Opinion
To SHOCK And AWE!
Published
4 years agoon
By
Wole Soyinka
We heard it last during the heydays of Donald Rumsfeld under George Bush – and judge in what condition it has left that part of the world, and beyond. Rumsfeld’s namesake – a sobering coincidence – also spat the same gung-ho rhetoric. That Donald once ordered his uniformed forces to “go out there” and “dominate the environment”, following civilian protests at extra-judicial killings of blacks by state police. Soon enough, leaving nothing to chance, that Donald II seized on the first opportunity to personally mobilize a mob to “dominate” Capitol Hill, his own seat of government that was clearly slipping from his control.
Optimists are free to underplay that threat to the much-acclaimed democratic beacon. Study that scenario carefully however, and you find It is not a question of: it could never have succeeded. Such surmises are wrong, It COULD HAVE SUCCEEDED, albeit with unpredictable consequences for America and the world. And so, when the elected head of a democratic state like Nigeria, not perched precariously on the knife edge of power but with a couple more years in the kitty, threatens to “shock” dissidents, we should indeed be shocked out of any complacency. Even if History has been deliberately eliminated from the school’s curriculum, Memory suffices to jerk us into a watchful, precautionary alert.
I hold no brief for those who resort to burning down police stations, slaughter their occupants simply for the crime of earning a measly monthly pittance, torch electoral offices, assassinate politicians in calculated effort to set sections of the country against others in the promotion of their own political goals. These are largely nihilists, psychopaths and/or criminal lords, soul mates of Boko Haram, ISWAP, Da’esh and company, not to be confused with genuine liberators. All over the world, throughout history, elections are denounced, boycotted, and generally delegitimized without recourse to wanton butchery.
When, however, a Head of State threatens to “shock” civilian dissidents, to “deal with them in the language they understand”, and in a context that conveniently brackets opposition to governance with any bloodthirsting enemies of state, we have to call attention to the precedent language of such a national leader under even more provocative, nation disintegrative circumstances. What a pity, and what a tragic setting, to discover that this language was accessible all the time to President Buhari, where and when it truly mattered, when it would have been not only appropriate, but deserved and mandatory!
When Benue was first massively brought under siege, with the massacre of innocent citizens, the destruction of farms, mass displacement followed by alien occupation, Buhari’s language – both as utterance and as what is known as “body language” – was of a totally different temper. It was diffident, conciliatory, even apologetic. After much internal pressure, he eventually visited the scene of slaughter. His language? Learn to live peacefully with your neighbours. The expected language, rationally and legitimately applied to the aggressors, was exactly what we now hear – “I shall shock you. I shall deal with you in the language you understand”. That language was missing at the moment that mattered most. It remained “missing in action” for years until a belated “Shoot at sight” outburst. Too late, and of course, inappropriately phrased. The precedent had been set, the genie let out of the bottle, consolidating a culture of impunity that predictably spread its bloody stain all over the nation.
Buhari’s recent deployment of this language is thus wrongly targeted, and tragically untimely. Even while he was threatening dissidents, an agenda of both secessionism and alien occupation was taking place not too distant from Aso Rock. ISWAP was taking over the already excised territories of Shekau’s Boko Haram, appointing new warlords of the occupational forces, sectioning Nigeria into vassal states and unfurling their replacement flags of domination. Soon, logically, ISWAP’s letters of diplomatic accreditation will be presented in Aso Rock?
We must however backtrack a little – that is the function of memory. It would be false to suggest that these eggs of impunity are newly laid. They have been incubating in loathsome hatcheries of power and domination for years, even decades, and now the raptors have been hatched and taken wings. The political culture of the devil’s bargain, of denial, evasion, avoidance of constitutional mandates, the culture of “appeasement of the unappeasable” – to quote myself – in order to gratify the vested interests of a narrow, power obsessed elite has blossomed. Finally, the chickens have come home to roost.
The evocation of the Civil War, where millions of civilians perished, is an unworthy emotive ploy that has run its course. In any case – and this has been voiced all too often, and loudly – the nation is already at war, and of a far more potentially devastating dimension than it has ever known. Every single occupant of this nation space called Nigeria has been declared potential casualty, children being pushed to the very battlefront, without a semblance of protective cover. We have betrayed the future. We need no breast beating about past wars. The world has moved on, so have nations. Some, however, prefer to move backwards. The continent is full of these atavists. In Nigeria, powerful cliques of this persuasion still roam the corridors of power We are indeed at war. It does not take the formal declaration of hostilities, with or without lethal bombardments, for a nation to find itself shell-shocked. The populace of this nation is already in that shell-shocked condition. So, what is there left to shock?
