Chido Onumah is an activist, a journalist, an author and director of African Literacy Centre. In this interview with Akani Alaka, he spoke about the ongoing call for change in the country, as reflected in the #RevolutionNow protests, the need for change in Nigeria, and other issues.
Would you say the call for revolution in the country now is justifiable?
I don’t believe that any patriotic Nigerian, who believes in this country and has been following what is going on in this country, who will not call for a complete transformation of the Nigerian society – whether you choose to call it revolution, democratic change or whatever. It’s just a case of nomenclature or what you choose to call it. Essentially, what I am saying is that this country is overripe for a complete and fundamental revolution. For those of us who have been calling for restructuring for sometime now, you can in a way refer to that as revolution in the political evolution of this country and unless we do that, it’s going to be difficult for us to make any progress. So, whether we like it or not, unless we do something about what is happening in this country, we would continue to see elements of the kind of protest that took place on August 5. The truth is that there is no aspect of the Nigerian society that is not in trouble – is it education, is it health? If we get sick, we have to run out of the country. Look at the case of El-Zakzaky, he was rushed to India, and he came back to the country. Who is bearing the cost? Why can’t we have facilities to take care of our heath? Is it that we don’t have the money or we have the money, but we rather spend it in other climes? Our president, governors, senators, ministers – everybody – they have their children in schools overseas. If they get sick, they go overseas for treatment. Is it that we don’t have confidence in our country? Is it that our country is not good enough for us? These are the questions we need to ask and when people ask those questions, it does not mean that they hate the country or the leaders. But these are fundamental issues that stare us in the face every day. Look at our roads – how bad our roads are; look at the problems of electricity – nobody is asking us to reinvent the wheel, it has been done for us. All we need to do is to buy the equipment, we have the technicians and the engineers here, but still, we can’t still give ourselves electricity. Even, neighbouring African countries that don’t have the kind of manpower resources that we have can boast of constant power supply. And because we don’t have constant power supply, the economy is nearly comatose, everything is affected, even basic things like cooking and storing it in the refrigerator so that you don’t have to cook every day, not to talk of businesses – hotels, barbers, those cottage industries can’t function again because people can’t afford the cost of generators. So, if you like, you can call the people, who raise these issues revolutionaries. Five years ago, many of those in power today were also calling for a revolution. So, what are we missing here? The fundamental thing is that the country is in dire strait. Nobody knows what is going on. The Police are fighting the police, the police are fighting the Civil Defence; there is chaos everywhere. Nobody knows how much is being spent to battle terrorism. Every time, we hear that Boko Haram has been technically defeated, yet, people are dying every day. Almost on a daily basis, you read newspaper reports of soldiers, dying daily or being killed by Boko Haram. It seems that there is a revolution that people are cashing in on; there has been no proper audit of the money budgeted and how the war is being prosecuted. You can talk about kidnapping – people are being kidnapped on the road every day. Looking at all these, it is clear that the ruling class is not in a position to deal with these problems. We need to necessarily look beyond the ruling class and this has nothing to do with APC, as the ruling party. It has everything to do with the ruling class collectively. At least, for 16 years, the PDP was in power, it was more or less the same thing and indeed, many of those we have in power today, whether you talk of Rotimi Amaechi, Nasir-el-Rufai, the henchmen of the party in power today were either in PDP or had served in PDP government. So, there is really no difference as far as I am concerned. Collectively, the ruling class has failed the country and we have to seek an alternative. And if you want to call that alternative revolution, you are welcome. But for me, the fundamental thing is that we need to find answers to these problems. These are man-made problems and they can be dealt with by human beings.
