By Adekunle Adekoya
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” — Helen Keller (1880-1968)
As I write this, we were in the evening of the first day of protests tagged #EndBadGovernance, organised by several civil society organisations in reaction to the worsening economic situation in the country. The protests were to last from August 1 till the 10th. In the seven or eight days preceding D-Day, organisers of the protests were brought under immense pressure to abort the action, with every appointee of government at both state and federal levels issuing statements on why the protests are needless.
The only people working in government who didn’t
issue statements against the protests were cleaners and secretaries and
gatemen. The traditional layer of governance, signposted by the traditional
rulers and their chiefs, after many pilgrimages to Abuja and audiences with
their state governors, also deployed whatever was at their disposal to ensure
that the nation’s youths did not troop out en masse in placard-carrying
processions.
A video surfaced online of
goings-on in the small town of Imota, not far from Ikorodu, in Lagos State. In
the video, whose authenticity could not be verified, people were seen using
items of traditional worship and oath-taking to curse any indigene of the town
who opted to take part in the protests. The kind of curses being rained would
frighten a fire-eating prophet after a 30-day fast. One after the other, many
youth organisations started issuing statements announcing non-participation in
the protests. Many obas, baales, and high chiefs of various communities also
continued to appeal, exhort, cajole and intimidate people not to be part of the
protest.
Their argument was the same and
similar to that of government spokesmen: the protest might likely be hijacked
by unscrupulous elements to wreak mayhem through destruction of lives and
property. Ministers, directors-general, governors, speakers and others were not
left out.On radio, television, in the social media, they were unrelenting: do
not let us protest. In all of that however, they all failed to offer credible
alternatives which government should explore to take out reasons behind the
protest. It was too clear that most of those exhorting us not to protest were
acting out paid scripts.
“Don’t think money does everything or you are going
to end up doing everything for money.” —Voltaire (194-1778)
To all of them, I have one
question: Are they satisfied and happy with the state of affairs in our
country, Nigeria, today? Will the happiness purchased for them with whatever
amount of cash gratification endure forever? Caveat emptor: I said on this page
that I balk at supporting the protests because I believe it would not achieve
anything, at least, immediately. I may be wrong, in the sense that the enormous
resources committed to mobilising against the protest and its organisers is
proof positive that the message of the protesters hit home.
That government and its
appointees really got jittery about the protests is another evidence that the message
was well-received. Legal adviser to one of the organisers, the Take-it-Back
Movement, Ebun Olu Adegboruwa, SAN, said on Wednesday: “My final appeal is to
the protesters. Even our forefathers in their graveyards have heard your voices
loud and clear. The way and manner government has been running helter-skelter
since the announcement of the protests show the moral victory of your campaigns
and your struggles.”
To the President and his men
running the governments at both the federal and state levels, I rejoice with
you that the protests did not achieve the envisaged traction. But with what
happened in Kano, Maiduguri, Niger and Kebbi, all is not well, even if there
was no massive outpouring as witnessed in Kenya. But let the powers that be
know that they just escaped with the skin of their teeth this time, and the
evil day has been postponed.
“There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if
you don’t use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return.” — Marcus Aurelius.
Trying to please the IMF and World Bank at the
expense of the peoples’ welfare will not work; Kenya is an example. And as
Keller said in the quote above, we have a power elite that has sight but no
vision. If they had vision, our country would not be like this and things won’t
get so bad we have to protest. To protest organisers, I believe the message has
been delivered. It is advised that we retreat into normalcy while those in
government go to work to turn things around for the better.
*Adekoya is a commentator on public issues
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