Yesterday, Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu addressed the state following the massacre of innocent civilians at the Lekki toll-gate the previous night. Here’s the speech.
After watching him struggle for over seven minutes to deliver his speech, we were able to pick out some of the stuff we couldn’t just stand. See:
1. The lies
One lie that stands out because of its sheer audacity is the one where he blatantly denies that any lives were lost in the massacre. It’s one thing to say something false when you hold such a high position of authority, and it’s another to openly trivialise the deaths of innocent Nigerian citizens for PR.
This one was really low.
2. The fact that he kept saying “Protestants”
Protestants (noun):
a member or follower of any of the Western Christian Churches that are separate from the Roman Catholic Church in accordance with the principles of the Reformation, including the Baptist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran Churches.
If you want to stand in front of us to lie and ridicule us, at least do it right. Say the right words. Sound like you know what you’re saying. If someone watched this video without having context, they would believe that some form of religious war happened in Lekki that night.
3. The “Out of my control” narrative
So soldiers troop into a state with military-grade war weapons to a place where protesters have gathered for over a week, security cameras are cut, lights go out, and peaceful protesters are killed in cold blood, and the governor looks us in the eyes and says, “Oh shit, I swear I don’t know what happened there. But I’ll ask around and try to find out, don’t worry, xoxo.”
Whether he knew about it or not, it’s a huge problem. Because if something so significant happened in his state and he didn’t know about it, then maybe he just doesn’t have as much knowledge of what’s going on in his state as a governor should.
4. “Give peace a chance”
How can a governor give a speech about the military shooting at innocent civilians and then end his speech by telling the “youth” to “please give peace a chance”? The youth are not the ones shooting, no?
5. The calling on parents and guardians
I have a big problem with this one because it assumes that the people who want to #EndSARS and end bad governance are children who are lost and need a little guidance from their parents to stop being angry, sit at home and take whatever they see.
6. The long pauses
How many times did he just pause and look at the camera?
Why?
7. The cringy thing at the end
“We will rise like the Phoenix from the ashes and see the sun…”
Jide pls.