It is time to think “outside the box”. That many, in so doing, find no landing place except dissolution, is not a crime. It is not peculiar to any peoples, and is embedded in the ongoing history of many, and not only on this continent. It is their natural right as free citizens, not slaves of habit and indoctrination. Where disillusion rides high, sentiment tumbles earthwards, and the only question becomes: what can be salvaged? It thus remains the responsibility of leadership to persuade them, through both discourse and remedial action, that there are other options. Attempted bullying is not a language of discourse, nor the facile ploy of tarring all birds with the same feather.
I shall end on a personal note. It was not intended but, in view of breast thumping rhetoric by one president after the other over military sacrifice – undeniable, certainly – such recalls should be considered salutary. The heroic exploits of our military in confronting some of the deadliest internal forces of dehumanization deserve their place of honour, not only in history, but in contemporary consciousness. However, let not the military fail to take its place centrally in the nation’s ongoing, unavoidable soul searching. And so to an instructive intervention by this “bloody civilian”, in what should be an exclusionary portfolio of the keepers of a nation’s mandate for secure existence.
It took months for me to effect a meeting, agreed in principle, with a former National Security Adviser. It took that long only because I refused to meet him within the country, since it had become clear that the security forces, in addition to high levels of governance, had become infiltrated by the very vicious elements that have fully established and sustained a lethal dimension. I was not about to let myself be “sold out” to unseen forces in my eagerness to sound an oppressive warning. We eventually met in London. The records, I am certain, will be found in the National Security files and, in any case, I went accompanied. My mission was straightforward – to let him know that the nation was under siege, that the nomadic herdsmen that then threaded the forests were of a different breed from those whom we normally encountered in that environment that was also close to second home to some of us. We met. That National Security Adviser assured me that the military was aware of this, and that his mission to the United States was to negotiate the purchase of spotter planes to patrol the forest routes. I retreated, satisfied, to my normal preoccupations. No, not entirely true – I did take other supplementary steps internally, including meetings with high level state officials in the West.
Now comes the rub! imagine the chagrin, this past week or two, as revelations emerged, ten years after that meeting, of humungous amounts from oil resources being found in the US off-shore accounts of that pivotal figure of any nation’s security architecture! Is that an exceptional tale? Not in the least! He is not the first multi-starred general to be thus exposed, some even brought to trial. While Boko Haram was consolidating, a Nation’s Security Czar was also consolidating his nest egg with funds meant for elimination of a national scourge.
Shock? No. Civil Society already has a superabundance of the military shock treatment!
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By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha
Banji: A speaker speaks no more!
Rita: How poetic! How dramatic!
Uyi: How decisive! Now there will be peace in the world!
Rita: Excuse me. Now you are being sarcastic!
Uyi: In a world of absurdities, it is sarcasm that keeps one sane!
Rita: It has been poetic to me, anyway. That’s my opinion.
Banji: What is poetic? The language or the experience?
Rita: Both, I believe. Lessons in hubris. The power of power, the failure of power. The wheel came full circle for a man consumed by innate arrogance.
Banji: One of the lessons of power. A recurring one.
Rita: But man never seems to learn. He has always been a victim of pride and will continue to be forever and ever.
Uyi: But you have both joined the bandwagon and pronounced the man guilty without giving him fair hearing. Why was he impeached while he was away to the United States?
Banji: Hahahaha! To reduce bloodshed, perhaps, you know! To prevent counter forces from laying an ambush.
Rita: Does it matter really?
Banji: But speaking seriously, why didn’t Strongman Mudasiru Obasa get wind of his impending fall and rally his troops?
Rita: He was strong only when the forces of power allowed him to be. This, he didn’t realize. Now, he can’t disburse any largesse. His visitors will be very few now.
Rita: Besides, did he have troops? I think he had offended too many people in the long ten years in power, from June 2015 to January 2025. He is alleged to have routinely disrespected the governor.
Uyi: He must have been a fool if he did that. State-appointed or elected officials must know the difference between the man and the office. The occupant is a tenant, but the seat is forever. A Speaker who disrespects the Governor disrespects the people, disrespects the entire Executive branch of government.
Okoro: Then why did he last for so long in that position?
