Between lawful protests and sheer brigandage
Nigeria has been unfair to Goodluck Jonathan. During his tenure at the Rock, his wife had her ears to the ground and used information gathered from the grapevine to logical advantage. In one instance, she quoted people saying her husband had failed. If that was true, she argued, he should be allowed to repeat the […]
Protest at Lekki toll gate turned deadly amidst allegations that soldiers shot at civilians
Nigeria has been unfair to Goodluck Jonathan. During his tenure at the Rock, his wife had her ears to the ground and used information gathered from the grapevine to logical advantage. In one instance, she quoted people saying her husband had failed. If that was true, she argued, he should be allowed to repeat the class. It was sad, it was pedantic, but it’s truly logical although Nigerians rejected the plea.
Nigeria has moved from the era of withdrawing dullards to granting them second chances at managing failure. In two instances, the repeaters have proven that you can’t reform stupid.
Olusegun Obasanjo is a classic study of the tragedy of a system that rehashes failure. His siblings say that twice, he’s had the opportunity of shifting power to his home base, twice he frittered it! Muhammadu Buhari has been handed the relay baton in the same way. He has downgraded the indices of failure by which his predecessor was judged and granted him the privilege of a relevant critic. Buhari has revealed a parameter of leadership deficiency that is making Goodluck look like a gallant Napoleon. The mercury on the thermometer of failure in governance dips daily.
Nations look for ideas to propel it forward, Nigeria digs into the trashcan of failure, picks out a reject and decks him/her with the attractive plumage of hope. Imagine Obasanjo scoring Buhari on leadership emptiness. With serial governance misfits, Nigeria takes one-step forward before plummeting back a thousand.
In his failed attempt to whitewash his record of failure over Buhari’s mishandling of the last #EndSARS protests, Obasanjo played the ostrich. He buried his shameless head in the sharp sands of Zaki Biam and Odi and the ignominy of his address to victims of the Ikeja Cantonment explosions among other things. History is too stubborn to be rewritten with the dry pen of an illiterate editor.
If the annulment of the June 12 election represented a botched watershed moment for Nigeria, the hijack of the #EndSARS protest was an opportunity lost to prove that power truly belongs to the people and that they would raise a strident voice against repression, impunity and brutality. In this battle, there were no victors. The nation’s quest at joining others to rein back the horse of leadership from the wrong track failed.
A global record of the last time a mass action was criminally repressed happened in 1989 at Tiananmen Square under communist China. Many of the actors in the #EndSARS were not born then. Lately, even Hong Kong under Chinese jackboots was allowed its test of people’s power. In North Africa, the Egyptian people’s power resulted in the removal of Hosni Mubarak. In Algeria, it led to the downfall of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and in Tunisia Ben Ali. Dictatorial and deaf regimes fall to people’s power. Lebanon is rallying from a year in the political limbo as a result of people’s power, which happens when politicians become tone-deaf to the people they represent.
Unfortunately, in Nigeria, the regime invoked divide and rule methods hinged on a creed. State-sponsored thugs hijacked a popular movement and handed it over to hoodlums and brigands. The crowd at Lekki tollgate represented the best in mobilised citizenry protesting peacefully. At night in Ebute-Meta, mobsters went on the rampage, smashing the windscreens of parked cars and by daybreak, every vehicle loaded with goods became an easy target as most parts of major southern cities went up in smokes.
A demonstration aimed at making the society freer for all suddenly caved into the reign of terror and mindless violence. Warehouses, strategic reserves and homes of prominent individuals became soft targets for looting and torching. Depraved minds hijacked the protests breaking into jails, targeting police stations, public buildings and burning government property.
In Abuja, an amorphous group claimed responsibility for attacking peaceful protesters with dangerous weapons. Government hirelings turned to disputing casualty figures as if one dead person is not already a monumental loss. We should focus on who gave the orders in Lekki and not the number of the dead or injured alone. There is enough forensic evidence out there for an ironclad prosecution of regime apologists before an international court.
The law should not excuse the hoodlums that vandalised ATMs, banks, warehouses and homes of politicians. The same evidence should be used to bring them swiftly to justice. This should not be the usual shoddy job; it should be a tedious, methodical process where good citizens help provide the evidence to prosecute the enemies of the people.
The puerile and irrational argument that people were driven by hunger or that states hoarded COVID-19 palliatives while people were hungry is fluid and inexcusable. Until they are in people’s hands, goods, like power are held in trust in the hands of the government. Government, even an untrustworthy one and/or its agencies determine when and how to distribute palliatives for a pandemic that is ravaging the world.
This idea that when people are deprived, they earn the right to employ lawless means to meet their basic needs is total bunkum. We should not excuse these inanities. We would never replace police brutality with mob rule and anarchy. As our elders say, while we cry, we still see. We cannot surrender our nation’s sovereignty to unconscionable louts who think that a state of lawlessness is better than organised deafness. A society should not lose its morals because its ruiners have misplaced theirs.
It is becoming common to see people attack the most vulnerable in society; they rob victims at accident scenes and steal from the dead. What was the essence of vandalising and looting the palace of the Oba of Lagos? Why burn down TVC even if it belonged to Tinubu? Tinubu made his money from public coffers, but gives back to society by establishing and running businesses that pay salaries; reduces unemployment and social tension. If we hate his guts or politics, we should wait for him at the polling booths. Burning down his businesses hurt his employees than it affects him. It is jungle justice that is neither excusable nor pardonable. What was the crime of Shoprite and other global brands in legitimate business in Nigeria?
We are government and we need the kind of civics that teaches the concept of peaceful demonstration as part of the social contract. Public property is people’s property. By burning tyres on paved roads, we leave craters on them. Taxpayers would now have to pay for the restoration of the palace of the Oba of Lagos, rebuild vandalised prisons while citizens watch over their shoulders for the murderers, thieves and assassins released from lawful custody.