A respected factivist (one who speaks out against the unjust systems with facts) tweeted that he is “tired of anger without action and tweeting without protest”. It got me thinking and before I knew it, I was scribbling this piece for what many may consider inciting. Call it what you will, I am expressing how I feel and last time I checked, it was still my right even in an unsafe Nigeria where governors and senate president gets attacked by gun men without any arrests made.
Evidence around the world shows that a people angered by something of interest to them react to gain comportment, and in doing so, they risk being apprehended for unlawful conduct. Truth be told, Ghandi, Mandela, Shehu Yar’adua, Ken Saro Wiwa and several others indeed got arrested and detained. Some of them we know how they ended- death was prematurely handed to them for standing up for what they believed in. years later people around the world have continued to not only speak out against systems that insult their humanity but actively take to the streets to express how they feel and even make demands of the system.
One thread that I have come to accept and uphold whenever I join such actions is nonviolence resistance. This refers to a philosophy and strategy of conflict resolution, a means of fighting injustice which to some is a way of life as was the case with the earliest figure of nonviolence activist- Ghandi. Years later the strategy has continued to be adopted with resounding success around the world. The reasons for adopting such a strategy are obvious, you do not want to destroy a country you love and want to protect and rescue from collapse- A lesson Syrians needed to not let go.
The popular boycotts as we saw or read of apartheid south Africa, the Argentine mothers who defied the military junta to come out and demand the whereabouts of their sons, the people of Chile who defiled the junta in 1983 and posed with a banner that read: “torture done here”, the Tunisians who said enough is enough in action, the Egyptians who ended the Mubarak dynasty, the Ukrainians who just ousted a democratically elected government, the Turks who weeks ago took to the streets in their numbers protesting the death of a 15 year old boy who died from injuries to the head from a police tear gas canister. Martin Luther King Jnr is fondly remembered and referenced in the best class rooms around the world because he walked, spoke and acted against the system that refused to grant his dream America, and because he had a dream, he never backed down up until his assassination.
Back in Nigeria I remember with shame, how a solid movement that could have become something of a reference point was allowed to be murdered by NLC leadership. The 2012 January occupy movement had cause and motive and it was clear for everyone to see it was yielding results but of course this is Nigeria, this is us, we are different but also we are foolish. We needed NLC, but our country is too dear to us to have trusted NLC to lead us to the other side. As if to say the occupy movement was a mistake, worse things oh yes! Worse things have happened since then but the more held back; have we all become.
Do the maths; how many have Boko Haram killed? How many have we lost to accidents both road and air crashes due to fixable problems? How many have died due to badly equipped hospitals? How many have we just lost due to their search for jobs? How many have died trying to access their retirement benefits? How many have died due to political gimmicks of our leaders? How many have we lost to avoidable communal clashes?
On the other hand, how much have we as a country failed to account for in our oil sales? How much have we lost in shut down banks and other financial institutions? How much have we lost to embezzlement from our presidents, governors, ministers, congress men and women past and current?
How long can we tolerate the compromising judicial system? How long are we prepared to endure biased security agencies? How long can we stand underdevelopment and the culture of unaccountability from our leaders? How long are we going to remain under a constitution that fails to safeguard us? How long before we say no to elections that do not count our votes?
So yea, tired some have become. Some even muster the courage to say Nigeria is not Chile, Tunisia, Ukraine or Turkey. Let me muster the courage here to ask such fellows; who are we? And what does that mean for us, that we are foolish and anything goes?
Truth is truth whether you believe it or not. It is logical, human, and civil to resist any form of injustice. And one who will not confirm to this truth by choice is either weak, foolish or both. No offence intended; Nigeria is different from the rest of the world, but we might as well be foolish for accepting and condoning such high scale injustice, insincerity and bad leadership for so long without a simple nonviolence resistance action.
Connect on twitter via @lazapir
The views expressed above are solely that of the writer and not of Omojuwa.com or its associates.
