--SO LONG 2021, YEAR OF TURMOIL AND UNCERTAINTYAyo OlukotunThe assessment of any year is not a neutral, scientific enterprise but an exercise that very much depends on who is assessing, from which point of view, nationality, race and class. Obviously 2021 must appear radically different to Elon Musk, a zillionaire {in dollars] the richest man in the world and Time Magazine's Person of the Year 2021 compared to a Nigerian citizen who escaped death by the whiskers when bandits suddenly fired gunshots at the vehicle he was traveling in. In other words, the pedestal upon which you stand or fail to stand is a crucial determinant of what the year brought to the table or represents; for some, a long running ball, for others, a dismal tormenting interval.So, we speak in aggregate terms by referring to the year as one of turmoil and uncertainty mediated by identity factors. In general, when you look around the globe, considering the ravages of covid-19 and its several mutations, economic and political upsets, social turmoil, the year is only a tad better than the preceding one when it appeared that humanity had come to Armageddon. Nigerians are fond of prefacing their critical remarks with the expression, it is only in Nigeria that such and such a thing happens, but as this Columnist has repeatedly argued, there is nothing like Nigerian exceptionalism even if our politics often resembles the theater of the absurd. Look around you and see how much suffering and chaos characterized the year. From the fallouts of strange diseases, hard-to-cure, through Nigerian type fuel queues in the United Kingdom, to inflationary upswing ascending to a 30 year high in the United States, there is much anguish, throes and woes to lament. Perhaps that is why New York Times Columnist Dodai Stewart wrote recently about 2021 as 'a year in limbo'.Consider the fate of Joe Biden, President of the United States who began the year with a high approval rating inching close to 60% but had recently suffered a 15 point decline as the troubling issues of growing unemployment, inflation as well as foreign policy miscalculations collated to erode his popularity and put in the balance the fate of his party in next year's midterm elections. Across the Atlantic ocean, we encounter a morose Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of England struggling with an all time low in his popularity rating since he came to office. A series of political missteps including an attempt to rally behind a Member of Parliament who was suspended had taken its toll on perception of him as a leader. He never had really been popular but matters had gone from bad to worse in recent weeks as public discourse repeatedly zeroed on whether Johnson is really fit to govern. Influential Columnist, Peter Oborne wrote scathingly that "I have never encountered a senior British politician who lies and fabricates so regularly, so shamelessly, so systematically as Boris Johnson". We can go on and on but the point to make at this stage is that every nationality including the mature democracies had their share of the year's tribulations and downswings in particular in the area of the economy. That said, a country like Nigeria held the roughest end of the stick because most governance issues beat the path of decline while such bedeviling problems as galloping inflation especially of food prices, escalating insecurity, high unemployment, ailing public services among others combined to make the country a hell hole.Nigeria, to be sure, had never been effectively governed with a succession of rulers promising much but delivering little. But the chickens of ineptitude have come home to roost while dysfunction and inertia, in combination, traumatized Nigerian citizens. In the month of April, for instance, Serial strikes erupted shutting down polytechnics, public hospitals, judicial institutions, to name a few. Strikes are legitimate but they represent a sword that cuts both ways, they put pressure on the Government, at the same time, they also penalize consumers who can no longer access basic services. Consequently, they make life more miserable for citizens denied the use of public services. Reverberating across the year and in virtually every geographical region are the assaults on life and property by roving bandits and insurgents. A good deal of the country, especially the northern part became killing fields as refugee camps sprouted. Needles to say that Nigerian lives became statistical denominations just as livelihood became casualties of a terrorizing army of assassins and kidnappers for ransom. Illustratively on Wednesday, 70 traders going about their legitimate businesses were kidnapped by gunmen on Kaduna road. Operating with increasing audacity, the gunmen at one point attacked the elite Nigerian Defense Academy located in Kaduna, sending the message that there are no hallowed grounds. In the course of the year, one of the Governors raised the alert that Boko Haram militia had overrun some communities in Niger State and hoisted their flags bringing them terrifyingly close to the Nation's Federal Capital, a mere 2 hours drive away. Security forces rose to the occasion but the picture one gets is that they are overpowered and are trailing behind the gunmen who increasingly