Iyan Ogun Odun: Acknowledgement and Reckoning. Should Nigerians mourn or mount? ---Final
In part 1 of this post, I discuss the importance of reckoning and acknowledgment as essential components in rewriting a "past that is not over." In this second and final installment, I will explore a related yet distinct topic, specifically how we can mourn and take action towards accountability and an equitable society.
If you want us to mourn with you, hold those you love accountable. The first heartbreak I had among many that were equally painful as others was with Mahatma Gandhi. I read his autobiography over two decades ago and was in awe. He was one of my first inspirations to stop eating animals, but my allegiance to asun, suya, and other iconography of Nigerian dishes won't allow me. Then a South African author reckoned with his “unbelievable” past, and I wouldn’t recognize someone I once adored.
At that moment I made a choice that affirmed a value I always held: to question people I love, adore, and admire. I told myself I would be vigilant with power so I was not blinded to their wrongs. Through history and my personal experiences, I have observed that the primary weapon powers wield is their ability to acquire a reputation within a certain circle or group that often contradicts their actions with others, making it difficult for others to believe your story if you speak out against them.
If you don’t want us to mount while you mourn, hold your family, friends, and politicians accountable before we do. Accountability matters. Accountability is not an attack. The call for reckoning and acknowledgement is not a defamation of character when people trust you with their lives and when you hold a leadership position. Leadership is not a walk in the park.
There are those who would say, "He apologized." He may have offered an apology, but as I noted in a previous article, sorry is not a good eraser. Forgiveness is not amnesia. "There are wrongs which even the grave does not bury” (Harriet Jacobs, p. 219).
Mourning or mounting is a personal choice that cannot be imposed on the public, especially for public officials whose choices, decisions, and indecision have caused "unhealable hurts."
Leaders who have hurt individuals, groups, and the communities they serve carry a burden and responsibility, which their fans and followers should learn to respect. You cannot harm people and simultaneously dictate their healing process.
The driver who rammed me and my late sister-mum and didn’t look back leaves a wound and scar in my heart that weigh me down every single day. Sometimes I wish I could find him to acknowledge and reckon with the irreparable loss his actions have caused me and the " unsayable" names I have been called for that incident. But because FRSC expected me, who dreaded entering a vehicle after the incident, to go and report the accident at the nearest police station where the incident occurred in Abeokuta when I was already in Lagos, the driver is definitely driving other people into graves.
