Going by your kind of logic, she should have avoided such dangerous advocacy in the face of radical Islamists who have little regard for women's rights and perhaps leave the job to men, since her being a woman and a young woman, for that matter, put her in great danger.
It also suggests the limitations of your grasp of the current social media and technology battlefield. You are operating in terms of a gerontocratic, prescriptive leadership model that indicates those operating that model need to be led, not to be leaders.
Political and civil society leaders from various parts of the world openly gave their support to the movement, indicating a shift of symbolic power from the traditional govt to this revolutionary movement, a shift that is likely to have galvanized the fed govt to dismantle the Lekki centre of the protests through military massacre.
To Chidi on the notion of ENDSARS as a failure-If social change were to be organised in terms of a group of people deciding who should protest first, change would not happen.One of the world's most prominent climate change campaigners is a teenager, Greta Thunberg. Going by your style of thinking, she should leave such campaigns for adults and restrict herself to schooling. Is school not demanding enough?One of the most prominent campaigners for women's rights in the then Taliban Pakistani controlled region of Swat was Malala Yousafzai, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt at 15 in her struggle for women's education, the award to her of the Nobel Peace Prize at 17 making her the youngest ever Nobel laurate.
Going by your kind of logic, she should have avoided such dangerous advocacy in the face of radical Islamists who have little regard for women's rights and perhaps leave the job to men, since her being a woman and a young woman, for that matter, put her in great danger.Your honest statement on your inability to access Twitter evokes the limitations of your understanding of the intersection of technology, leadership style and impactful advocacy through which ENDSARS has forever reshaped the Nigerian mindscape and its social, economic and political future.
It also suggests the limitations of your grasp of the current social media and technology battlefield. You are operating in terms of a gerontocratic, prescriptive leadership model that indicates those operating that model need to be led, not to be leaders.You cant access Twitter, you say.Have you tried Googling how to bypass Twitter blocks?Does the suggestion that you have not done that and read the various, readily accessible info on how to bypass this block not evoke the question of how attuned you are to the fact that we now live in a world alive with information at a level never before known in history?Yet, you are insisting people like you should be the ones to first ''test the waters.''When the Nigerian govt blocked donations to ENDSARS protesters' bank accounts, they successfully switched to BitCoin. This calibre of anti-govt maneuvers may have become possible in Nigeria only in the last five years, yet you expect that people who grew up before the computerization of bank accounts or whose most sophisticated exposure to currency transactions is the now traditional electronic banking model emerging in Nigeria in the past ten years should lead what is unfolding as a technology centred movement against repressive govt, with the Twitter ban being the govt striking back at the central medium through which which ENDSARS was mobilized and publicized.ENDSARS represents a fundamental change in Nigerian history. Its foundational reorientations of Nigerian possibility can never die. The dinosaur brigade of Nigerian politico/economic management is dead, its death sealed by the lives of martyred ENDSARS protesters. This death is unfolding, though those who run the system do not know it.In a system where public management is equivalent to to legalized appropriation of the wealth of the majority by the leading few, compounded by corrupt enrichment by that few, leading to poverty of the generality, a group of youth sustained a movement in which food was freely shared, those in need cared for through medical care and money to start businesses, as the Feminist Coalition, a group of young women, ran the donations and delivered on a daily basis the accounts of the monies received and monies spent, at the end of the exercise working out how to use for charity what was left, in a country where women still need visibility in politics as primary system managers and where, in spite of significant progress, they are still not adequately empowered, all this achieved through deft management of advanced technologies in a non-industrialized nation and through a movement that eschewed traditional leadership models since these are readily corrupted in the Nigerian polity.ENDSARS, particularly the Lekki centre of the movement, showed us the potential of Nigeria, particularly its youth, and particularly in Southern Nigeria, a distinction that needs to be made in the light of the differences of response to ENDSARS in both regions. The North localized the protest to ending banditry while in the South it expanded to a demand for a reworking of the entire parasitic political system, even as the Southern momentum was not replicated in the North as the Northern elders collectively denounced ENDSARS as a quest for regime change-of their ethno-religious son-even as some Southern civil society and most Southern political leaders, realizing something unusually powerful was afoot, cleverly maintained a self preserving silence with an eye on history, allowing the Lekki massacre to take place and kept silence, in the spirit of self preservation whatever the outcome would be. Those unwise enough to speak agst ENDSARS were speedily shown to have better kept silence.ENDSARS, particularly in its Lekki expression, is the future of Nigeria. It was a mini-nation, where people had fun in the midst of serious business, where religious leaders, even the Catholic church, offered their spiritual services, where entertainers performed for free in the spirit of collective aspiration for a superior nation.
