Beautiful.
Beyond being intolerant of protest, the current Nigerian President took part in protests against the immediate past govt in which the then govt did not interfere, but, in collaboration with the Lagos State govt and the army, massacred the Endsars protesters, with the various actors, the army, the Lagos State govt and other agents trying to cover up this evil using clumsy methods and information manipulation.Why?In my view, they were killed beceause they were successfully agitating for system change.System change, not regime change.So the political elite went after them.They moved from advocating for police reform to advocating for change in the socio- economic system of Nigeria.They sustained this agitation in a manner that demonstrated that the current managers of the system are largely blind and corrupt dinosaurs who have no business managing one of the world's most dynamic nations in the 21st century.It was one of the greatest events in Nigerian history and will be remembered alongside the similar Tianamenn Square protests in China.During a weeks long explosion of carnival, of youth self assertion, a culture of sharing, of mutual generosity, was dramatised, as people broke loose from the dark blanket created by a most incompetent govt climaxing a significantly misguided political and economic history.These protesters sustained the protests through donations run through cutting edge financial systems.Beginning with such systems as the new online platform Flutterwave, when the govt shut down that avenue they switched to Bitcoin, a currency most of Nigeria's political elite are likely to know little or nothing about.Realizing the vulnerability of centralised organization systems in a corruption ridden system such as Nigeria's, they avoided centralised leadership, using instead decentralized networks, so that there was hardly anyone to intimidate or bribe, even though some names still stood out at the end.The Catholic Church performed Mass at the Lekki Toll Gate centre of the protests. Various musicians performed. The momentum was so powerful that world leaders in politics, business and other fields began to openly signal identification with these revolutionary youth.Once that happened, the protests morphed from youth entertaining themselves and demanding what some saw as unrealistic changes, to a serious political movement and a challenge to the ruling class.That is why they were taken out, and so savagely, through a night-time coordinated shooting into a dense crowd by a military squad which later evacuated the bodies, a conclusion that looks certain in spite of the confusion as to what happened on that fateful night.The success of the EndSars Revolution, as I call it, remaking the country in the image of the egalitarian and technogically sophisticated culture of the youth at the Lekki Toll Gate, could have brought an end to Nigeria's culture of overly monetised politics, the concentration of the country's monies in the hands of the feudalistic ruling class, perpetual backwardness, poor management of human and material resources, proliferation of various forms of terrorism fed by varied interest groups, among other transformations, arising perhaps from a serious discussion as to the direction of what may be seen as a significantly rudderless nation.Nobody knows tomorrow. EndSars was an almost unpredictable revolution. Next time, even the army might be helpless.Those youth were caught unaware beceause they were naive about the savagery the Nigerian ruling class and it's significantly zombie army is capable of.How can someone believe that by holding up the Nigerian flag, the agents of the govt won't attack you, thus, seated on the ground, holding the flag, chanting patriotic songs, they sat and waited for the troops that arrived, took positions and shot into the crowd.Those of us who have witnessed or participated in various student demonstrations over the years should have informed them that protest of almost any kind is often seen by the ruling elite as anti-state, beceause they see the state as themselves.Once the Lagos State Govt announced a curfew, the protesters' window of safety was up, we should have told them, the arrival of the murderous soldiers after that being almost predictable.That they did not know all this suggests their inexperience since they were not exposed to similar situations across Nigerian history.Next time, they could be better prepared. There are also varied methods of protest.The then 22 year old UK man Gary McKinnon, from inside England, broke into a large network of US military computer systems and NASA, the US govt space agency, pursuing his own non-military but partly political individual interests, in what is described as "the biggest military computer hack of all time," leaving a message mocking the cyber security of the most economically, technogically and politically powerful nation in the world, the very centre of innovation in the digital technologies transforming life on Earth. An amazing story powerfully told on his Wikipedia page.A motivated and skilled person can paralyze sections of Nigerian govts cyber systems from a location outside Nigeria.A similar revolution might not even be based in Nigeria but outside, targeting the system from elsewhere, even though physical presence, of the kind the Lekki toll gate protesters mobilised, is priceless.It's also true, as history shows, that a revolution can be guided from outside the nation where it is taking place.May God help us gain our freedom from people without vision, people for whom even water in every home does not seem to be on the agenda.Great thanksToyinOn Thu, Feb 24, 2022, 16:57 'Ayo Olukotun' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:OBASANJO'S ENDORSEMENT OF REBELS IN THE SEARCH FOR A NEW NIGERIA
Ayo Olukotun
"Our country Nigeria needs more of rebels. Those who will look at things in the face and say this is not right, this is not good for Nigeria."
Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo
The Punch, 20th February, 2022.
