Biko, Niyi Osundare gets it profoundly! As an intellectual of the enlightenment mould, what he has basically called for is a dismantling of the sick, corrupt, backward, primitive "traditional rulerships" or monarchies that continue to suppress the neccessity for freedom, equality, and citizenship in a democratic republic. Those extremely conservative intellectuals and monarchists like Dr. Adeniran Adeboye for instance, who defend these institutions, do not see the contradiction of a free republic contending with the loyalties of subject people - that is the subjection of the Nigerian citizen by remnant pretender kingdoms and empires - and that this is the greatest threat to the evolution of the Nigerian state. It is imperative to dismantle all the kingdoms and Emiracies, and to subject everybody to the single law of the state, and to the idea of a democratic republic, in whhich every citizen is equal and free, and capable of mobility. The Indian parliament proscribed the monarchies, I think, in 1975. They were more powerful, with longer hereditary lines, more established, more accomplished monarchies like the Mughal, and so on. As the poet of the Market place, Osundare, notes, "there is too much power worship" in Nigeria, and this is because a national cultural psychology has long permeated the Nigerian mind, and instituted a clear boundary of ownership and national interest, between the "ruled" and the "rulers." The "ownership" of power seems unchanging. The people are not "citizens" but "subjects." They are "ruled" and not "governed" and 'government' is a "closed, cabalistic institution," not an open, accessible, and plain process.
One of the greatest contradictions in the imagery of government in Nigeria is the architecture of public buildings. It is of great interest to me personally. They are not accessible to the Nigerian citizen. They have been slowly transformed into garrisons and the idea of enclosure. The fact is that the faction of the Nigerian military that took over the state from 1966 was right-wing, conservative and monarchist; and they transformed the emergent state and shaped it towards an extremely monarchical system - sort of uncomfortable hybrid system that continues to define the moral structure of the nation. It is not quite surprising that many of them retired into pseudo-monarchical titles. But regarding the architecture of the public space, we see the contradictions that eliminate any vestige of public democratic participation. The Nigerian parliament is gated, and legislators and powerful public officers, live in "gated" distance from people. The Nigerian state house - is a rock fortress. The Courts are gated. All these symbols of the republic and the open society are enclosed and almost forbidden from the public. They are gated and manned with the brutal guards against intrusion. Nigerians do not even have public squares in which to gather, nail petitions, picket, orate, and practice all the required conventions of democracy in a republic. These changes define the citizens relationship with the republic. The changes are also stark - it reveals a gradual loss of democratic value and citizenship rights: the old Nigerian state house on Marina or the old Federal Parliament, for instance, on what we now call Tafawa Balewa square were once open, built within the range of the public, and clearly accessible. I make this allusion simply to add to Osundare's premise, but also to suggest that it is not only in the "verbal hepreboles" that the state of mind or political habit that "belittes" people and makes participatory democracy impossible is made; it is also in the public symbols that isolate, eliminate, and alienate the citizen from the public imaginary. I also say that the "cosmopolitan Igbo" alone does not have to fan out and constitute the "imagined community," the "cosmopolitan Yoruba" like the poet Osundare, and others with their feet and soul dipped into the cosmopole, have the same obligation and task to break boundaries, rupture settled empires, and renew the republic. That is the historical task of nation-building, the burden on which is currently, mostly borne on the back, of the mostly border-crossing Igbo. But I salute our poet, Osundare, for putting his sharp pen to this tabooed issue of the place of the monarchies in a democracy and in a republic. We must widen this debate because it is central to the transformation of the state.
Obi Nwakanma
To: NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com
From: OKOJIEPAUL@aol.com
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 09:00:25 -0500
Subject: Re: [NaijaPolitics] Authoritarianism
One of the greatest contradictions in the imagery of government in Nigeria is the architecture of public buildings. It is of great interest to me personally. They are not accessible to the Nigerian citizen. They have been slowly transformed into garrisons and the idea of enclosure. The fact is that the faction of the Nigerian military that took over the state from 1966 was right-wing, conservative and monarchist; and they transformed the emergent state and shaped it towards an extremely monarchical system - sort of uncomfortable hybrid system that continues to define the moral structure of the nation. It is not quite surprising that many of them retired into pseudo-monarchical titles. But regarding the architecture of the public space, we see the contradictions that eliminate any vestige of public democratic participation. The Nigerian parliament is gated, and legislators and powerful public officers, live in "gated" distance from people. The Nigerian state house - is a rock fortress. The Courts are gated. All these symbols of the republic and the open society are enclosed and almost forbidden from the public. They are gated and manned with the brutal guards against intrusion. Nigerians do not even have public squares in which to gather, nail petitions, picket, orate, and practice all the required conventions of democracy in a republic. These changes define the citizens relationship with the republic. The changes are also stark - it reveals a gradual loss of democratic value and citizenship rights: the old Nigerian state house on Marina or the old Federal Parliament, for instance, on what we now call Tafawa Balewa square were once open, built within the range of the public, and clearly accessible. I make this allusion simply to add to Osundare's premise, but also to suggest that it is not only in the "verbal hepreboles" that the state of mind or political habit that "belittes" people and makes participatory democracy impossible is made; it is also in the public symbols that isolate, eliminate, and alienate the citizen from the public imaginary. I also say that the "cosmopolitan Igbo" alone does not have to fan out and constitute the "imagined community," the "cosmopolitan Yoruba" like the poet Osundare, and others with their feet and soul dipped into the cosmopole, have the same obligation and task to break boundaries, rupture settled empires, and renew the republic. That is the historical task of nation-building, the burden on which is currently, mostly borne on the back, of the mostly border-crossing Igbo. But I salute our poet, Osundare, for putting his sharp pen to this tabooed issue of the place of the monarchies in a democracy and in a republic. We must widen this debate because it is central to the transformation of the state.
