Photo credit: Punch Newspaper
Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey and his Inter Reformers Band released a bumper album in 1973 titled, Ketekete, The horse, the man and his son. The summary of the title song is that, there’s nothing one can do to satisfy fellow men.
That Dr Olusegun Obasanjo has written a letter to Mr Muhammad Buhari is no news. The old man knows when to throw his missiles, and many a time, it’s controversial.
It is a given fact that OBJ has the right to freedom of speech if Nigeria is truly running a democracy. The last time I checked, Nigeria was practicing the presidential system of government.
Let’s even agree for the sake of argument that his regime was corrupt, fine. Has he been arrested for corruption? Has he been tried in a properly constituted court of law?
So, he is eminently qualified to air his views. The way he chooses to air his views remains his own business.
However, there are two things I want us to look at.
One, OBJ put to use his understanding of imagery. He referred to the president as a horse rider. If the president is the horse rider, where is his horse?
We, the people are seen as horses by the ruling class. Any wonder why they treat us like rags?
And so many of us are satisfied with the leftovers from their tables. People actually struggle and fight for as little as one thousand naira. At the rate of three hundred and fifty naira to an American dollar, one thousand Nigerian naira is less than five American dollars.
Yet, some of us are ready to kill each other for the loose change. We are ready to lie against each other for the pittance. Some will gladly wound others because of the stipend.
The other issue is the fact that the old man, OBJ, says he’s organising a pressure group to ease Buhari out of power. His right to freedom of association covers that.
However, I learn so many governors and legislators have keyed into the group. What that means is that they are not interested in changing anything.
If they are starting from the top, it means there will be no place for the grassroots people. We may end up with just a simple change of the guards.
For any serious change, we need to start from the grassroots. It’s at the grassroots that people who have been useful to their communities will be picked. They can then go and contest at the ward level. From the ward, they get to the state level, and so on.
When people are made to go through all these levels, those who are not long-distance runners would have fallen by the roadside.
Let’s try this experience!
012718
