Obidient Movement As A Fascist Group

 By Promise Adiele

For the sake of peace in Nigeria, let us unanimously agree that the Obidient Movement is a fascist group. (Make peace for reign, abi?) But if we must subscribe to that spiteful narrative, let us innovatively, redefine and explicate fascism. Although generally understood as an authoritarian rule that abhors opposition, fascism must acquire a new identity for a better understanding in Nigeria since it is associated with the famous, radical Obidient Movement. 

*Peter Obi mobbed by a crowd of admirers...

In Nigeria, the brand of fascism associated with the Obidient Movement means rejecting all forms of official criminality and conspiracy in governance. It means the revolutionary denunciation of all manipulative tendencies which invidiously compromise the architecture of equitable, democratic representation. It means all efforts to uproot the edifice of deception, outrageous villainy, and the entrenchment of illegitimate power outposts in Nigeria. It means the attack against all forms of venal forces that have kept the country in the doldrums. 

It means all attempts to disperse the gathering of desperate felons committed to liquidating the country and toasting her funeral under the umbrella of dubiety and perfidy. If we stick to the above definitions of fascism in Nigeria, Obidients should all go home and agree that their movement is fascist in all ramifications. 

The emergence of the Obidient Movement was inevitable given Nigeria’s steady descent into the abyss of socio-political and economic purgatory. It was a long time in coming. Over the years, the youths in Nigeria and the young at heart disposed to equity and fairness, were benumbed beyond description over the calamitous coronation of misrule in the country. 

Thus, the political class enjoyed their booty unchallenged as the country’s fortunes nosedived, floundering precariously on the edges of a tragic precipice. The youths also looked away and accepted all manner of official vulgarity pushed down their throats. So, the political class wrote the examination, graded the scripts, and awarded the marks as uneasy calm pervaded the country.

The last time Nigerians raised legitimate voices of dissent against the government’s intransigence was during the MKO Abiola era, the annulment of the June 12 elections, and the subsequent Sani Abacha dictatorship. Then, they rose in one accord to challenge the hangman’s gallows. It didn’t end well. The government killed some people at the forefront of the resistance, forcing some into exile. Those who couldn’t go into exile capitulated before the despot, compromising their activist stance for a steaming plate of porridge. 

Since Sani Abacha’s demise and the return to civil rule, Nigerians seem to be crippled by inexplicable hypnosis which makes them accept all manner of official impropriety from the wielders of political power. It therefore became business as usual in the corridors of power as the country lumbered from one unwholesome inanity to another. 

The economy bled profusely with inflation crippling every home. Insecurity became the order of the day. Mindless corruption, political patronage, and collapse of almost all structures in governance became synonymous with Nigeria. Youths and the young at heart looked away. Those who had the opportunity helped themselves with the collective patrimony as the exchequer became a fountain for a privileged few. 

While the Nigerian youth and the young at heart endured all the agonizing conditions, police brutality, unleashed by the disbanded, notorious SARS, held sway. Like a thunderbolt, an invisible force bestirred Nigerian youths and boom, they revolted against police brutality with the hashtag #endsars. The protest shook the world particularly the foundations of Nigeria. The government disbanded SARS but it came at a price. Many youths lost their lives and some went into exile. Things would never remain the same again. Nigerian youths attained a costly victory. 

The success of #endsars energized the youths and inspired them with a greater impetus to challenge the status quo and other noxious power formations in the country. The questions on every lip were - will #endsars metamorphose into a political party? What will be the anchor for the #endsars youths to actively participate in Nigeria’s political evolution? Who will provide the direction at the national level? All the presidential candidates failed woefully to provide the kind of inspiration needed by the youths to participate in politics, so they looked on. Then enter Peter Obi and the Nigerian youth came alive.

Peter Obi’s entrance into the presidential race under Labour Party altered the country’s political equation. The youths identified with him and expectedly baptized themselves as Obidients, transmuting into a movement. Like wildfire, the Obidient Movement spread across the country breaking all hitherto familiar barriers that were inimical to the advancement of the country, especially religion and ethnicity. 

Across the country and beyond, youths found their voices again united by a common ideology to challenge the power behemoth and restore the country to order. Peter Obi’s message of “take your country back” and “from consumption to production” resonated with the youths. They saw in him, honesty, competence, character, dedication, and a sincere commitment to salvage the country from the clutches of power desperados. 

Obi’s frugality introduced a new phrase in Nigeria’s political discourse “we no de give shishi”, a phrase which de-emphasizes the frivolous and ostentatious attitude prevalent in the country’s body politic. The Obidients rose to defend their convictions with organic support for Peter Obi. From Lagos to Port Harcourt, Ibadan to Enugu, Abuja to Owerri, and Kano to Jos, Nigeria would never be the same again. 

Expectedly, the political class, caught unawares by the Obidient phenomenon, fought back. Made up of some government officials, political lackeys, personal assistants and special advisers to politicians, political jobbers, those seeking one form of gratification or another from politicians, compromised media houses, spokespersons, elders and even some disoriented young people, bound by a common determination, they all rose against the Obidient Movement. 

These people defend all manner of underhand practices in the land. In the face of glaring truth, they embrace falsehood and defend the indefensible. They abuse, malign and insult the Obidients with unstrained vigour and an acerbic mindset never seen in Nigeria’s socio-political engagement. When Obidients retaliate and reciprocate insult for insult, they are termed fascist or other nebulous abusive nomenclature. 

 The Nigerian power hierarchy is determined to protect their loot and preserve their booty. For them, they need to keep the Obidients quiet and the best way to do this is to embark on a campaign of calumny. Their commitment is to destroy the Obidient Movement and term it a terrorist group locally and internationally. They introduced ethnicity and religion to dismember and depopulate the Movement. They have enunciated different gimmicks to embarrass, even to arrest Peter Obi, the arrowhead of the Obidient Movement. 

Today in Nigeria, any critic of any anomaly in Nigeria is termed Obidient. Anyone who identifies and opposes the numerous acts of iniquity in the corridors of power is summarily termed an Obidient. If neutral citizens condemn acts of misdemenour in the country, they are termed Obidient. 

The pastime of those who benefit from the system and feel that their bread is about to be taken away is to ascribe different negative portraits to the Obidient Movement. No group in the history of Nigeria has been so abused as the Obidients. Yet, they continue to expand every day, uncovering acts of debauchery by those aspiring to lead the rest of us. 

According to the Obidients, they are poised to usher in a new Nigeria where corruption and its many actors will take their rightful place in the hall of infamy. Presently, there seems to be an unseen but real ideological war between the Obidient Movement and those who wish Nigeria to continue to revel in the whirlwind of economic backwardness and political uncertainty. 

The Obidients believe that they have an equal stake in the country and therefore should have a say in what happens in the motherland. This kind of boldness, effrontery and daredevil attitude is strange to the grandmasters of Nigerian politics and their allies. Therefore, they are shocked. Let all Obidients accept that they are all fascists as long as fascism means the rejection of bad governance and the enthronement of an egalitarian socio-political, favourable economic structure. There is nothing to be ashamed of about it. All Obidients are fascists. Cased closed.

*Promise Adiele PhD, Convener, Third Force Movement, writes from Mountain Top University, Lagos (promee01@yahoo.com)