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Democracy comes with certain Human Rights. The rights include freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, freedom of thought, etc.
Now, nobody gives another Human Rights. They are God-given. As soon as you are born, you assume your Human Rights. Some are even arguing that unborn babies have rights. But that’s for another day.
However, no right is absolute. We have elected some personalities into a body known as government in a democracy. We then submit SOME of our rights to this body – the government – in exchange for certain things some of which are protection, social amenities, etc. This is called a social contract.
However, when it is discovered that our employees -the government -are not fulfilling their part of the social contract. We have some may take certain actions. These are: we may refuse to vote for them at the next election, we may cause the legislature to impeach the chief executive, we may try and recall a member of the legislature that is not performing, we may refuse to participate in future political activities, we may decide to organise civil disobedience, we may try to organise peaceful protests, etc.
I have taken the pain to explain all this because I’m of the opinion that the APC government has failed the people of Nigeria woefully. And due to the failure of the government, people are suffering terribly.
Because of the suffering of the people, some groups have organised Nation wide strikes. However, the impending strikes may be scuttled by some basic misunderstandings.
One of them, I hear, is questioning the right of an artiste who had benefited from the seat of power to organise a protest. I understand he is not even the organiser.
But then, even if he is, he has the right to do so.
Please let me take you back a bit into history. In the second republic, the late Abiola was in the ruling National Party of Nigeria. The party was seen as a capitalist one, so most people who considered themselves progressives would not associate with anybody in the party. They would not touch the party, even with a ten-foot pole.
However, Abiola was to join the Social Democratic Party in subsequent years. He was to gain the support of progressives like Prof. Soyinka, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti,the indefatigable lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi,etc.
I went into the narrative to show that you never can tell with human beings. Truly, there is no permanent friends or enemies in politics, rather, there are permanent interests!
As to whether our artiste has so many baby mamas, well, I will say he has not equalled the late Abami Eda, Fela Anikulapo -Kuti who married twenty-seven wives on the same day. If the governments of his days feared someone, I will say it was Fela. He remained credible till death. He is still relevant now through his music. Neither has it been said his association with those ladies were not between consenting adults respectively.
Please, let us not allow the forces of division to invade our judgement. I am therefore calling out all the people who are not satisfied with the way we are being governed to come out for a peaceful nation-wide protest on the appointed days.
Please note that those who have seen no reason to protest also have the right not to do so. That is democracy for you!!!
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