In “My Dungeon Shock: Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundereth Anniversary of the Emancipation,” the first part of “The Fire Next Time,” his non-fiction novel, American writer, James Baldwin, observed, “God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water, the fire next time.”
That is Baldwin’s way of telling Black American youths to seek lasting changes in America instead of seeking revenge against the whites. Getting even is clearly better than getting mad or vindictive.
Baldwin argues that though Black Americans may feel justified if they asked to be separated from the rest of America, or even seek to eliminate white folks, there is really no point in travelling that route.
Nigerian youths, who rode the #EndSARS express to check police brutality, must channel their indignation to effect positive political changes, as some Nigerian political geographies are pushing the mischievous, dangerous, narrative that #EndSARS is a ploy to oust the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
The narrative has gone beyond ending the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, police brutality, and reforming the police system. It is necessary to recalibrate the country’s socio-political system to deliver the greatest good to the greatest number of citizens.
Never again should the inhumanity of one Nigerian over another be acceptable under whatever guise. The Yorùbá would say, “Olopa, èwo ntepe? Amuni nj amuni. Èwo ni ó òní bó nb?” This roughly translates in English to asking a policeman to limit himself to making arrests, without swearing that the suspect will never get free.
Among the changes demanded are state police, (not the sterile community policing that the government is talking about), regionalism, devolution of powers, fiscal federalism, smaller size and cost of governance of all three tiers of government, and trimming of the Exclusive Legislative List.
But the matter is beyond mere rhetoric and sloganeering, it is time for the youths to contest the political space with those who ran the country aground, and still keep the state in perpetual flounder.
Many, in the current class of state actors and their cohorts, more like cahoots, in the political class have little or no competence, have extremely bankrupt moral values, and, regrettably, have a streak of violence in their character. They must be railroaded out of running the Nigerian state.
To actualise their intent to participate in Nigeria’s political space, the “soro sókè” youths must take a two-fold step: Tell those who represent them in the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly to effect the reforms they want in the polity.
If their representatives are reluctant, slow or are wilfully tone deaf about making the required reforms, they should not wait till the 2023 General Election, but begin to recall them from the legislatures.
Following is the legal and constitutional process for recall of non-performing legislators: Invoke Sections 69 and 110 of Nigeria’s Constitution that require more than half of the number of voters in a constituency to sign, and address, a petition expressing loss of confidence in a member, to the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission.
You need only a simple majority of registered voters in a constituency to participate in a referendum conducted by the INEC to recall the member. It goes without saying that the youths must go get their Permanent Voter Cards to form a critical mass in the recall exercise.
That’s not all. Youths must join political parties and stand for election to be able to achieve desired changes like revocation of Sections 65(2), 106(c,d), 131(c,d) and 177(c,d) of the Constitution that require a candidate to join a political party and must also be presented for election by that political party.
The time for independent candidates to contest political offices has come. No more should some Nigerians, who have cleverly captured state power, have the ultimate and final say-so over the political fortunes of other Nigerians.
Something else the youths need to do is to go look for history, political science, economics and philosophy texts, and read them as if their lives depended on them because their lives depend on the information therein.
The youths must read the Nigerian Constitution, to know their rights, privileges, powers, obligations and expectations. They need to know the strengths and the weaknesses of the Constitution.
The knowledge should expose the youths to the way to interact within the political space, quit complaining, and take affirmative actions. As you should know, knowledge is key to political emancipation.
The current crop of the political elite must not be allowed to continue to act as if they have any extraordinary powers to allocate the commonwealth at their whim, and feed their peccadillos. You must have heard stories of legislators who gave COVID-19 palliatives as birthday freebies.
If the youths believe, like DJ Switch who conveyed the impression on a CNN network interview, that Buhari and Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu have failed to lead, they should be prepared to take up the responsibility to run Nigeria aright.
That is the irreducible minimum to make appreciable difference. They must walk the talk of their vision. The future they say belongs to those who have actually crept in on them. They should seize it with both hands, firmly.
They must find their voices and groove quickly. That is what democracy, defined by American President Abraham Lincoln, as government of the people, by the people, and for the people, is all about.
Also, the more articulate youths must find a way to accommodate, and work with the so-called unaccomplished, uneducated and unenlightened youths.
They too have a stake in the Nigeria of their dream, even if they operate at the “stomach infrastructure” level– for now.
It’s important to stress that group-intelligence that has been demonstrated by the #EndSARS protesters must be expanded to include the intellectually weaker flank of the youths vanguard that probably has warped values.
If that is not done quickly, there will be a risk of another round of misdirected violence that will once again derail whatever brilliant schemes the more intellectually endowed flank may have painstakingly wrought.
The enlightened youths must work in tandem with their less enlightened compatriots, who must no longer be available to the corruptive influence of evil state actors and those who will only use them to scuttle purposeful protests and set the nation back several agonising steps.
The next time the fire of protests is ignited, or waves of protests surge, the protagonists should cover all bases, so that the protests are not hijacked by those that the government describes as hoodlums, and who do not share their vision.
One good way to start is for the enlightened youths to engage those on the fringe to control traffic in the Lagos metropolis now that the sulking (or scared) police officers have withdrawn their services.
This should send a message to the political elite who think Nigerian youths are lazy. It will also show that the youth can talk among themselves and mobilise for the good of society. You may have heard that Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki is pleading with the police to return to their duties.
Just one housekeeping note: Never call your protests revolution. The regime of President Buhari does not like the word. Call it change, so it can resonate with their quack political philosophy.
Twitter @lekansote1
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