2023 is too far

BY OMOLE IBUKUN

Left to the Buhari government, governance is nothing but vibes and propaganda, not about policies and programmes. This is why the Buhari-APC regime is presently feeling lucky because it has found the best propaganda to distract the masses from the Regime’s exploitative and oppressive policies – the hope in 2023 elections. Now, no matter how bad the policies this government throws out are, they believe that the illusion of making changes through the ballots by 2023 will keep the masses off the streets in protest.

Most political forces to the left of this government have swallowed this propaganda hook, line and sinker and are busy organising how to “take power” in 2023 through the ballots. Most forces within the APC who gave silent support for the #EndSARS protests are either now busy campaigning for Lekki Toll Gate Tax Collector, Bola Tinubu or the Vice President in the government of the Commander-in-Chief that ordered the Lekki Massacre, Yemi Osinbajo. Those PDP Twitter influencers who stood with the youths against police brutality during the #EndSARS protests are either busy speaking for the main privatiser of public resources in Nigeria’s recent history, Atiku Abubakar, or playing host to the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers’ villain, Bukola Saraki or campaigning for the Pandora Papers’ villain, Peter Obi.

Even Organised Labour leadership, which was known to have issued a circular to warn workers to not participate in #EndSARS protests (as if it was not the children of the working people that the SARS squads were brutalising) and spoke in favour of the protests only after Lekki Massacre had happened, is getting busy hosting political conferences to discuss 2023 elections. Non-Governmental Organisations and their Non-profit careerists are already positioning themselves for appointments by whoever wins, and have only been interested in protesting over electoral bills or appointment bills that will affect their fates. Human rights advocates are now pre-occupied with organising an electoral third force only so they can give illusions to the masses and to hijack their votes to deliver those votes directly to the same discredited political actors or indirectly by stepping down very close to the election date. Those activists who would seem to be good-intentioned are doing everything to look ‘peaceful’ and electable even if that means looking away from the many issues that we cannot wait until 2023 to resolve.

This is the only way to explain the present aversion of all of these political actors to protests over this artificial fuel scarcity that had been on for over a month. This explains why they all favour electoral campaigns and electoral organising over organising protests and resisting the evil policies of this government, even when the two lines of actions should have been going on simultaneously and equally. This explains why no one is leading people out in resistance against the electricity tariff that was just increased through the backdoor. This explains why no one is leading people out on the streets to protest the hyper-inflation and the soaring food prices in the country. This is the only way to explain the fact that workers that have not been paid their salaries and allowances have not been led in protests by their leaders to shut down the country with protests.
But then, this also explains why no one can LEAD us to make any real change. This explains why #EndSARS protests had a no-leaders slogan and the moment leaders started emerging or struggling to emerge from the shadows, it was easy to divide the movement and break the back of that resistance.
This explains how futile the 2023 elections will be if the resistance to these policies is only done electorally and without mobilising the masses to demonstrate their people’s power on the streets in protests.

The situation in the country is worse than it was in October 2020 when the #EndSARS protests happened, but what is missing from the political consciousness right now is that consciousness of leaderlessness – That political consciousness that no one can make the change we want for us other than ourselves. What we have is the opposite! There is a leadership consciousness going around and it is represented by the worldview which says that THE MAIN PROBLEM OF NIGERIA IS BAD LEADERS. This consciousness denies how systemic the problem of the country is, attach it to individuals in power and proffers changing the hands in power as the solution.

The interesting thing is that most of those who peddle this worldview to the masses do not really believe in it themselves, but only have individual interests that attach them to this ideology. Some feel that getting in power is the only way to reward their past patriotic efforts and work, and it is obvious why these tend to be very corrupt and exploitative when they get to power. Some feel that they are the only ones with the experience to lead the country, and it is obvious why these turn out to be callous dictators who listen to no other opinion but that of themselves. The reason why your ‘leaders’ do not want a protest before 2023 is because they understand that a protest can demystify this leadership worldview of theirs and ask them to step down from their high horse.

This worldview can explain the lavish lifestyle and the power-drunkenness of most politicians and help us see that the problem is not Nigerian, but the problem is systemic. Nothing is working in this country because we keep looking for leaders and the best leaders we trust are those whose past works and past experiences offer some credibility, and these see no reason to do any new work or make any new effort since their past work has already made them authorities and they can relax and enjoy the public office as their rewards. This explains why Tinubu’s main campaign reference is that he ‘fought’ for democracy opposing the military regime of Abacha as far back as 25 years ago, just like the main campaign reference of Buhari in 2015 was the ‘fought’ corruption with a military dictatorship as far back as 1984!.

This leadership worldview explains why we will always have mediocrity in power because society is relying on its weakest pillars, unquestioning loyalty and ‘eye service’. This house of cards is falling and cannot be held up by aspirants whose structures are not free from this leadership worldview. On the right and the left of our politics, bureaucracy and lack of initiatives have become the order of the day, no thanks to this leadership worldview. Passionlessness have become the order of the day whichever way you turn to because people are not playing the roles or doing the things they are passionate about, but we’re all just doing exactly what we’re told by some trusted ‘leaders’.

The lie that has been sold to us over time is that leaderlessness does not guarantee organisation or stability, but we all witnessed the exemplary level of organising of the #EndSARS protests and we all saw that it was the police, the military and other state thugs that brought instability into the protests, just the same way they bring it into movements with official leaders. The lie has always been that leaderless resistance is unorganized, spontaneous and unstable and #EndSARS proved that wrong when it endured for more than two weeks. Truly, a leaderless resistance to the present evils of this government can be hard because it takes a lot of energy from all of us to aggregate, analyse and unite our opinions as equals, but if we can stop being lazy, a whooping lot of work will get done. We do not have a choice. We can’t continue like this. Those who can continue like this till May 29, 2023, are those who are rich in billions of naira. The majority percentage of us who own less than 500 thousand in our bank accounts cannot continue like this till 2023.

If we wait till 2023, 2023 will not change anything. Already, Buhari has postponed the total removal of fuel subsidy (an economic policy that would send the masses into agony and suffering) for 18 months when the next regime would be in power. We think as if we do not know that every new regime will always be worse than the last if we do not make a revolutionary change. Or maybe we know but some of us are just positioning ourselves to be part of those few people that will profit from being part of the next regime?

Omole Ibukun writes from Abuja, Nigeria.