By Bayo Oluwasanmi

These hired goons were non-Nigerians: African Americans, Indians, Asians, Puerto Ricans, Caucasians. They were paid between $50 and $500 per hour.

Members of Self-determination for Oduduwa Nation, Maryland, USA, last Friday travelled to New York to rally against General Muhammadu Buhari, The Butcher of Aso Rock who was in New York for the UN General Assembly.

We arrived on time at 2nd Avenue, New York where the Consulate General of Nigeria is located, and a stone’s throw from the UN building. On the other side of the street, adjacent to the Consulate General was rent-a-crowd for One Nigeria paid for by Buhari’s regime. They dressed in T-Shirts and baseball caps emblazoned with Nigerian map in green and white colours. They looked vacant, lost, and behaved like Satanic conspirators. These hired goons were non-Nigerians: African Americans, Indians, Asians, Puerto Ricans, Caucasians. They were paid between $50 and $500 per hour.

They carried placards that read “One Nigeria,” “Unity in Diversity,” “Nigeria: A Great Nation,” etc. They shouted “Sai Baba,” “One Nigeria,” “One nation, one people.” They appeared like confused opium addicts in a dark carnival. Chanting “Sai Baba” “Sai Baba” endlessly, they sounded incoherent, disoriented, unintelligible, like they were suffering from induced brain change.

In their T-Shirts and caps they look like gorillas in clown suits, chimpanzees in tuxedos. Some of them staggered about the side walk like people after too many Irish whiskeys. It was an interesting blend of stupidity and disinformation. Lurching wildly, and uncomfortably, back and forth, they put a street show between comedy, melodrama, and tragedy. They gave contradictory explanation of what Buhari stands for. It was a creative anachronism. You have to enlarge your reality-tunnel to accommodate the dramatic scene.

We approached them. We asked them if they were Nigerians. They said no. We asked them why they carried placards in support of Buhari. They said they were hired by Buhari to rally for him. We showed them our placards with gory pictures of Nigerians that were killed, decapitated bodies from the genocide masterminded by Buhari. We explained the true situation of things in Nigeria. We told them the butcher of Nigerians had hired them to sing his praises. They admitted they were ignorant of the atrocities of Buhari regime.

We dashed across the street to number 828, the Consulate General of Nigeria. We made our grievances known with placards messages like “There is no one Nigeria,” Fulani are killing our people,” Buhari is a terrorist,” “End Nigeria now and save lives,” “UN, your silence is killing us,” “Referendum NOW!” Our crowd went agog with songs in Yoruba accompanied by talking drums. The message became potent and indelible.

We briskly made a quick stop at the street very close to UN building. Ugandas and Bangladeshis were already there protesting. It is instructive to note that with the exception of Nigerian government, no governments of the two countries rented a crowd to counter the genuine demonstrations of their people.

Renting a crowd by Buhari wouldn’t seem out of place given the deceitful political drama House of Cards of The Butcher of Aso Rock. Buhari rented the crowd to help generate a positive reception at the UN General Assembly. The concern was ensuring Buhari was portrayed as progressive democrat, a unifier, a visionary, a kind, warm, compassionate, and generous leader. Buhari wants to give the illusion of popularity among Nigerians. But the world knows Buhari is a dictator, a tyrant, a nepotist, and author of ethnic cleansing. Rented crowd generates fake enthusiasm of a flash mob. Buhari wants to create illusion of grassroots support for his terror regime. Few hoaxes work that way.

Rent a crowd deceives the public. Any president who uses them is a rogue. It questions the authenticity of Buhari as a person and as a leader. Rent-a-crowd has once more exposed Buhari as a phony, fake, fraudulent bigot.

bjoluwasanmi@gmail.com

Culled from the Sahara Reporters