24 May 2007 |
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"Change will not come to Nigeria on a platter of gold, If you want justice, you have to fight for it." - Omoyele Sowore, Famous Nigerian Journalist and Human Rights Activist. "The First Law of Churov: Putin (Russian President) is always right." - Vladmir Churov (newly elected Head of Russia's Electoral Committee) Igi gogoro ma gun mi lo'ju, a t'okere ni a ti n wo. - Owe Yoruba. "We need to use force to change this regime. It isn't possible to change through democratic means. There can be no change without force. There is no chance of regime change through democratic elections." - Boris Berezovsky, Russian Billionaire; on self-exile in London. (excerpt of an interview about the Russian government given to the British newspaper, The Guardian in April 2007.) Если бы знать куда упасть, соломинки бы подстили. (Русская пословица) Translation. If we had known where we were going to fall, we would had layed some straws on the ground. (Russian proverb) "Politicians in the Delta are no different from politicians elsewhere in Nigeria. The rot is right at the top and has spread right down. Nigeria will only be free when all citizens resolve to take drastic action to rid our society of these criminals who have imposed themselves as rulers over a helpless citizenry." - Jomo Gbomo, Leader of MEND. excerpt of an interview given to Saharareporters. "Obasanjo will be remembered as a person who literally desecrated the electoral integrity of the Nigerian nation. Obasanjo in the last few years completely blocked the possibility of Nigeria moving forward. Whatever he must have done to revamp the economy, his economic reforms, the fight against corruption; all of these will be subsumed by his abuse of the Nigerian system over the years. This is what his legacy will be. People will not remember Obasanjo for other things; he will be remembered because of this crime, this political crime that he committed against the Nigerian people. Political corruption affects national cohesion than even material corruption. Obasanjo's regime is the most political corrupt regime in Nigeria." - Wole Soyinka, excerpt of interview given to the BBC in May, 2007. THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD Fellow Nigerians, my question goes thus. Since we all knew that Obasanjo knew nothing about petroleum and its management, and that the main reason for assigning himself this ministry was to fill his pocket with Nigeria's petro dollars, why didn't we go out en masse to protest? Why didn't neither The House of Reps. nor The Senate veto his appointing himself as the Minister of Petroleum? Why didn't the progressives mobilise the masses to challenge the 419 constitution that gives the President the right to combine his job with the petroleum portfolio? The answer, I assume is obvious. Everybody was expecting to get a shot at the oil contract. Everybody was expecting to be allocated an oil block, or be a broker between the government and potential investors. We all took "a siddon look" position. Obasanjo used allocation of oil blocks as a 'stick and carrot' to get undeserved support of politicians. The scheme is very simple. If you are a 'heavy weight' politician, most especially a retired military officer, and you back him, you get an oil block as a reward. If you go against him after being allocated an oil block, it is taken away from you immediately under some flimsy excuse. Remember the case of Danjuma. His oil block was taken away from him the moment he openly criticised Obasanjo's Third Term Agenda (TTA) By the way, can somebody explain to me why Danjuma should be awarded an oil block? Where did he get the money as a retired military officer to invest in oil blocks that requires investment in millions of dollars? Did Danjuma make this money during his military service? According to infomation from a reliable source, a large number of Nigeria's oil blocks have been awarded to retired military officers. The bitter truth is that, these retired, redundant and useless military officers are not only milking the country dry, but they are as well clogs in the wheel of progress. They have not only ruined our economy, but their performances as the head of various public companies and governmental institution are catastrophic. By allowing Obasanjo to combine the petroleum portfolio with his job as the President Of Nigeria, unknowingly, we gave him the first green light and the wrong impression that he was free to manipulate and capitalise on our 419 constitution for his own selfish interests.
