A nation in turmoil, A president who doesn’t speak often & giving the monkey a cup of water! - Ik Muo, PhD

 I do not think we have ever witnessed this level of nationwide carnage before. Some of the ‘madness’ were spontaneous, some were targeted and focused, most were senseless and some were even laughable, like those who looted tractors in one of the states up-North! Even the destruction wrought by the Biafran war did not measure up  to what we  have just witnessed and are still witnessing. Biafra’n destruction was massive but it was not national; it was a case of the whole against one small part. In fact, some parts of Nigeria did not even know that there was war during that period. What we have now is   an uncoordinated war of all against all and a steady descent into ochlocracy (mobocracy).  And if urgent and coordinated care is not taken, we will be on our way to Sudan. However, everybody who has been a witness to the events of the past 4 weeks knows that it did not start like this and it has not always been like this.

A group of young, educated, passionate, energetic and patriotic Nigerians, most of them professionals, got tired of the prevailing laid-back ‘e go better’ and ‘God-dey’ paradigm. They got tired of the criminal highhandedness of the SARS, which abandoned their core mandate of battling armed robbery and kidnapping to concentrate on phones, laptops and new-age fashion (tattered jeans, jaga-jaga hair et al). In a too-weird-to-believe impunity, they went to the extent of using POS and bank transfers to collect self-determined fines from the youths. That was in addition to killing and maiming at will. The End-SARS Movement  was everything that Nigerians had always yearned for. They digitally mobilized a huge and intimidating crowd of ‘believers’. They were peaceful, they marshalled their demands clearly and cogently; they coordinated and administered the movement effectively and efficiently; they  fed themselves, cleared the environment,  provided infrastructure, including phone-charging points, showed kindness to  our unfortunate brethren, and extended goodwill to their traducers (police men in particular). Of course, a critical analysis of their demands shows that SARS was a metaphor in that it covered all that was wrong with Nigeria.

 When a leader does not address the problem, the leader becomes the problem and the problem becomes the leader

Initially, all was going well.  However, some of us, the authors and finishers of ‘political structures’ and thuggery assets and resources (just as we have  military assets), did not understand how these young boys and girls would just emerge from nowhere  and paint them in bad colours and bring the nation( and their opulent livesyles) to a standstill. They empowered and sponsored  their idle political thugs  to  infiltrate, attack and disorganize the End-SARS groups. We saw some of the thugs alighting from and boarding security-like vehicles and hobnobbing with men in black suites. Initially, the protesters repelled them with the private security operatives and dogs. Then one ‘unknown civilian’  Yunusa Yusuf emerged from  nowhere, addressed a world press conference, and threatened the protesters with a 48 hour ultimatum, on behalf of the indigenous people of Abuja. It was ‘opendential’, and in the presence of all our Grade A

media houses. Yet, nobody asked him: ‘who are you; where are you from; who sent you?’ To the best of my knowledge, nobody arrested him and nobody questioned him.   He was later identified as the convenor of  Aggrieved APC Youth Stakeholders,And true to his threats,  48 hours later, the Abuja Car market was razed. By that time, people in authority had started threatening the protesters. The army itself announced the onset of operation Crocodile Smile( ever seen a smiling crocodile?), saying it was a routine exercise.

 

 On 20/10/20, it happened. The Lagos State Government, in an attempt to manage the increasingly tense security situation, declared a 24-hour curfew, starting from 4pm. He later extended the operative time to 10pm. However,  by 7.20pm, some overzealous unknown soldiers invaded  what Olu Philips of Channels had dubbed the Lekki Convocation Ground, shot people who were sitting down, singing the national anthem and waving Nigerian flags. 

