In 2019, an outbreak of coronavirus disease started in Wuhan, China and spread throughout the world. COVID-19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS CoV-2).
However, prior to this outbreak, for nearly 25 years Nigeria has been struggling with its own SARS. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad was inaugurated in 1992 to help combat the scourge of armed robberies and kidnappings that were becoming more rampant in Nigeria. As with SARS CoV-2 and other similar viruses, the Nigerian SARS continued until the host, Nigeria, succumbed and nearly collapsed, culminating in the Lekki massacre of October 2020. Throughout the month of October 2020, peaceful protesters took to the streets of major Nigerian cities, including Lagos, in the midst of the 3rd wave of COVID-19 to call for an end to the Nigerian SARS. Although SARS was disbanded four times previously, it remained active and continued to be a threat to Nigerians. The #EndSARS began trending on Twitter and the world observed. This hashtag had a defining moment when, on the night of October 13, 2020, soldiers fired upon unarmed protesters at the Lagos tollgate. Although the Lagos state government blamed the incident on the military in an interview with CNN, the army claimed that they went to the site at the request of the governor. Peaceful protests turned into mayhem and looting. The palace of the Oba (King) of Lagos was ransacked and a coffin full of hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Oba’s staff of office and emblazoned shoes were stolen. The looting and mayhem were further exacerbated when rioters came upon a warehouse full of food worth millions of Nigerian naira, which was intended for distribution to the needy. As 90% of the country lives on $1 per day, the needy refers to almost everyone. However, politicians allegedly kept the food concealed for themselves. Subsequently, the rioting spread to other states, with aggrieved citizens seeking out palliative warehouses. In total, 18 palliative warehouses in states across the country were located and ransacked. However, this article does not focus on SARS or corrupt Nigerian leaders. This article focuses on the followers and discusses how ordinary Nigerians can help create the Nigeria of our dreams.
In the aftermath of the Lekki massacre, I received a request to sign an online petition. Nigerians distributed several online petitions requesting the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to resign or be tried for war crimes.
I wondered if there was a point in adding my name to an online petition beyond symbolism.
I worried that in Nigeria, we replace action with symbolism and hope someone else will act. We like calling on the UN and tagging Biden and Clinton, both of whom tweeted their support for #EndSARS or Obama as our strongest form of petition, which is all symbolic gestures. I would like to suggest that as the US and UN did not act in Hong Kong or Ukraine, they certainly will not act in Nigeria. Change will come from within and by one of two means: By the bullet or by the ballot.
The Bullet
Marx envisioned a utopian society where individuals (the proletariat) controlled their production, with the self-destruction of capitalism and its replacement by what he called socialist production referred to as socialism or communism today.
Supplanting capitalism and taking over the tools of production from those who controlled it (the bourgeois) required a proletariat revolution, that is, a social revolution in which the working class overthrow the bourgeoisie and change the political system. I call this the bullet approach.
I posit that this approach is not viable in Nigeria. The #EndSARS movement went as far as Nigeria can with the bullet. Nigerians have an inelastic tolerance for hardship; therefore, we can rule out change by the bullet. Furthermore, we do not have sufficient proliferation of arms or training among the civilian population for an effective civil revolution compared to locations such as the USA, Central Africa, the Middle East, Chechnya or Afghanistan. Most Nigerian men in their 20s do not know what a breech block is; therefore, an insurgency against the military is suicidal, as scores of Nigerians have learnt. Insurgencies are expensive and require resources, such as an angry billionaire willing to fund it and angry trained people willing to die for it. Nigeria has neither. Our government-made billionaires (there are seldom, if at all, self-made billionaires in Nigeria) are happy, as they live in London and Dubai and visit Nigeria when they can, whereas our angry people are untrained in insurgency and have no interest in dying for an unappreciative country.
The ballot
Therefore, our only viable option is the ballot. In 2019, 26 million out of 200 million Nigerians voted in the presidential election compared to 15 million out of 30 million Canadians who voted for a new Prime Minister that same year.
Diaspora remittances now account for Nigeria’s largest source of foreign exchange; however, the Nigerian diaspora cannot vote. Yet, diasporans, continue to welcome and host Nigerian politicians when they visit the diaspora.