I could never imagine, even, in my wildest dreams that the President of Nigeria could give out a part of Nigeria's territory, moreso very rich in oil and gas, to another country based on a fictitious agreement reached among 3 colonial masters about a 100 years ago. Apart from the billion of dollars that Nigeria has been denied due to the handling of Bakassi by Obasanjo, undoubtedly, the whole exercise is very humiliating for Nigerians and the black race as a whole. As is well known, Obasanjo agreed to hand over a part of Nigeria's territory to Cameroon after meeting with Chirac in Paris. What a humiliation! I was disgusted to read in a recent interview where he, without any shame, told the whole nation that he agreed to hand over Bakassi, because Britain, America and Britain prooved to him that Bakassi never belonged to Nigeria. What kind of man have chosen as our President? It is obvious that Obasanjo used Bakassi as a "sacrificial lamb" in order to cut a personal, selfish, political and economic deals with the west; the details of which are unknown, and may never be known to Nigerians. Obasanjo has used Nigeria's 419 Constitution to steal the land of the Balassi people; without any challenge. My fellow country men and women, my question goes thus. How many of us took to the streets to show our strong protest and dissatisfaction with Obasanjo? How many of us besieged Aso Rock to demand that Obasanjo should change his devilish and humiliating decision? How many of us went out en mass to show our solidarity with the Bakassi people? How many of us went out en mass to call for the demolition of the 419 constitution that allows a man, who rigged himself into power the absolute right to give out other peoples' land to another country without their consent? Most of us, unfortunately, folded our hands, and watched Obasanjo deprived thousands of Nigerians of their bonafide land. All what some of us did was to write big grammar articles. As far as I remember - though, I stand to be corrected - this issue was not even discussed neither by the House of Reresentatives nor The Senate, talkless of passing a resolution against Obasanjo's unilateral decision. The worst and very sad part of the Bakassi issue is that Obasanjo, up till now, has not fulfilled his promise of relocating these displaced Nigerians. We all folded our hands and allowed Obasanjo to go scott free with day light robbery. The bitter truth is that the promise to relocate was made just to get rid of the Bakassi people as quickly as possible. Let us look at the Bakassi issue from another angle. Supposing Obasanjo decided to give out part of Yorubaland or Ndigboland or part of Hausa/Fulani territory, would we have reacted differently? I am sure many of us woud do more than just a "siddon-look" attitude. So, why did we take to siddon-look attitude when Obasanjo decided to give out the land of fellow Nigerians? Why didn't we fight for our Bakassi brothers as if it was our land that was being stolen or given away without our consent. Unfortunately, through our nonchalant attitudes or weak protest, we allowed Obasanjo, not only to get away with another crime, but we as well, unknowingly, gave him the confidence and wrong impression that he was free to continue commiting crimes against Nigerian. Details of the Bakassi issue is highlighted in one of my articles titled "Nigeria's 419 constitution: Bakassi, Obasanjo's sacrificial lamb to the West."
THE UNLAWFUL ARREST AND DETENTION OF DOKUBO. The last, but not the least of Obasanjo's attrocities and abuse power that will be cited here was the unlawful arrest and detention of the leader of MEND, Asari Dokubo. Obasanjo, instead of coming up with concrtete plans to resolve the Niger delta crisis, decided to play a 'hide and seek' game with these oppressed, suppressed and terrorised people. Instead of a blue print plan, accepted to all sides, Obasanjo continued with oppressing, suppressing, terrorising and killing of the Niger Deltans. As it will be recalled, Obasanjo tricked Dokubo into surrendering ammunitions that worth over #137 million, with the promise of looking seriously into the grievances of his people. My question to fellow Nigerians goes thus. How many of us went out en masse to protest the unlawful arrest, and subsequent detention of Dokubo - a fellow and innocent Nigerian - whose only crime was his having the guts to demand a stop to the pollution of the land, water and air of his people, and a fair share of the oil revenues for the development of their land? There are many more examples that could be cited. The point one is trying to make with these above examples or cases is that if we had all along done more than writing big grammar articles, and instead had given Obasanjo a serious challenge, he would not have had the courage to have gone as far as openly mass rigging elections, and thereby stealing the peoples' mandates. What we have all forgotten (but need to be reminded of) is that Obasanjo has lost not only his conscience, but has as well developed a thick skin to our big grammar and insulting articles, quiet a long time ago. Obasanjo knows that we can only bark with our big grammar, but not bite. And, that's what is most important to him. There is always the best time for everything. There is time for big grammar articles, and there should be time for actions too! Big grammar articles are from adequate to bring about the desired changes, most especially the desperately needed democratic reforms. It takes much more than that. We all want changes but we don't want to risk our lives to realise them. Out of our fear of the unknown, we have allowed despots like Babangida, Abacha, Buhari and Obasanjo to impose themselves on us against our will. Out of fear of avoiding death, we have allowed these tyrants to mess around with us for decades. Because of the desire to live forever - which unfortunately is not possible - we have allowed these dictators to do and undo whatever they thought fit with us and, without any repercussion. After my interaction with the British of diversified backgrounds and ages, at different occassions, during my trip to London in 1991, the question I kept on asking myself was: "How hid these people manage to enslave and eventually colonise us for centuries?" I also asked myself: "How come the black Americans allowed themselves too to be enslaved for centuries? I got the answers to my questions after reading practically all of James Baldwin's books; especially, "The fire next