By Rev Fr Gerald Nwafor
The question is not whether to join or not to join; that is each person’s call to make. But we must answer the patient’s question “Why the protest.” If the “why” is not clear to you, please do not engage in protest, to avoid heartbreak.
If you are convinced of the reasons and you do want to join, you are free because it is one of the fundamental human rights enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.I have observed protests in Nigeria since 1981.
None of the protests have solved the presented problems, but all resulted in a clear betrayal of the protesters by the organizers. I would not allow the same stick to strike my eyes twice (Osisi adaadu nwata malu ife ugbolo abuo na anya). The most recent protest about bad governance was staged in 2012, by the very people in power today.
They lied to us that the reason for the protest was because Jonathan removed the fuel subsidy. We abandoned our Christmas and New Year celebrations and joined the occupy-Nigeria protest for 10 days. Jonathan reverted the fuel pump price to 87 Naira, and we thought that we had killed a lion. Little did we know that it was only a scheme to grab power by the APC and the underground plan by Buhari and Tinubu to rule Nigeria and Nigerians with wickedness and greed.
Look at Rochas Okorocha who bankrolled APC in the east, and how they dumped him because he was not informed that Buhari would hand over to Emiloko. I have refused to be in that mixture of sheep and goat (Atulu sogwalu ewu). When Ibeto Cement was being killed by the same people who are calling for protest today, nobody saw anything wrong.
But because a prominent person had invested 20 billion dollars in a refinery and the government of the day wanted to kill it, they remembered that we are hungry and angry. I have been hungry and angry since 2015 and nothing happened. I am still hungry and angry, but I may not take to the streets because there are many ways to protest. Going to the street is the last resort.
Let the organizers put all the cards on the table to see if I would express that part of my constitutional right with them. If not, I refused to be deceived and used.Since the problem of the 20-billion-dollar refinery went public, Nigerians were informed about a refinery in Malta where the NNPCL is buying the refined crude from.
Does it mean that the elites were not aware of the Malta refinery and the owners who were milking Nigerians dry? They know but it was not a thing of concern to them, since they were part of the syndicate enjoying the decadence in the Nigerian economy.
The call for a protest may be legit but it is long overdue in the state called Nigeria. If the call for protest was made on the day the 2023 election was announced by 4 AM by Yakubu, and the aim had been for Buhari to sack Yakubu and hand over the INEC office to a neutral person, I would not think twice.
If the call for a protest was called on the day the Supreme Court announced the verdict of the 2023 presidential election, to sack the seven judges of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, I would not think twice to join. But to take the back seat from February 28th, 2023, till August 2024, I say not anymore, I am not a baby being carried at the back who doesn’t know that walking is painful (Nwata akwo na azu amaro na ije di ufu).The people calling for the protest to end bad government should tell us who they are planning to put up, if we end the bad government like we did in 2015. We must not be seen as tools in the Nigerian equation.
We should not be pawns in a chess game where we should be queens and kings. The reason for the protest cannot just be the end of bad government, because if you end bad government how do we introduce good government.
Where is the blueprint? We need to see the template. The people of southeastern Nigeria have been protesting since 1966 and nothing has changed in the Nigerian equation. Therefore, I am hungry. Yes. I am angry, yes.
But someone should not tell me what to do, I will decide on my own how to face these prevailing challenges facing me.Meanwhile, I said that organic protests that would bring down the political class would not be planned but spontaneous.
Many opinions are flying around about the protest and as many have joined, many also preferred not to join but have a reason that justifies their stand.
The time is always right to do right according to Martin Luther King Jr. I call on all Nigerians to do that which is right. The political class should not take the people for granted. The bubble will burst if they do not change their ways and the next protest will not end bad government and your guess is as good as mine. I wrote about the lesson from Kenya, but I know they would disregard it claiming that Nigeria is a heterogeneous state and because of that Kenyan-episode cannot happen here.
They should be told that Kenya has Muslims and Christians, Kenya has about 42 tribes and eight political parties with two of them most dominant. Therefore, those indices the politicians are banking upon to bankrupt the country would one day backfire and it would be too late. If the politicians like, they may look for the dark sheep during the daytime because when it becomes dark the consequence would be catastrophic.
The southeast should be planning on how to give state burial to three prominent persons (Emmanuel, Ifeanyi, and Onyeka) who died in July because the cost of burial in Igboland takes a lot of energy and time.
When the people calling for protest call us to restore a stolen mandate, we may answer, but for now, we are too busy and too hungry. No more answer to political brigandage in the name of protest. The rat doesn’t eat the food of the person who is awake (Oke ada eli ife onye mu anya).
This time we want to know the true reasons why we must protest. The northern elders said that we are uncharacteristically quiet. They are correct, because now we know
