The Blooming of the Nigerian Spring – By Tochukwu Ezukanma

Posted by admin Articles, Columnists, NNP Columnists, Tochukwu Ezukanma Saturday, March 17th, 2012

By Tochukwu Ezukanma|Lagos, Nigeria|March 17, 2012 – The Goodluck Jonathan administration deployed soldiers and tanks in the streets of Lagos. This was not because the city was under siege from an invading enemy army and therefore needed to be defended by the Nigerian armed forces. It was not to quell an insurrection by anarchists and seditious elements that had already overwhelmed the Nigerian Police Force. The soldiers were deployed and the tanks rolled out to stop law abiding Nigerian citizens from peacefully registering their grievance against an inhumane government policy (the removal of the fuel subsidy). That was a disconcerting undemocratic exercise of presidential powers.

The removal of the fuel subsidy without the consent of the legislature and enough dialogue with labor unions and civil society organizations sparked off spontaneous anti-government demonstrations in many Nigerian cities. The Nigerian police response to the protests was severe, and, in a number of instances, the police shot and killed peaceful protesters.

People were quick to blame the police for their heavy-handedness. But the problem was not the police. The Nigerian Police Force is only an instrument of presidential powers. The police, like the military, have a pyramidal command structure. Its command structure does not countenances autonomous or semi autonomous centers of power within its rank; orders flow directly from top to bottom. Therefore, the policemen we encounter on the streets are taking orders from the higher ups and behaving totally in conformity with the dictates of the Inspector General of Police, who is answerable to the president. So, it was not the police, but the Jonathan’s administration that was exhibiting disquieting undemocratic tendencies.

The mass protest against the removal of the fuel subsidy brought to the fore Nigerians’ deep, smothering anger against the system. While it was the removal of the subsidy that set off those massive, spur-of-the-moment, anti-government protests, the reasons for the protests went beyond the politics of fuel subsidy. Other than the removal of the fuel subsidy, Nigerians wanted to address other economic and political issues.

They wanted to address: the social injustice and inequity evinced by the excessive wealth of an elite few and the entrapment of a disproportionate number of Nigerians in desperate, gateless poverty; government inefficiency, entrenched official corruption, the unwarranted remuneration and unthinkable profligacy of governing officials and the depredation of the national wealth by the politicians and their cronies; and the consequent dysfunction of all government institutions and the atrophied and collapsing public infrastructures.

The anti-government demonstrations involved people from diverse social strata and different works of life. It brought together the poor and middle class, unemployed and employed, uneducated and educated, artisans and artists, polymaths and students, etc – all united in a crusade – against a corrupt and profligate administration and its anti-people policies. With the number of protesters steadily increasing and the momentum of the protest escalating, it showed potentials of snowballing into the Nigerian rendition of the Arab Spring, the Nigerian Spring. Then the government compromised the labor unions and rolled out tanks and ordered soldiers into the street of Lagos to intimidate protesters.

The Arab Spring was revolts in a number of Arab countries triggered by people’s anger, resentment and frustration at the corruption and abuse of power by the ruling elite. Thus far, it has resulted in the toppling of about 4 autocratic Arab rulers. Unlike in Nigeria, the rulers in these Arab countries were avowed dictators who had no pretensions to democracy and have mostly been in power for decades. But on the other hand, the ruling class in these Arab countries is less corrupt than the Nigerian ruling class, and as such, the countries’ resources have been better utilized for the overall welfare of the people. Thus, the qualities of life in these countries are much higher than in Nigeria. And unlike the Nigerian squalor, dilapidation and dysfunction, their systems and institutions work and public infrastructures are maintained.

The situation in Nigeria, more than in the Arab world, calls for a revolution. The Nigerian Spring is blooming and will inescapably erupt. The Jonathan administration’s tough-handed and repressive methods cannot stop it. The only way to forestall the Nigerian Spring is by dousing people’s anger and diffusing the pent up frustration before it becomes explosive. And these can only be done through reforms.

History has furnished the informative precedence that no government can, for long, prop up a wicked and unjust system and impose its insensitive policies on the people with guns and bayonets. Therefore, it is only a power class that has chosen to disregard the lessons of history, because its perception has been blurred by greed, its perspicacity dulled by over indulgence and its conscience numbed by cupidity that can think that soldiers, tanks, guns and bayonets will, indefinitely, intimidate Nigerians into docilely tolerating an iniquitous system that engenders the corrupt enrichment, stupendous wealth and inconceivable extravagance of an elite few at the economic misery of the majority.

The Nigerian power elite must reform the system to create a more equitable distribution of the country’s wealth. They must stop looting the public treasury, and introduce prudence and accountability in the expenditure of public funds. They have to drastically reduce the cost of running an unimaginably expensive government by deeply slashing the tremendously high salaries and allowances of the highest paid legislators in the world and other public officials at both the federal and state levels. They should transcend their rapacity and selfishness and become committed to their responsibilities to the people.

The Nigerian Labor Congress and Trade Union Congress, two organizations not known for their moral courage and incorruptibility, can be intimidated and/or compromised by the federal government. And soldiers and tanks can be deployed to intimidate protesters. However, unless the Jonathan administration begins to factor the aspirations of the people in the formulation of its policies, stops its conscienceless stealing and misuse of public funds and learn to respect the right of every Nigerian to share in the wealth of this country, it will find out the hard way that these will not stop the impending political uprising in Nigeria.

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

maciln18@yahoo.com

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