Obi Nwakanma
To: NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com
From: OKOJIEPAUL@aol.com
Date: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 09:00:25 -0500
Subject: Re: [NaijaPolitics] Authoritarianism
Biko,
This is spot on! Let's hope that the groundswell of opposition helps to change opinion and politics in our country for the better. What about the project you floated with me last time, is that still on?
Regards,
Paul
-----Original Message-----
From: Biko Agozino <bagozino@yahoo.com>
To: NaijaPolitics <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 1:58
Subject: [NaijaPolitics] Authoritarianism
From: Biko Agozino <bagozino@yahoo.com>
To: NaijaPolitics <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Mon, 9 Jan 2012 1:58
Subject: [NaijaPolitics] Authoritarianism
AUTHORITARIANISM
By Biko Agozino
'Education, and education and education through conscientisation! Our people need to be aware of the power they have as citizens; their inalienable rights as people; the fact that the power enjoyed by the rulers should actually flow from the people. They should stop glamourising and beatifying the bad rulers that make life and living impossible for them and their children. Honestly, there is too much power-worship in this country, a habit I see as part of the Baba ki e pe (Boss, may you live long) syndrome. Just look at it: in Nigeria, the political ruler (and virtually anyone in a position of authority) is treated and venerated, like on with royal and/or priestly/divine powers, appeased with abject genuflections and lavish prostrations. Their birthday 'felicitations' take up substantial spaces in the newspapers; their oriki (praisename) is loud, lurid, and ludicrously extravagant...So, in a way, it is Nigerian people that tell their rulers: rule us forever; rule us the way you choose; rule us the way that pleases your whims. Surely, this is one of the terribly negative parts of our traditional culture that is blatantly antithetical to the idea of democracy. For, the pervasive vestiges of divine kingship which tend to colour our concept of political power actually dis-empowers the people by erecting their rulers into some kind of sacred, unquestionable Kabiyesi alaye lorun (the unquestionable on who has dominion over heaven and earth). From this apparent verbal hyperbole emerges a state of mind, a political habit, and followership style that makes democracy impossible by belittling the people while inflating the essence of their rulers. All over the world, we know that tyranny never flourishes without the people's abasement.' – Niyi Osundare.
Thanks to Niyi Osundare for his usually perceptive finger on the pulse of the nation. What he has identified is a major trouble with Nigeria that even Chinua Achebe overlooked in his classic on the theme – the trouble of authoritarianism. Yet, it is not true that the follow-follow mentality found in monarchical traditions in Nigeria is representative of all Nigerian cultures. We still have Nigerians who proudly say that they know no king and would try to hold anyone in authority accountable. By some kind of coincidence, they happen to be the very ones who are being attacked and massacred in the highly monarchical northern part of the country.
Authoritarianism is the biggest weakness that President Jonathan suffers from. He seems to think that an authoritarian leader is what Nigeria needs becau8se Nigerians love to play the boss from the office to the market, the place of worship, the traffic and to the home. They brutalize their own spouses, children, employees, congregants, neighbours and even strangers because that is how the government treats them. Any Nigerian who preaches peace and non-violence today would be dismissed as weak and stupid because force is the lingua franca of the nation.
The very first act of power play that President Jonathan demonstrated once he finally took over as acting president under Yaradua was to lock out ministers who were late to a federal executive council meeting. Although Nigerian cheered this bossy move, it smacked of a village headmaster flogging pupils for lateness without asking if the ministers had anything worthwhile to contribute to the meeting or if they had any excusable reason for being tardy.
