By Ezekiel Ayoola
It is well-known history in the
continent of Africa that there was an evil practice called the slave
trade. This involved the moving of African slaves to other countries. It
has been estimated that about 500 million Africans were taken away as slaves.
And our forefathers did it.
Sometimes purely out of envy and as they were capturing and torturing these slaves, taking them away, the slaves were issuing curses on those who did it. The curses were on the heads of the whites buying them and those Africans selling them together with their children’s children.
*ASUU and FG at the negotiating tableSlaves were not allowed to wear clothes, they were humiliated, with stocks on their necks joined to each other. The sick ones were thrown into the sea and when they got to the plantations they padlocked their mouths. This evil befell fellow human beings only because somebody has sold them in exchange for a necklace, alcohol or a mirror.
This evil began as early as the 15th century, about five hundred
years ago. Millions of Africans were sold by their own people. The slave trade
is one of the most brutal and inhuman aspects of the white man’s history. Their
only aim is to make money. And having bought slaves cheaply in Africa, they
sold them again in America or anywhere they took them to. The slaves were sold
at a large profit to slave owners who would now use them to do all the hard
work in the plantations.
Sometimes,
before they got to where the whites were taking them, they had
already emptied almost half of them into the sea because of the sickness
of the mind and the body of these slaves. As far as these whites were
concerned, the lives of the slaves had no value. But it was their fellow
Africans that sold them. As these people were being thrown into the sea, you
can be assured that a dying man will issue curses.
They were given poor food and treated in a terrible manner.
In the morning, they would wake them up with a bell. If you did not work
they would beat the hell out of you. In many places they put them, the stench
of vomit and excreta filled the place with rats running freely over their
chained bodies. Many people from the families that sold the slaves are now
being detained as slaves by the devil. The devil initiated the trade and he is
now punishing the members of the families of those who are involved.
It is now clear that the issue of the slave trade is manifesting
its spiritual dimension now in our country Nigeria. There is nothing that
happens physically that does not originate from the spiritual level. Slave
trade is a negative spiritual entity over Nigeria and the whole of Africa. The
continent is still grabbling with the negative consequences of the practice.
Many towns in Nigeria where the slave trade was firmly rooted and practised are
now suffering from acidic poverty and enslavement of their indigenes.
It
is from the spiritual angle that this article is looking at the current ASUU
strike phenomenon, its causes and its characteristics when compared with
the historical slave trade that happened in Africa and in Nigeria in
particular. We can see the manifestation of the characteristics of the
slave trade in many facets of our national lives. But then who is a slave?
A slave is the property of its owner and works without pay or
meagre pay termed slave wages.
A slave is under the power of a master to whom he belongs. He is under the
power of a master who may decide to sell him thereby disposing of his
person. The master may dispose of his industry and his labour. A slave
master may commission other willing slaves to punish their colleagues in
captivity. There are splinter groups ready to play such evil roles in any
group under oppression. They extend their humiliation to all categories of
slaves on the ground without consideration for their human rights. To
them, slaves have no rights and can be disposed of at will.
As slaves, they can do nothing and they can possess nothing.
They cannot acquire anything but what must belong to their master. So, a
slave is the property of somebody else.
Slavery
is a practice in which people own other people. When you look at black Africa
today, especially Nigeria, you will see the spirit of slavery manifesting in
virtually every facet of our lives. This terrible spirit has used the sins of
our forefathers to entrench itself into the present generation.
In comparison with the matter of the ongoing strike of the
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), some of the features that
have manifested show clearly that they closely resemble the
characteristics of the slaves and slave masters described above. The slave
characteristics can be inferred in the matter of ASUU and the Government.
Academics indulge themselves in extensive academic training for
many years that culminated in a tertiary degree or doctorate. That
is the minimum to be engaged as a university lecturer.
This long period of training endows them with skills to practise
their professions and they are mandatorily recruited from the top echelon
of their graduating classes. These make them suitable to be useful for
Nigeria in particular and humanity in general. This tantamounts to slave
masters choosing the robust and energic men and women from the pool of would-be
slaves presented to the whites by their fellow Africans.
Academics
are subject to poor slave types of wages. They must be seen but not heard. For
the past 30 years at least, academics had to struggle for living wages and a
conducive environment to practise their trades.
The such unnecessary struggle for the environment is expected to
be provided by their university proprietors. What is more, despite the
absence of a standard environment and facilities, the academics produce
manpower to service other lucrative segments of the economy owned by the slave
masters.
The product of their labour drives the general economy but
they must not be seen to have meaningful incomes that guarantee a decent living
in this hash economic environment. Their products may be living well, but not
the academics. This is typical of the evil treatment given to the
slaves in comparison to the excellent living conditions accorded to the
children of the slave masters.
It is like slaves shipped to work in the sugarcane plantations
in America or West Indies Islands with their mouths padlocked. And
in the process of their academic union agitating for improved welfare, the
little slave wages were ordered to be stopped so that they can die of hunger
and sicknesses and thereby be cast into the grave reminiscent of the slaves of
old being thrown into the ocean on their way to slave bondages in America and
elsewhere.
It
is natural that the families of ASUU members that had lost their lives to
hunger and sicknesses in the last eight months (there are scores of them in the
University of Calabar and elsewhere) of the strike would be lamenting their
losses. It is doubtful if such families will be praying for the modern-day
slave masters whose policy led to the untimely death of their breadwinners.
We thank God that the House of Representatives through the
good office of the House Speaker Honourable Gbajabiamila has intervened. And
their efforts are apparently yielding dividends. We pray that the enemies of
ASUU will not put spanners again in the current efforts of the House
leaders.
The administrative and governance policies identical to the
principles of slavery and slave trades should be terminated forthwith, as
Nigeria continues her march towards perfect democratic practices. In the
spiritual realms, slavery and its trade do not go unpunished, whether now
directly on the heads of the actors or on their descendants up to four generations
as the scriptures prescribed.
*Ayoola is a Professor of Mathematics & Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration) the University of Ibadan.
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