“IT IS ABNORMAL TO BE NORMAL IN AN ABNORMAL SOCIETY ‘ Gani Fawehimi ( LASU 1998)
Reminding us about the risks of being a leader, Roosevelt left us with this piece of bitter advice that “President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.
Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one
Fortunately, in the journey of life it is appointed that every generation would get to a cross road that leads to debacle or land filled with honey and milk. There would always stand in their ways a red sea to be confronted. The two popular options available to them are it’s either they through coordinated efforts do the needful by confronting their fears and change things or do the wrong thing by allowing themselves to be manipulated through divided opinions and tune back from where they were coming from. However, the third option is to do nothing and believe that the red sea would path on its own one day.
It is on this footing that the capacities, abilities and potentialities of the leader or leadership as the case may be would have to demonstrate that the trust and mandate entrusted to him/them can be translated into accomplishments. And if on the other hand if things went wrong he/ they have an explanation to why things happened the other way around. Part of the ways that leaders were confronted to give account in the past is through revolutionary interrogation vis a vis violent and non aggressive protest ; peaceful protest . The French revolution of 1789 and The Martin Luther King jr. Revolution 1955 were model examples of these two divides . The ultimate goal of both is to effect changes ;economic, political, social or technological. Revolution starts because the people have every reason to believe that current institution in place have failed or no longer serve the purpose it intended to serve.
Hence, the right of a people to protest peacefully is a jurisprudent protected right and entrenched in philosophy of natural law .Its purpose is for a people to demand a fair deal from their leaders .
Let me then set the agenda from here, Kenya nor Africa is not Nigerian’s bench mark in all ramifications to demand for good governance or end bad governance, and/or project good governance, history has justified this position. In the beginning Nigeria supported, assisted, supplied some African countries with monetary, financial, materials and human capacity to make them grow and develop. Some of them include, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone.
The Republic of the Niger, South Africa to mention but a few. This is to dissuade the thinking of the people saying that Nigeria is learning from Kenya and other African countries that staged protest against their government., Ali must, operation occupy Nigeria to end bad governance, the more recent END SARS protests are enough to evidence that.
Europe and Asia are also far behind our bench mark, because when we evaluate the development of these continent prior to 1980 the robust evidence indicated that Nigeria was doing better than them.
Within the contextual framework of social inclusion and management of available human and natural resources, America is the only bench mark to compare Nigeria with. The starting point here is the comparative analysis on how nations where made ,built, survived and transcends. Nigerian’s pre- colonial economic activities revealed that no stone were left un turned to interact with the environment and extract from it a place called villages, towns, kingdoms, empires etc.
History has provided us with guidance on how a people’s suffering in the abundant of good life support materials, such as intellectual properties, natural resources, good leadership, etc. Even when the environment is contradictory to agricultural emancipation. The adoption of historical features such as collective goal, sacrifice, emotional intelligence, commitment to the values of a people, resilience and common identity has been identified as fundamental component of what best defines socio- political progress. In simple term it is the ability and capacity of a people to meet the basic human needs needed for survival, sustenance and enhance the condition of their life. And be able to live a happy life, life deferent from that of animals that lives in the bushes and by extension in cities.
To reminisce , in 1929 the women in south-east of the Nigeria began a series of protests to confront the colonial policy which was perceived to them as gender abuse tax policy. Traditionally, women had played an important role in many Nigerian societies. They were involved in political decision-making and their domestic and commercial work had value and status in their communities. Under British colonial rule, the ability of women to participate in and influence society had been reduced, from the question “how are we going to pay tax? We depend upon our husbands, we cannot buy food or cloth ourselves: how shall we get money to pay tax? ‘began the Aba women protest cum resistance, a series of protests that lasted for days. The protest broke out when thousands of women of Bendel and Igbo District and other places in South East ( from different cultural backgrounds and divergent values ) Nigeria travelled to the town of Oloko to protest against the Warrant Chief who was the representative of the British colonial leadership. Whom they accused of restricting the role of women in government.
It was reported that the sparks of protest against the perceived tax on women began in the town of Oloko, Bende Division, when a woman, Nwanyeruwa, refused to co-operate. These women employed a technique known as ‘occupying and sitting at the Warrant Chief ‘s compound singing and dancing around his house for a number of days and nights to challenge what they perceived to be an unacceptable value practice. List of other protest includes , Abeokuta women revolt of 1947, Ali Must Go of protest of 1978 etc.The question that comes to mind is why would a reasonable people protest . The answer is not farfetched a people may organize protest a protest as way of openly make their opinions heard in an attempt to influence public opinion or government policy or may undertake direct action in an attempt to directly change government policies.
American revolution from 1760 – 1775 reminds us of the coming together of divergent and distinctive people with different political and cultural orientation, similar to that of Aba women protest to confront the institutional abnormalities ranging from segregation, women abuse, inequalities, hardship and dehumanizing policies. The things taken on board from that protest were, The introduction of higher level of morality into politics, The commencement of the pursuit of happiness, Repeal of stamp duty Act. The birth of right to protect. Birth of inalienable natural rights to life, right to association and gathering, right to own property etc. principally .Equal treatment of people regardless of sex, greed, race, gender, beliefs etc.
The synopsis between Nigeria and America here was that they both confronted the draconian British government at on stage or other in their national lives.
Can protest be abandoned or called off by a people? The answer is in the extreme no, the reason for this is that all through history, the government sees their policies as the best interest for their people regardless of the pains and hardship theses policies may bring to their people. And these policies must be forced down the throat of the people, if they want to die it does not matter to them. The rate of industrial actions across the world evidence this position. The junior doctors in the UK has been on strike for the past one years demanding for better work earnings among other things. The government remained adamant and maintained their position and continued to bear the burden off their work boycott. It is what it is all over.
However, it must be emphasised here that studying the impacts of political protest reveals that protest affects all parties negatively , every individuals, private and public sector alike. However, the beneficiary interest could only be felt if the compromising items on the demand list of conflict brings a far reaching positive economic climate. Whether the protest would be peaceful cannot be guaranteed as many peaceful protests most times degenerates into violence protest.
In the view of Collins Enuwe associate medical personnel based in the UK opined thus, “Unfortunately, what goes up does not come down in Nigeria. The Lagostocracy in the government cannot move Nigeria forward with their outdated ideas of 1999. Nigeria has got better economy managers whom they urgently need to reach out to otherwise, the worst may continues. Local refinery MUST work and NNPCL must be probe of mismanagement of the Petroleum industry. The President must relinquish his position as Petroleum minister for better accountability. Agricultural revolution MUST be lunch immediately, to curb food shortages, cattle migration must stopped immediately. When these happens, then we can start the dialogue. Apart from that the protest might be a blessing in disguise for Nigerians.
If going by the words of Nelson Mandela that says “We do not want freedom without bread, nor do we want bread without freedom. We must provide for all the fundamental rights and freedoms associated with a democratic society.” Then the protesters might have a justification to express their dissatisfaction on the ways Nigeria is been managed by this government .
By:Justine Emenike
