The limits of guerrilla activism (1)
Well, thankfully as I am not on the president’s payroll I can give this feedback. So there you have it Mr President, my readers say I am naive, that you are (but more emphasis on your madam and ‘boys’ – someone mentioned Agric sector) as corrupt as the rest. However, some readers also commended my […]
Well, thankfully as I am not on the president’s payroll I can give this feedback. So there you have it Mr President, my readers say I am naive, that you are (but more emphasis on your madam and ‘boys’ – someone mentioned Agric sector) as corrupt as the rest. However, some readers also commended my courage for being able to tell the ‘truth’ in an era where every writer lampoons government.
Two things though. Firstly, there’s no smoke without fire. So there must be a lot of truth in the claims of those who allege ‘heavy’ corruption and stealing going on in some circles. Most seemed to agree that the level of brigandage has reduced though, compared with what we had when starry eyed PDP bigwigs like Ibori, Odili, Alamieyesiegha, Anenih, Lucky Igbinedion, Dariye, Bode George, Saminu Turaki, Atiku and the rest ruled the waves. These ‘professors’ made Abacha and IBB look like ‘jambites’ in the business of corruption. It was an era when government deceived itself and the rest of us, that since so much money poured into Nigeria from crude oil sales, then all was well, even as Nigerians in the majority sank deeper and deeper into poverty. Now one of them has been sent to jail we hope the rest will join, for that is where they belong.
My second observation is that there is a huge dose of cynicism among Nigerians. It seems we will always see ‘corruption’ and stealing in government even where there is none. Nigerians have come to love to talk about how someone or the other in government is stealing and looting the country blind, even if all they have is hearsay. Leadership is a tricky, and many times, thankless task. Government people also don’t make this any better. I ran into some children of one the northern states governor somewhere recently – that state where they have a debonair governor who is also a presidential son-in-law, who was an ex-banker, yes that state – and these boys, age range 16 to 18, were speeding around in the latest Mercedes Benz S Class and Range Rover Sports. I wondered why the governor was destroying his teenage children by giving them access to cars worth more than N30 million. He himself must have grown up poor, but people forget where they are coming from, don’t they?
My introspective view of this current president, and of governance as a whole must have been formed by some recent experiences whereby I saw first-hand the level of destructive cynicism, masquerading as criticism amongst Nigerians. On the 19th of September 2009, I happened to be on a short visit in New York. I was a bit idle and the internet was too fast. I was always surfing and finding out news about what went on in Nigeria. On that very day, I logged on to saharareporters.com and lo and behold, they hosted an article written by one Jimmy Embaife who posited that it will be ‘self-defence’ and justified if Nigerians started to ‘assassinate’ those who are in leadership now – the president, vice etc. The useless article (I can’t help but be abusive of it), also stated that to start with, people should start with killing bankers, journalists and other professionals who they think are corrupt. Anyone with internet can check the thread of that article by typing in http://72.32.176.2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3728, and http://saharareporters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view= article&id=3735 on any computer.
My first thought was to ignore the article, but on second thought, I realised that ignoring it could validate the mindless claims of its authors and of saharareporters, a news site published by ex-student activist of Unilag fame, Omoyele Sowore. So I gave an immediate feedback (in my name) and made it clear to them that the article was rubbish. At best anarchic. It was articulate on how to start by killing minnows in Nigeria, but not on how to prevent the country from sinking into an abyss of confusion. I called the writer a coward for stating that they could start by killing defenceless people and leave the heavily-guarded politicians for later. I said that was the kind of thinking that made our politicians guard themselves with 90% of our police force while the rest of the country go under-policed.
It irks me to great limits that many Nigerians in the ‘diaspora’, wake up daily and hunt for all the bad news about the country. To them, this justifies their stay abroad. When they hit upon such bad news they turn around to tell whoever cares to listen ‘I told you so – that is why I refuse to to that that godforsaken country’. They take out the venom of all the social discrimination that they suffer, on the country, its leaders and just about anybody that is associated with Nigeria. To those people, if any Nigerian achieves any success whatsoever, he must be part of the thieving cabal. Only a few see things in a positive manner and are ready to contribute to Nigeria’s emancipation.
My intervention on that day caused the writer, who I later found to be a fake name, among many other Nigerians who are losing their minds on the internet, to call for my ‘assassination’. Oh, and lest I forget, the very next day 20/09/09, Guardian Editor, Bayo Ohu, was assassinated at Egbeda, Lagos. More next week.