time"; "Parting the waters" - a historical documentation of the civil rights movement, written by Taylor Branch (he won a pulzer price for this book) and Malcom X's auto/biographies. I discovered from these books that what we, black people lack is BRAVERY. We don't have enough courage to confront our oppressors. We lack the courage to challenge our suppressors. Why? Because we are afraid to die. That explains why Africans and African-Americans were enslaved, and subsequently colonised for centuries. We are afraid to lay down our lives so that others could live in freedom and dignity. Come to think of it, imagine if every black slave had stabbed his master to death. Most likely, they would be hanged or lynched for murdering their masters. However, this act would had frightened, and subsequently discouraged potential slave masters from owning slaves. Consequently, slave trade would had ended much earlier than it did. Thus, by sacrificing themselves, they would had given other African-Americans, including their own children and grand-children, the opportunity to be freed from bondage much earlier. Unfortunately, no slave was ready to sacrifice his life for other slaves to live in freedom. He peferred to be alive, but remain a slave till the rest of his life. Every rat wanted to be free of the cat's slaughter, but none of them was ready to take the risk of belling the cat. At the end of the day, the cat eat them all. Instead of African-Americans taking up arms against their slave-masters, they were going to church for centuries, praying to Him to set them free. Instead of rebelling against their light coloured ( I really don't like calling them white. They are actually not white. Or, are they?) oppressors, they were calling on God - for centuries - to appeal to the conscience of their masters. Instead of revolting against their persecutors, they were all waiting for God to send down a messiah to free them from bondage. Was it a coincidence that it was in the 60's of the last century that the Civil Rights Bill was eventually passed in the United States? Definitely not. The reason was because, at last, Malcom X, James Baldwin and others - unlike Martin Luther King, were calling for an arm struggle or a violent solution to their predicament. The French staged a revolution that ended the reign of the monarch, when he went against them. Even, the so called conservative British beheaded their King when he became unpopular. The Russians overthrew the Czar when he became power drunk and oppressive. In Ukraine, people went out en masse, camped inside their tents infront of the President's office for weeks, in freezing temperature, to protest election rigging by the ruling party. This political action is now popularly known as " The orange revolution." Even Georgia, a very small country, formerly part of the Soviet Union, was not left out in the revolution wave. A couple of years ago, Shakashvilli, a young Harvard trained Georgian, who was the Presidential candidate of all the opposition parties refused to accept election rigging from the ruling party, despite the fact that candidate of the ruling party was Schervadnadze, a political heavy weight in all terms of the word, the incubent president, and the former Foreign Affairs Minister of the former Soviet Union . But the political status of Schervadnadze did not deter Shakashvilli from leading a siege at the office of the President for weeks. When the pressure was too much for Schervadnadze to bear, he had to quit. Thus, through his bravery and perseverance, Shakashvilli organised the first Georgian revolution now popularly called "The Rose Revolution." Another small and impoverished Asian country, Kirgizya, which was also a former Soviet republic wrote its name in the history of world political awareness. Recently, the populace went out en masse and besieged the Presidential office, with the demand to either sign a document that would reduce his executive power or resign totally. When the heat became unbearable, Bakiev had to give in to the will of the people. Another Asian country witnessed a revolution when the citizens took to the streets en masse, and demanded that the ruling Monarch cut down his power, otherwise he would be dethroned. The Monarch was forced to bow to the will of the people if he wanted to remain on the throne. I can continue with the list, but I believe that the examples cited here are more than enough. In Nigeria, instead of going out en masse to protest election rigging, all we can do is to blow big big grammar, and organising an unofficial big big grammar competition to determine who can blow the biggest grammar that even the Oyinbos - the bonafide owners of the language - have never blown before, can not blow and will never blow. In Nigeria, instead of assasinating our oppressors or organising a revolution that will take power from despots like Obasanjo, ibb, e.t.c., all we can do to show our discontent with tyrants and election riggers is to write big grammar articles. The notion that lack of political awareness may be responsible for our compromising attitudes with despots and election riggers does not hold neither ground nor water, if the least scrutiny is applied. Imagine somebody trying to use some ficticious document to deprive you of your house. Are you going to put up a fight to claim your property or not? Or imagine a thief speeding away with the keys to your brand new car. Will you give him the chase of your life or not? Most likely, you will - provided that you are healthy and not handicapped. The bitter truth, which we must sadly admit, is that we are COWARDS. And that includes me - who went on scholarship to study abroad, but decided to stay behind, and watch helplessly from a million miles away, how events unfold in his motherland. Instead of us confronting these African dictators like Obasanjo, we have all decided to take refugee in Oyinbo countries. What we have all forgotten - and definitely need to be reminded of - is that these people that we are running to, fought for the good life, and the democratic system they are presently enjoying. They paid a big price for all they have today. Imagine if these people had also run away, and taken refugee in other places, instead of staying behind to confront their political and economic problems, where would they have been by now, and where would we have run to? Undoubtedly, if they had run away, there would have been no place for us to run. Tyrants like Obasanjo know that we only