Banji: Very many reasons. He was simply indulged by the powerful persons in government. The report is that when he offended the inner caucus of the governance in the state, he had to go. It is said that on the cabinet list last presented by the governor, he pushed, shoved, blocked, and shook up the list until they made concessions. He even initially rejected a candidate who was backed by Abuja.
Uyi: In my view, if a man is accused of an offence, he must be given the opportunity to defend himself according to the articles of impeachment.
Banji: Impeachment is essentially a political process; not a legal one. That is to say, once the establishment declares you unfit, they will cook, manufacture, import, and concoct reasons to get you out. Fair hearing is not part of the bargain!
Rita: Let us consider all the impeachments in our nation’s history, starting from Alhaji Balarabe Musa’s experience in 1981 in the Second Republic. Balarabe Musa was in an impossible position because the House of Assembly was NPN-dominated while he was in PRP. They could not agree on a list of Commissioners. To throw him out, he was accused of corruption though that man was above board. Ayo Fayose in 2006, Peter Obi in 2006, Joshua Dariye in 2006, Oyo State governor Rashidi Ladoja in 2006, Bayelsa State Diepreye Alamieyeseigha in 2005, and Murtala Nyako of Adamawa state 2014 were all victims of impeachment.
Okoro: Since 1999, about sixteen deputy governors have been impeached in Nigeria also. From Lagos state we have Femi Pedro and Kofoworola, Iyiola Omisore (Osun) Chris Ekpenyong (Akwa Ibom), Abiodun Aluko and Biodun Olujimi (Ekiti) Garba Gadi (Bauchi). Phillip Shaibu was the 17th deputy governor to be impeached in Nigeria once he fell out with the incumbent governor.
Rita: Lagos is now on the list of twenty states where speakers have been impeached since 1999. Victor Idoro in Edo State was removed in 2016 by 16 of 24 members. He had been accused of highhandedness. Significantly he was replaced by a female speaker. Frank Okiye of Edo state in 2020), Rita Madunagu of Anambra in 2018, Adamu Musa of Niger State in 2015, and Goni Ali Modu of Borno state in 2012. In 2021, Abok Ayuba was impeached by 16 out of 24 legislators in Plateau state, Abubakar Ibrahim of Gombe state in 2020. In Delta state, Victor Ochei was removed in 2014 while Monday Igbuya faced the music in 2017. A couple of others were impeached from office. So, it’s not new.
Uyi: You have become an expert in the history of impeachments!
Rita: Hahahahaha! I’m a journalist, so, I should know.
Okoro: Impeachments have nothing to do with justice. It is a political weapon that is deployed to get rid of a political liability. Period.
Banji: Loyalty is important in politics in Nigeria.
Okoro: Loyalty my foot! What the Nigerian politician calls loyalty is spurious. It means a mentee or political associate must not hold views that are contrary to the position of so-called godfathers. You will run into problems if you display ambitions not supported by the big oga. The gist around town is that Obasa felt he was strong enough to aspire to the Lagos throne without the support of the powers-that-be.
Banji: A speaker speaks no more!
Rita: How are the mighty fallen!
Uyi: The state governor has distanced himself from the impeachment saga. Claims that the House did its own plans.
Banji: Tell that to the marines. There is no way a speaker can be impeached without the knowledge and consent of the state governor. A consensus must have been reached in conjunction with the Jagaban in Abuja before the exercise.
Rita: Whatever they do, they must remember the masses, the ordinary people of the state who need support. Impeachments will not tar the streets. Impeachment will not put food on the table. Impeachment will not increase power supply. Impeachment will not give hope to the poor. It is an intraclass struggle which the real owners of the state will not benefit from. I rest my case!
Banji: Gbam! Your case is well rested!
By Tony Afejuku
Many, many matters appear every now and then in our clime. We are a rich and poor country at the same time – depending of course on what one is observing. And to observe what one wants to observe or is observing dispassionately is a task that is not easy. If one happens to be a professional reviewer or critic or observer of happenings in order to put before the nation a new order of doing things patriotically, one must be ready to go the whole hog. This is a task that is a task. If need be, one must be ready all the time to follow the hounds. Our sincere writers, journalists, columnists, commentators must be prepared to do all the time all they must do for our common good – and ride to hounds, and be a Nietzsche if they must. The task is not necessarily or essentially one of revolution even if one wants to be stubbornly stubborn in order to accomplish it. That is to say that if there is the need for readjustment as we follow the hounds we must do so. Perhaps a popular news establishment noted for its caustic ideas and severe criticism of our central government and our mean politicians generally had this at the back of its mind when it declared (or was trying to declare) for us its personages and dignitaries as our country’s dignitaries and personages of our rottenly rotten and wickedly wicked 2024.
