Taofik Bankole: If El-Rufai was my father

“If you don’t believe what I tweeted, go and do what the army wanted to do and see the consequences” – El-Rufai

Those words, by Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai, in his vain bid to defend his contentious 2012 tweet, still ring and cause aches in my head.

Those words morphed into a zombie and made me have nightmares.

It made my night hell, despite the rain that graciously touched down from the heavens to alleviate the discomfort caused by recent intense heat.

Of course, PHCN or whatever it is they are called, would see the breeze that preceded the rain as an excuse to put the lights out forever. We all know they had been itching to do just that since God made man.

And we’re now to go a whole 30days without electricity? Fantastically wonderful!

Back to El-Rufai. If he was my father?

I would wake up in the morning and not greet him.

I would damn the age-old tradition of having “respect for constituted authority” and tell him he is a huge disappointment.

No, my father can’t possibly have lost his sense of humanity for the sake of self-righteousness, or even worse, tribalism.

I would shudder at the thought that if my mother’s people had a disagreement with my father’s people, he would damn all consequences to see that her people are punished. Just to validate his earlier claims to her that his people are not forgetful and are unforgiving… not even in a million years.

No, my father can’t possibly be so egocentric.

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I would tell him to look in the mirror, search deep within his soul, and challenge his pride to a battle.

I would tell him it’s ok to apologise for going overboard with his sentiments, that he need not have an ego the size of a Titanic despite having a decent frame.

I would hope there comes a day he would realise we are allowed to encourage compassion and forgiveness towards any wrong done to us.

And that preaching love is not such a difficult task.

And though Mr governor is not my father, I sure can tell him that: Sir, your comments, whether you admit it or not, are indeed inciting.