Sadly, in the month of October, as Nigeria was and is celebrating its Diamond Jubilee, our flag was soaked in blood of our youths!.  Despite all concerted efforts to deny the obvious as supported by pictures, live reports, videos, the Lekki bloodbath appeared to be premeditated. Some people removed  what looked like the CCTV camaras there, the light went off and those who attacked were in army uniforms. Femi Falana has even declared that he has evidence where the soldiers took of from.  However, the defense spokesman says all these pictures and videos were photoshopped while the NBC appears to have agreed with him by imposing fines of N3m apiece on   Arise, Channels and AIT for relying on ‘fake videos’ for their report of the Lekki-massacre. It might not be a massacre but shots were fired, people were wounded and people died, even by the account of our hardworking but stress-out Governor. The nation gradually went into turmoil. Police stations, prisons, public buildings and media houses were burnt and looted. Policemen were attacked and some murdered. Initially, it was a Southern affair, as the North appeared calm and immune from the madness. The mob was amassing and the security system appeared paralysed and the orderly End-SARS movement has been overtaken by angry, hungry, bitter and bloodthirsty mobs.

 

In all this, our dear president did not deem it fit to address the people. That was despite the fact that Governor of Lagos, presented him with the protesters’ charter, which he somehow found funny. Remember that he also sent him pictures of Abulado bomb blast. I believe the governor has an experience in the courier industry!

 Our Post-Master delivering the protesters’ charter to Oga

 

 Even when the Senate passed a resolution, asking him to do so, he did not give a damn, because according Ita Enang,  one of his numerous SSAs, he does not speak much even though he was on top of the situation. When Coro started its war against humanity with unimaginable death, tears, sorrow and unapparelled disruption., we were also informed, then by Femi Adesina, that it was not in his style to address people everyday, reminding us of his stylistics lecturer who taught him that style was idiosyncratic. Of course, taciturnity is a core feature of his body language strategy.  He did not even call the poor governor and when the governor called, he was too busy to pick the call. Eventually, he addressed us apparently, reluctantly, on 22/10/20.  There was no empathy, there were no assurances and outlines for actions, he didn’t calm frayed nerves and he ordered the youths to go home and told them in a   coded language: try it again!  He did not even mention the Lekki bloody affair, which  had caused local and global outrage neither did he mention the inflirtration by thugs.  But he had time to boast of his landmark achievements, including tradermoni and other such integrity-challenged programmes. As Shehu Sani captured it succinctly, we asked for a speech, we had the speech and we became sad. It was a speech that he should not have made. Our people say that  onye ajulu aju, anahu aju onwe ya ( don’t belittle yourself because others have belittled you. Ignore them and move on with your life). We asked for it by begging him, against his style, to address us. Yu may wish to compare his speech with that of Sanwo-Olu  his extensive interview with Arise TV. Anyway, as some internet warriors put it, when the leader does not address the problem, the leader becomes the problem and the problem becomes the leader!

Our people say that it is easy to give a cup of water to the monkey but it is usually very difficult to retrieve the cup from it. The thugs were busy doing their own little things in their own little corners. Some people consciously invited them into a business they were not initially interested in. They moved in, saw that it was sweet and they overwhelmed everybody, including their sponsors. A lawyer had stated that the hoodlums who burnt the Abuja Car-Mart were mobilized with N1500 apiece to torch the car mart while it was alleged that they were attacked by thugs conveyed in police vehicles. An ex-DSS Director informed us that a senator’s aids conveyed thugs in black SUVs to attack EndSARS protestors. So, they gave water to the monkeys but could not retrieve the cup from them. They invited the mobs but could not recall the thugs and that was why the arson, looting and carnage  got out of hand.  It was an oju nkita anya scenario, where a dog gets overcharged or mad, and pounces on its  master! The level of wanton destruction was such that Jesus Wept.  Lagos has made a rough estimate of N1trn  to rebuild what was lost. That does not include the losses of private individuals and businesses. I also wept.

Next week, I will discuss the taxonomy of these rioters, arsonists and looters. Of course, it is obvious that Coro has suddenly taken the back-seat. After all, Lagos recorded zero Coro-case on 25/10/20. Maybe, Coro was frightened by the level of self-perpetrated  mindless destruction!

 -Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business Administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye. 08033026625