The Nigerian diaspora has vested economic and social interests and rights to political commentary; however, Nigerians who live in Nigeria tend to criticise those in the diaspora as being illegitimate commentators. I am a part of this diaspora. I was disqualified as a gubernatorial candidate before being requalified in the 2017 gubernatorial election primaries in my state. I visit Nigeria multiple times every year, own a business there, have created jobs there and I’m more plugged in than many who live there continuously. Therefore, residency does not necessarily translate into participation or activism. I fly to Nigeria to vote in elections, whereas many who live in Nigeria do not vote; therefore, I have earned the right to comment on Nigerian matters and often do so as credibly as those who live in the country. Many in the diaspora are in the same position: building homes, running businesses, and providing a social network for many people in Nigeria. Likewise, #EndSARS was sustained by diaspora funding, albeit it was cryptocurrency. As such, legitimacy of commentary is not subject to abstract constructs of residency, which is the rationalisation that the political class used to deprive the diaspora of their vote.
Therefore, in the question of bullet or ballot, I argue for the ballot. As a colony, Nigeria did little to make life uncomfortable for the colonisers, as evidenced by comparing Nigeria to Kenya’s Mau Mau resistance ); this is not the Nigerian style.
Even rebels support the ballot!
With the exception of a handful of examples, Nigeria is a country without many heroes, and even most of these heroes are not necessarily comfortable with the bullet. This is unlike the heroes of Kenya—Dedan Kimathe, Musa Mwariama, and General Baimungu— or South Africa; Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, and the leaders of uMkhonto we Sizwe. Kenya and South Africa started with the bullet but ended with the ballot. As such, even jurisdictions comfortable with the bullet ultimately used the ballot. The most celebrated politician in Africa is Kagame, a Rwandan refugee who became a mercenary warlord at 22 years of age and was at the forefront of defeating Idi Amin in Uganda to enthrone Yoweri Museveni in 1979. In 1980, when Museveni lost to Obote, Kagame joined Museveni’s Popular Resistance Army, in what is now known as the Bush War. Kagame is very comfortable with the bullet, however, even Kagame now subscribes to the ballot.
Call to action!
The #EndSARS movement was not the first time Nigerian youth have revolted. I was on the streets along with a multitude of other youths (and elders) protesting for many weeks after the annulment of the June 12 election won by MKO Abiola. The June 12 protests ended because passive Nigerians who were desperate to return to work sabotaged the protesters, as they saw the protesters as an inconvenience to their livelihood. Therefore, while #EndSARS achieved some progress, it is insufficient if it does not morph into a movement to the ballot.
While I celebrate the progress made, progress must lead to action and praxis rather than mere theory. Nigeria has both leadership and followership problems. To achieve the Nigeria of our dreams, we can start by correcting the followership problems, and the only viable means available to us is the ballot. We should not let the deaths at the toll gate be in vain.
If you have read this far, do not be upset. I am only the messenger, and my commentary here is on the realities of the larger Nigerian society particularly exemplified by our political apathy. Those who vote or are part of the diaspora who provide social support to Nigeria are doing their part; however, the supposed democratic system is failing people due to the apathy of the majority. Participation means voting and waiting for the poll results at the poll station. In Nigeria, where people say elections are about money, Adams Oshiomole defeated Oserheimen Osunbor (Governor Iginedion’s candidate) albeit in court – when the actual vote was counted, and Peter Obi defeated President Olusegun Obasanjo’s candidate, Andy Ubah.
In Nigeria, participation requires tenacity. Participation is meaningful. Nigeria’s problem is political apathy. If Nigerians overcome this apathy, civil society and production will thrive. Demonstrating the importance of elections through increased participation would encourage the involvement of excellent candidates, including people who want to serve rather than those who believe the senate is where governors go to retire. As bad followership is associated with bad leadership, my thesis is that the opposite is also true.
It is time for a national reorientation. It is time for participation. Get your voter cards, stay angry until May, 2023, and help create the Nigeria of our dreams. It is time for a revolution at the ballot. It is time for us to graduate from protest to policies!
- Dr Ufodike writes from Canada
