Understanding Deji Adeyanju’s false sense of patriotism

By Ibrahim Kabir Dallah

Whether in his personal capacity as ‘Comrade’ Deji Adeyanju or as the convener of Concerned Nigeria, a platform that has concerned itself with doing things that will shame Nigeria irrespective of the angst being erroneously placed, this activist has accelerated his growth as a paid mourner, one who keens to create the impression that a deceased tyrant should be canonized as a saint. Adeyanju futilely tries to cut the image of one interested in a better Nigeria but has in reality outed himself as one whose citizenship should be withdrawn assuming we can find another country willing to accept such scum and waste of space as its citizen.

Being the ranter-in-chief of Rants Republic, Adeyanju’s latest preoccupation is to shift to higher gear in maligning President Muhammadu Buhari over the reported resignation of soldiers. There is nothing new in the unwarranted shading of Mr. President by this ready-for-hire activist, it is well known that he does not take on any cause without the budget and financing lines being first firmly established. What is left to verify is why he continues to flog an influence he does not possess on his unsuspecting clients who still cannot figure out that they are being scammed.

According to Adeyanju in a tweet earlier in the week, “Soldiers are massively resigning from the Army because they don’t believe in the leadership of the current Service Chiefs yet the C-in-C doesn’t give a damn.” This is consistent with the oversimplification of issues in a manner that is insulting to the intellect of the average Nigerian, who is insulted by the suggestion that they are that dumb to be easily incited by the antics of falsehood peddler who is not smart enough to know what he stands for.

This hack sees soldiers “massively resigning” from the army without realizing that 318 is about 0.1% of the 215,000 officers and men in that institution. True, soldiers should not be resigning at a time that their country needs them to wage a crucial war against terrorists but to cry wolf over the significance of the number or resignations is something that has crossed the threshold of irresponsibility and not borders on something else. His abuse of statistics in this regard should not be treated at the product of mischief but should rather be seen for what it is, a compelling lack of the mental capacity to make the right assessment and the absence of the intellectual wherewithal to contextualize issues.

Only such shortcomings will make him blame the service chiefs for the resignations simply because the exiting soldiers cited “loss of interest”. He concluded that they don’t believe in the leadership of the current service chiefs. It is no surprise that Adeyanju was quick to arrive at this conclusion given the previous instances that he has been accused of colluding with foreign elements and interests that are inimical to Nigeria’s long-term stability. He is therefore not willing to acknowledge that these same resigning soldiers are likely his associates on the battlefront, the ones that had been leaking operational intel to terrorists. The so-called activists should have been decent enough to admit that running out of the Army is their way of escaping the reckoning that is to come when they are found out, especially as the likelihood increases on a daily basis that series of successful onslaughts against the terrorists would soon lead to a high profile capture of terrorists commanders, who may spill the beans on the troops that have been aiding them. Adeyanju should rather worry about being found out instead of stoking hate.

Accusing the C-in-C of not giving a damn is an indication of the kind of dysfunctionality that Adeyanju wishes to see in Nigeria, a country where the leader acts on impulse and is reactionary to every clown with internet data and a social media account. That is hardly the hallmark of an ideal leader. Responsible leaders avail themselves of hard facts to make decisions. Where the military is concerned, President Buhari has availed himself of facts, updates, reports from the frontline and the benefit of his own experience as an ex-military man to make decisions. That Adeyanju, whose experience of military maneuver is limited to being in bed with jihadists and terrorists, could fault this principled stand is most unfortunate as it is indicative of how foreign agents of destabilization have planted money loving activists to further their own goals.

When next he is picking up his paycheck from his recruiters, Adeyanju should be honest enough, the kind of honesty that others already possess and he continues to demand it of them, to tell them the truth. The truth that the C-in-C does give a damn. He gives a damn to the extent that he has not allowed the rants of Adeyanju and his associates to distract the team from the prevailing duty of salvaging Nigeria from the death roll in which they were holding it by sponsoring militant and social media terrorists to carry out daily attacks.

It is Adeyanju who must now give a damn. He should awaken to the reality that he may yet have to make refunds for the huge fees he is daily unable to justify. His only achievement is peddling falsehood that has not done much to advance the interest of his clients. If anything, he has thought the public to know that there are people manipulating public perception to make Nigeria appear like a failed state.

While Adeyanju rues his dwindling fortune as fake activist, the rest of us should ponder whether the resignation of the soldiers is not the best thing to have happened to the country. These ones that have “lost interest” in being soldiers may just be the ones that have been losing the war and causing the death of their colleagues.

So, rather than fall into panic as Adeyanju intended, we should be thankful that the undesirables are leaving be Army. They are creating vacancies for patriots who are willing to fight the war against terrorists. Adeyanju does not know this so someone should help educate him.

Dallah is a civil rights activist and wrote this piece from Lafia, Nassarawa State.