#NoiseOfRevolt: The Naked Masquerade – Jonah Ayodele @Obajeun
Imagine if Oscar Wilde was a Nigerian. Drenched thoroughly in an appalling mess of his own bodily fluids while on his deathbed, the great Anglo-Irish witty dramatist moaned: “I am dying as I lived: beyond my means!” Oscar was right about himself, such is the story of Nigeria. The nation is dying while it lives. There is a compelling prodigality about Nigeria which is beyond mere fiscal extravagance. It is a culture of mediocrity on an Olympian scale. Our leaders have turned the act of watchdog to an act of criminality and hatred. We surely live in interesting time where illogicality is the first name of our president.
When last week JEG opened wide is fairy-tale mouth to speak on #OccupyNigeria, I knew he would murder logic. Truth be told, he went for the jugular, loitering around the confusion in his mind, he detonated the grenade at logic and sent philosophy into an abyssmal journey of no return. JEG should be sentenced to eternal silence, never to speak again until senses can nod to his oral cavity outpourings. By his mindless and merciless un-presidential slips, JEG has unhinged the very basis of western rationality, the almagamation project of Lord Lugard and the democratic logic of the modern nation based on the mantra of consensus, conciliation, compromise and recently, rule of law.
In his presidential logic, he claimed that for protesters to have been served food, bottled water, with musicians and comedians adding color to the demonstration, then such protest was heavily sponsored by the opposition. He however confessed that ordinary Nigerians cannot afford bottled water and as such, they would latch unto such display of charity at Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park. This is a perplexing misreading of historical forces at play. When a president makes such pronouncement, it is a pointer to the fact that he is a naked masquerade looking for the available rag to shield his face. He has lost touch with the pains of his people.
There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen. #OccupyNigeria confirmed this revolutionary dictum. It was a traveling theatre, carnival of the dispossessed, conference of the poor, forum of the bereaved, and seminar of the mob. It was a demonstration where class diminished, madmen collided with even more deranged specialists. Chicken rustlers are often advised not to go after the chickens of the poor. It is not smart stealing. It was a kill-joy, labour sold out. In the din and confusion of battle, labour shunk away just as the handshake got beyond the elbow and just as men’s limbs and will began to falter.
We placed labour at the centre of the struggle, when labour lost it to JEG’s largesse, we lost it to nothing. In an economically under-developed nation, the sum total of the non-working force is greater than the sum total of the working force. We missed it by relying on labour to mobilize the non working class. Since JEG got labour on his side with his bait, it is understandable for him to be illogical by saying that the demonstration of the dispossessed was sponsored. Only a naked masquerade will be ashame of his naked face, JEG is struggling with his guilty conscience. Yes it was sponsored, sponsored by the flood of people’s tears at the mercy of tear-gas, sponsored by their anger, sponsored by their resolve to hold their leaders accountable, sponsored by the blood of murdered protesters, sponsored by hunger and misery.
While it lasted, #OccupyNigeria was a tense and fraught affair. Nigerians slugged it out, toe to toe, with the Nigerian state in an epic contest of will and wits. This was the first time Nigerians collectively looked the post colonial state in the eye and told it some bitter truths. Forged in insulting and inexplicable penury. Finally united and unified by hunger and equal opportunity misery, Nigerians are no longer willing to put their trust in an underperforming state. Joining the fray from a vantage position were various Nigerian organisations in the Diaspora. Were these classes of Nigerians also lured with bottled water and funky food? It is only a naked masquerade that will give way to illogicality.
When an ant roars, let even the most intrepid hunter beware. Nigeria has passed a momentous watershed in its history with #OccupyNigeria. Whether the emerging ethos is enough to hold a battered, strife-torn, demoralized and desacralised polity together remains to be seen. JEG should know that no nation can survive on a culture of impunity for long. For a long time, Nigeria has been powered on a fulcrum of impunity: political, economic and tribal. It is a political impunity to steal votes and expect to get away with the proceeds of electoral robbery. It is an economic impunity to steal the nation dry and pass the bill to the poor in the guise of punitive multi-taxation. It is a tribal impunity to tag protests as regional disturbances by the opposition. Of course, arguments can proceed as to which is the greatest source of impunity, but their can be no doubt that impunity flows from impunity. It is only a naked masquerade that will argue with reality.
Government propagandists and their masters may delude themselves that in the battle of will and wits, the pro-colonial state has once again succeeded in over-powering and arm twisting the Nigerian people. They may confuse the obdurate refusal to revert to the old bench mark of petroleum pricing as a sign of great victory. They are profoundly mistaken. The resort to panic measures, the frantic attempt to sanitize the NNPC, the aggressive bid to expose the fuel subsidy thieves tell a different story. That they are doing this is a sign of capitulation to the forces of rectitude and may go to show that the sovereign power belongs to the people.
Consequently, JEG should give it to to the Nigerian people. As far as #OccupyNigeria is concerned, they won. Rather than struggling to accept his fate that he lost, he should take a bow and shower “ranka dede” on his people who are united with common front, economic desolation. As for #OccupyNigeria, JEG has no voice, he should keep quite and respect the voice of the people. It is only a naked masquerade that will contest against the voice of God.
Jonah Ayodele Obajeun
Blogs @www.obajeun.com. Catch him on twitter via @Obajeun
