Reaching for Mjollnir — A Nigerian youths democracy story
Over this weekend I found myself listening to one of my favourite podcast series: I said what I said. As usual, it evoked all sorts of emotions from sheer joy to abject hopelessness in equal measure. So I promised myself that I would, as I do when I come across important moments, write about my feelings in response to some of the stuff I heard. That I would, as was Feyikemi & Jola’s familiar refrain throughout this episode, confront the issues head on and not “talk to me by the corner”.
Even though there were many of them I won’t dwell on the fun parts of the episode (S03E19) as you can listen again on your favourite podcatcher — and I encourage you to. Their conversations around the laughable state of Nigerian political life at the moment was arresting, as it gave me some hope and despair in equal measure.
They highlighted the diabolical hopelessness of the Nigerian opposition landscape especially around the events of the past weeks: the Twitter Ban and the security situation being the most recent examples. I found myself nodding in unison to some of the points they made. To be fair, I also found some of their points a little disagreeable but that’s a different article. It is, however, an undeniable truth that the political sphere in Nigeria hasn’t had a capable opposition for quite a while and you can see this in the way some decisions like the Twitter Ban have played out.
The decision by the current government to ban Twitter would have been an open goal in most vibrant democracies where a ruling party has to contend with a credible opposition party. Issues like this would have been fun to watch being debated on the floors of the National and State houses of assembly. Alas, we the people were robbed of genuine democratic drama.
The denial of genuine moments of democratic expression, after seeing the good it can do for systems where it exists, convinces me that we must do something. Like Thor after being stripped of his powers and banished by Odin, till he is able to prove himself worthy of Mjollnir, I am convinced that Nigerian youth must now banish its demons and prove itself worthy of leadership. Being part of the decision-making is the only way to wrest back control of our lives.
2023 and the looming elections present a time-bound shot at strategic positioning (thanks Jolla & Feyikemi) for constructive engagement. Just like Stacey Abrams in Georgia for the Democrats I believe well-meaning young people need to assemble — like the Avengers. There was a lull which one can only describe as a period of sitting Shiva after the dark days of the ENDSARS protests and its aftermath. My feeling though is that the omens are good for constructive engagement, a deliberate prizefight of wits. The prize? Well, 30% representation across the houses of assembly and local governments in key states of the federation by a collective of progressives.
Some might say money is the insurmountable barrier but to them I say the answers lie in sagacity and our ability to organise, coalesce and channel our inner Stacey Abrams so that we — the silent majority — can get a foot in the door. It will require compromise and collectivism but more importantly well-reasoned and disciplined calm. We must, like Thor, put away childish rage and rash utterances and realise that we, in hindsight, fell into predictable traps set by more adept players. In our case by allowing our arguments to become fragmented and our cause to be hijacked and to onlookers appearing like an unintelligible mob without a coherent purpose. By these actions we made ourselves easy to delegitimize and speak of and to as children, nay hoodlums.
Once these more mature organizational abilities come to the fore they will also ensure that we can begin to chip away at the considerable election machinery that the incumbents have built over the past two decades. Protests got the world’s attention in 2020 but we didn’t engage constructively enough to remain at the table and help better Nigerian lives. We have a chance at a do-over as 2023 draws closer. Can we reach for Mjollnir this time with worthy thoughts in our hearts? Will she shake off the shackles of the sludge in which she is encrusted and answer our call-to-action? Feyikemi and Jola sounded a little disillusioned but I live in hope.
Oh and some parting music from the BBC’s #SmallAxe mini-series. Happy Monday, folks!
