|
|
|
|
|
|
October 16, 2002
Go To Printer Friendly Version
Dear Fellow Nigerians,
In continuation with the discourse on the suggested Year of Sovereign Conferences, it is necessary again to review the state of affairs in the fatherland. The third quarter review is coming at a particularly emotional period for the writer. Personally, the month of October is the month of our shame as a people. It is the month when a ruthless international imperialist transferred the key of the jailhouse called Nigeria to a local equally ruthless feudal imperialist. It is the month of the anniversary when a calculated and deliberate gerrymandering of Nigeria was finalised and sealed. It is the month that reminds me of my status as a dressed up slave under an imperial local feudal lord.
This month, since this writer became awakened into the truth of the political set up of Nigeria, has ceased to give me joy. October is the month of mourning. It is the time to cry silently and to mourn quietly for my seized, withheld, sabotaged fundamental human rights to freedom, equality and justice. This writer is aware that the inability of most Nigerians to understand the problems facing us from the viewpoint of a brilliantly crafted deception of fake political independence is one of the reasons why Sovereign and Sovereignty have failed to become a crucial political agenda in Nigeria. We believe that to understand ones status as a slave who has been fooled into believing otherwise because of empty constitutional dressings of equality, justice, and freedom, that were carefully made ineffectual with deliberate unjust clauses in the body of the constitution, cannot but bring out a moral outrage for instant redress.
Most of the issues we are raising since January are revelations of truth. This writer was as dumb and blind as the next Nigerian until 1998 when through the grace of heaven he began to see and to hear. He was equally as complacent as any ‘educated’ Nigerian until the episodes surrounding June 12 threw some light into his dark, sombre and seemingly peaceful world. In all seriousness this writer can say he is one of the children fathered by June 12. Whatever the writer is doing today has a lot to do with the trauma of the seismic shock that followed the unprecedented acts of brazen shenanigan inflicted on Nigerians by the owners of Nigeria through the annulment of the election of June 12, 1993. This episode succeeded in turning me into a seeker. It is the desire of this writer to share the little knowledge and facts so far discovered in his search for the truth of Nigeria that motivates and drives this enlightenment project.
Nigerians should join me in thanking God for the life of people like Harold Smith who through his Libertas Webpage has helped to fill in some of the missing chapters in the Nigerian history. Harold Smith’s life is another evidence of the special place Nigeria has in the divine programme for planet earth. People like Harold Smith should not be alive today, going by what we know about imperial powers of this world. Harold Smith’s types are wasted before they can start to sing. That this fellow is still alive is a testimony that truth can never die. It is a fact that Britain played havoc on Nigeria and they had and still have collaborators among us who are always prepared and willing to do Britain’s dirty jobs.
To understand all these dirty, murky political activities and yet for any Nigerian to refuse to take the issues of sovereignty seriously is difficult for this writer to fathom. It is unfortunate that though most Nigerians claimed to be literate they have serious aversion to learning and reading. Hence, all the earth-shaking revelatory material posted on the World Wide Web have attracted very insignificant Nigerian readership. Most of us must have heard our educated friends, acquaintances and relations that say to us point blank, “I am no longer interested in learning or reading. I have done enough of reading for a lifetime. My children will read whatever remains to be read.” Mind you this kind of statement is coming from a twenty-something or thirty-something year old Nigerian who has managed to purchase by hook or crook, a useless HND or BA or BSc certificate in a generic discipline called Ignorance. With this type of mindset and mental attitude, how can Nigerians do justice to the wealth of intellectual materials floating about around them? Yet without learning and without seeking an intellectual understanding of our problems the solutions cannot just come out of the blues.
It is under the search for answers to my problem as a Nigerian that the awareness of my status as a yet to be redeemed slave hit the core of my consciousness. This writer realised that he was merely transferred like purchased cattle from the British imperial colonial court to the Nigerian imperial feudal court. It is from this position that we shall undertake the third quarter review of the National Year of Sovereign Conferences. We need to ask ourselves again whether the nations of Nigeria have made any significant progress in the last three months. Have the political situations seen any drastic improvement to the extent that we can say the call for Sovereign Conferences is no longer necessary? Is it right to say that the nascent democracy is yielding the desired fruit of peace, unity, progress and prosperity?
