Fellow Nigerians, Friends of Nigeria, Gentlemen of the Press, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen. I welcome you today to this November gathering, a time of intellectual exchange for our collective edification.
In the context of the challenges facing our country, it is important we meet like this from time to time to assess the state of our nation and suggest various ways we can break through against the stronghold of the poverty of leadership that threatens our corporate existence and undermines our national integrity. Save Nigeria Group has dedicated her activities and energy to the quest to ceaselessly seek ways to confront the legion of demons confronting Nigeria and this is one of the reasons for summoning this distinguished audience.
Perhaps one of the most accepted myths about the Nigerian is that he/she is a docile person; that the Nigerian spirit is a tractable one and submits too easily to her manhandlers; that her passivity is even pathological. There is a general impression that the Nigerian is tame, acquiescent, complacent, and is easily impressed with the semblance of good governance. The Nigerian, common knowledge would have us believe, even lacks sentience. He/she is inured to bad things and can no longer distinguish the good from the bad anymore and would submit to blows from her rapists and spoilers who masquerade as leaders and lovers. There are good reasons to believe this impression.
Nigerians, over the years, have endured and survived one bad government after the other. We have had years of military rule, which, like a rain of marauding locusts, have swooped on the country’s fertile plantation and plundered it to the ground leaving only dust and ashes in its wake. The military left office and handed over power to civilians who have, more or less, taken over the despoliation where the khaki men left off. In all these, we have witnessed a few protests certain times; Nigerians have protested through demonstrations and state institutions such as the courts. But then, for multiple reasons, which include fatigue, there was a long period of protest drought during which, diktats pretending to be civilian laws, were pushed on people.
There was a long period of submission to anti-people policies during which the idea that Nigerians would accept anything pushed to them without nothing stronger than a verbal resistance, although amplified for effect, but which would soon die off and after which they would learn to live with even the most unpopular law. The late journalist, Dele Giwa, once said Nigerians have been shocked beyond “shockability”. He was right; Nigerians have been shocked to a point of desensitization. When, on the dawn of the New Year, the proponents of fuel subsidy removal talked about carrying out this obnoxious policy, they probably imagined that the Nigerian would accept it with a shrug, take it as one of the many prices he would have to pay for his/her accident of birth; one of the many crosses he/she has to bear in life, and, one day, would get past Calvary and awoke to a resurrection morning. Yes, they expected Nigerians would make all the right noises and then life would go on as usual.
How wrong they were. January this year shattered the myth of “the docile Nigerian”.
At the dawn of a new year, just when Nigerians were still sending one another the usual congratulatory messages, President Goodluck Jonathan, out of sheer defiance, lack of fellow feeling, innate insensitivity, and you might add, a characteristic wickedness, withdrew the fuel subsidy on prices of petroleum in one fell swoop and declared with military gaiety and gusto, that there would be no going back on his action. To say he plunged Nigeria into a needless crisis would be an understatement. To say he failed to gauge the mood of the nation before taking such an unpopular and apparently not thought-through decision would be overstating the obvious. To say he pushed Nigerians to the proverbial wall would be redundant. He drove them to the border of the permissible; to the very edge of the cliff.
Prior to the announcement of the presidential fiat that led to the removal of the fuel subsidy, we had been led to believe, at a point, that a lot of consultations were going on and the fuel subsidies would not be removed without proper safety nets put in place. It was not to be. Nigerians were plunged into the consequent economic crisis that occurred with prices of good and services jumping by a range of 200 percent to, in some instances, 400 percent. Yet, the president -in a most defiant manner – and his aides insisted that things had come to stay that way.
What they were probably not calculating was that although the human spirit might be enduring, able to withstand many adversities, yet it also has a limit. In January, Nigerians showed her leaders that when one climbs the tree beyond the branches and the leaves, the next thing is to accede to the law of gravity. Nigerians, in several cities like Lagos, Abuja, Ilorin, Kano, Kaduna, Minna, Ekiti and other places around the country congregated in a landmark protest -which would later be called the Occupy Nigeria protests – such as the country had not witnessed in a long time, to protest against the inhumanity of her leaders. They had reached the end of their tether and could no longer tie another because the rope was gone!
