While an undergraduate in 2007, I had an experience with my family. All my sisters and brothers around, four of them were up against me because I was always cursing and shouting and calling names while a documentary on “achievements” of the then Taraba State government was being broadcast by Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) on national network. I could see the lies because I observed and discerned that the same classrooms were being shown over and over, from different angles and perspectives as “achievements” across all the secondary schools of the state, huge sums of money in the hundreds of millions and billions were quoted as being expended on that, as well as various other “projects”. This is the content of “news” that is daily broadcasted in government media.

Talking about lies, lies and lies! TV and radio documentaries brainwash the people so much! All my siblings up in arms against me on that night were people who could be classified as “enlightened” because of their levels of education: one had an NCE and was then studying for a degree; one had a national diploma; two were secondary school graduates. But alas, their education was not sufficient for them to “discern” television hogwash. Suffice it to add that with time and a lot of “workshops”, they have since become disillusioned and as of today, one of them simply hates NTA and would always switch channels or walk out even during the popular 9 o’clock NTA network news (read government propaganda) which I watch for comic relief, what do I need to do but laugh when 15 minutes of a 45-minute news are dedicated to Aso rock and the couple that occupies the rock?

You'd be shocked that our masses do not really understand the complex problem that we have. We are here on NVS always debating, talking and talking. Many people think we should stop talking about Nigeria’s problems and talk “solutions”. I'm afraid the street Nigerian is yet to understand the enormity of the problems confronting him/her!

We have a big challenge of framing our complex problems into a simple frame, and figure out ways of communicating this in a way that the poor can understand its enormity. In this sense, I honestly think that talking solutions to government of the day is rubbish; they have a lot of solutions that have been communicated to them and are daily being communicated to them through many outlets and inlets.

The ruling elite as constituted by the current government need to be swept away. There is no way we can start the journey towards progress for all the groups that constitute the present Nigeria. No true leader can emerge from the current bunch of political and economic cannibals. But to do that, we need the masses of our people; the masses have to understand that there is a problem which "we must act collectively to solve".

I remember the days of vibrant student unionism in our campuses: union leaders usually spent days mobilizing for action. Students had to be well informed about a problem, in a way that will ginger them to action. If leaders failed to communicate issues in very clear understandable terms to the mass of students, that particular protest plan was bound to fail, not because the cause was not genuine, but because the cause was not well communicated to those affected or even the victims.

Even among university students who are ordinarily regarded as “knowledgeable”, activist union leaders needed to look beyond to “discern” the issues, communicate the issues clearly in order to mobilize the mass of the students to action! Not even all university students can discern issues beyond the surface, what more of the Nigerian masses on the street.

During the French revolution and various revolutions (both violent and peaceful) that followed it up to the 1980s: the Iranian revolution, the Rumanian revolution, the Philippine people revolution, the South African revolution etc; people had to be mobilized by leaders who were themselves elites that chose not to “dine” with the ruling elite, but preferred to identify with the cause of the masses. They dedicated hours, weeks and years of their time, dedicated hard earned resources to informing, training and mobilizing communities of poor masses. They endured harassments from the state. In Nigeria, we have not demonstrated enough of this yet. 

Karl Marx described the masses as a “sack of potatoes”. If there were no leaders to keep the masses together, they just scattered in different directions like holding an unsealed sack of potatoes upside down: the potatoes scatter in different directions. Who amongst us here is/are willing to gather a critical mass of the potatoes and hold the seal tightly so that all would not scatter in different directions?

We need to reorder how to make anger swell in a critical mass of the people. They need to see the light through a clear and simple understanding of the issues. Their minds have been so long and too often polluted by media like NTA, FRCN and tens of state funded radio and television stations that spread nothing apart from government lies and propaganda across to the masses. It is not a secret that the ruling elite have been thriving on the promotion of mass nonsense, propaganda and ignorance.

I remember my days in secondary school; the social studies curriculum was and still is citizen-duties-driven without any iota of a “citizen-rights” balance. From elementary school to junior secondary school, the subject that is close to civics is dominated by what is expected of a citizen, by how to be “a good citizen”. The responsibilities of government and rights of citizens are not spelt out at all. Consequences of a citizen’s failure to live up to “duties” are clearly stated for the citizen, but consequences of a failed or irresponsible government are never spelt out. Such is our defective curriculum, that secondary school graduates do not know what “human rights” is!

Fast forward to the “O” level curriculum for government, it rants about “the three arms of government” and the history and transition of the Nigerian state without making, or giving students the benefit of any value assessment. Such is the entire school curriculum: there is no element of value assessment. Just take what is given! I do not know whether this has changed today.