Current Burning Issues
At this stage, one is forced to begin to question ones mental state and to seek assistance of medical professional colleagues for a thorough medical and psychological check up. Is the writer going insane? Why are other Nigerians not seeing and shouting themselves hoarse about the fundamental contradictions of the Nigeria State? Why is it that fellow nationals are blind to the obvious? If Fellow Nigerians are seeing the larger picture why are they offering puerile, cosmetic and palliative solutions when only fundamental revolutionary actions are needed?
However, if indeed this writer is going crazy at least there is enough evidence to show that there are more chronically mad people among the members of the so-called political class of Nigeria. If mine is madness then the members of the national and state assemblies, federal, state and local governments must definitely be the sane Nigerians under the popular conventional wisdom. This is the dilemma facing this writer. if indeed he is not insane and if the medical professionals have given him a clean bill of health, how does he bring the members of this generation to the state of awareness of all these critical and pertinent issues that need our immediate attention? What other modes of communication must he adopt to attract the attention of fellow suffering Nigerians? How can he arouse the sleeping Nigerians from their slumbers in order that they can address the national questions with utmost devotion, passion, intellect and spirit?
The current revelations in the political mad house of Nigeria cannot surprise keen watchers of Nigeria. It is what is to be expected as a natural outcome that should flow out of a state under the governance of groups of dishonourable men and women. As it were we have instituted ignorance as the state religion and sycophants can be found all over the country always on their knees to pay obeisance as they worship the little gods that own Nigeria - the Family. Let us take a quick snapshot at the most pathetic story that took place in the last three months.
The Agura Hotel Affair
The political bombshell released by President Olusegun Obasanjo is bound to reverberate and will continue to reverberate until the cathedrals of ignorance built across the nations are completely demolished. We are in the least bothered about his motives. We are not in least concerned whether the release of the information was done carelessly or deliberately. As far as we know, it is clear that without a high dosage of national ignorance in the polity, the cruel and ruthless Family that has held Nigeria to ransom would not have succeeded to this extent. We give thanks to heaven that we are now coming into factual information and knowledge of how Nigeria had been run and is being run since its creation. This is a common knowledge to most federal civil and public servants. A good number of them were kicked out of the civil service with ignominy because they refused to pay necessary obeisance or failed to accord royal respect to the members of the Family.
It is at times like these that we wish Nigerians who had first hand information and experiences about the master-servant political arrangement of Nigeria would have the courage or the moral concern to enlighten other Nigerians. This writer would wish to appeal to friends and families of people like Professor Humphrey Nwosu, the former Chairman of Federal Electoral Commission and retired Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, the former Chief of General Staff to prevail on them on the need to write their memoirs for the sake of posterity. It is in knowing the truth of some of the degrading relationships that these Nigerians encountered in the hands of other blue-blood Nigerians and the unsavoury experiences they suffered in the corridor of national power that the next generation can understand fully the meaning and the essence of freedom.
Briefly, what are the issues that transpired in Agura Hotel? The Guardian Newspaper reported that a group of Nigerian Northern elders and politicians who called themselves a Committee of the Northern Caucus in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) told each of the presidential aspirant that the North has "agreed to allocate political power to the south." And as part of their brief the members of this Committee declared that they "have a duty to all Northerners to ensure that we protect the vested interest of the North as a political entity within the federation of Nigeria. For this reason, this committee of the northern caucus of the PDP has the onerous responsibility to identify what are these interests." And how was this vested interest of the North identified? How would it be protected? We can only speculate and we shall not even try to conjecture such things that are above our status. This kind of issue is not meant for public consumption. It is supposed to remain in the domain of those who own Nigeria.