Political and civil society leaders from various parts of the world openly gave their support to the movement, indicating a shift of symbolic power from the traditional govt to this revolutionary movement, a shift that is likely to have galvanized the fed govt to dismantle the Lekki centre of the protests through military massacre.Whatever the govt had to offer was to be spoken to the world and the protesters would respond. They had demonstrated ability to clearly articulate their demands and did not special representatives in a country where money often speaks louder than conscience.The naïve belief in the sanctity of their lives as ENDSARS protesters as protected by the symbolism of the Nigerian flag indicated they did not witness the iconic anti-govt protests of most of Nigeria's history in which youth played central roles- Anti-SAP, Ali-Must-Go etc and in which the bloodthirsty wickedness of Nigerian govt was in display in mobilizing the also oppressed police and army to suppress their fellow oppressed people in a replication of colonial strategy.That naivete, however, suggests faith in an idea, the idea of Nigeria, an idea spat upon by the state and fed govts that murdered the protesters simply for demanding for a better life for all Nigerians in the face of poverty of material well being, poverty of opportunity and poverty of vision.Such faith in nationhood, not the bloodstained opportunism of the like of Buhari in his ethno-centric enabling one Nigeria rhetoric, is the future of Nigeria. ENDSARS gave me faith again in Nigeria, a Nigeria where people can decide how they want to live, even if not as one nation.thankstoyinOn Mon, 7 Jun 2021 at 22:48, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:Oluwatoyin,EndSARS was a failure. The failure was inbuilt. They were not serious, just having fun. How can a group of serious protesters say that they do not have leaders, that they do not trust any of themselves?Even at that, are there no persons of integrity in Nigeria they could appoint to negotiate on their behalf?They were expecting United Nations. Would the whole body of United Nations come to Nigeria? Of course not. The United Nations would send a delegation, who would expect to meet with the government delegation and of course theirs. Were they expecting the United Nations delegation to come and negotiate with all the protesters at the toll gate?The government made some concessions and called for dialogue, they would have commenced dialogue with the whole of their demands. The refusal to start dialogue casted them in the mould of trouble makers.They were not strategic, they hoped that if they hold the Nigerian flag, that soldiers and security personnel would never shoot at them, thereby exposing crass ignorance of the type of soldiers and security personnel we have in Nigeria and of course in Africa.They called their jamboree a revolution. How many successful revolutions were led by Disc Jockeys/musicians with music blaring and rice and chicken flying all over the place?On the Twitter ban, I go with the tendency who opine that using Twitter is a fundamental human right as provided in the United Nations universal declaration of human rights of 1948.The ban should be first resisted by people like you and I to test the waters, the youngsters can join later. I have been trying to tweet but Twitter is telling me that something went wrong, that I should give it another try later.Thanks.-CAO.--On Mon, Jun 7, 2021, 8:36 PM Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovdepoju@gmail.com> wrote:she was the voice of the final stand at lekki, the person who recorded and described the shooting of the protesters.na wa for you chidi.qs-what do you suggest we do about the twitter ban?please respond. dont refuse to do so after counselling hiding from the govt.--On Mon, 7 Jun 2021 at 16:15, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:What your DJ Switch achieve? Momentary fame?-CAO.--On Mon, Jun 7, 2021, 3:08 PM Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovdepoju@gmail.com> wrote:the people who became famous through ENDSARS were not from prominent families to the best of my knowledgeD J Swiftthe Feminist Coalition etcthey were also relatively young people or young peoplethe more prominent people and people from prominent families were present but less visibleanyway, Chidi, what do you suggest nigerians should do about the twitter ban?--On Mon, 7 Jun 2021 at 10:52, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:Oga Falola,Fela could say all that and do all he did because he was a scion of a prominent family.He would have been killed or forgotten in prison if he were not whom he was.I can participate in any protest and/or dare authorities now, but I wouldn't have done that ten or twenty years ago.
On Sunday, June 6, 2021, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:--Relax with this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y--5IlljO78
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, June 6, 2021 at 5:29 PM
To: USA African Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Thought For TodayOluwatoyin,
Typing from an Internet enabled device is different from protesting on the front line without a naira in your pocket and food in your house (if you even have shelter).
Your aged parents probably need some money for medication and your younger siblings are waiting for you to send their school fees.
-CAO.
On Sun, Jun 6, 2021, 11:16 PM Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovdepoju@gmail.com> wrote:
well said TF
On Sun, 6 Jun 2021 at 22:01, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Senior Chidi:
Please, don't trivialize resistance and protest.
The sacrifice of suffering and the suffering of sacrifice are the ingredients of transformation.
TF
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com>
Date: Sunday, June 6, 2021 at 3:48 PM
To: USA African Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Thought For Today
They tweet, ask Buhari to arrest them and you follow them, tweet and also ask Buhari to arrest you, right?
They have collected grants from foreign foundations in dollars and stuff those grants in their foreign bank accounts.
Some of them stole lots of money during their time as public office holders and want to divert attention from that.
Some of those you are following know persons who are close to high government officials, the people they know would plead on their behalf in the event of arrest.
Most of them have their families abroad.
In the event of arrest, their friends who control the Civil Rights Movement in Nigeria and the mainstream media would put their arrests on the publicity front burner.
You, a poor youngster, the son/daughter of a "nobody" who should be struggling to make your children, sons/daughters of "somebody", living in a high density urban suburb in Nigeria, with no friends in "high places", is also tweeting and asking Buhari to arrest you.
If arrested, the world will forget about you, minutes after you are arrested.
Those you are emulating would reconcile with Buhari and life would go on.
"Fools Die"-Mario Puzo.
-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)
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Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet and Founder/Publisher of; PublicInformationProjects (www.publicinformationprojects.org)--
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