By Reno Omokri
If the people now agitating for the release of Dele Farotimi really cared for liberty and freedom, ask them what they did for Leah Sharibu, the girl who was abducted by Boko Haram, who released all of the 110 girls they abducted from Dapchi (except those who died) and refused to release Leah Sharibu because she did not give up her faith in Yeshua (Jesus Christ).
Leah was not accused of criminally defaming anybody. She was a brilliant student whose father was a policeman and her mother a schoolteacher. At the tender age of fourteen, she was a Sunday school teacher who regularly went for evangelism in her immediate community.
Leah Sharibu has been in unlawful detention for 2194 days since her abduction by Boko Haram on Monday, February 19, 2018. How many presidential candidates made a social media post about her? How many so-called human rights activists ever bothered to lend their voice for her release? Which of the big-name tithe collecting and limousine-driving pastors now enthralled with Dele Farotomi even gave a thought to Miss Sharibu?
Are Nigerians trying to say that fighting for the freedom of a man who can be released even today if only he proves the allegations he made against Aare Afe Babalola is more important than fighting for a girl who was abducted at the age of 14 and remains a prisoner of conscience at 21?
Leah did not accuse anybody, truthfully or falsely. The only accusation against her is that she is a Christian. Yet, how many Nigerians fought for her?
Omoyele Sowore has not as much as even mentioned her name. Today, he is planning a protest for Farotimi.
Because of Miss Sharibu, I sold my stocks and other investments and went around the world almost nonstop for three years.
I became an enemy of the Muhammadu Buhari-led Nigerian government as I travelled to Nepal and flew to the base camp of Mount Everest because of the #FreeLeahSharibu campaign. Through friends, it was made possible for me to meet with two incumbent British Prime Ministers, Canadian and Spanish Prime Ministers, and multiple other world leaders as I pled her case.
In all, I travelled to 36 countries pleading with governments and influential persons to help secure the release of Miss Sharibu.
The late musical icon Onyeka Onwenu joined me to write and produce a charity single for Leah with Panam Percy Paul. I also wrote a book about Leah, in which all the royalties went to her mother. I made designer T-shirts branded with the #FreeLeahSharibu, sold them, and gave her father all the proceeds to help him advocate for Leah’s freedom.
Finally, on the stage of the Warner Brothers studio, while receiving an award for Humanitarian of the Year 2019 in Hollywood, I begged the world to help free Leah.
Nobody gave me a dime and if anybody gave me even one kobo for the Leah Sharibu struggle, I challenge them to expose me and speak up.
So, it breaks my heart to see that it was not the case that these people now speaking up for Dele Farotimi could not speak up for Leah. It was rather a situation that they just did not care.
After all, who was she? Just one Aboki girl. In their minds, it was a case of ‘Gambari pa Fulani ko lejo ninu!’
In Nigeria, it is not the justice system that is criminal. The real criminality lies in our selective responses to similar issues based on who the supposed victims are and where they are from.
