Power, not tenoned and mortised – dictatorial and tyrannical powers – is
hypnotic, and sometimes, deranging. Not surprisingly, history is strewn
with lamentable and regrettable bombasts and blunders of despots and
tyrants deranged by power. Democratic power is legitimate, benign power.
It derives from the ultimate repository, and the most genuine source, of
power: the people; it is a selfless servant of the people. It
appreciates that the people are not pawns in an elite power game, but
the focus of the interests, concerns, policies and actions of elected
and appointed government officials and every institution of government.
Consequently, democratic power is neither hypnotic nor deranging.
The Nigerian aberration is that democratically elected governments
routinely degenerate to bumbling, blundering dictatorships. Therefore,
instead of being selfless public servants, the Nigerian ruling elite are
a band of over-paid, profligate, hedonistic and money-stealing
panjandrums. President Buhari is a dictator. He is not known for his
oratorical flourishes, and has, consequently, not displayed the usual
arrogant and megalomaniac bombasts of dictators. But he has dramatized
the other characteristics of despots, like intolerance for political
opposition and repression of free speech.
Therefore, he is susceptible to the hypnotic and deranging effects of
power. It was in the deranging effect of power that he refused to heed
the message of the #EndDARS protesters. It was in the deranging effect
of power that he ordered the shooting and killing of peaceful protesters
waving the Nigerian flag and singing the national anthem. The #EndSARS
protest was a dirge, laden with a message from the generality of
Nigerians for the government. The message is cogent, lucid and loud:
Nigerians are sick and tired of the status quo. It is an unconscionable
status quo buoyed by an evil oligarchy that has, for so long, retained a
monopoly grip of power, and deployed power as a ruthless enemy of the
people.
It is a status quo that subverts a principled distribution of the
national wealth by reinforcing the inordinate wealth of an elite few –
politicians, government officials, businessmen, super-star pastors, etc
– at the economic strangulation of the masses. It encourages the
stealing, sharing, and salting away into personal bank accounts a
frightening proportion of the national commonwealth by the political and
business elite, and consequently, consigned a preponderant number of
Nigerians to poverty, ignorance, homelessness, disease and insecurity.
It is a status quo that superintended over the destruction of the
Nigerian educational system, and reduced our universities, once
intellectual powerhouses and bastions of academic distinction, to
festering quarters of intellectual lassitude and academic mediocrity,
and cesspools of “sorting out”, and bribe and sex for grades.
Battered by neglect and corruption, our health care delivery system is
in a disgraceful state. In their condescending indifference for the
country they supposedly serve, the political elite educate their own
children overseas, in Western universities, and get their medical
treatments, even, routine medical check-ups in America, Britain, etc.
That most notoriously corrupt, trigger-happy and murderous police force
in the world, the Nigerian Police Force, is an indispensable tool of the
ruling elite. Its brutality and extra-judicial killings are only
reflective of the attitude of the ruling elite towards the people. If
the corruption and brutality of the Nigerian police are not in
conformity with the wishes of the ruling elite, why did the government
repeatedly renege on all its earlier promises to ban SARS and reform the
police? In their ineffable avarice, every state governor appropriates at
least five hundred million naira monthly as security vote. The use of
the security vote is at the discretion of the governor and is not
accounted for. Still, in their outrageous wickedness, many state
governors refuse to pay the salaries of state employees. In some states,
civil servants are owed up to 18 months salary. The list of the
iniquities of this evil oligarchy is inexhaustible.
In addition, Nigerians are disenchanted with a government that has
failed to fulfill the most fundamental of its constitutional
obligations: the protection of lives and property and advancement of the
peoples’ welfare. Skillfully packaged and presented, Nigerians were
captivated by Buhari: his lickerish electoral promises and, what we
thought was, his personification of the desiderata for dealing with
Nigeria’s myriad of problems: incorruptible uprightness of a moral
crusader, indomitable will of a military commander and unbridled candor
of a devout Moslem. Unfortunately, the Buhari presidency has been a
disaster.
The economy is in doldrums, as the naira continues to depreciate,
unemployment soars to perilous heights; hunger intensifies and pervades
the country; and Nigeria became the poverty capital of the world. The
war on corruption has collapsed into mere trumpery; and the country
became even more corrupt. Despite the billions of dollars budgeted and
“spent” on the war on terror, Boko Haram remains a potent and
effective fighting force. It strikes at military and civilian targets
with terrifying facility. Bandits operate with impunity, killing and
kidnapping, almost at will. The Buhari administration has demonstrated
bewildering contempt for human lives. For example, over the years, it
encouraged, at least, tacitly, Fulani herdsmen mass-murder of the
innocent and hapless across central and southern Nigeria.
It was in disenchantment for this disgustingly unjust status quo, the
evil oligarchy that props it up, and the downright failure of the Buhari
administration, that Nigerians spoke out through the #EndSARS protest.
The protesters’ demands are pertinent and legitimate: disbandment of the
SARS, overall police reform, and responsibility and accountability in
governance. Lamentably, the Buhari administration refused to heed these
demands, and, in addition, attacked and killed the protesters.
Nigerians are angry and bitter. If this smoldering anger and bitterness
are not assuaged by resolute, far-reaching political and economic
reforms, they will burst into flame. To pretend that the Nigerian
situation is not edging towards a precipice, and therefore, does not
require immediate, determined and wide-ranging reforms is a flight into
fantasy, which is a symptom of the hypnotic and deranging effects of
power.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
