., demanding that it remove the post and deactivate Sowore’s Facebook page. The DSS threatened “far-reaching consequences” if Meta failed to comply immediately. As I pointed out then, those corporations are headquartered in a country where social media users routinely describe their president as “felon” (along with other names too indecorous to print), and the heavens do not fall. Nobody’s social media account has been deactivated for insulting the US president; why would they do so for one small-minded leader of a banana republic elsewhere? Of all the things bothering Nigeria and which should be high up on the DSS’ priority list, why this? It did not listen. The DSS filed a five-count criminal charge at the Federal High Court in Abuja, naming Meta and X Corp as co-defendants.