The mass of Nigerian people remain unconscious about their rights. Today, they are still hugely ignorant about even democracy. Neither what is practiced by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nor the crab being dished out by the so called opposition (AC, ANPP etc) in their little colonies of control could be said to be anything near democracy. Yet they control all the propaganda tools that propagate lies and dish nonsense to the ignorant masses.

We need to understand that the collective “consciousness” of the elite is far greater and more powerful than the sum total of the mass of powerless, poverty infested Nigerians. What can a hungry, diseased and impoverished person do but search for and grab something to eat today? That is why it will take a group of committed elites to organize and drive the mass of the people into activities that can overwhelm the ruling elite, and force them to change or flee. We have never had enough of these categories of elites at any point in the history of Nigeria. At no time in Nigeria’s history did we have such elites (willing to work for the masses cause) in shortest supply than today.

Today’s elites crave to become “superstars” and dish out tokens to a few poor people wallowing in abject poverty. Elites want to become political and economic “superstars” like Obasanjo, Yar’Adua, Elumelu, Cecilia Ibru, Dangote, Okereke-Onyiuke etc. It has all become about, “let me ‘liberate’ myself and leave the rest to boot”. Unless you belong to these superstars, your ideas are never to be reckoned with by the government and the people. How sad.

We all cannot abandon the poor masses and be debating at a level that they don’t understand. It is tantamount to a strategy to impoverish the masses forever.

Our masses know that we have a disease. The symptoms of the disease are not clearly understood to even begin to tackle them. If you fail to understand a disease very well, forget any hope of a cure; thus the saying, "understanding a disease well is the first step towards its cure".  

It is not the poor uneducated or lowly educated, undiscerning masses that will clearly frame the “symptoms of the disease” in such a way that a critical mass of Nigerians will understand. This is a responsibility for patriotic elite, not the poor masses. This to me is the missing link needed to overcome the current political apathy and helplessness that pervades the land and allows a field day for the current ruling elite. That link must be established. I call on willing-to-act villagers to have this at the “front” of their mind and thoughts.

Robot  Villager

# 1 While an undergraduate in 2007, I had an experience with my family. All my sisters and brothers...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 30.08.2008 00:39

Dewdrops  Villager

# 2 =Robot;4295090722>While an undergraduate in 2007, I had an experience with my family. All my sisters and brothers...Read the full article. It is not the poor uneducated or lowly educated, undiscerning masses that will clearly frame the “symptoms of the disease” in such a way that a critical mass of Nigerians will understand. This is a responsibility for patriotic elite, not the poor masses. This to me is the missing link needed to overcome the current political apathy and helplessness that pervades the land and allows a field day for the current ruling elite. That link must be established. I call on willing-to-act villagers to have this at the “front” of their mind and thoughts Willing to act? In flesh or in spirit? In the dream or while awake? Sack of potatoes good now. At least you fit make french fries or corn beef harsh for that sack of potatoes abi? Posted by Dewdrops| 30.08.2008 02:12

aguabata  Villager

# 3 This article is in the right direction, I also know that even those so called undiscerning Nigerians profoundly know that the government stinks to the high heavens, they do not need any lecturing they need gathering. We are suffering from stockholm syndrome where we love our oppressors. I remember during Abacha's time, he visited Onitsha I was shamefully one of the people who came out to cheer his motorcade, though we actually came out to be thrilled by his despatch rider (expert rider) and limousines. I was in secondary school then and I knew they were corrupt. We need pockets of leaders who should fight for true federalism through a social revolution, that is the much we can get without plunging into another ethnic war. Posted by aguabata| 30.08.2008 04:33

M. Akosa  Villager

# 4 My Brother Philip Ikita, Please let me thank you for a very good and articulate article. I understand your frustrations, dismay and disappointment at the Nigeria situation. But, there is a saying that the older you get, the wiser you become. I remember a very good Ghanian friend of mine saying to me in Europe, in the mid 1990's that: "mother pig said to baby pigs that they should stop harassing her daily with questions about why her mouth is too wide and ugly, that they should first of all grow up and then find out why" To many people who are barking their heads off, saying Nigeria should do this, or do that, I say kindly to them, please first of all revisit Nigeria's history since birth, and then know why it is hopeless, without salvation. Please when one finishes educating themselves well on the Nigerian project today, yesterday and at birth, then you ask yourself, whose blood, skills, talent, rights and future is worth wasting for or to be sacrificed for Nigeria??? And from which ethnic group should those to be sacrificed come from??? Then you will find out why Nigeria is a lost cause, why any well meaning person in the right frame of their mind, must start searching for their black sheep before sunset. Nigeria is made up of too many ethnic groups, diversities, cultures, values, languages, traditional practices and worst of all a very deep religious divide that makes this your bag of potato too hot and very undesirable. Posted by M. Akosa| 30.08.2008 11:33