I could remember I was being convinced in one of these gatherings to see reasons to canvass and vote for the PDP’s program of “Continuity”. Then with a very grim but firm look I asked; continuity of what?
Early philosophers made us understand that history occurs in two ways; first as a tragedy and then as a farce. It is for the sake of the above introduction that I would humbly seek the permission of readers and your un-daunting patience to allow me lay a very important but elaborative premise that would allow us picture our true situation as a people who intends to be free and eventually condemn the above publication to the dustbin of history.
Several months before the 2015 general elections, I had multiple engagements with scores of partisan movements most of whom had clear affiliations with either the ruling People’s Democratic Party PDP or the newly formed All Progressive Congress (APC). I could remember I was being convinced in one of these gatherings to see reasons to canvass and vote for the PDP’s program of “Continuity”. Then with a very grim but firm look I asked; continuity of what?
Of mindless lootings, unabated corruption, infrastructural deficits, neoliberal policies of privatization and commercialization of publicly owned resources, underfunding of education, total neglect and underfunding of the health sector, wave of fee hikes on our campuses, constant hike in pump price of oil leading to increased prices of goods and services with stagnated/underpaid/unpaid wages, increasing unemployment rate, rising insurgency and many more socio-economic hiccups which trailed the 16-year misrule of the PDP. Despite the high hopes and mindboggling expectations the Nigerian people placed on the 2015 general election, which was greatly influenced by the emergence of a supposed new party which deceptively posed itself as an opposition, myself and a handful of others new better.
A few of us were convinced that the option of the PDP or the APC was as delicate as asking to choose who to govern the country between an armed robber and a fraudster. It was a dilemma of choosing the best way to die between murder and suicide. Perhaps that was what influenced my conviction to steer clear from the much touted voters card since the 2015 general election did not have as participant any individual or party contesting that election with outlined programs or political rhetoric fundamentally different from the rapacious PDP
As I noted to the proponents of APC’s Buharism, a vote for APC over the PDP was already a vote for “Continuity” since both are simply different feathers of the same bird. And the three-year draconic misrule of the APC had not only validated my earlier assertions but has also made radical section of the disillusioned majority draw a progressive conclusion of the imperative to put a stop to this horrific trend of “Continuity”. The task to however discontinue this monstrous trend of “Continuity” has motivated different interpretations and highly conspicuous reactions to the 19years of ruling class dictatorship which was merely adorned in democratic toga.
The downtrodden section of the Igbo perceived a gross marginalization of its people and hence chose the option of secession under the umbrella of Biafra. Another disillusioned section saw the greedy, old and unenergetic guys as the nemesis of the country since they have refused to leave the stage for the “younger generation”. These proponents of “YouthoCracy” were fully persuaded that the only magical wand needed to rescue the country from the abyss of self destruction was the energy and adrenal drive of the youths. While this two theories partly agrees with the apt necessity to either challenge or overhaul the entire status quo, the advanced perspective are however defective in so many ways.
Should the basis of the Biafra agitation continues to bother on the question economic and political marginalization, then I think it is safe to assert that all poor people are victims of marginalization. Whether Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Ibibio, Efik, amongst other tribes, Muslims, Christians, traditionalists and atheists. And if anyone is still in the illusion that an Igbo Presidency would make any difference for the poor and expectant Igbo man, then you need to learn from the Hausa-Fulani domination of the Nigerian political space and yet Northern Nigeria is the most backward region in all socio-political and economic indices.
Take a swipe at Obasanjo’s eight-year tenure, which did more than make a mess of the lives of poor Nigerians but even his hometown was left in total fiasco. Why not also question Goodluck Jonathan whose six-year rule was not only a nightmare for the downtrodden Nigerians, but also for his kinsmen in Otueke. Or you may ask your Governors, State and National Law makers or should I saw Law breakers, who have greedily restructured Nigeria into their respective Bank Accounts.
Meanwhile, Youth Presidency does not necessarily translate to youth employment. Neither does it guarantee a Nigeria that is free of daunting socio-economic quagmire. The military example has shown us that the energy of the youths if not properly guided by correct ideological principle can drown us much faster into the ocean of abject misery. Youths and Students’ Activists like Yele Sowore spent their University days fighting the Youth dominated military dictatorship and uncouth penchant for bloodletting recklessness. Some of this “abominations” who killed and brutalized our comrades, incarcerated scores of them, expelled them from campus, butchered some and condemned numerous others to the wheel chair later came back as civilian administrators.