But perhaps what would turn out to be really interesting is that Nigerians didn’t just limit themselves to protesting against the fuel prices. They protested against corruption, the cankerworm that unrepentantly luxuriates in Nigeria’s vegetable. The protest would go on for days during which the ranks of protesters swelled. During the period, one of the things that we ensured in the protests I participated in at Freedom Park, Ojota, Lagos, was a crash course in civic education. We showed, with reliable facts and figures, that the whole subsidy thing, to begin with, was a scam. Even though over the years, people had been swindled, things were about to get worse because the president and his cronies were bent on extorting from the people, more taxes to sponsor their profligacy. We carried on for days and during which time, it was obvious the state officials became discomfited. Faced with the power of the people, they feared what an educated citizenry would be able to achieve. The state agencies, after empty sloganeering of “Power to the People” for years, feared what empowering people with knowledge would really translate to. They were rattled and then backed down from their high horse to concede a 33 percent decrease.
While some people might argue the state pulled a joker on us, I am happy to state that we were able to achieve something: bring people together to unleash their fury and let everyone who participated in that protest see the dawn of light streak across the heart of Nigerian darkness. In that period, Nigerians saw possibility. They saw what could happen when they come together to show that true sovereignty belongs to the people. I believe the incident haunts the president in some ways and he tries to shed his guilty conscience when he said once that the protest had to have been sponsored because at Freedom Park, people took bottled water which the poverty-stricken people in his village could not afford. And that the presence of musicians and comedians at Freedom Park means somebody picked the bill! The second time he referred to the protest, he actually claimed he was saved from people’s wrath by a popular mandate! This is not only delusional thinking but a self-seduction and stimulated amnesia. The protests are not that far in our memory that the president should insult our intelligence. He was not saved by popular mandate. He sent armed soldiers to the Freedom Park to intimidate protesters.
At this point, let me borrow the words of Dr. Martin Luther King from the letter he wrote to Ministers of the Gospel from Birmingham jail.
“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was “well-timed,” according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly…. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!”….
This ‘Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” It has been a tranquilizing thalidomide, relieving the emotional stress for a moment, only to give birth to an ill-formed infant of frustration. We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
And I add this bit of Yoruba proverb that says, “When a man keeps quiet, what is on his body will keep quiet with him as well”.
People have asked me, at various times and in various media, about my role in the protest; why, as a pastor, I cannot pray for the country and stay out of the political arena? Why should a man of God whose job is supposed to be preaching about the virtues which will transport people from the misery of their earthly bodies to a place of perfection where the streets are paved with gold concern himself with earthly politics, after all, our kingdom is not of this world? Why, like other men of the cloth, not leave the matter for God to handle and be more concerned with the souls of men? As a response, I offer you the examples of prophets in the Bible like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel etc. These men didn’t merely cavort with kings while the state of Israel was being vandalized by pretend-leaders. The Bible teaches us that men of God cannot afford to stand on the sidelines muttering pious incoherencies while their country is embroiled in a political and social crisis. To those who would rather we restrict ourselves to preaching tame gospel that promises prosperity sans the reality of contemporary existence, I have news for you: a preacher’s duty does not stop with the soul of the flock. It spreads to the soul of the nation as well because the flock of God does not live in a vacant space. The people of God do not live on an island where they are hermeneutically shut from the challenges confronting everyone, Christians and non-Christians alike. They live in the general world and so our religious responsibility extends to social responsibility as well. We simply cannot afford to look away from the rot that goes on in the world.
We cannot be quiet and watch the nation taken over by godless and evil traducers, who, if allowed to continue to carry out their monkeyshines, would not only destroy the country’s political fabric, would also obliterate her soul as well. I believe a culture of protest and vigilantism is a price we have to pay for our nationality. The country is currently at the lowest ebb of dereliction and we have the duty not to let it slide beyond a certain level from which she can be hopefully rescued. Take a look around you and ask why is there so much brazen stealing going on in the country and why the custodians of legal institutions looking on, totally shorn of judicial capabilities, are failing to do the right thing? Why has the culture of corruption taken over our country that, as Poet laureate, Professor Niyi Osundare, noted in a SNG speech earlier this year, we no longer blush? When did we become a people who would no longer recognize infraction and why is it that criminality no longer shocks us? When did we become like this and why has it persisted? It is important that we not merely look at where the rain started beating us but to consistently ask why we are persistently beaten that we have become a people who can even dance naked in the rain; the rain has flooded our country and washed away the soul of the nation. We cannot wait, or be quiet, before we respond. That to me is gross irresponsibility and if you like, sinful silence.