What the news establishment observed in the gone year of undiluted evil was partly the same scene we observed, but in a different and more distant angle. What was visible to the naked eye of the said establishment was clearly invisible to my eminent eye. What I saw in the vast panorama of our country and what I am seeing now in the same equally vast landscape with its minute objects cannot but be different from the news establishment’s. What I will call my compound lens compels me to take another route. I gauged exceedingly well the objects surrounding us last year. None deserved to be estimated in the preposterous 2024 of mass destruction of our sensibilities and all we tried to cling on to dearly. In fact, 2024 was a frail year of miscellaneous events and matters that generally did not put this country your country my country our country in good, in any good, standing. To say otherwise cannot but amount to a bitter over-estimation of the bitter year and a ridiculous over-estimation of any dignitary so-called.
Hence here and now I must turn my back on the passage of the period and time that brought us the seemingly ineradicable memory of 2024 of dirty, tragic assortment. But if anything, only our women in positions of trust and authority in private or public service need to be celebrated. But how many of them in the dirty year of agony would be accorded their due recognitions without qualms? Where am I leading or dribbling you my readers to?
Now in the beginning of this New Year ill-assorted matters (as happened last year) have maybe begun to stare at us, to stare us in the face. Although of different kinds and colours, we must try to appraise them before they damage us further, before they unimaginably hurt our sensibilities further in this fresh year. Let me take two matters relating to our traditional institutions in the Kingdom of Oyo and the Emirate of Kano respectively. With respect to the Oyo Kingdom, Governor Seyi Makinde has recently accepted the candidacy of Prince Akeem Owoade as the Alaafin of Oyo-designate. In doing what he has done, rightly or wrongly, the governor has behaved as the exceptional literary critic. Based on the news that filtered to him, allegedly with respect to the alleged shenanigans of the Oyo Mesi, the kingmakers, that is, whose traditional duty was/is to select/elect the Alaafin-designate, Governor Makinde had to assess and reassess the situation. His perspicuous and deeply informed reading of the situation led him to a stimulating direction that enabled him to initiate workable standards that have given Oyo Kingdom the new Alaafin of Oyo. Under the watchful watch of the sharp governor some positively new standards have been granted the cultivated society of Oyo.
Whatever disagreements or feelings or sensations arising from those who do not approve of what the governor has done are not or may be nothing short of ill-sorted disagreements or feelings and sensations. Oyo citizens should rally round the new Alaafin and the governor – no matter what. They must not parrot the opinions and views of devious planners who want to invite chaos to Oyo Kingdom and Oyo State.
Now with respect to the Emirate of Kano, my simple plea is this: The hierarchical order that is in agreement with conformity in favour of Emir Muhammadu Sanusi 11 should be obeyed and maintained. I am saying this based on my picture of the matter there, the matter that the Appeal Court has resolved in favour of Emir Sanusi 11 and the government of Kano State. Indeed, what happened to Emir Sanusi 11 abinitio happened because it was allegedly designed primarily by the designer who else but the designer with a capital G that begins his surname? He and his cohorts are allegedly still pursuing Emir Sanusi 11 – but to what eventual end? They should let the matter rest now. If not, what will visit Kano – the Emirate and the State – will be ill-assorted confusion, chaos, “sorrow, tears and blood” unimaginable. If the antagonists have any critical intelligence they should bury their zeal for what they are planning that will not even benefit them in the long run. If they accede to my plea they will eventually enjoy well-assorted sweets of tongues of honey and of peaceful minds whose ornaments shall be the ever-lasting ornaments of greatness of rich purple. To the princes and intellectuals of Kano, I ask: Where are thou? Where are you all? Why the question(s)? You will know if and when my plea is not heeded.
Meanwhile, let me play with Nietzsche – as I enjoy his assorted matters that are honey to my inquisitive and inquiring inquiries endorsed by my Endorser.
There are other matters relating to our football, our public universities, and insecurities in the Niger Delta. But I will let them be until another day and time when my watchfully watchful naked eye will allow me to dwell on them (and other big matters) with the kind authorization of the Supreme Spiritual Masters of Merit (SSMM).
Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.
Igwe, PhD , is a humanist and board member of Humanists International.
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