But so far we are now better informed that this important duty of the Committee is to secure juicy political appointments in the Federal Government for Northerners. And who shall be the beneficiaries of the identified powerful lucrative positions? By what we are hearing since 1999, the beneficiaries can never be the common peripheral Northerner. We have been told under the politics of marginalisation that there is a core north that is different and distinct from the peripheral north. What this clearly means to our understanding is that there are superior Northerner that are quite distinct and different from the inferior Northerner. And that any Nigerian that does not know this, particularly in the political arena, might be committing a serious sin of insubordination. If we are following this drift attentively, the next question is to inquire how would the sharing of special and privileged posts eradicate poverty in every community in Northern Nigeria? Can these special appointments improve the condition of education, health, road, agriculture, etc. in the North? How would the gains of these posts trickled down to the almajiris and the talakawas?
Let us milk the Agura Hotel Affair for all its worth. This is definitely a rare opportunity of a lifetime. We must endeavour to use it judiciously to help Nigerians see the inglorious state of our situation. There is nothing more depressing for a slave who has been behaving as a full-fledged member of the household of his owner to be told to his face and in the presence of his wife and children the sordid truth of his circumstances. It is very easy for a comfortable slave to forget where he came from and how he came to be what he is. However, there are always some people in the neighbourhood, the Amebos, who would just feel offended by the happiness and probable ignorance of the slave. These good or bad neighbours, depending on how you are looking at the story, will seek the most auspicious opportunity, when the news will hurt the most, to point this salient fact to the slave. To my mind, the neighbours have not done anything wrong. They have merely sown the seed of freedom in the mind of the slave. From thenceforth, nothing shall matter to the slave until his/her fundamental rights to freedom, equality and justice are secured. This is why the biblical dictum that says, “You shall know the truth and truth shall set you free,” shall forever remain true.
Fellow Nigerians knowing the truth is the panacea against slavery and it is a potent weapon for the fight for freedom. Please let the truth of Agura Hotel Affair be the seed of our freedom. Let the seed of this knowledge germinate in your souls. Give it a chance to grow into a sturdy plant of courage and thereafter let the fight for freedom begins in earnest. We have always thrown scorn at the so-called political class and the self-styled eminent Nigerians. We knew from the bottom of our heart that they are paperweights. We knew they are fickle-minded beings. We knew they are the soulless bunch of humanity. We knew they have no self-respect or self-dignity or shame. Down in the depth of our being we knew these lots do not worth our attention and trust. These are the facts at our fingertips all along and that is why we could not accord them any iota of respect. Therefore, knowing all these things about these detestable characters how could we give support or encouragement to the political process of party politics that will recycle and inflict these characters on us? How do we silence all the warning signs that say there is danger ahead? How do we preach bliss and blessing when the telltale facts are pointing to gloom and doom? How can we act the hypocrite when the fire of the truth of life is burning in our soul?
Prior to 1960, thanks to Harold Smith, we now have evidence that the departing British colonial power gerrymandered the population; silenced by blackmail and covert operation the vocal nationalists who, maybe, would have made a difference to the fortune of Nigeria; rigged the election in favour of the Family; and handed over the political key of Nigeria to the chosen Family. From the short history of Nigeria, it is now obvious that the federal political structure that the brilliant Nigerian nationalists negotiated astutely and cleverly was totally against the national interest of Britain. This oversight was carefully corrected when the young idealist but naive Nigerians hashed and executed the coup d'état of 1966. This coup, contrary to the objectives of the planners, succeeded in turning the table against the federal political structure. The January 1966 coup and the subsequent June 1966 coup inadvertently resuscitated the almost dead federal colonial unitary political structure of government.
It is under the over-centralised federal unitary system that the Family succeeded like a true Royal Family to capture and consolidate the political power of Nigeria. Like any royal family, the strategy of keeping power is to institute a system of patronage. It is customary for a royal family to let its subjects know at all times who owns power in the land by an adroit ability to make and unmake any of the subject. A subject becomes Mr Somebody by the generous grace, favour and privilege of the royal family. As soon as a favoured subject begins to show disrespect to any member of the royal family, the royal family would give the order to the courtiers to pull the rug under his feet. As an example to others, they ensure that the ungrateful subject falls from grace and privilege like Humpty Dumpty that can never be put together again. The royal system of governance is a classic Machiavellian political set up that relies on a master-slave relationship. The slaves must know their places in the social ladder if they desires to live.
