12062019 - How Lawan, Gbaja, others emerged winners

28—Vanguard, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019
A democracy day primer
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Democracy Day, very different in quality from, for
instance, the euphoria - where it exists - of a day of
National Independence. Now why does one find it
necessary to state what, in good faith, should be
obvious? The answer is painful: that occasion also
served as a trigger for raking up embers of divisive
history, for tarnishing memories and belittling even
the meagre harvest of a watershed in history.
Don’t we all know it? Everything in this nation is
fodder for controversy, often of the most pointless,
mindless, simply adversarial kind - such has been
this formal restoration of June 12, 1993 to its
rightful place on the podium of Nigerian history.
Let us address some brutal truths. One comment
regarding this formalization especially rankles,
since its accompanying train of remarks indicated
that it was not a mere aberrant individual, but
revelation of group sentiment. It was sent to me
through the usual internet link and was,
undisguisedly - a mock lament, a condescending
swipe at the Yoruba race – yes, directly indicted - for
being so naive as to have fallen for an obvious vote
gathering ploy. The conveyed message reminded
me of the movement initiated by Charley Boy -
Your mummu done do! - who, together with his fellow
protesters, was severely mauled in Abuja by an
incited mob. At least Charley Boy refused to go
down as nothing more than an internet slob,
berating everyone around but swallowing the bile
of daily discontent. He embarked on remedial
action – one that was manifested in the true spirit
of June 12.
There are several observations on that ‘social
media’ posting, plus the predictable, bandwagon
comments, often pre-arranged. It is necessary,
indeed mandatory, to clean up this template of the
past before proceeding. First, I was not aware that
the Yoruba, acting as ethnic entity, ever made a
statement that promised to reward the government
with their votes in return for this alleged June 12
bribe. The serious, problematic bribe - the
Minimum Wage concession - of course receives
the scantiest of attention - beyond solidarity calls
and insistence on implementation. Never mind that,
North to South, East to West, numerous tiers of
government are scrambling to find ways and means
of ‘settling’ an agreement directed from the centre,
with no corresponding consultation with states.
From latest reports, even the centre is taking to the
sale of state assets - at disadvantaged prices - to
fulfill a voter catchment commitment. This is the
kind of consequential ‘bribe’, one would have
thought, that merits critical attention. No matter,
let us return to the monumental, non-material
bribe. What does it consist of?
A wrong had long festered, no matter how
invisibly.
Restoration was
made. The faithful
of June 12
embraced the
g e s t u r e ,
pronounced their
appreciation at the
ceremony, several
even with barbed
qualifiers. After all,
others before had
had the
opportunity, but
chose to ignore,
even deride the
very notion of
The vision of
a common
homeland,
rooted in
commonality of
ideas, values,
culture, history
and purpose, is
as natural as
breathing
recognition, even if
through symbolic gestures. If a few in that Abuja
assemblage got carried away - and some did, both
Yoruba and non-Yoruba alike - heaped fulsome
praises on the government, far beyond its deserving
in my view, I found it unconscionable to seize the
occasion as an opportunity to jeer at, and vilify an
entire people. I have asked myself over and over
again: to what end? Who profits from this?
Next, I found it equally lamentable that anyone
should attempt to reduce the June 12 struggle to
that of an ethnic project. It is a depressing travesty
of the realities, a denial of the existence of a nation’s
collective sense of justice and its tenacity in pursuit
of that objective. No one denies that the immediate
family of a victim of robbery feels the pangs of
dispossession more keenly than others. The truth,
however, remains that the entirety of the compound
itself was violated, arrogantly and contemptuously
dispossessed. In this case, its very aspiration to a
unified identity was simply ground underfoot,
compelling a return to the starting block, and even
several milestones behind! Disenfranchisement is
the ultimate stigma for any free people. Again,
despite official hostility, corporate blackmail and
even victimization of some adherents of that date,
•Bashorun MKO Abiola... during his detention by the military junta
a number of state governments but, even more
crucially, civil society - with members drawn from
across the nation - did not await permission of any
power or agency of the centre to gather and
celebrate that date, and pay homage to the fallen.
The June 12 movement never went into recess, and
the current government merely jumped on a
bandwagon that was already propelled by the
people.
However, there is even more matter for
discouragement, so we should not be surprised at
the ethnic caviling. After the annulment, I recall
that, when we tried to mobilize opposition to that
sadistic impostor, fanatic voices of ethnic
irredentism informed us bluntly, verbally and in
print, that the Yoruba should go and solve their
problems themselves, since we had let them down
in the lead-up to the Biafran War of Secession, and
should seek no collaboration from that side of the
Niger. One recognizes, in today’s renewed voices of
ethnic denigration, the same chant of a hate chorus,
the fanning of divisive embers. It is gratifying,
therefore - and here we come to some cheering news!
