You Cannot Summarize a Revolution
Change seldom begins with a bang! Surprisingly, it is hardly ever achieved by people who set out with a demonstration of great will, courage, and an unbreakable resolve to make it happen. No, it is subtle, unassuming, and has no need for fanfare or applause. Change sneaks up on you and you only get to realize it after it has settled in. It’s no wonder, a lot of people miss it or worse, fail to recognize the tell-tale signs of its inevitability.
Like all kinds of change, political change is often yearned for and hotly sought after. It is equally contested for those who wish to preserve the status quo; predictable and controllable circumstances. One must always take into cognizance the force that would be the pushback against the idea of change. Unlike any other kind of change, however, political-type change is barely ever understood by the establishment even long after it does happen.
Casting my mind back to what is now referred to as the Arab Spring, I seek to make an example to illustrate my last point. I have no doubt whatsoever, that the change which metamorphosed into The Arab Spring, had long taken root in the consciousness of the Tunisian people and eventually, the middle eastern people. In fact, I wager that it had been whispered at first amongst friends and family, discussed with strangers on a shared transit medium, addressed in mosques and churches alike, and perhaps even mentioned by highly regarded intellectuals in a few seminars, town halls, and public lectures.
Soon, the idea ceased to be just an idea; the idea of injustice meted out by the government, an idea of inequality showcased by the treatment of different societal classes, the idea that impunity can continue without recourse to any reprimand Just-Because. The idea becomes a credo and although there might be no physical signs of it, unbeknownst to those who wish to keep things as they are, change has since occurred. Hence, when Mohamed Bouazizi, that iconic Tunisian trader dared to say, “Enough!”, and set himself ablaze in protest to an act of injustice, the resultant jolting of the people to action, their rallying cries and voices which chorused from Tunisia all the way to Syria, for change, had become more than an idea, more than a change in itself, it had become a revolution.
How does one begin to try and comprehend the insulation of the government against the masses? How great is the chasm that exists between the governed and the government for such a murmur to grow into a roaring revolution without detection, retrospection, appeasement of any kind, the reverse of policy or, wait for this, this is interesting I promise, CHANGE of direction to curtail, pacify and nip any anger in the bud? When you factor in the fact that most of the affected governments were authoritarian and so, had every incentive to act on time to save their own skin, and yet failed to even detect the malcontent until the tsunami of unheard cries and unmet dreams swept it out of office, you would appreciate my earlier point; political change unlike any other leaves the establishment stupefied and unable to grasp the issues nor understand why they are issues at the first instance.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, this without fail, appears to be the pattern that ushers in political change. It seems to me that those in power often set themselves up to fail by continually choosing to conveniently forget how they got in there in the first place. A fundamental crime for which the late Evangelist Ravi Zacharias admonished when he said, “Never put yourself in a position where you might fall”.
In my own country, Nigeria, things have been bad for a very long time. So long in fact, that a lot of people have come to accept decay and dysfunction as the norm. Save for the media: international news outlets, movies, and social media that enable interaction between people from very different time zones and geographic locations, which show how better societies function, perhaps the thin thread that holds our dear country from total collapse, would have long been severed. It is for the miracle of this delicate, fragile, and hypothetical thread keeping it all together, that we Nigerians always remark, “God dey”, each time we are confronted with an act of illegality, highhandedness by the government, acts of unconstitutionality perpetrated by custodians of the law, etc. and would you blame us, it is indeed a miracle to survive Nigeria.
I suspect that just like the laws of elasticity in physics state that every elastic material has a breaking point, or in other words a yield point, so also, do people. In the middle east all those years ago, watching a 26-year-old man self-immolate himself in protest, signaled to the people that they had been docile for far too long. Theirs was called the Arab Spring. In Nigeria however, ours began in 2020. Again, as is always the case with a movement demanding change, the usual culprits whose actions ignite those passions, are those to whom public trust has been entrusted. Ours was termed #EndSars. Young people decided “Enough!”. Enough with the police brutality, enough of harassment and profiling of young enterprising people Just-Because.
What began as an internet drive, soon spilled into the streets. All across the country, Nigerians trooped out in their numbers to protest and show their displeasure. For the purpose of this piece, I wish I had high praise for how the Nigerian government handled things differently from those that superintended the Arab Spring and similar revolutions. Alas, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride”.
Sadly, but quite predictably, the Nigerian government acted, in the same manner, you would expect a tone-deaf entity. The result of those actions are now contained in the #LekkiMassacre #October20 archives.