With hindsight on the nature of governance in Nigeria, we can safely propose an hypothesis that, every Southerner or Middle-Belter or Peripheral Northerner that made it big, both economically and politically in Nigeria since 1960, did so as a collaborator of the most devious Machiavellian political set up. These successful Nigerians must definitely have been stooges, lapdogs and turncoats of every community. These groups of Nigerians must have sold their souls and their people for the price of pottage. It is becoming clearer that no Southerner or Middle Belter or Peripheral Northerner could make it big in Nigeria without accepting to respect and maintain the status quo of Nigeria; without accepting a subservient role and relationship with the Family; and without acknowledging the royal and divine hegemony of the Family to the political throne of Nigeria.
We need to begin to see these successful Nigerians as the charlatans, the miscreants, the idiots, the fools and the political prostitutes of an odious, hideous system. It is now obvious that no Nigerian outside the Family could make it big without first selling his/her soul to the Family. It is in this light that Nigerians should see the Agura Hotel Affair. It is a simple confirmation of the truth of our continued enslavement as peoples and nations. When we begin to call for Sovereign Conferences, this is one of the facts about Nigeria that informed our position. We are more than convinced that this camouflaged slave colony must be brought to an end. We sincerely believe that the power of heaven is in charge of the redemption operation of Nigerians and nobody should doubt the final outcome. It is surely going to be freedom for all and sundry.
Looking back over the last 42 years, we can safely say that the political arrangement of 1959 that produced the first republic was conducted under patronage. It seems the NPC/NCNC pact was similar to the Agura Hotel Affair. NCNC must have agreed to play the second fiddle after acknowledging the pre-eminence of the Family. Similarly, the NPN/NPP pact of 1979 must have been negotiated under the same understanding. It seems it is in the same spirit that Obasanjo in 1975 covertly agreed to serve as a mere figure-head Head of State of Nigeria while a junior officer in the person of Shehu Musa Yar’Adua was the de facto, but behind the cover, Head of State.
However, an attempt was made between 1985-1998 to hijack political power away from the Family. In as much as we are never a fan of Ibrahim Babangida but we need to recognise his contribution to the present decay of the Family. IBB, as a faithful disciple of Machiavelli, single-handedly wrecked irreparable structural and psychological damage on the Family. The bungling affair recorded in Agura Hotel is a testimony that indeed the havoc set in motion by IBB has gone very deep into the marrow of the Family. The inept group that held the 1999 presidential aspirants Don Obot Etiebet, Alabo Graham Douglas, Jim Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo, Alex Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme and Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo to ransom are the pretenders. The real Family does not do business that way.
With the Dasuki-Maccido succession imbroglio that was covertly orchestrated by IBB and later crudely finalised by Sanni Abacha, the real Family has been sent under. And we believe it is because heaven has taken the covering off the Family, that is why the family is dying and that is why there can be a future of equality, justice and freedom for Nigerians. As a drowning Family about to sink and die, there shall be the tendency to hold on to any straw, to battle recklessly and desperately for life and to choke life out of all those that are foolish to think that the Family can be rescued. It is finished. The die is cast. The golden age of the Family is over. Like all things in life, the Family has had its moment of glory and it should be allowed to pass on where all mortals go.
Inevitability of Sovereign Conferences
The need to avoid bloodshed and disaster in Nigeria informed the suggestion we made for the types of Sovereign Conferences proposed. If violence and bloodshed is needed to build a strong government, thank God we are not interested in building a strong government but we are keener than ever to build numerous strong civil societies in Nigeria. There is no law that says mankind must always go the route of violence, blood letting, persecution, wickedness, war, assassination etc. to dispose of tyrants. We are also aware of the beastly level that violence can take a nation. A look at Britain and Northern Ireland, Spain and the Basque Homeland and Liberty (ETA), Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers, etc. tells the story that even when the cause is just, violence can never be a just option for redressing injustice, enslavement and inequality.
