“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” — Helen Keller (1880-1968)
AS I write this, we were in the evening of the first day of protests tagged #EndBadGovernance, organised by several civil society organisations in reaction to the worsening economic situation in the country. The protests were to last from August 1 till the 10th. In the seven or eight days preceding D-Day, organisers of the protests were brought under immense pressure to abort the action, with every appointee of government at both state and federal levels issuing statements on why the protests are needless.
The only people working in government who didn’t issue statements against the protests were cleaners and secretaries and gatemen. The traditional layer of governance, signposted by the traditional rulers and their chiefs, after many pilgrimages to Abuja and audiences with their state governors, also deployed whatever was at their disposal to ensure that the nation’s youths did not troop out en masse in placard-carrying processions.
A video surfaced online of goings-on in the small town of Imota, not far from Ikorodu, in Lagos State. In the video, whose authenticity could not be verified, people were seen using items of traditional worship and oath-taking to curse any indigene of the town who opted to take part in the protests. The kind of curses being rained would frighten a fire-eating prophet after a 30-day fast. One after the other, many youth organisations started issuing statements announcing non-participation in the protests. Many obas, baales, and high chiefs of various communities also continued to appeal, exhort, cajole and intimidate people not to be part of the protest.
Their argument was the same and similar to that of government spokesmen: the protest might likely be hijacked by unscrupulous elements to wreak mayhem through destruction of lives and property. Ministers, directors-general, governors, speakers and others were not left out.On radio, television, in the social media, they were unrelenting: do not let us protest. In all of that however, they all failed to offer credible alternatives which government should explore to take out reasons behind the protest. It was too clear that most of those exhorting us not to protest were acting out paid scripts.
“Don’t think money does everything or you are going to end up doing everything for money.” —Voltaire (194-1778)
To all of them, I have one question: Are they satisfied and happy with the state of affairs in our country, Nigeria, today? Will the happiness purchased for them with whatever amount of cash gratification endure forever? Caveat emptor: I said on this page that I balk at supporting the protests because I believe it would not achieve anything, at least, immediately. I may be wrong, in the sense that the enormous resources committed to mobilising against the protest and its organisers is proof positive that the message of the protesters hit home.
That government and its appointees really got jittery about the protests is another evidence that the message was well-received. Legal adviser to one of the organisers, the Take-it-Back Movement, Ebun Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, said on Wednesday: “My final appeal is to the protesters. Even our forefathers in their graveyards have heard your voices loud and clear. The way and manner government has been running helter-skelter since the announcement of the protests show the moral victory of your campaigns and your struggles.”
To the President and his men running the governments at both the federal and state levels, I rejoice with you that the protests did not achieve the envisaged traction. But with what happened in Kano, Maiduguri, Niger and Kebbi, all is not well, even if there was no massive outpouring as witnessed in Kenya. But let the powers that be know that they just escaped with the skin of their teeth this time, and the evil day has been postponed.
“There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return.” — Marcus Aurelius.
I commend to them the words of Marcus Aurelius above. Let the President, ministers and state governors and indeed all other appointees of government go to work immediately and see to it that things start to turn around for the better for the people of this country within the shortest possible time from now. Let them roll their sleeves and go to work to ensure there is affordable food and affordable fuel energy.
Trying to please the IMF and World Bank at the expense of the peoples’ welfare will not work; Kenya is an example. And as Keller said in the quote above, we have a power elite that has sight but no vision. If they had vision, our country would not be like this and things won’t get so bad we have to protest. To protest organisers, I believe the message has been delivered. It is advised that we retreat into normalcy while those in government go to work to turn things around for the better. TGIF.