The likes of Buhari, Obasanjo and Babangida who ordinarily should be polishing their dirty feet behind bars for all the Economic and Political crimes committed against the Nigerian people as military dictators, have now become the same persons who some deluded Nigerians think we needed their experience on the question of governance. Was it not their “experience” that led us to this sardonic state in the first instance? One of the so called “Statesmen” in-fact went ahead to put together some sort of a “Third Farce” consciously misnamed “Third Force”. His “Coalition for Nigeria Movement” is at best the “Coalition for Nigerian Fraudsters”.
Isn’t it ironic that the same armed robber who robbed the Nigerian treasury, turned the country into a private money making enterprise, cowardly killed and incarcerated our comrades, both as a “youthful” military dictator and a civilian gangster, has once again shamelessly presented himself as some sort of a modern Jesus who intends to save our bleeding souls from the deathly dart of another politically demented fraudster who also as a brutal military dictator and now a civilian “Cow-mander” in chief of the cow forces, made a total mess of the economy of the downtrodden.
He also showered the poor with the rains of chronic starvation, intensified ethno-religious strife amongst our people for personal gains, protected the profits of himself and the business moguls in the Cow trade at the expense of rising death toll in Benue, Taraba, Kaduna, Nassarawa and other parts of Nigeria that has been ravaged by the killer herdsmen, strengthened the business of terrorism through the continuous financial empowerment of the Boko Haram insurgents which has led to unabated abductions and protracted bombings of innocent Nigerians in Dapchi, Chibok, Mubi and other parts of Nigeria.
Government insensitivity has left at the mercy of the emboldened Boko Haram insurgents, flagrantly disregarded the rule of law through the continued incarceration of El Zarki Zarki and increment of electricity tariff despite subsisting court orders that say otherwise, consciously leaving our National treasury at the mercy of “cashivorous animals” like snakes and monkeys and structured our economy in such a way that mobilizes stupendous wealth for himself and cronies but concentrates unimaginable poverty for the “inconsequential” Nigerian populace.
This was why I was somewhat irritated but unperturbed that some #LazyNigerianYouth came on the free space in a failed attempt to ridicule an entire mass movement whose face is the legendary and highly courageous fighter; Omoyele Sowore. You may have observed that my entire elaborative epistle could not respond to his points since the author of the intellectually vacant article made no point in the first instance. His ranting can be compared to a very loud music but defective in lyrics.
Nevertheless, I must admit that A.S.M Jimoh, the author of the infamous article, intends to create an impression. It is a wretched impression that attempts to ridicule 30 years of activism, discredit activists as good administrators, fault the urgent need to build a mass-based political opposition to the overbearing ruling class and deliberately subject us yet again to the ignoble option of the devil and the deep blue sea come 2019. He proceeded further to make a shameless mockery of the experiences garnered from leading a vibrant and virile Students’ Union.
He is obviously ignorant of the history of the likes of Fidel Castro whose only political resume was being a former Students’ Union leader at Havana University and a dauntless fighter despite being in the military. What about Nelson Mandela whose political experience was at best gained at the barricades and behind prison walls for 27 years. This leaders including, Thomas Sankara of Burkinafaso to mention but a few, are not without ideological limitations. Yet they are not only a product of mass movement but one of the greatest leaders Africa and the World have produced so far.
Yele Sowore’s TakeItBack is not without flaws, but there is no denying that a mass movement such as that is what Nigeria needs now more than ever. A mass-based political movement of vibrant and “inconsequential Nigerians with aggressive agenda of courageously challenging the anti-poor ruling class, disrupting the political space and finally wresting power from the overbearing thieving elites. As the saying goes, there may come a time when we are too weak to fight oppression; there must however not come a time when we fail to protest against it. We have spent the last 19 years protesting our moribund democratic arrangement.
Now is the time to fight the arrogant oppressors out of power and to #TakeItBack. And this we will do by aligning ourselves with a mass based movement that is obviously posing a clear alternative to neoliberal method of governance.
Sanyaolu Juwon