We are suggesting a novel approach that has never been tried anywhere on planet earth. We are pleading, urging and even begging Nigerians to please give this suggestion a chance to proof itself. The proposal may look too common, too pedestrian but still it might have enough juice of common sense in it. Let us go the route of common sense. Political theories from textbook are very good at stimulating and awakening the mind but we must allow our awakened minds to cook up these theories to the relevant taste and flavour of the culture and attitudes we are trying to influence. There is no way we can import the political ideologies of Britain, or America or Russia or Saudi Arabia or any other culture into Nigeria and expect a good yield of harvest. Each culture must be allowed to sow and germinate the seeds relevant to its environment. Just like in nature, there are some very good seeds that grow effortlessly in temperate climates but will wither away in the tropical climate and vice versa. This is the truth of life. The Family failed to understand this fact of life and so its incursion into Nigeria since 1804 and its inglorious effort to use bloodshed, fear, intimidation and patronage to plant and hold political power in Nigeria is an unnatural exercise. It is bound to come to nought sooner or later.
We shall be pleading with those who believe in the religious and political ideologies of the Family in Nigeria to reconsider this political game plan. This game can only succeed under a cultivated and sustained climate of fear and ignorance. However, as soon as the light of knowledge begins to shine on the polity, this macabre political arrangement is bound to collapse. We shall be pleading again with these believers not to do anything foolish. It is important for each of you to begin to fight the true Jihad. The true Jihad is the fight to free your souls from the poison that political religious leaders have fed into your mind. The true Jihad is the search for freedom from the love of power, from the desire to enslave others and from the use of injustice to perpetrate evil in the name of religion. This is the true Jihad that this writer will humbly recommend to you as a worthy fight.
Please do not get involved with a Jihad for the acquisition of territorial political power or a Jihad of false belief that there is something called a Muslim country or a Jihad of hate of other fellow Nigerians who refused to accept the incomprehensible dogma of the reformed political Islam. The true Jihad should be a spiritual struggle that shall make you submit willingly and freely to the unseen power of the creator of heaven and earth. The true Jihad should be the spiritual struggle that shall free your soul from the domineering control of those that use the name of Allah to enslave others. It is the struggle that is expected to emancipate you spiritually and mentally from the psychological and political manipulation of the so-called ulema and other religious zealots and lovers of power, money, position of honour and prestige. This is the true Jihad we shall recommend to all the followers of Islam who have not been blindfolded completely by the lies of the spirit of Shaitan.
It is important to draw this lesson home clearly. This writer will like to ask, if any true Muslim can sincerely argue against the fact that the total political philosophy and practices of the Family are in anyway short of idolatry? Is there any way a true Muslim can excuse the Family from the woes of Nigeria if we remember that they have willingly gave unabashed support to all the despots and tyrants that graced the political landscapes of Nigeria? Can the acts of the members of the Family that ‘arrogate to themselves divine power and behaved as though they were God, lording it over their subjects’, not be construed as idolatry, ‘a cardinal sin in Islam’? This is a serious matter and it has to be brought into the open. The use of religion, a noble and sacred philosophy, to pervert justice, to institute inequality and to deny others of freedom is contrary to the teaching of the prophets and teachers. These are the issues. Let us face them now or remain joyously at bliss in our slave colony.
