Show of Shame

"Politics is show business for ugly people" is a quote I first read in Bill Clinton's autobiography, My Life, more than a decade ago. If this is true of politics everywhere, it is more so in Nigeria. Who are the viewers of this inhumane show in Nigeria? Who are the enablers of this masochistic display of suffering that is so horrendous? The land is bleeding, innocent souls are dying, and we are willing to sacrifice people for the sake of political ambition. I have not been able to stay on social media for more than 30 minutes the last couple of weeks. This show of shame going on in Nigeria is horrendous!

It wasn’t long before someone who is now parading himself around as an angel of light told us about "body bags." Do we have short memories as a people?

Those of us who want Nigeria to be better are few compared to those who see hardship as the fate and destiny of Nigeria. Could you explain why there are individuals on the streets of Port Harcourt justifying the illegality there under the guise of protest? These same people will then turn and say, The country is hard.

Here is where I think civil society and activist movements need to concentrate more on mass reorientation. As Fanon asserts, "To educate the masses politically does not and cannot mean making a political speech." What it means is to try, relentlessly and passionately, to teach the masses that everything depends on them; that if we stagnate, it is their responsibility, and that if we go forward, it is due to them too; that there is no such thing as a demiurge; that there is no famous man who will take the responsibility for everything, but that the demiurge is the people themselves, and the magic hands are finally only the hands of the people.”

Most importantly, in light of the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing in the northern states, particularly in Benue and Jos, I believe it's time for the elite and masses of northern Nigeria to recognize that no region or individual has the exclusive right to violence. Their treatment of minority Christians and other groups will not continue. One day they will rise up and fight back. I hope we all make it through.

Furthermore, wherever all of these lead us to channel Fanon again, “The future will have no pity for those men who, possessing the exceptional privilege of being able to speak words of truth to their oppressors, have taken refuge in an attitude of passivity, of mute indifference, and sometimes of cold complicity.” Frantz Fanon, Toward the African Revolution, translated by Haakon Chevalier (New York: Grove Press, 1969, 117)

Selah