Youths of Nigeria

These past two weeks have tried the soul of the nation. #EndSARS became the rallying point for Nigerian youths to show their angst against those who have held their nation tethered to underdevelopment. A protest. A revolution. Whatever it’s called, the #EndSARS battle cry of the beleaguered youths underscored one strong fact: The Nigerian youths are coming. They are angry. They are hungry. They want to take back their country from the stranglehold of a perennially ineffective gerontocracy.

I salute the courage of this generation of Nigerians. I admire their plucky spirit. Their unanimity, indomitability of spirit, chutzpah, derring-do. Never have we come close to anything like this. They showed organisational skill, the type their oppressors never had. They demonstrated empathy, emotional intelligence. Sound intellect, group solidarity, a willingness to share risks, responsibilities and values.

No, we have never seen it in this manner. This was beyond Aluta Continua, the time-worn mantra for student and labour unrest. The Nigerian youths were offered money to abandon their struggle. They rejected it. They were offered promises of hope; they said no: we want action. Their resolve was tested. They triumphed over fear. Resolute against intimidation. Show of force failed their oppressors. They were willing to make the supreme sacrifice. And they did. Some were slaughtered in the struggle. They lost their property. But they never lost their spirit, their voice.

The event of the past two weeks reminded me of the classic satirical novel, Animal Farm. Published in 1945, it was a compelling narrative of some animals in Manor Farm who had to rebel against the wily wickedness of their human owners. The author George Orwell (real name: Eric Arthur Blair) may have written the novel to mirror events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and right up to the era of Stalin in the old communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR), but the timeless allegorical novel is still a throbbing and even troubling metaphor for the injustices, inequities and wickedness in high places that define some modern societies. Nigeria looms large on this list.

Nigeria is the world’s modern day Animal Farm. Except this time, it’s man against man. The old versus the youth. The old like Mr Jones, the usually inebriated human farm owner of Manor Farm, have proved largely ineffectual to lead. They have stolen the future of the young, the youths. It’s the old that have ensured through six decades of sovereignty that Nigeria wears the ignoble badge as the poverty capital of the world; that despite growing debt (external and domestic) infrastructure remains in deficit; that potable water is never assured except by individual efforts; that unemployment index keeps nosing up thus keeping the youths perpetually out of job, idle and hopeless.

As a starry-eyed secondary school student in my second year when we were introduced to classics like Animal Farm and Oliver Twist (another masterpiece by Charles Dickens), we read these novels more for scholarship than for their socio-political essence. Animal Farm, especially, was thought to be Utopian; an imaginary community of animals despoiled by mean man. Characters like Napoleon, the manipulative pig; Snowball, the eloquent boar who frequently challenged Napoleon’s authority and was subsequently chased out of the farm; Squealer, the sweet-talking modern day propagandist and government spokesperson; Old Major, the old boar who spun the picture of a Utopian paradise where all animals would be treated equally and Boxer, the old cart-horse, ever hardworking and willing to sacrifice for others, became our idols. They were icons of the revolution. Based on the character of a student, we would find a fitting moniker for him from among the animals. Minimus, the poet who composed the animal anthem was a fitting name for one of us who showed traits of literary ingenuity.

Of all the songs and commandments in Animal Farm, it’s the anthem Beast of England that thrilled me the most. It was simply revolutionary. Stirring, Jarring. Inspiring! It became the rotor that drove the revolution. The lyrics were masterfully crafted to create the picture of a better tomorrow. They pointedly reminded the animals who their enemy was. It jarred the animals to the reality that if they fail to act, their situation worsens and their oppressors will as usual get away with their wickedness.

I reproduce here the first two stanza of the anthem: Beasts of England, Beasts of Ireland; Beasts of every land and clime; Hearken to my joyful tidings; Of the Golden future time. Soon or late the day is coming; Tyrant Man shall be o’erthrown; And the fruitful fields of England; Shall be trod by beasts alone.

 Let’s do a little transposition. For Nigerian youths, this anthem is modified to read: Youths of Nigeria, youths of the nation; Youths of every tribe and tongue; Hearken to my joyful tidings; Of the Golden future time. Soon or late the day is coming; Tyrant elders shall be o’erthrown; And the fruitful fields of Nigeria; Shall be trod by youths alone.

This is at the core of the successful protest of Nigerian youths. They shunned tribal sentiments. They knew no religion. Their mission was one: redemptive; to redeem their country from the vice grip of roguish and larcenous elders. They refused to be bribed. They cooked and shared food. Nobody asked: Are you a Christian or Muslim? Are you Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba or Ijaw? All they wanted was to breathe freely, to get government and its actors to treat them as co-owners of the land, to occupy the leadership space meant for them, but denied them by a clan of crooked and clannish elders.

Trying to ethnicise the protest was both wrong and silly. Introducing arson and destruction to diminish the cause is condemnable and reprehensible. Using state actors to shoot and kill the protesters is not only demonic, it contravenes all known charters and conventions. Deploying state actors to give cover and support to state-sponsored counter-protesters is toxic and only depicts the inherent fatal fancy of the government.

Nigeria is a signatory to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 21 says: “The right of peaceful assembly shall be recognized. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.” Nigerian state actors violated this article. Even the right to life enshrined in the constitution was not respected.

But in all this, you wonder: Where is ECOWAS and the African Union (AU)? Why did the Council of State not prevail on President Muhammadu Buhari to placate the angry youths? Where are the elders and statesmen in Nigeria?

Whatever happens, the youths have sent a strong message ahead of the 2023 elections. They have the capacity to elect their own leaders. They have a mind of their own. Going forward, the youths should begin the process of making an impact on the polity. They should galvanise themselves into a formidable political bloc for both negotiation and election.  Enough is enough!