The Nigerian political situation is like the case of a microbiologist who sends out a warning, “Do not eat this food. It is full of dangerous and deadly micro-organisms.” An ignorant fool replies, “Don’t be silly, I cannot see any germ here. Give the food to me. I will eat it and nothing shall happen to me.” Tell Nigerians about the contribution of the Family to the underdevelopment of Nigeria; they say, don’t be paranoid. Tell Nigerians that this Family is deliberately very invisible but has tentacles that reach into every part of our political life; they say, you are seeing things. Tell Nigerians that there is a diabolical Mafia clique that runs the political affairs of Nigeria, albeit in the shadow; they tell you, now you have lost it. Remind Nigerians to think about June 12 and the circumstances surrounding the annulment and the fact that up till today nobody knows who authored the unsigned Press Release written on a plain sheet of paper that annulled the election; they say, let us move forward and forget the past. Unfortunately, the past shall continue to haunt Nigeria until we do the right thing. The past must be revisited with open mind and common sense. It is under this desire to know the truth about the past that the peoples and nations of Nigeria can be set free.
There are other issues we would have loved to raise in support of our uncompromising position on the need for Sovereign Conferences. As it were these other issues can be subsumed under Agura Hotel Affair. We sincerely believe that the need to resolve the hegemony of Nigeria on the side of Common Nigerians and the commonwealth is the only project worth embarking upon in Nigeria at this moment in history. There are several important issues like religion and the constitution, corruption and government institutions, election and impeachment, debt burden and national independence, the illusion of rotational presidency, etc. that are doing the rounds among articulate Nigerians. Although, these issues are topical but on a closer analysis, they are mere symptoms of the unresolved national questions that pertain to the suppression of freedom, equality and justice of Common Nigerians. We must, individually and collectively, find answers to the question of what the true status of Nigerians is, are Nigerians slaves or free men and women? We need to know who really owns Nigeria. We need to have answer to the question of who are those exactly wielding political powers in Nigeria? And we need to resolve all the grey areas of the question of fundamental human rights of Nigerians to true freedom, equality, justice and self-determination. These are the questions we must address before we can move forward as nations and peoples. This is the larger picture.
The Larger Picture
Let us illustrate the futility of reform when freedom is at stake. Consider the case of Mr Rich Heartless, a plantation owner of South Carolina in the 1860s during the Civil War in America. When Mr Heartless perceived that the Federal troops were advancing and may soon reach his plantation he decided to reform the conditions of his slaves. In so doing he hoped to persuade the slaves not to give in to the federal propaganda that promised to set them free. His reforms stated that each slave would have a pair of boot, two pairs of Sunday best wears, and a new modern cabin with partitioned rooms instead of the dormitory presently in use. Moreover, every slave would have the use of a small plot of land for his/her personal farming. Each slave would have an hour to tend his own farm after the regular 15-hour shift on the plantation. And he declared that Sundays should now be taken as a free day of rest.
Now for any of the slaves who has had his eyes opened by knowledge to the truth of existence - the truth of equality of persons, the truth of the injustices done to his human dignity and the truth of liberty - would this reform package satisfy his hunger for an inalienable and unconditional right to freedom? This is what we are trying to say to all Nigerians. That Nigeria is still a slave colony. That the British owner of Nigeria merely stepped out of the throne putting carefully selected puppets on the throne under a remote supervisory arrangement. Therefore, any reform package that fails to answer the question of equal opportunities for all Nigerians, of equal rights to justice and of equal rights to freedom and self-determination can no longer be good enough.
We understand the role of culture and religious belief in the affairs of societies. Our general or specific attitudes to life flow from our beliefs. If an ethnic group believes it is superior to all other ethnic groups in a polity, there is a tendency to uphold and teach this ‘truth’ as a divine oracle to its members. The onus is on the other ethnic groups who believe otherwise to reject any imposition such belief might force on them. The Middle East is in crisis today because each of the warring party is claiming to have some peculiar revelations, promises and injunctions from God. When a nation allows religion to dominate the political space, there will always be trouble ahead for such polity. Nigerians need to separate the truth of Islam premised on peace, equality and justice from the culture of Arabia. The truth of Islam is a universal truth but the culture of Arabia is peculiar to the Arabs and should be allowed to remain that way. When we import the cultures that contradict the revelation of truth we have inadvertently perverted the revealed universal truth.
