I condemn crimes of any kind. I condemn the crime of rape, and i condemn the crime of false accusation too. However, my many years on the left side of life before I started going right (as I wasted in naivety, communicating my nuisance-value with confident ignorance) has taken from me the right to act as judge over any human being. In the contents of my first 26yrs on earth alone, I totally lost my right to judge another. The foolishness of many have taken the unfair position of sharing in the public domain why Busola Dakolo’s history does not give her the locus standi to make the accusation she is making. Many more weak minds make the position that Biodun Fatoyinbo’s history has taken from him the right to defend himself in an allegation of rape. Well, I know of many men and women, of which I am one, that if the contents of our history is to be meted with the justice it deserves, the millions who benefit from the today value we represent will have to seek the same value elsewhere or never have it; as we would have been shot or jailed before we were 30. I am living the rest of my life in gratitude to my maker for stretching my life beyond the judgments I deserve and extending me a brand new life of so much meaning, purpose and power! It has therefore become my sacred duty to watch out for this redemptive experience in all human situations as much as I can; and to, in my most unguarded pragmatism, look to the rule of law to offer comfort in times of complex ambiguity.
I know for certain that few will deny that in Adolf Hitler evil was personified. His name is the yardstick against which we judge the grossest of human cruelties. The nature of his character and the depths of his depravity remains the key burden of many minds till date. Many authors have attempted an analysis of this demonic figure, who perpetrated what many consider to be the worst outbreak of evil in the 20th century. Hitler finally killed himself on 30 April 1945 in his Fuhrerbunker in Berlin. Yet, despite the lethality of his unprecedented evil, if he had been arrested in 1945 by Allied forces, he will most likely still be tried in the courts of law; and the world will have to endure patiently the due process of the rule of law before they can find the closure they seek through the capital punishment Hitler will be sentenced to. The world knew the truth of his evil…but he will still be given a fair trial for what equity is worth. This is justice!
No matter the weight of a crime, the accused actor in it will remain innocent until proven guilty; and for many years, civilization has continued to celebrate this standard in the defence of equity and justice. However, a Post-Truth era is working relentlessly to ensure objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion. Rather, appeals to emotion and personal belief are fast becoming today’s new gods. Feelings (as represented by emotions and pain) are the new tools of “reasonIng” in interpreting and birthing human actions. See, regardless of the weight of our pain, we are making a dangerous mistake and establishing an evil precedent for the people of 2035 and beyond if we continue to ignore objective facts and due process in the management of our disappointments and the pursuit of closure and justice. We are empowering instinctive pragmatism as a tool to arresting justice and rule of law.
In my short life of 48yrs, I have seen evil in this world, such that I can always present a more lethal example of evil, no matter how weighty a prevailing one is. So, accept it or not, evil is now as normal as good; and dressing it with tweets and gist is the weakest engineering in dealing with it. Pain is deep…but we must tame emotions regardless and ensure it does not lead to action. When human minds, in the pursuit of justice, move from emotions to action, usually they birth another evil scenario that in itself, also needs justice. Error will not heal error. Emotion is simply not a fair representation of peace, justice and progress. All the time and in all cases, emotions must be subject to reasoning, and reasoning must be guided by fact and truth before we can arrive at what I call CIA (Credible Independent Action). So..Hate the Abuser or the Abused…Support the Victim or the villian…whatever your position is, while you should feel the emotions in these matters, and keep your rights to it, you must be mature enough to withhold judgement, and activate the discipline to not bury yourselves in the emotions. Rather, find the courage to stay true. At no point should we be selective about the application of the rule of law. It’s selective thinking and it’s dangerous. Let us honestly pray for strength for Timi and his dear wife..and may they find the justice and healing-closure they seek. Pst Biodun Fatoyinbo has also come out to deny the allegations, and he must get the hearing his individuality deserves as a citizen under the laws of Nigeria, and as a human breathing in the world, regardless of his history. When any accusation is greeted with denial, then facts and law must be the acceptable arbiter, not how we feel. Feeling is an oppressive quantity when untamed. Emotion is a vice when it’s not guided by principle. How we feel about an issue should not blind us to what the issue is about. What we feel about the truth should not shift what the truth is about. Somehow, our world miss this all the time.
So Olakunle Soriyan, cowardice has died in you. You feel fear, but no part of it hinders your freedom, discretion and initiative. You remain frail, but your humanity you have accepted. The truth of my conscience is my greatest asset, even when society rewards not its content. For me then, despite the silly pinching some are focused on at this time thinking they are mounting pressure on me to take a position, I will not! At the risk of appearing indifferent, I will remind myself that even if the victim in any matter is my biological son or daughter..the accused is still going to be innocent till proven guilty. Equity must protect innocence till proven guilty…NOT guilty till proven innocent nor guilty till proven truly guilty. It will never be guilty till proven innocent in my world. I’ll be true to this ideal regardless. You and I should not be so vexed and ignore HELICOPTER view or we are into mere gist and gossip.
I sympathise with the Dakolos deeply. Timi must have been traumatized and the marriage stressed. I connect deeply. And knowing him, humility and diplomacy from Mr Fatoyinbo would probably have ministered to this better. Busola did the right thing by bodly speaking up. No fool should discount the weight of her situation. I honor the Dakolo’s courage. But the masses? I have always tried not to be carried away by the energy of the masses. So, in this case, as in all cases where there is combined mass emotion, I will look and learn. Already, countless activist and influencer stakeholders on both sides are involved, scripting&investivating; this is a justifiable position—they’ll use the legal tools of our social justice system to find closure. Time is a force that compels patience or truth to reveal itself; how much more when investigators run their due diligence. Rape is evil..not just a wrong. The victim of it needs all the empathy the world can offer. Yet, false accusation is as much an evil, deserving the due diligence of the rule of law. What is true and deserving of all emphasis is the idea that when accusations meet denial, the onus is on stakeholders to supply more facts and allow the law to take its course.
To young people observing this, since you all hope to get up there…to be in a higher place in society than the accused and the accuser are today, please seek to interpret what these means to you personally; otherwise, you either have convinced yourself of a false sense of strength or you simply are not really ambitious. Honest self-evaluation plus a high doze of deep personal reflection should be your focus as the only stake and value your youth have in this matter.
Now, without doubt, these are tough and complex times for the families (spouse and children) of both the Dakolos and the Fatoyinbos. I think about this too. I once knew about a boy that attempted suicide because of the bullying from peers on his dad’s public scandal and shaming. I pray for strength and peace for the human souls (children and family as a whole) who nature and providence has compelled to depend on the legacies of the principal actors of these weighty issues. They will all grow up to meet this weights online (the internet simply does not forget). I must also share that till date, i have interviewed kids of eight (8) different families whose moms or dads endured a public noise (some of the parents were the victims and others the villians… but all endured public noise). All the kids wrenchingly admitted they’ve suffered more, not necessarily from the acts of their parents, but from the interpretation and reaction of friends about the act. May we be discerning enough to promote activism yes, but to do so with the wisdom that considers the sensitivity of our today actions and positions on tomorrow’s people; for in our actions today are the legacies we are bequeathing to those coming after. May God help us all.
In all, we LEARN. If we shout and scream, and yet learn nothing, then all we do is nothing but hiding from ourselves and hiding from God. #WeLearn
#EvilWillLose