The opening quote drawn from a speech made last Saturday by General Olusegun Obasanjo (retd.), former Head of State underlines the constructive dimensions of rebels and rebellion, especially in a context like ours where things have really gone awry. Obasanjo's statement was made at the occasion of the 80th birthday of a former Students' Union leader now elder statesman, Alhaji Tayo Sowunmi. A word about Sowunmi is in order. He was the President of the University of Lagos Students' Union when this columnist was President of the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) Students' Union, a season of our national life renowned for anti-military protests. While some of us went to work in the technocracy and intellectual department, Sowunmi forfeited the offer of a blue-chip corporate job to continue in activism and made a mark as an outspoken and effective campaigner for the rights of teachers under the aegis of the Nigerian Union of Teachers as Secretary-General. He veered into politics at the onset of the Fourth Republic and decided to mark his entry into the ranks of octogenarians with an interesting book entitled "Footprints of a Rebel". This is the backdrop to Obasanjo's endorsement of rebels and rebellion in Nigeria's search for reinvigoration.
At first blush, it may sound queer to advocate rebels as an answer to Nigeria's many problems. It should be obvious nonetheless that what Obasanjo has in mind, taking his cue from Sowunmi's career, is rebels or better still, protesters with a cause. This writer is of the view that political and social protests should be made the fifth Estate of the Realm next to the media widely known as the fourth Estate of the Realm. Not just Nigeria but our universe owes a lot to the activities of protesters, at first, scorned or derided but later granted the pride of place in public affairs because of the changes and restructuring of dialogue brought about by their protests. What would the United State be today without the historic anti-slavery protests, the protracted struggle for civil equality, the exploits of protesters such as Martin Luther King Jr. and the more recent uprisings entitled #BlackLivesMatter following the brutal killing of George Floyd in May 2020?
Readers will recall that in the wake of the uproar caused by the #BlackLivesMatter movement, a national and international dialogue ensued regarding racism, police brutality, the extension of part of the police budget to disadvantaged communities as well as police reform. In this sense, protests and protesters helped to reshape and redefine national and global political discourses drawing attention to hitherto neglected issues, bringing about in the process a fairer and more humane world. Little wonder that Time magazine gave in 2011 its Person of the Year Award to none other than "the protester". Who can forget the changes brought about by the widespread pro-democracy uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa a little over a decade ago? How about the Occupy Movement which escalated the conversation about widening inequality, itself a major drawback of contemporary global political economy? Here in Nigeria, the protester or rebel has always been at the core of political change and reform. Beginning with the struggle against colonial rule, the independence of Nigeria was achieved by the toil and tears of our founding fathers and heroes past. During the years of military rule, it was difficult to silence the voice of the people who were organized by activists to showcase the power of the people. Of course, there was the heroic June 12 demonstrations, the anti-authoritarian ferment which led to the formation of the National Democratic Coalition ventilating grievances through a pirate Radio Kudirat in the struggle for democracy. That struggle had its heroes, martyrs, traitors and backsliders but it is an important chapter of our march towards a re-invented Nigeria.
In later years, protest tremors were set off by Occupy Nigeria movement whose ranks were constituted by several of the folks currently members of the ruling party. Subsequently, under the Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) regime, protests have been mounted such as #OurMumudondo, Coalition of Civil Society activists as well as the epic #ENDSARS eruptions against police brutality with national and international reverberations. The protests under the current administration are remarkable because the ruling party this time around has proved to be more intolerant of civil protests than some earlier governments which understood that protests are not a blight on democracy but an essential part of it.
It should be noted that protests even demonstrations when they involve groups and swathes of citizens are examples of what scholars have termed "nation-building from below". This is because they flash an image of another country more united in outrage than the extant one set in its old ways. Protests do not always come from below but can take the form of defensive radicalism, to borrow Prof. Claude Ake's term, in which an enlightened ruling elite preserves the system by adopting reforms which avert the necessity for direct and revolutionary changes. Two historical examples are the English ruling class frantically reforming the system to avert their version of the French Revolution which had broken out across the English Channel. The second is the German leader, Otto von Bismarck who introduced extensive social legislation in his country to steal the thunder of the socialists and to beat back the advance of socialism.
Structurally, wise elites don't wait until their countries are overtaken by mass protests. They employ remote sensing capacities to gauge the people's temper and pulse in order to introduce desired and necessary reforms. It was heartwarming for example when the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan insightfully urged that the rate of inflation and poverty were such that it would be unwise to remove fuel subsidy as that would deepen the misery of Nigerians. However, shortly after government correctly put on hold the policy for 18 months, a section of the elite that profits from oil importation business threw spanner in the works by unleashing a fuel crisis allegedly related to the supply of contaminated fuel. The crisis still persists and life had become even harder than Lawan anticipated. Disturbingly, very little is being said even by way of consolation by the responsible authorities while those who started the fire are probably laughing to the banks. Nobody has offered to resign and nobody has been shown the door for frustrating an announced policy of government and deepening the misery of Nigerians scavenging for fuel in the midst of an electricity crisis occurring side by side with an usually hot and humid weather.
Silence in these circumstances cannot be golden. In the tradition of progressive political change, it is advisable that action be taken to show that the woes and sufferings of Nigerians are loud and visible enough for the deaf and the blind to take account of.
In conclusion, protests extend the national conversation creatively and deepen democracy. Considering the turbulence often associated with them, however, far-sighted leaders anticipate them by making desired changes and perceiving keenly the political barometer.
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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