A protest and the need for ‘common sense’ – Part 2

We compounded this unusual taste for foreign goods with lack of appreciation of the consequences of our economic shortsightedness. Everybody wants to get a foreign degree most of which are not better in any form or shape than the Nigerian education. A country than would not accept degrees from many Asian and American Universities in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s became the contributor to economic well-being and sustenance of such universities in the year 2000.

Today, the Nigerian nation sustains some of these universities with our foreign reserves and savings because most of their students are Nigerians. Yet, we have almost 200 universities and about 149 other tertiary institutions in our country. Education that could be obtained in Nigeria with just one hundred thousand naira is gotten at over ten thousand dollars per annum in those countries. Thanks to the incessant strike by the Academic Union of Nigerian Universities

The real problem in all these is that those protesting on the street never look inward to the extent to which each of them, their relations and ancestors have damaged the socio-economic structure of this country. I cannot imagine any individual with the cerebrum and cerebellum intact demanding for the return of fuel subsidy. Are we so naïve and stupid?

Instead of calling for more stringent measure to block the holes that are preventing the free flow of the well-being of the nation, we are insisting on lining the pockets of those who are killing us. Subsidy was introduced in the first instance to cushion the effect of the high cost of the product on the people. However, historical antecedents of the policy indicated that the reverse is the case. Indeed, it seems we are postponing the evil day

The major fault of the government and I mean all governments in power in all these is that they are too sympathetic to wield the big stick.. Like the Yoruba will say “Omo ti a ko ko, no yio gbe ile ti a ko ta” literally meaning “It is the child that you are too sentimental to build that will sell the house that you have built.”

Blaming the Government of Bola Tinubu and calling him all sorts of names is like blaming the physician for prescribing a medication for your treatment when you have all along been embarking in health risk behavior in your daily life. You will not be sick in the first instance, if you have adequately cared for your health.

It is indeed the responsibility of all and sundry in a society to provide the soothing balm to the problem and injuries of the country which she must have sustained through our mistakes and inadequacies. Particularly those who are exceptionally endowed to do so. Rarely can a nation be great when the preoccupation of the citizenry is to lazily squander resources and yet wait on government for a lifeline in all cases, time and space. Every citizen of a country should be alert to his responsibilities.

Blocking the highways, shutting down the national grill, looting the properties of other citizens, thereby pauperising them more, shutting down hospitals not minding the casualties and not minding the suffering and even death of patients on admission, shutting the gates of educational institutions for years thereby wasting the productive lives of youths and other such actions that we always embark upon when we declare industrial dispute are all primitive, crude, selfish and archaic way of making demands.

The Nigerian slogan that “Talk is cheap” is apt here. The Yoruba couched this in a more comic form by saying “It is easy to cook good vegetable with the mouth than to do it in real practice”. Even in its actions, the group that is accusing the government of high handedness is itself high handed, unscientific in its approach and somewhat undemocratic in its conduct. One wonders how this group will manage the country if it is handed over to it to manage.

Granted that it is the fundamental right of the citizenry to protest but this goes with the saying that in an emergency, individuals should be willing to laydown their rights. Embarking on protest in a charged environment where security is fragile, like in the Northern part of the country, amounts to cutting the nose to spite the face.

This calls to question whether the organisers of the protest are patriotic or they are a group assembled to bring down the system. Afterall, if the intention is to call the attention to the hunger and discomfort in the society, gathering in a location to vent the spleen is enough to convey the displeasure of the governed to the government.

Almost all the organisers of the protest have knowledge of the trend of protests in Nigeria. The trend is that protests usually begin peacefully and later transform into riots because the hoodlums are always on standby and on hand to take advantage of the chaotic situation. These hoodlums are like pickpockets in a crowded environment. They select their victims in the manner of a wild cat hunting its prey. Thy do not have to be sponsored by anybody.

If the EndSARS protest is not a lesson, what else can be? What manner of citizens will burn thousands of buses that are meant to provide transportation convenience, burn government offices, vandalise infrastructures that are erected to run their daily life smoothly, loot businesses of innocent people, maim bystanders, shoot policemen and dismember their bodies? And yet, continue to claim a right that the police attacked them? Is it not better if there is no government of any form at all, so that we can be labelled a community of anarchists?

Naturally, when rioters begin to harass motorist and break into shops and loot businesses on the high street, it is the duty of the police to immediately come into action to protect other citizens from the excesses of the rioters. It is for this reason that the police is demanding for more organised environment by suggesting that the protest should be done within the confines of a more manageable space, the boundary of which could be provided with adequate security.

These organisers of the August protest should know that refusal to join the security agents in this regard would amount to infringing on the rights and privileges of other citizens who will be at the receiving end when the protest becomes riotous as it will eventually become in a crowded metropolis. Why must protesters stand on major roads and create traffic bottleneck to the discomfort of other citizens? What additional advantage is achieved by blocking the traffic on major highways or allowing rioters to take over the peaceful protest?

Telling the police not to react to this ugliness and unreasonable excesses is an indication that the leadership of the protest groups are confused and directionless. I wonder in which country the police is expected to fold its arms and allow criminality to prevail and rule their domain of operation. Any reasonable Nigerian must extol the Nigerian Police for handling the crisis of the last three days with professionalism and commendable competence.

Kudos to the government of the day for its general conduct of the crisis. There is advantage in all things in life. The protest of the last three days is novel in Nigeria. The policemen demonstrated maturity and finesse in the conduct of their job and also in the handling of the unruly situation.

Certainly, the world is watching with keen interest. All said and done, the handling of the August protest will positively raise the human right profile of the Bola Tinubu’s Administration.

One more point is that the Federal Ministry of Information is too much in slumber. Every achievement of the government must be highlighted on daily basis. A Yoruba proverb says “Ti enia ba nyan epa fun afoju, nse ni ki o ma su ife” literally meaning “If you are frying the nuts for the blind, you must continuously whistle so that they will know that you are not eating the nuts.
Concluded.

Ojikutu is a Professor of Statistics (retired), University of Lagos.