MAKING BLACK HISTORY COUNT

This piece was written in commemoration of #BlackHistoryMonth 2016

I first became conscious of race and the history of black subjugation while watching the screen adaptation of Alex Haley’s 1976 classic novel, “ROOTS” on NTA, Nigeria’s leading television channel. I was seven or eight. In those days, television time on national broadcasting stations was limited so it was a special feeling to be invited by my dad to watch this programme which had become at the time, a favourite for many families in the neighbourhood. I am grateful that he did. I was so enraptured by the story and the experiences of the main character – so much so that I hardly referred to the programme as “ROOTS”, rather, it was “Kunta Kinte” to me. That show broadened by understanding of identity and black consciousness.

Before then, we had sang during morning school assemblies songs which pledged solidarity with the black struggle against apartheid and segregation in South Africa. We often donated with our meager lunch allowances to the “Free Mandela” efforts, of which Nigeria was at the forefront. We had also been taught about colonialism, of our country once being under the rule of white people, of how Nigeria won its independence on 1st October 1960 from Britain, a story that welled in me a sense of national pride. Nothing however brought all of these experiences – slavery, colonialism, apartheid and racial segregation, to life as much as “ROOTS”.

I remember feeling hurt knowing that what I was watching was not fiction, but an experience lived by people who look like me. I remember how I would lie in bed after each episode, mentally rewriting the script and changing the plot to enable Kunta Kinte’s escape. In my mind, he would succeed in his escape attempts, and he somehow returned to The Gambia as a free man. My young mind could not understand why one group of humans would subject another to such treatment. It made absolutely no sense and for many years, images of a defiant Kunta Kinte in chains, being whipped and forced to accept a new name was etched in my memory.

Many books, movies, and news stories later and I still struggle to grasp this history: not so much the past which I cannot change but the present, which point to the fact very little has changed in a system characterised by racism and prejudice.

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Imo State and the New Low in Governance

Nigerians are now unshockable what with the kind of absurdities they are treated to every passing day. Some of these issues which would have generated quite an uproar in time past are greeted with not more than sighs and inaudible grumbles – the sign of a people who have seemingly resigned to their fate and have assumed a siddon look approach to life. Imo State is a clear example

How does one explain a state government declaring boldly – and I dare say, with impunity- that it has failed to clear mountain-high refuse from a major road in the state capital as punishment to its citizens for their opposition to the government. What on earth could be more absurd and unintelligent?

Anyone who knows Owerri the Imo state capital will know that Douglas Road is right at the heart of the city, one of the main roads that runs through the state capital. When images of the abandoned refuse first emerged, it was quite shocking. But it was nothing compared to the shock when the state government owned the refuse and even attempted a justification for clearly abdicating its duties and leaving the refuse there.

One wonders what the sins of the citizens of Owerri are for their government to visit such wickedness on them. Opposition, was what the government listed. Of what kind you may wish to ask. Is somebody forgetting that this is a democracy, thus ‘opposition’ is sanctioned and protected by the constitution?

Their real sin one must observe was voting in such simpletons as their government and tolerating their many failures for this long. Indeed their sin is lack of opposition to such government. For it is years of letting their leadership get away with inefficiency and bad governance, and even rewarding it with second terms that has given the Imo state leadership the audacity to do what it did.

But the motives and logic of the Imo state government must also be questioned. An Igbo  adage goes that he who holds someone to the ground is himself also held to the ground. You leave refuse on the street in the name of punishing the citizens, do you not realise you are shooting yourself in the foot. I will assume that there are doctors that work with the state government. They should in the least know the public health implication of that action, the least of which is air pollution. There are countless diseases and their pathogens that will find conducive breeding grounds in such a place. We are looking at the possibility of an epidemic of varying kinds which will in turn further stretch the state’s health care system. Lassa fever remains a reoccurring decimal nationwide, yet a government establishes a breeding ground for rodents right in the centre of the city, and has the guts to brag about it. Something has to be wrong with us as a people.

This is just another episode in what has become a series coming out of Imo state. It is the same state where the governor has declared unashamedly that the work week is now cut to three days and that its workers should use the remaining days to go fend for themselves because government cannot cater for them anymore. In other words, government was throwing in the towel. Such examples make it seem like good governance is not possible at all. But the now famous speech by Peter Obi, former governor of neighbouring Anambra state on October 1, at The Platform tells us otherwise. I happen to be from Anambra state and unlike many, I didn’t need the speech to become aware of the exploits of Obi in office. I am a witness and beneficiary of his efforts to cut down cost, and engender good governance, the effects of which are being felt even today. Here are two states that exist side by side, one is relatively working because the past leadership planned and saved, the other not only can no longer meet its obligations, it now also abandons refuse on the streets to punish her people.

Therein lies some food for thought for Imolites (Imo state indigenes) and Nigerians in general as we stumble on towards 2019.

