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Truth is the only bullet by which you may kill the evil system that rules or ruins Nigeria -Farotimi

opera.com 2025/2/9

In a YouTube video, political activist Dele Farotimi shared his experience in Ekiti prison, emphasising that many better individuals have suffered worse fates in Nigeria. He expressed that his case was unique primarily because "you spoke," referring to the power of collective voices against oppression.

Farotimi highlighted the Yoruba proverb, The inability to speak to your condition is the beginning of ruination," which stresses the importance of addressing one's circumstances to effect change. He argued that speaking out is crucial, as silence leads to suffering. Farotimi insisted that truth is a powerful weapon against Nigeria's oppressive systems and urged people to continue speaking truthfully, regardless of the difficulties or costs involved.

He said, "I found that Nigeria has victimised and successfully dealt with better men than myself; better-resourced persons than myself have been dealt with by Nigeria. Nigeria has killed better men; Nigeria has destroyed better men; Nigeria has wrongly incarcerated better men; there is nothing about me that should make my case any different from that of those who have come before me.

"But 'you spoke,' and it was the realisation that you found the capacity to speak that made me lose control of my emotions. 'You spoke,' so yeah, because you spoke, what is the use of because here? It is a conjunction, which is the explanation for the exception for the reason that you spoke. Yoruba will say that: 'The inability to speak to your condition is the beginning of ruination.'. You must be able to speak to your condition for that condition to change.

"I have had occasion to speak to the subject when I said talk is not cheap; talk is not cheap; never ever say that talk is cheap; talk is the beginning of the articulation of your thoughts and the beginning of the likelihood of you acting to affect changes to your condition and your situation. So talk, if you must. If an individual's refusal to speak to his condition dooms him to ruination, what do you think happens?

"When a collective ignores speaking to their condition, that is the picture you see all over Nigeria today. But in my case, you spoke; you carried no guns. The states and my abductors have the guns. You refused to make peace with the evil you saw unfolding before you. and it is important that we do not ever give up on speaking, however difficult or costly speaking might be, on the condition that you speak the truth.

"Truth is the only bullet by which you may kill the evil system that rules or ruins Nigeria. But the truth you know that you do not speak; you stand behind the pulpit of God, and you speak lies and palliatives. Maybe I should say rice and palliatives behind the pulpit of God, where you are called to speak the truth. of what views you are speaking."

Watch the video from 04:09

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