don't want to die in the course of fighting for freedom, justice, and free and fair elections, but we are ready to put up with them and their oppressive regimes just to be alive. They capitalise on our weakness. They suppress us with their thugs in military and police uniforms. By the way, how many of us in diaspora discussed about the election with his parents, relatives, friends, colleagues, and tried to enlighten and influence them as regards to the candidates to vote for in the election? How many of us took a leave from our respective jobs and businesses, in order to spend at least two weeks in Nigeria, and be practically active in the election process? We were all glued to our TVs and computers expecting a miraculous news from Nigeria that PDP has conceeded a land slide defeat in the election. We were waiting for a messiah to come from heaven. We expected other people to do the dirty job for us, and we will afterwards go home to reap the fruits of their labour. Isn't it? Nobody is bold enough to help us get rid of these tyrants, even if it means sacrificing his own life for a good cause. You don't necessary have to organise a coup detat in order to get rid of these military thugs in agbada that call themselves civilians. A snipper or a suicide bomber or a one-man assasin squad equipped with just a pistol or knife will do. Out of fear of the unknown we have allowed a 70 year old former military thug, turned fake civilian overnight, to mess around with us for good?(bad) eight years, without any repercussion. Three Nigerians will always be accorded a special place in the history of democratic struggle in Nigeria. Undoubtedly, the history of democratic struggle in Nigeria is not only far from complete without mentioning the names of Fela Anikulapokuti, Wole Soyinka and Gani Fawehinmi, but it is as well worth mentioning that the contributions of these eminent Nigerians to democracy is invaluable. These trio have the hearts of a lion. They have never for once allowed themselves to be bugged down by fear in their campaign for a just, civil and democratic society. These trio, right from the onset understood that we have not only despots and mediocres as leaders. But more importantly, they understood that it's only through confrontation and constant pressure, and not dialogues, that they could be brought to order. Fela and Soyinka, through their music and writings respetively, have exposed the evil regime. These trio went beyond words, writings and music to express their strong dissatisfaction with the establishment. In most cases, they risked their lives in their staunch and uncompromised opposition of opportunists who parade themselves as Presidents. Soyinka alone, has more than half a century democratic struggle to his credit. We are all aware of the heavy price that The Anikulapokutis, most especially, Fela and his mother, paid for standing up to the gestapo regimes that have imposed themselves on us almost from independence. I was moved to tears after watching a multi-parts documentary about Fela on naijatube.com titled "Amazing interview," The video documentary is highly recommended for viewing. I am convinced, beyond any reasonable doubts that if not for the activities of these trio, the democratic and political climates in the country woold have been much worse. Imagine 6 million people going out on the streets of Lagos to protest the rigging of the election. Imagine if 4 million people go out on the streets in Ibadan to protest the fraud that was called election. Imagine if 2 million people go out in Enugu to protest the day-light robbery that INEC reffered to as election. Imagine millions of Nigerians taking to the streets from May 26, simultaneously in all major cities not only to show their strong protest for the rigging of the election, but to as well stop the swearing in of Yar'adua and other governors that were rigged in. Imagine these people besieging the venues where the swearing in are supposed to take place, and camping outside until the government agrees to cancel the elections, set up an interim government that will be entrusted with the task of organising new, free and fair elections. Can you imagine the effect? By the way, what is the population of the Nigerian Army and Police? I am convinced, beyond any reasonable doubts that there is no army or police that can stop a united, aggrieved and determined people. They can kill some of the people some of the time, but they can't kill all the people all the time. It is only when we can do this that a revolution will take place in Nigeria. Alas, if only wishes were horses, beggars will definitely ride. Unfortunately, the problem in realising this project are the Nigerian mentality, and the insincerity and selfishness of the leaders of the so called opposition parties - most of them are in politics not to serve, but to fend for themselves. It is only selfless, uncorrupt, dedicated leaders that are known to share democratic values unconditionally, are capable of leading the people in mass protests. When I am talking of real, selfless, uncorrupt, democratic and dedicated leaders of the opposition parties, definitely, I don't me people like Buhari and Atiku. God forbid. This is where the dilemma lies, unfortunately. In addition. if I want to go out on the street to protest, my parents will most likely tell me: "Bode, pa wa sile, ma pa wa sita." And, when all parents tell their sons and daughters who are planning to go out to protest: "Pa wa sile, ma pa wa sita," then, who will go out on the streets to protest and confront these self-imposed tyrants and election riggers? This is the one million dollar question. If all parents tell their sons and daughters "Pawa s'ile, ma pawa s'ita," who will then go out on the streets to protest and confront these despots and election riggers? And, if very few peole or nobody goes out to protest, obviously, the poor turnout will encourage election riggers to continue with their attrocities unfazed. This situation leaves us in a vicious cycle. The resolution of this dilemma is one of the challenges before us; most especially before the progressives between now and May 29, and between May 29, and the next election. Better late than never. It is only when a real opposition party with dedicated leaders emerge that we can start talking about a revolution in Nigeria. A revolution, undoubtedly is inevitable, simply because things can not continue like this forever.
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