When we introduce a family dynasty as a legitimate principle of political succession and of governance, we have perverted the truth of equality of persons before God. When we accept the superiority of one ethnic group or of sex or of belief or of language or of colour of skin over others who are different from us then we have perverted the truth of equality. When we practice a political arrangement that continuously hoards the wealth of the nation and the juicy political posts among selected family members we have perverted the truth of justice as well as the truth of peace. When we use a different measure in the judgement of others outside our family we have perverted the truth of justice. “Woe to those who deal in fraud - those who, when they have to receive by measure from men exact full measure. But when they have to give by measure or weight to men, give less than due.”
The larger picture is to help both the oppressor and the oppressed to understand the truth of life. It is glaring that both the oppressor and the oppressed are guilty of the sin of ignorance. While the spirits of vanity and greed drive the oppressor the oppressed is cowered by the spirits of fear and ignorance. The oppressor needs help to understand that vanity and greed do not lead to a successful life. These vices corrupt people and societies and drive peace away. And without peace and stability the oppressor cannot enjoy the loot and booty he/she has acquired fraudulently. Although, the fear manifested by the oppressed is not unfounded it is from a vivid historical account transmitted by the ancestors of the oppressed who witnessed the callousness and wickedness of the oppressor in the past. The seed of fear passed from generation to generation as a historical experience has since become one of the received knowledge that are transmitted by superstition or folk tales to the next generation. It is a fact that the oppressor’s claim of divine right to the leadership position of the society is borne of fraud and banditry. The only ways that the oppressor can hold on to such illicit power is by a continuous display of unbridled brutal force on members of the oppressed class. As well as by the occasional dangling of bread and butter, carrot, gold and lucre in the face of the poor to lure the oppressed into perpetual servitude. Knowing and understanding all these strategic political devices of manipulation are the first steps to freedom.
As Prophet Mohammed and other ancient wise people have advised, there is a need for each of us to ‘seek knowledge to the end of the world’. Knowledge is the only natural activity that can empower the spirit. Courage comes shortly afterwards to stiffen the resolve of the oppressed to stand up and fight for his/her inalienable rights. From experience, we know that the oppressor succeeds because the oppressed is riddled with inherited fears. Fear is written all over the oppressed when he/she comes in contact with the oppressor. With this psychological advantage, the oppressor is given a free licence to kill. Seeking knowledge is the only way out of the mess. The oppressor understands this and that is why the system of education is rigorously policed when it is allowed to operate but in most cases serious education is deliberately killed off. When the oppressed refused to seek knowledge either out of share laziness or carelessness then he/she has simply given away his/her birthrights to the oppressor forever.
The battles between darkness and light, ignorance and knowledge, and hate and love have started in Nigeria. The battle is between Nigerians who just wish to enjoy their lives without a care in the world and the awakened Nigerians who are saying you cannot enjoy something you don’t understand. It is a battle between those who want to sit on the fence and watch the show and those who want to be at the centre of the battle. Each Nigerian has a duty to choose either to be an observer or a participant. However, for those that decide to fight in the dark corner, the truth is that when light shines darkness is mandated to disappear. This is the natural law. In the season when knowledge and revelations were in short supply in Nigeria, it was then that the rule of darkness was supreme. Now that the season of light has come, it will be advisable for those fighting in the dark corner to throw in the towel honourably.
Nigeria is destined for greatness but first the healing of the spiritual ailments in our personal and political bodies must be performed. It is important to emphasise that the problems of Nigeria can not be fully understood in pure academic terms. It is fundamentally spiritual. Again, we need to clarify this. To be spiritual does not necessarily mean one has to be religious. It is possible to attain a spiritual state of existence with or without any of the established religious institutions. We shall recommend the spiritual path that is fundamentally routed on the love of knowledge. We believe God is knowledge or Knowledge is God. Therefore, the love of knowledge is the love of God. The issues facing us are not the kind that can be cleared with one lengthy sermon. Every awakened Nigerian should continue to seek knowledge, understanding and wisdom about the truth of our existence. It is under this intellectual engagement that the knowledge and revelation of what we need to do to be free to pursue the goals of equality, justice and freedom can be realised.
