Date Published: 05/12/09

Rejoinder to Rejoinder: Nigeria: Democracy in a Coma

I was perturbed enough by the author’s rejoinder to Fr Ogundele’s article, to attempt to elucidate on some of the finer points of the aforementioned article. The author mentioned the fact that he could not stop laughing as he read the article, I would not be surprised to learn that this is the same reaction the elites have when they read about the suffering and abject dejection of the Nigerian masses. First of all let me digress and suggest that anguish and rage are powerful emotions, and if you look throughout the ages at cathartic reactions to the oppression of the masses by oligarchic concerns, you will find these two emotions ever-present and overflowing.

I will make this point, the rejoinder suggests that myopia may after all be a Nigerian disease.

Let us attempt to see the forest from the trees. The author implores in #1, that “We don’t need another coup to shorten the course of the democratic experiment.”. My question, and that of millions of Nigerians would be “What democratic experiment?”. More importantly, the finer point that Fr Ogundele was making in stating his preference of military rule to that of this present dispensation, is that with military rule there would be no pretence of democratic governance or the people’s mandate. It would be self-evident that this was coercive governance. The author also misses this finer point in #3.

The author is on firmer ground on #4, he asks probing and important questions, “Bloody revolution: By whom? For whom? Will he be in front? Who will then take over thereafter?” First let us delve into the concept of bloody revolutions. My recollection leads me to suggest that most revolutions have come about when the masses decided to extricate themselves from the yoke of oppression by the elites in their society. Usually the oligarchy does not just give up power, and say we are sorry for making your lives a misery. It has in most instances had to snatched violently from their cold dead hands. I suspect that Fr Ogundele sees Nigeria’s situation in this light. By, and for whom? Well, by, and for the oppressed of course, by the suffering, miserable, despondent, livid, anguished, patriotic, fed up, determined, vengeance-seeking masses. And as far as who will be in front? The author underestimates the human character. Our Creator did not give us the disposition to live happily under bondage and cruelty. People find courage quickly, and without fanfare when their backs are against the wall.

On #7, my suspicions are heightened that this author is a plant. Here is what the author said, “The political class holding the people of Nigeria to hostage: How? Where? You got it wrong Father. The people of Nigeria are the ones making themselves of servitude to the political class“. In a country where the people’s voice is coercively silenced, where lawlessness and thuggish behaviour is brandished by the ruling party using the apparatus of government such as the law enforcement, armed forces, and the secret police, how can this author ask this question with a straight face? Can you now see that this author is engaging in counter-intelligence for the oppressors. In a take on President Zuma’s immortal words, who’s got da machine gun? I can assure “Mr Levity” that a cataclysmic reckoning between the masses and the Nigerian oligarchy is on the horizon, and mark my words he wont be laughing then!