I read Dr. Olu Fasan’s lengthy opinion on the backpage of Businessday of 14th January 2019 “Buhari is Nigeria’s most arrogant yet inept leader”. It is clear Dr. Fasan has his mind made up on President Buhari’s performance or lack thereof. That such an article was written should be an opportunity for the President and his communication team to look inward and communicate the Presidents achievements better, sadly they are unlikely to do that as they struggle with selling a candidate who is not eager to be sold.
That said, Dr. Fasan committed a grave error in his article and I would like for the records to be set straight regarding the highly infectious double 4 fingered sign to which Dr. Fasan is quite irritated by. According to Dr. Fasan, he gave two reasons for his irritation.
First he views the sign as presumptuous and arrogant. He goes on to state the Buhari presidency has been internationally-adjudged to be a failure even though he didn’t provide any proof to support this international judgement. Dr. Fasan expects President Buhari to show humility in asking to be nominated and sees the continued raising of the double 4 fingered sign as arrogance on the part of the President and his supporters. He ends by saying it is provocative and insensitive!
Personally I do not find the sign presumptuous or arrogant and definitely do not see the provocation contained in the double 4 fingered sign. The President is seeking re-election, he has a base of support and I believe he was communicating to his base. I will leave the President’s men to defend their candidate and to tell Dr. Fasan all the good things he is doing or has done. I encourage all other candidates to come up with their own signs and get their own bases fired up! On the issue of humility, I am not sure there is an existing humility template for Nigerian politicians and would have expected Dr. Fasan to give us some examples and help the President be more humble.
Dr. Fasan further painted a disastrous outcome for Nigeria if President Buhari is re-elected and ended this section by saying “anyone expecting a miracle from a Buhari second term is living in cloud-cuckoo-land”. Well as for me I am under no illusion that President Buhari is a miracle worker, I have seen no record of any miracles happening in Daura or Abuja so I think my expectations are firmly earthly. I really do hope the President’s men can respond to Dr. Fasan’s article with facts and not the DSS!
What worried me the most about Dr. Fasan’s article was his assertion that President Buhari’s double 4 fingered sign is the same as the 4 fingered Rabaa or Rabbi’ah sign of the Muslim Brotherhood, who according to Dr. Fasan, is an Islamist group accused of terrorist activities..That hit me like a molue!
According to Wikipedia and I quote “Rabaa or Rabbi’ah sign (/ˈrɑːb(i)ə, ˈræ-, -bɑː/; Egyptian Arabic: [ˈɾɑbʕɑ]; sometimes stylized as R4BIA) or, less commonly, Rab3a, is a hand gesture and a sign that first appeared in late August 2013, thought to be originated from Turkey[1] and used in social media and protest marches in Egypt. It is used by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters in Egypt in the wake of the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, which occurred after anti-government protests calling for his removal. On July 9, 2014, a Brotherhood-affiliated organization declared August 14, the day when the sit-ins were dispersed, “World Rabia Day,” in an attempt to garner support across numerous countries.
The sign is named after the Rabaa al-Adawiya Square in Nasr City, Cairo Governorate, which surrounds the Rabaa al-Adawiya Mosque, where a sit-in was held by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration. The sit-in lasted for about forty days before it was dispersed by security forces, leading to clashes that resulted in 638 deaths, of which 43 were police officers.
Supporters state that the gesture is used to express solidarity with what they call “the thousands wounded, killed and burnt by the Egyptian Army” during the dispersal of their sit-in. The origin of the sign is unknown.
Critics of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Morsi Government allege that the sign implies indirect support for terrorism, due to the sign’s use being mostly limited to persons supportive of the Brotherhood, which has been designated a terrorist organization by Egypt. On the other hand, supporters of the Brotherhood, whether inside or outside Egypt, believe the gesture represents freedom and persistence. They also deny any association with terrorism.
Egyptian and non-Egyptian politicians, mostly supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood, are regularly seen making the Rabia gesture, which is identical to one common gesture for the number four. Among these politicians is Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan.”
The gesture according to Wikipedia “is identical to a gesture for the number four, and is made by raising four fingers of either hand (preferably the right hand) and folding the thumb.”In my opinion, the Rabba sign could be adjudged closer to the Black power sign and President Buhari’s sign is clearly not the same sign or am I missing something here?
Dr. Fasan’s claim that President Buhari’s sign is the same as the Rabba sign is false and he should please come out boldly to retract the article. Dr. Fasan’s article has the potential to raise religious tension in an already tense country. President Buhari’s sign is not the same as the Rabba and I am sure Dr. Fasan knows this but for reasons best known to him he went ahead to publish this falsehood. I am sure there are those who will disagree with the classification of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization but let us leave that for another day. The Editorial team at BusinessDay needs to do some fact checking before publishing stories, even from highly qualified individuals. #nomorefakenews!
Olumayowa O. Babatunde
Babatunde is a sales & marketing professional residing in Lagos
