4Plus4 Not Rabia

Giving a dog a bad name in order to kill it is a method that has been rife since time immemorial. Major case in point is the inquisitions which began in 12th century Europe all the way down to the Salem witch trials of 1692-1693.
The PDP and their band of online supporters are trying to adopt the same procedure in order to tame the current wild fire that is taking Nigerians home and abroad by storm. They are resorting to claim that the 4PLUS4 hand sign is the same as the RABIA sign adopted by the protesters in Egypt.

The 4Plus4 hand gesture commenced when President Muhammadu Buhari made it while presenting the 2019 budget to the joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives on the 19th of December 2018.
He has since gone on to explain and this has been accepted by Nigerians worldwide to mean “Two Four Year Terms” as he is seeking the mandate of the people for a second term as a democratically elected president of the most populous country in Africa.
Since then, a host of persons have used the two handed sign of four fingers each signifying eight years of rule for the current administration including such persons as the VP, the First Lady, politicians, entertainers and most importantly the common man on various social media platforms.


But the PDP are trying to equate the beloved two hand sign of the people to the one hand sign that was used to protest against dictatorship and oppression in Egypt in the wake of the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, which occurred after anti-government protests calling for his removal.
Supporters state that the gesture is used to express solidarity with what they call "the thousands wounded, killed and burnt by the Egyptian Army" during the dispersal of their sit-in. The origin of the sign itself is unknown.
Egyptian and non-Egyptian politicians, mostly Arabs, are regularly seen making the Rabia gesture, which is identical to the common gesture for the number four. Among these politicians is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
German journalist, Thorsten Gerald Schneiders has even claimed that "the Rabia sign is already out of the Islamist spectrum, and has no relation with Islamic radicalism. Its meaning has extended to protesting against dictatorship and tyranny in general”.
In Nigeria the 4Plus4 is expected to come to be related to the continuous fight against corruption. If two heads are better than one, surely Two Hands of Four Fingers is better than one.