- that this tendency has become a source of concern
to many of the leaders of that former secessionist
state. It led to recent counter efforts under themes
such as hands across the Niger, later followed by
hands across the nation, encounters that have taken
place both within the nation and outside her borders.
It is crucial that those laudable initiatives continue
in the same spirit of civic responsibility and
nationally craved closure.
We must, however, sound warning: these highminded
efforts are increasingly vitiated by the
fanatic and obnoxious voices of an irrepressible
handful. No, we are not speaking here of organized
protests and demonstrations to keep Biafra alive -
for those of my school of thought, these are both
legitimate expressions of the democratic will, and
cannot be suppressed. We refer specifically however,
to abrasive, irrational, and irreverent diatribes of
purveyors of unrelenting discord. Their innate
proclivities are readily facilitated by that grossly
polluted space - the so-called social network. Some
have gone beyond recall, like the proverbial
mongrel which no longer heeds the call of the
hunter. They have become so blindsided that, almost
under demonic possession, they heedlessly alienate
sources of empathy and act against their own
interests. This was prevalent in its most unfiltered
density during, and after the 2019 elections.
Let the following be stated and re-stated as a
personal, unwavering, socio-political conviction:
The vision of a common homeland, rooted in
commonality of ideas, values, culture, history and
purpose, is as natural as breathing. However, the
dream of such a state of collective desire is not
realized by careers of deception and distortion of
reality and history, any more
than is the craving for a turn
at the very pinnacle of
governance within a polity
which, for good or ill, still
embraces all. On the
contrary, both dreams fade,
continue to recede, and may
eventually remain unfulfilled
in the lifetime of the purveyors
of divisive filth. That would
be poetic justice.
I am no believer in the
juggling of score cards in
order to earn the accolade of
equitable dealing - find fault
on ‘A’ by all means, but be sure
to balance with faults from
‘B’, deserved or not. However,
the following retrogressive
slump in the democratic
quest is fortunately, and
blatantly, in the public domain
and demands its place in the
Index of repudiations. First,
it was a minister, soon
followed by the deputy of the
incumbent himself, then
other voices at various times
- all advocating support for
the government on the basis
of ensuring “our turn” at the
next electoral roulette! That
primitive appeal remains
one of the most dispiriting of
the twists and turns in
numerous calculations of that
same 2019 electoral exercise,
a dismal complement of the
self-positioning of the earlier
mentioned secession
fundamentalists.
If anything, the latter now
had even greater justification
to jettison all other parameters of political choice
in favour of their own even more
uncompromising, ethnic positioning. I am
Yoruba, and therefore felt sufficiently
compromised as to intervene with some leaders
demanding, ‘do you know what this portends?’
Is this wise? Progressive? It was gratifying to
encounter other Yoruba voices - I especially recall
one from Dr. Wale Adeniran - in forceful
repudiation of such narrow chauvinism. And it
resulted in personal disillusionment that sent me
seeking solace from our man for all occasions,
William Shakespeare in that cry of: A Plague on
both your Houses!
Chortling of
self- vindication
There were other negative controlling
manifestations, related to that very narrow social
perspective, albeit sprung from a different
malaise. The principal himself, formerly elected
largely on the platform of corruption eradication,
reinforced by the coy mantra of “I belong to all
and belong to none”, presided over a growing
degradation of advertised intent, a serial
dereliction of the obvious imperative of any
reformist agenda which should read: first,
internal cleansing! One after another, scandals
of escalating proportions from within the
charmed circle of power, an apparent tolerance
even in face of ‘in flagrante delecti’ captures on
video! Clearly, this candidate had also done his
arithmetic and could hardly afford to lose any
treasure trove of numbers. The logo of the ruling
party during those 2019 elections appeared to
have been the three brass monkeys: Hear no evil,
See no evil. Speak no evil.
Before any chortling of self- vindication is
provoked among the ‘I told you so brigade’, let
me quickly pause here, prodded by the strident
opportunism of the corruption train and restate
my position as follows: this does not invalidate
the pass mark in this specific department that I
conceded the government on a television
programme – the anti-corruption fight. A pass
mark is not the same as an A+, B or even C+, so
that grudging grade stands, as shall be effortlessly
demonstrated in ensuing parts of this primer.
Some of us take a holistic, and comparative
approach to the protean operations of
corruption, not sensationalist ‘Rambo’
melodramas served up to titillate the public
palate. We add, subtract, qualify, adjust, and only
then – propose a grade. We shall venture later
into that national bugbear, and in some detail,
utilizing just one or two but representative voices
of blanket dismissal that often read like
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