appeared to be everywhere. Overall, insecurity remains a primary challenge for Nigerians, rulers and citizens alike as the country approaches another election.Corruption, a disease as old as the nation, had free play as revelations upon revelations of scandals surfaced in the news concerning several parastatals and government institutions including, most recently, the National Assembly. Although some punitive steps were taken against some of the culprits, many of them are still walking free suggesting that the battle against public sector corruption is far from over. There is no doubt that there was a rise for most of the year in the Human Misery Index as the harsh economy played tricks on the average Nigerian's pocketbook with many clearly unable to cope. The familiar woes were compounded by a decline in governance and the capacity of failing institutions to manage the consequences. Talking about governance, the Singapore-based Chandler Institute of Governance rated Nigeria number 102 out of 104 countries using such indices as leadership and foresight, strong institutions and global influence. This is in keeping with other global rankings including the Human Development Index where Nigeria remains at the bottom league. Notwithstanding, not all the news is bad. The economy performed better in some respects than anticipated. For example, it recorded a quarterly GDP growth of 5% in the second quarter of this year indicating that Nigeria had entered a post recession phase. The challenge is to translate growth into jobs, higher standards of living, poverty alleviation, economic diversification among other markers of development. There was also the successful holding of the Governorship election in Anambra state despite serious odds. This indicates that all being well, Nigeria is coming of age in electoral terms despite the recent setbacks of the failure of the president to give assent to the bill on the electronic transmission of election results. Hopefully, this can still be rectified in the larger interest of the nation.This columnist wishes all our readers, in spite of all, A merry Yuletide season and A happy 2022.On Thursday, December 16, 2021, 03:43:57 PM GMT+1, Ayo Olukotun <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com> wrote:CLAMPDOWN ON #NORTHISBLEEDING PROTESTERS IS MOST UNWISE
Ayo Olukotun
"…The North had become a war zone… The United Nations had revealed earlier this year that 2.9 million people are displaced in the region due to insecurity"
Petition by #NorthisBleeding protesters.
The Punch, Thursday, December 16, 2021.
One of the ironies of governance and civil liberties in Nigeria today is that there was more space for democratic expressions under some military governments than we now have. Going down memory lane, this columnist recalls being invited as President of the then University of Ife Students' Union (now Obafemi Awolowo University) to the seat of government, then in Lagos, to dialogue with the Federal Government after turbulent protests. The meeting was at the instance of Colonel Ahmadu Ali (retd.), himself, a former Student Union leader and at the time, Federal Minister for Education. As I recall it, other student union leaders present at the meeting include Mallam Adamu Waziri of Ahmadu Bello University, John Nnia Nwodo of the University of Ibadan and Sam Ekenna of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The atmosphere of the dialogue was cordial, collegiate and devoid of intimidation, a sign that government of that day did not dismiss student protesters as mischief makers or pawns in the hands of politicians.
Many will recall too that it was a military government that appointed then late Segun Okeowo who spearheaded the "Ali Must Go" upheaval into the Constituent Assembly which drew up the 1979 Constitution. These reminiscences are brought up to illustrate how far down the country has come from the tradition of civil expression as a form of democratic dialogue which survived, even thrived, under some military governments.
It is unfortunate and disheartening that the #NorthisBleeding protesters who had amassed thousands of petitioners in support of a cogent and articulate statement about the state of insecurity in the North were characteristically clamped down upon on Wednesday by security forces. According to media reports, there is no evidence that the protesters were violent or had constituted obstacles or threats to the free movement of persons, yet they were treated with an iron fist unknown to democratic liberty. Counterfactualise a bit and imagine that the protesters were demonstrating in support of the current regime with placards reading "Glory to Buhari", "All hail, Lai Mohammed", "Long live the current regime" and deduce what would have happened. You guessed right. The protesters would have enjoyed security cover with the doors of the Presidency thrown open to them. Not just that. A rousing speech would have been made, coronating them as patriots and lovers of Nigeria of a kind that is rare to find. Is this farfetched? Not in the least because almost every protest in recent years have been met with organized counter-protests with citizens carrying pro-government placards and berating, sometimes doing physical battle with the protesters.