My point is the same. Political change is yearned for, fought passionately for, and in equal measure, contested, and resisted even more violently by the establishment. The eureka moment for Nigerians was the event of the hotly debated #LekkiMassacre. There seemed to have been an eerie silence that spread through the country that cold night of October 20th, 2020. At that point, change had happened in the hearts of millions! Now, there seemed to be a clarity and singularity of purpose. Across tribes, social classes, regions, languages, and religion, Nigerians had found a common goal; to sweep out the old order and those loyal to the establishment by any legal and constitutional means possible! What began as a civil protest, had metamorphosed into a full-blown political movement.
The task ahead was to identify a political figure who was well versed in the Nigerian political terrain, and who could be a repository of all hopes, longings, unrealized dreams, and aspirations of Nigerians. This figure had to have a record that demonstrated the mental and intellectual capacity for the humongous task which lay ahead. He had to be a Nigerian whose love for man and country rang true and deep; verifiably. In summary, he had to be an icon of what a true, honest, and good Nigerian should be. He could be of the establishment (a member of the political elite), but a clear set apart figure on matters of principles, integrity, morality, and character; a completely unambiguous turnaround from everything the establishment and the old order represent. It was believed that anyone beholden to the establishment and (or) the old order, could never possibly deliver the clean break of the umbilical cord holding the past and what should be the future, together. Rightfully so I would say.
Needless to say, a man was identified. If he was a to-do list, he would have so many checks, one would be proud of a great productive day. He was wooed to join the presidential race. He was gracious enough to accept. The rest they say is history.
It is important at this juncture, to state that although a vast majority of youths and seniors alike, were in support of the #EndSars Protests, divisions were bound to set in when the time came to elect a leader. That is the beauty of democracy, that everyone has a stake, a voice, and is entitled to an opinion. So, despite the ferocious fight put up against the People’s Champion by the establishment, who by the way, saw him as anti-establishment and therefore a threat, it is on record that he ran the cleanest political campaign in Nigeria, in recent history. A precedence that further endeared him to the hearts of the people.
Word on the street was that the revolution so many had envisioned, spoken about in murmurs and whispers, was finally underway.
Revolutions are not only gatekeepers of new things or change; they are characterized by a lot of uncommon events. For instance, in the campaigns led by the People’s Champion, Nigerians were eager to donate their houses for Party business. They donated funds, they lent their voices where they had influence, and they carried the message of #TakeBackYourCountry themselves to the nooks and crannies of their communities. In all of that, they asked for no monetary compensation, a feat if you consider that a typical Nigerian would ask, “How much will you pay?” for any assistance sought.
One would expect that the government and indeed the establishment would take the hint, self-correct course, and try to save what was fast becoming an impossible situation. However, true to the manual given to those in power -there just has to be a book- to ignore all signs signaling a death knell to one’s government, they doubled down and tried intimidation, force, and eventually, violence.
For all facts and purposes, the most contentious election in Nigeria has come and gone. If you asked any random Nigerians on the street what they thought about it, about the People’s Champion and the whole symbolism of the election itself, their answer depending on what part of the fence they sit on, would either tell you of a stolen mandate or a resounding victory won by wit and political sagacity. In the end, time will tell the story better.
The People’s Champion, H.E. Peter Obi, as exceptional as he is, isn’t in the same class as people like Mohamed Bouazizi of Tunisia, George Floyd of America, or any other revolutionary figures whose martyrdom ignited change, revolutions. No, he is the perfect vehicle through which Nigerians have chosen to finally get things right. Our martyrs who lost their lives on the 20th of October 2020, and those who were hacked down in the course of the 2023 campaigns and, elections, remain the driving force behind this political movement. It is for their sake that Peter Obi will not back down or cower away. It is for their sake that the Nigerian people have remained vigilant and active in the political arena long after the elections have come and gone.
In conclusion, our government seems to be in a hurry to repeat certain mistakes others in different countries across the world, have had to learn the hard way. Power is given by the people. Without them, legitimacy is always going to be in question. When those in power choose to ignore those who granted them power, everything goes wrong. In the event that everything does go wrong, negotiation, repentance, referendums, policy changes, and wide consultations in a bid to find the pulse of the people and salvage things, is the way to go. Unfortunately, governments in this position have always chosen to go the opposite direction by pursuing self-preservation in spite of the source of their power. In the end, unintentionally, that is how political revolutions are made.
The thing with revolutions of any kind is that they are like moving trains. Once the course is set, a destination must be arrived at. You cannot wish it away; you certainly cannot summarize the journey. In other words, you cannot summarize a revolution. It will take its full course, eventually.