Let us remind our eminent personalities in the political arena who are presently braying for the blood of their political opponents that there is nothing in life worth losing a soul for. Neither Nigeria nor political positions nor fame nor fortune is worth the price of a soul. When you keep telling Nigerians that the evil you are engaged in is for our sake, for the unity of Nigeria, for the progress of Nigeria, we are now more than aware that you are just a filthy liar. We can now say to you, ‘Tell that cock and bull tales to the Marines’. Now, we know you never had a single thought for our well being. From the beginning it has been me, me, and me. You wanted everything for yourself even the whole country. You are totally devoid of the spirit that shares. All the pacts and deals you have so far made were made just for your own benefit. And for this useless honour, you were willing to offer your soul to a fellow mankind. It is a shame.
To fellow Nigerians please stand clear and allow the fools in our midst to continue with their electioneering, with their character assassinations, with their murderous engagements, with their bullying and terrorising. When they have fully destroyed themselves, then the coast shall become clear for the meek at heart to take over. The meek are destined to inherit the earth. In the meantime let every awakened Nigeria accept the truth that he/she has a job to do, the job of touching and waking up other Nigerians from their careless slumber. The light of Nigeria shall shine when all the sleeping souls are awake and alert to their responsibilities of just being a little light and salt in their various communities.
Let us keep the light of the Sovereign Conferences burning in our hearts. The suggested phases of the conferences are still valid. Again, as mentioned earlier, we must not wait on government or on the calibre of self-serving political deal makers to liberate Nigerians. We must accept the truth that governments and their agents are part of the problem and so they cannot be the solution. We must creatively learn to by-pass them as we fashion a new approach to governance. This is the time to urge creative and thinking Nigerians to set their horizon higher and beyond the American or British or Russian or Saudi Arabian models of government. Let us recognise that each of these models is a perversion of noble ideas. It is possible to make Nigeria an oasis of new values, new culture and new institutions in our present confused world for the pursuit of true human happiness. It is therefore very important for our thinkers to see the obvious and hidden flaws in the present global order. It is under this revelation that we would be able to appreciate the great challenges facing all the awakened Nigerians.
We must not accept to be pushed into a blind-alley of global inevitability; into believing that there is no alternative to the present political and economic abracadabra on the ground; and into accepting as gospel truth the pronouncements on justice, equality and freedom from the western and middle eastern pulpits. Let us pull our intellectual resources together as we crack the seemingly complex yet simple jigsaw puzzle of true governance that can bring joy and happiness to the many rather than the few in our societies. This is what the Sovereign Conference is promising and this is what it shall deliver when we decide to give it a chance.
Nigeria cannot find peace and progress by duplicating the existing models of economics and politics of the western and middle eastern worlds. These models were not designed to provide for the happiness of all peoples and nations but for few people and few nations of the world. Under this model the only option opened to the disadvantaged is to use brute force or sophisticated violence called competition to displace some of the careless few in positions of power and wealth before the dispossessed can have access to the good things of life. This model is disaster prone. It is a war-enhancing model. Peace can never be assured under this model.
Definitely, Nigerians love peace and that is why we must reject the present global economic order. There is much work to be done in the realm of knowledge acquisition. Nigerians cannot sit on their oars when it comes to the issue of knowledge. It is in the desire to seek and search for knowledge that we can come to a better understanding of the problems facing humanity and Nigeria in particular. And until then Nigerians cannot do better than what we are doing now all over the country - assassinating, killing, maiming, murdering, robbing, stealing, slandering, terrorising, torturing, etc. This is the price we have to pay for collective ignorance. However, the sickness of ignorance is curable and we must cure it. Let us remember the popular Serenity Prayer as we embark on the Sovereign Conferences project. The prayer says:
God grant me [us] the serenity to accept the things I [we] cannot change; The courage to change the things I [we] can; And the wisdom to know the difference. In The Spirit of Truth
Go To Printer Friendly Version
|
Guides
2002 National Year of Sovereign Conferences - Third Quarter Review