Recently, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation published the 2012 Index of good governance. It showed that four African countries, the so-called “powerhouses” actually, have slipped behind in the categories of safety, rule of law, participation and human rights. Of these four, Nigeria was the worst performer, dropping 10 places behind in the overall rankings. Nigeria, formerly known and addressed as “The Giant of Africa” was ranked an indistinguished 14th place out of 16 countries in Africa, and a shocking 43rd out of the 52 countries in Africa. It had never been this bad in many years. However, the outcome was not altogether surprising for those who have been paying attention to Nigeria’s steep fall over the years. We are a country that has set itself on the path of self-destruction and it is only a matter of time before the country topples over unless we actively retrieve her from falling off the edge.
One of the things we did at the Freedom Park this year is to educate the masses of people that what Nigeria subsidizes is not fuel, but corruption. Yes, corruption, that hydra-headed monster which has become the bane of Nigeria’s existence. In January, I delivered a message to give a breakdown of figures that showed that what the subsidy is actually a scam; a government swindling its own people. We were able to show Nigerians that the claim about subsidizing is actually fictive because, from our calculations, there are unexplainable differences in the figures the Federal Government claims and what we calculated should be the real figure.
The question is, where did the money go and if the federal government cannot explain the difference, why should Nigerians pick the tab for the sleaze? Why should Nigerians, after longsuffering under a clueless and visionless leadership for ages, be further saddled with the responsibility of the state’s irresponsibility? Why can’t the state purge itself of corrupt elements instead of seeking to impose its failures on the people? And that is why we will not be quiet. That is why we cannot afford to zip up our mouths while I preach disingenuous messages that seek to suppress the protesters’ spirit like, “No matter how much they sell fuel, my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory”. No, my own God is different. He does not supply anybody’s needs for them to contribute it into the pockets of robbers and marauders. And it is a sin to keep quiet and allow God’s supplies to go waste. Such prayers are a smokescreen for their complicity in the whole affair of sanctification of the rod of political power which has been turned to whips of Rehoboam and which the flock of God has been endlessly and relentlessly beaten.
But while the protest ended abruptly, and didn’t quite achieve the goal of permanently stamping out corruption in Nigeria, it did achieve several things. It galvanized Nigerians, re-energized them to realize the power of protests. They realized how much the same people who swore an Oath to protect their best interests are cheating them. Nigerians were able to see that contrary to the urban legend that we are natural beast of burdens, we actually have a tipping point. Yes, when we are pushed far enough, we can fight and we will fight. We will fight for our rights. We will fight to demand dignity. We will fight to show that to “we the people” belongs the power and the sovereignty and no, we shall not sit back and watch our humanity desecrated.
One other consequence of the January protests is the probe that was instituted by legislators in the wake of the process. Not only the revolution was televised but the morning after probe was put on livecast for millions of Nigerians to see the truth of the corruption practiced against her by the Nigerian government and their cohorts. One revelation after the other tumbled out. We were right; the subsidy was a huge scam. The country, we found, was literally hemorrhaging under the watchful eyes of those who were placed in charge of her welfare. Nigeria was being pillaged by vultures who were practically ripping off her flesh from her bones without a touch of conscience. The brazenness was on many levels. Nigeria is a curious case in which her own people actively conspire to ruin her. It must be one of those countries where those who are the leaders hate the people they pretend to serve.
It opened a can of slithering dithering worms; some of the worms that crept out contained names of government officials, members of the president’s various development-agenda coterie and some, who actively sponsored his elections last year. It stank beyond the high heavens. It was shocking but not surprising. Nigerians have not only been denied good governance, they were also being raided at the same time. It was a case of robbing generations of Peters to satiate the amaranthine greed of a few Pauls who happened to be placed closed to the seat of power and would do anything to maintain their strangle hold on the lean neck of Nigerians. The National Assembly unearthed so much and there was still so much more that could have been unearthed if we dig deeper.