And two other things…

Arrest of Judges by the DSS

When one calls attention to an obvious abuse of human rights and the rule of law these days, you get the response “do you know what they did?” So is the case with the recent Gestapo style arrest of judges across the country by the Nigeria secret police. People must realise that societies survive not on good intentions but on laws and precedence. There is no way the Federal government paints this that it does not look like an attack on the judiciary. And we must realise that in our system of government, those three arms, Executive, Legislature and Judiciary are equal with provisions made in the law to enable each checkmate the powers of the other. When one begins to act superior to the others, it begins to look no longer like a democracy but something else.

Attack on Shiites

Shiites have sustained their push for the release of their leader who has been held for so many months without charges or any information really about his state of health. This is within their rights, to march and to protest in a democracy. The continued use of security agencies against them – including the recent request for the arrest of their spokesperson by the Kaduna State Governor is quite worrying. It amounts to beating a child and at the same time denying him the right to cry. The El-Zakzaky situation is already a messy one. Government should be seeking ways to resolve this amicably, not create a situation that could turn into an inferno of its own.

Do have a good week.

@nzesylva

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APC, Ideology Politics and the Future

The call by the national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator Bola Tinubu demanding the resignation of the party chairman, Chief John Oyegun, is no doubt one of the biggest political news in a long while. In case this is the first time you are learning of this, the veteran politician and former governor of Lagos state, who undoubtedly led the process for the formation of the party and was critical to its victory in the 2015 elections, in a statement released on Sunday, accused Oyegun of sabotaging the will of democracy in Ondo state by overriding the decision of the appeal panel that asked for a fresh governorship primary following investigations that showed that the delegates’ list used had been tampered with. And having done the ‘irredeemable’, Senator Tinubu called on Oyegun to resign.

This development did not come as a surprise to many close political watchers who had long observed that all was not well with the party which has had a series of internal wrangling since it took over power from the PDP in May 2015. A few others had predicted this even before the electoral victory, when the merger to form APC was still on-going given how the party opened its arms wide to accept (and is still accepting) into its fold, persons of all character including political renegades seeking a new platform to remain relevant.

No doubt, the very foundations of the house had serious issues. It was going to take quite a miracle to marry politicians of all kinds of backgrounds viz the now defunct CPC, ANPP, AC and what was called newPDP, into a new fold without cracks, given the sharp differences in their ideologies, histories, ambitions and makeup. It was clear that the oneness of purpose (at least of the majority) which is critical to the success of national political parties was lacking. What we had was a union of forces all opposed to the continued reign of Goodluck Jonathan as President and after he was ousted, there didn’t seem to be any clue how to manage the victory. Certainly, this was not the time to start cultivating a party ideology and having the different blocks within the party align with it. The next mission was a scramble for the spoils of victory, with an eye on the next elections.

This situation raises once again the question around ideology politics in Nigeria. Ideally, political parties are founded on certain ideologies which guide their manifesto and informs their approach to governance. It also defines the goals and aspirations of the party which the members can key into. Ideology represents a crucial element of political parties and their activities.

The closest we have come to having parties with defined ideologies remains the First Republic, with parties like the NPC, NCNC and AG which though were largely ethnic-based, showed certain ideological uniqueness. Ideologically, the NPC was an essentially conservative and elitist party, while the AG and NCNC appeared to be progressive and welfarist, predicated upon socialist ideology. Since then, the parties we’ve had have just been aggregations of persons for the purpose of capturing power. In the 3^rd republic, there was an effort by the government to experiment with a 2 party system (which like you have in the US) represents 2 varying ideological camps. However, the SDP and the NRC, as we had then, besides being described as ‘a little to the left’ and ‘a little to the right’ respectively, had nothing much to differentiate them in terms of ideological dispositions.

The story continues today. Perhaps the APC presented the best opportunity for the founding of a party deeply rooted in progressive thinking but the hurry to win power and enjoy the spoils of same derailed such lofty ambitions. It must be stated (and as we have seen) that ideologies are not about what is written on paper or the slogans voiced at campaign rallies. They are shaped and refined over time and it helps if such a party spends some time in the opposition during which such ideology becomes rooted and through some kind of ‘natural selection’ the genuine members of such a party are defined.

The dearth of ideology party politics manifests in governance. Parties claim one thing in their manifestos and once they are in power, they are doing something else. From Lagos to Borno, Sokoto, to Bayelsa, there is no difference in the policies of state governments despite the fact that there are up to 3 parties in power across these states. These governments seem to be drifting about (with their subjects in tow) like a rudderless ship simply because there is no principle guiding their movement. This is one of the reasons why we are where we are as a country.

Today more than ever before there is a need for us to go back to the basics. Young people of like minds must begin to converge and define ideologies that can shape the makeup of new political groups. This should be done not with the view to capturing power in 2019 — which is not realistic — but for building a solid group strong enough ideologically to challenge for power and make a difference in governance in the future. We must now free ourselves from the failures of the past and the present and define for ourselves, the future we want to see. The time to begin congregating is now.

@nzesylva

First published Here on 29 September, 2016

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