READ ALSO:New electricity tariffs take off 2020
How ready would you say Nigerians are for the call for change, going by the lukewarm response to the #RevolutionNow protest in most parts of the country? Most Nigerians are simply busy trying to make ends meet…
Let’s not underestimate our resolve to bring about the changes that we need in this country. That’s fundamental. So, in assessing whether this can happen, what we should be looking at is the objective condition on the ground. People will be pushed to the wall and when they are pushed to the wall, they will have no other place to go but to turn around and fight back. I read a report of a 70-year-old woman, who was selling fufu somewhere in Osun, when they explained the whole thing to her; she joined the RevolutionNow protest and she was arrested by the police. So, the consciousness is growing that our current state is not sustainable; we need to change it. So, to that extent, it is only a matter of time. The consciousness is growing – the objective condition – when people cannot leave their house, when people cannot eat, because now, people still feel that we can go out, we can still eke out a living, we can do this, do that. But deep down within them, they know things are not working. They know they are suffering. But they are still hoping that their worst fears don’t come to fruition. Then, they are not sure how all of these will pan out. You can see how the call for revolution or change panned out in other parts of the world. So, there is that uncertainty there. I am trying to explain why you may not get the kind of response that is expected. If people sit at home, it doesn’t mean that they are not angry, not frustrated with what is going on. And of course, you should know that our country today is more divided than ever before and the tendency is for the political class to do divide and rule. So, they play politics with national interest and they scheme all kinds of things to fan religious and ethnic tendencies that appeal to our base elements. So, some people will say ‘when your people were in power, you didn’t call for revolution, now that our people are in power, you are calling for a revolution’ which shouldn’t be the question anyway. The question is that, are people hungry? Are people insecure? Security doesn’t know tribe or religion. God forbid, but if you place a bomb in any place in Nigeria, the bomb will not seek to find out who is Igbo, Yoruba, animist, Christian or Muslim before it harms the people; it will harm anybody in sight. So, we all live the same way, we all suffer equally. But because we have become a society that sees politics, religion in every burning issue, the tendency, even for those who are suffering is to say ‘our man is there-that person is a thief, but he is our own thief. So, let’s wait. When your people are there, they also stole’. May be the third person will say, ‘okay, tomorrow, maybe it will be our turn, we will also steal.’ And that’s what you get when you have bad governance which doesn’t focus on the good of the people, but rather on all these primordial interests. So, I don’t think the number of people you see on the streets, the geopolitical or ethnic nature of the protest, whether it was strong in some place or not strong in some places, doesn’t directly correlate with the anger in the country. People may not come out for many reasons; they are working, the fears of reprisals and so on. What it therefore means is that those organising this process of change need to coordinate properly. They need to do their homework properly. They need to create a national movement that this thing is not about religion and it is about the survival of the country. So, this message goes to the organisers that, yes, you have support, but you need to educate, reach out to more people. You need to explain the situation more, plan better, and organise better. Let people know that this is why we are doing this and these are the expected outcomes. There was a level of uncertainty; most people don’t even know what is going on until when they heard in the news and those who were opportune joined in the protest. It thus means that more work need to be done to create a national consciousness and movement because when you are denied your basic fundamental needs, you will suffer. It doesn’t matter whether you are Hausa or Yoruba or you are a Christian or a Muslim. So, we need to create a national movement that says this is about the survival of our country, the unborn generation, that we need to create an egalitarian society that addresses the fundamentals of life-food, clothing, housing, education, healthcare and so on.
READ ALSO:Nigeria’s $22bn Diaspora remittances is 83% of 2018 budget –PwC
I know that you are very familiar with Sowore. How would you describe him and would you say he is a suitable person to lead the kind of change or revolution needed to turn things around in the country?
I don’t think anybody needs any qualification to lead anything. The important thing is that you are a Nigerian and you are suffering the pain and the frustration that we are all suffering. In the Arab Spring, the guy, a vegetable seller immolated himself and that action was the basis for the revolution in that part of the world. So, it can be Sowore, it can be a trader in Wuse market or a vegetable seller in Kano market or some orange seller. The fundamental thing is just to have that spark. And in terms of leadership, of course, this whole process was not as organised as you would expect. But going forward, things would naturally sort themselves out. Sowore has the pedigree; he has been active politically in the country. I don’t know how many people who are in government today who can boast of the kind of political activism or social engagement Sowore has been involved in. He was educated in Nigeria and the US, led the students’ union government at the University of Lagos during one of the most turbulent times. He managed the crises there. So, he is a Nigerian, he is qualified like every other person to lead the movement. But he can just be the face of the movement; he doesn’t necessarily have to be the leader. I see Sowore as the face of the protest, somebody who is vocal, who is known and can articulate what the issues are. In terms of leadership, sometimes, revolution even consumes those who start it. We can at best say he is the face of the renewed protest. There have been other protests in the country in the past, led by different people. And I am sure he doesn’t see himself as the leader, having known him; I covered him as a reporter when he was the president of students’ union government at the University of Lagos and our friendship continued till later when he started Sahara Reporters. I was one of the first editors. I remember he used to send me stories from Sahara Reporters to edit and I have continued to support Sahara Reporters. I am one of the original columnists of the newspaper, though I have not been writing much recently. I think he has everything it takes to be the face of this new movement and for me; the fundamental thing is for the government to address their demands. I think the government should say let’s sit down and look at it, we are all Nigerians, nobody has a greater stake in the country than any other person. So, as far as I am concerned, it is not about Sowore, it is about the issues; how do we deal with them through constitutional transformation, jaw-jawing or do we deal with them through some other means? We have to come to that conclusion and realisation quickly.