By Oloroogun Sola Ajisafe
The term ‘Janjaweed’ entered global consciousness in Darfur, Sudan, in the early 2000s. Literally it suggested men on horseback with guns ablazing. Politically, it came to mean something far more dangerous. A model of governance by proxy violence.
They were never a formal army. They were recruited from the margins, mobilized by the state, armed by the state, yet deniable by the state. Their method was always the same. Identify a community, a voice, a dissent. Attack it with maximum humiliation. Retreat. Then wait for compensation. The purpose was never only physical. It was psychological. To build a climate where citizens learn to keep quiet because the cost of speaking has been made too high.
The havoc that followed is documented. Villages were razed. Institutions were delegitimized. Public discourse was replaced by fear. What was presented as counter-insurgency ended as the normalization of attacking civilians for political convenience. But the most enduring legacy of the Janjaweed was not the blood. It was the idea it introduced. That power can outsource its dirty work, pay for it, and still claim innocence.
We are now witnessing a mutation of that doctrine in Ondo State. The horses have been replaced with keyboards and android phones. The guns have been replaced with sponsored press releases, coordinated insults, and monetized outrage by imbecilic State officials. The pattern is visible to anyone who is watching and loud to the ears. Certain voices are identified and mobilized the moment the government is criticized. The attack is never on policy. It is on persons. Never on ideas, but on character. The objective is not persuasion, but destruction. And the reward system is also public. Appointments, contracts, brown envelopes. Payment for services rendered to power to silence established voices of dissent.
This is governance by attack dog. It is the Janjaweed model adapted for a democratic setting. The aim remains the same. To make the cost of dissent unbearable until silence becomes the rational choice.
A patrimony is not only land and resources. It is also the right to speak, to criticize, to disagree without being hunted. We reject the importation of a militia mentality into our politics. A government in our State that must pay people to attack its critics has already admitted that it has no argument. A mirrored scene of these “janjaweed” minds show they have never had any history of progressive opposition in their life. This moment is just for them to sieze and explore to their own advantage because the land is fertile for such insanity.
On that honoured seat inside Alagbaka we have had Ajasin a teacher, Adefarati a teacher, Agagu a teacher, Mimiko a medic, Akeredolu a lawyer, all men of knowledge and honour. They once stood for something and fought for something. Today what do we have and who occupies that honoured seat…? This is democracy and democracy may sometimes give you not what you deserve but what is available. Because it is democracy.
Let it be placed on record. We will not shift an inch of ground. No matter what. Our pen will not be traded for fear. The microphone will not be surrendered to mercenaries, political and social media terrorists. We did not work and inherit this democracy so that it could be subcontracted to the highest bidder and the ” janjaweed assistants” running “upandan” in government. We will defend our patrimony of speech, of dignity, and of accountability, no matter the recruitment and no matter the compensation.
Ondo deserves debate, not intimidation. Governance, not goons. It is entitled to competition of ideas and views. Not silence by the force of Janjaweed by the state.
Oloroogun Sola Ajisafe writes from Olukoro Compound Oraa-Ikanmu, Oka Akoko
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