Four years ago, when the noose tightened on Babachir Lawal, then Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and in the midst of temporizing and dilation by government, leading civil society lights erupted in civil protests. What happened? A hitherto unknown Citizens' Support for Good Governance organised a pro-government protest in favour of Lawal. Lawal himself, sidestepping the allegations against him, addressed the until then anonymous group, saying that "Baba Buhari did not anticipate the problem that we are in…The people who caused these problems are the ones challenging the government." The rest of the story is history, as they say.
Browse through the clutch of civil protests including the extensive #ENDSARS demonstrations and you will find that this has been the standard response of this government to the protest, however legitimate or genuine. Sometimes the protesters are beaten black and blue, not by policemen alone but by a manufactured crowd crying louder than the bereaved. Why is this trend sad and depressing? Precisely because it is the very opposite of the democratic spirit and is in clear violation of sections of the Nigerian Constitution which allow for the freedom of expression.
As this columnist has repeatedly pointed out, a growing and deepening democracy is not one that merely holds periodic elections, rather, it is one that is maturing in tolerance and growing the leeway for contending opinions and perspectives. For a government that is winding down, it should be concerned that when all is said and done, what will remain outstanding is the verdict of history and to what extent the props of democracy were maintained or denuded.
Reading through the petition of the #NorthisBleeding protesters, there is nothing in it that has not been the subject of public discussion and dialogue in the last 5 years or more since insecurity, across the nation but more prevalent in the North, became a front burner issue. It is well known that hardly a day passes without new and daring vignettes about atrocity killings of swathes of innocent people, kidnap of high-profile leaders, including Emirs; attack on secondary and tertiary institutions. There have been also reprisal killings, ambushes of elite security institutions such as the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, among others. Once a peaceful and lovely land with alluring suburbia, the North today wears the face of a land tragically tortured by bandits, sunken in grief and Hobbesian uncertainty. I recall as a young academic at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, back in the days, how we took joy rides across the length and breadth of the North. Today, ask the Senators and top politicians when last they had the temerity to pay visits to their nativities in view of the fear of becoming hostages in the den of bandits.
True, the government has sometimes heroically risen up to the bandits giving them a good run for their sophisticated weapons. On balance, however, terror remains written over that once peaceful and beautiful land. Only the other day, the gunmen had the audacity to ask communities in some parts of the North West to pay huge sums of money as a ransom for staving off imminent attacks. Before then, it was reported that in Niger State, following the alert by the Governor of the State, Abubakar Sani Bello, that Boko Haram militants had settled in some parts of the state, communities in the affected areas had to levy themselves in order to prevent being invaded by the dreaded militia. This is tragedy occurring on a daily basis below the level of officialdom and tepid assurances of safety. This columnist does not agree that a state of emergency across the Northwest will remedy the situation; to be sure, it may only escalate the dawn of militarized states. Nonetheless, the protesters have not committed any crime to warrant being treated like outlaws.
One hopes that it will not come to a time where the only voices that the government will tolerate are those of its publicists and vocal minions. It is admonished that before we move into the election season, government should reverse the tendency and habit of clamping down on protesters bringing messages that are genuine, even if unpleasant to government. To make sound policies, government should arrange to listen, not just to itself, but to opposing voices, given that there is much to be gained in adversarial analysis.
If it has the courage to do this, it will have made a lasting contribution to the growth of Nigerian democracy.
Professor Ayo Olukotun is a director at the Oba (Dr.) S. K. Adetona Institute for Governance Studies, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye.
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