The second executive order from Jonathan was to ground all ministers from going home on holiday during the festive season, until they had worked out a solution to the electricity problem in the country. Again Nigerians cheered this authoritarian populism. But Rilwanu Lukman ignored the order and travelled abroad for a scheduled OPEC meeting without being fired or reprimanded. Travel or no travel, the electricity problem remains unsolved. The third major exhibition of this bigmanism by Jonathan was when he banned the national football teams from international competitions for two years without consulting to be advised that such childish tantrums after embarrassing losses would not be tolerated by FIFA. He had to back down and he did.
Now President Jonathan is getting power drunk absolutely as the executive presidency corrupts him further. He has slapped an unjust taxation on Nigerians without the due process of having the wuluwulu subsidy debated and approved by the legislature but this time he under-estimated the defiance of the long suffering people of Nigeria when it comes to what Gani Fawehinmi called executive lawlessness. He simply announced the withdrawal of a non-existent subsidy and thereby hiked up the prices of services and commodities for impoverished Nigerians.
Luckily for Nigerians, organized labour is ready this time to do battle not just for wages but for the suffering masses. The response of an authoritarian person like Jonathan is equally predictable – he tried to order the workers around by getting an injunction from a kangaroo court to say that the protest slated to intensify on Monday, January 9 2012, is not authorized by the boss. The workers called his bluff and told him that this is not a trade dispute within the jurisdiction of an industrial court that has a tendency to always rule on behalf of the bosses. Bravo to the working people of Nigeria.
This militancy by the workers should serve as a warning to any would-be coup plotters that Nigerians will not stomach another cynical 'Fellow Nigerians' broadcast. Instead the protesters should start gathering signatures for the recall of President Jonathan and for the holding of a recall election for all unrepresentative politicians. All legislators and all governors who support this sadistic policy of fleecing the impoverished should also be recalled. Those ministers who threatened to resign if the boss changed his mind and backed away from the abysmal policy should get their wish once their Oga is recalled and defeated democratically.
If Jonathan wishes to meet the legitimate demand of the workers by unleashing a kill-and-go police force on the unarmed civilians, let him be aware that once he is forced from office, he will be tried for murder like Mubarak in Egypt. Besides, authority killing simply sends the wrong message to the citizens that killing one another was a legitimate way to express grievances.
Niyi Osundare is right in pointing out that the reason why authoritarianism is killing our people is because of ignorance and illiteracy. Part of the reason why Ghana has a more democratic culture than Nigeria is because of the National School Movement that Nkrumah established across the country when the colonial administration suspended teachers and students who supported nationalist struggles. The mass protest that is on-going against the wicked policies of the Jonathan administration should include educational programs for teaching basic literacy and political, economic, legal and human rights literacy to the masses even during the street protests.
Finally, the Nigerian Government should immediately take steps to end the terrorization of Nigerian citizens in any part of the country. This cannot be done without addressing what Chinua Achebe identified as the Igbo problem. We cannot go on pretending that the genocide committed against the Igbo would not affect the psyche of the people by cheapening human life. The federal government should therefore set aside at least ten trillion naira as reparations and with unreserved apologies to be given to the Igbo of Nigeria for the past and continuing pogroms that are visited upon them. There should also be a law, as in Germany, to make the denial of the Igbo genocide a crime.
The cosmopolitan Igbo who are the vanguard of nationalism in Nigeria today by the risks they take in venturing to the remotest parts of the country should reciprocate in kind once they receive reparations by sponsoring scholarships and football trophies for schools to compete for in their places of residence. Fleeing back to Igboland is never going to be a lasting solution because the next day, they would return to the places of slaughter in search of opportunities to provide thankless services to their fellow citizens if they do not start killing each other over crumbs in Igboland. Instead of allowing themselves to be isolated and marginalized in Igboland, they should continue to fan out across the whole of Africa with a strategy to invest in goodwill among the people wherever they settle in Africa. That will not prevent murderous envy and jealousy but it may contribute to the further democratization of the whole continent for the benefit of all especially if they are empowered with a well-deserved reparations fund by the government.
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Latest Version of Disclaimer released (December 15, 2005)
Forum members are reminded that NaijaPolitics is established to be a moderated forum for gavel-to-gavel discussion of political developments in Nigeria, Africa's largest democracy. Freedom of opinion/expression is inherent in NaijaPolitics. Views and opposing views expressed in NaijaPolitics forum are the rights of individual contributors. Mutual respect for people's views is the corner stone of our forum. Freedom of speech applied responsibly within the guiding parameters of Yahoo! Inc (our hosts) and NaijaPolitics Rules and Guidelines (broadcast monthly and accessible to all subscribers in our archives) is our guiding principle. Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.
NaijaPolitics is division of Afrik Network Groups.
Latest Version of Disclaimer released (December 15, 2005)
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