Baba Suwe gate

Kate Henshaw
I have refrained from participating in the drug scandal saga that unfolded in the past two weeks, involving a fellow actor who has brought joy to many homes through his work on television, the Yoruba movie. It was with disappointment that not a few of us received the news of his arrest by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The scanner at the airport was said to have identified some substance in his stomach, and he was pulled aside for questioning and that began the waiting . He was viewed by some as being a victim of the inadequacies and incompetence of the agency that had already gone to town with the news of the capture of such a big fish and a broadcast by a reputable television station that he had excreted 16 wraps of hard drugs did not help matters at all.

Later there was a back – tracking by the NDLEA that such a statement was never released and that the actor was still under observation. Nine days later, reports of his lawyer screaming blue murder about the injustice being meted out to his client reached the public.

The lawyer allegedly had not been allowed to see his client for whatever reason and that it was against the law to do so. Also rumours of Baba Suwe’s plan to sue the agency for N1 Billion for the illegal incarceration and character assassination was greeted with thumbs up in some quarters as he was yet to excrete whatever was said to be in his stomach.

It saddened my heart as I thought of his reputation being dragged through the mud, and it brought back incidents in the past when two other actors had been caught and sent to jail for drug trafficking.

I said to myself, here we go again! I thought of the process I would go through when I want to travel out of the country but banished the thought very quickly as I would never dream of doing such grievous harm to my body.

Haba! I love myself too much indeed. To think of ingesting something that is potentially dangerous to my life,what happens if it explodes? or should the contents burst in my stomach should it not result to my instant death? is rather too grim to imagine.

So then why would people take that chance? Why put yourself in such a dangerous business; like a friend of mine would say, “ make person take im own hand spoil imself” It is not that hard to continue to work hard and be content with your lot and find ways to improve your life, be it financially or status wise.

The saga continues as he is still being held in custody and the NDLEA has gone to court after performing another scan on the actor which confirmed that yes, he does have something within, so to speak, to hold him for another 15 days! Hmmmmm.

He is said to refuse food and claimed to eat once in three days, quite a diet I must note which I would not recommend to anybody because if you do not feed your body with essential nutrients it needs, it will start to eat itself.

There are acids that are secreted in the body which digest the food that we eat and if there is no food in your stomach, it does not mean that the body stops producing the acid. So imagine the acids being let loose on some rubbery casing holding drugs, the rest is left to your imagination.

Blackberry messages are filled with photo shopped pictures of Baba Suwe seated on some kind of bowl or bucket, waiting to shit the big shit. Someone made a joke on facebook that his shit was worth big bucks, another posted on his page that he had used juju to make the drugs disappear and that was why nothing has been found yet. Condemnations and counter accusations abound and one does not know who to believe, the actor or the agency.

There was a meeting supposedly called for last week by Prince Jide Kosoko to protest the continued detention of Baba Suwe but I have not heard anymore since. There is something definitely fishy going on somewhere and everyone is eager to see how it will all play out.

My thoughts on the matter, if the NDLEA has goofed or made a mistake by going to town with the wrong information, it should do the honourable thing and release the actor. There is nothing wrong with holding your hands up to say we made a mistake. Yes, people will shout and condemn them and they will no doubt have to pay damages but when has admitting that you made a genuine mistake ever killed anyone?

For Baba Suwe, if at the end of the day, nothing is forthcoming from his insides, he should sue for damages as his reputation has been soiled and it will take a while for him to disappear from the pages of the soft sell magazines and stop being the brunt of many jokes and cartoonists. On the other hand, should he finally excrete the drugs he is suspected of ingesting, he should do the time for the crime. It is as simple as that.

What’s gonna be is gonna be, what goes up must come down, there’s nothing we can do about it. The waiting game continues. People should watch out for the next episode of the Baba Suwe saga......

Vanguard Nigeria