The fuel subsidy probe report showed a fraud to the tune of $6bn or, if you like, N1.7 trillion. Such an amount stolen from a nation’s purse should have caused heads to roll through the guillotine of justice. By now, several people should be facing the trial with the state shaking off the money they have creamed off hapless Nigerians from their shameless bodies before marching them off to jail. Alas! It was not to be so. While we were still waiting for the report to scale through, the lawmakers relapsed into their usual bout of moral Malaria. This time, it was an accusation of the umpire of the probe panel accused of having collected a bribe in a farce that would have stretched Thespian imagination. It should be funny but it was not. “Honorable” Farouk Lawan who led the probe committee was suddenly accused of having received a bribe from one of the president’s men who was indicted in the sleaze. The version of the story we were told is that it was a sting operation, meant to set a trap for Lawan. But in the most amazing conclusion to the Nigerian soap opera, that defies all narrative logic, the sting operation became hamstrung, hijacked by the usual Nigerian factors which, actually, are a calculated conspiracy to impinge on the process of truth and justice. Honorable Lawan, with the entire public outcry against him, is still walking free, and up till this moment, a member of the House of Representatives. He recently returned from pilgrimage and he continues to make laws which you and I will have to obey. On the issue of the fuel subsidy scam report, I believe the file is tucked away somewhere, prepared to go the familiar way of Nigerian probes. The same fate has now befallen the Nuhu Ribadu led committee report.
So, the question is, did the January protest achieve anything? If one of the gains we made was to get the House to probe the activities of the oil marketers, and they managed to open a Pandora box of criminal activities going on in the oil importation business, and up till now, as we speak, there is little to indicate that any jurispudentiality will take place, we have merely gone, like the children in the nursery rhyme, round and round the Mulberry bush. But this is also the reason we cannot afford to give up. This is the reason we cannot be quiet. This is the reason we cannot sit back, fold hands and watch the sea of corruption eat our land at home.
This picture becomes more dismal, more dolorous, more heart rending when we consider that this sordid picture is a state-sanctioned, institutionally tolerated, abuse of the people. While I worry about the four categories – Human rights, political freedom, transparency and accountability- the Mo Ibrahim foundation uses to measure good governance is missing in Nigeria, I equally worry about the soul of the nation. While it might be argued that we are not the only Sick man of Africa, I believe Nigeria has contracted with a virus that imperils her very soul. She lies comatose, holding down with her on her life support machine, more than 160 million people.
But if there is something we should also guard against, it is the pathological effect of an abused citizenry on our collective psyche. We must resist what Chinua Achebe describes as the psychology of the dispossessed; a state of being of an oppressed that rationalizes and even justifies her victimhood. Our case is urgent. We cannot afford to forget tomorrow until tomorrow, because when tomorrow comes, if it does come, it will be our fate instead of future. It will be our nemesis. And that is why we owe it to ourselves to continually edify ourselves with words of truth, criticisms and challenge from our nation’s intellectuals.
As a trained lawyer and pastor, I know the power of knowledge. The tyrants of this world are always afraid of education because they know the empowering and liberating effects it produces. An enlightened soul can neither be bound by superstition nor tradition. It not only questions, it demands answers. That is what we tried to achieve in Freedom Park early this year: teach the people why the rain is not going to stop beating them for a long time to come; unless they understand and see, they cannot resist the roots of oppression.
Let me acknowledge that a lot of analysis already goes on in our day to day life; most of us are organic intellectuals who theorize from the points of pains, passion and patriotism of our daily existence. When we come together in a gathering like this, we have come to strengthen each other’s conviction and faith; to unite town and gown so as to jointly confront the problems of corruption by deconstructing its systems of oppressive power. We can share more creative means of social construction if we unleash the power of the mind to confront our socio-cultural problems. That is why we are all here today, to listen to Prof. Pius Adesanmi, one of the nation’s finest and best intellectuals. Prof. Adesanmi, Mrs Priscilla Kuye and everybody here present, I welcome you all.
’Tunde Bakare
Pastor Tunde Bakare delivered this address at the SNG’s STATE OF THE NATION PUBLIC LECTURE 2 – ‘REPARATIONS: What Nigeria o
