BY CHURCHILL IFY-MATHEWS
THE recent #ENDSARS protests and events in Nigeria have created three sets of Nigerians whom I want to title Hoodlums, Goodlums and Foodlums. Necessity they say is the mother of invention. The recent #ENDSARS crisis and protests in Nigeria have, no doubt, created new additions to today’s English vocabulary and I will attempt to define each by their unique identities.
We all know from the advanced dictionaries around the world what a Hoodlum is – a person who engages in crime and violence; a hooligan or gangster. Another school of thought describes a hoodlum as a thug, usually in a group of misfits who are associated with crime or theft. When a government employs hoodlums to subvert the yearnings of a positively minded group, the age known adage of ‘Birds of the same feather, flock together’ comes to mind. It indeed is a clear sign of weakness and cowardice to run away from solving the problem. I stand to be challenged.
This writer is of the opinion that Goodlums are the opposite of hoodlums. They engage in everything good and find value in positively engaging humanity. They are not ruled by religion, ethnicity or any other divisive tendencies of man. At the recent protests, we saw how every good value that made one proud to be a Nigerian were displayed. From muslims and christians protecting each other in harmony to giving food, soft drinks and water to the onlooking policemen or ‘frenemies’ being protested against.
From raising funds digitally, for the purchase of meals and all to sustain the protesters, to raising funds to change the lives of a lady with disabilities and several hawkers of wares who sustained the protesters. These guys were non-violent until provoked by the hoodlums who were violently overpowered in their own coins in some cases, given a taste of their own bitter medicine, taken to the hospital for treatment and given food and money as a show of love to the assailants, by the Goodlums.
The Goodlums raised monies to repair damaged vehicles of fellow goodlum protesters, workshops offered free services and huge discounts. Solar powered phone chargers were provided and if one lost valuables like phones, jewelleries and all sorts, they were found and returned to rightful owners. We saw many more values that truly exemplified the Nigerian in us.
It was a proud moment until the government employed hoodlums all over the country from the streets and those in military uniforms to attack the defenseless Goodlums who sat down on the bare floor bearing the Nigerian flags in patriotism, their fears and tears as the only tools of defence. A few died in this mayhem. May they forever Reign In Paradise as their sacrifices will not go in vain.
The last category in this discourse are the Foodlums described as people who have been driven by hunger, a people subjugated to the pains of starvation by a system or government that took delight in weaponising poverty. Notably, the eagle finally came home to roost when this group found warehouses filled with COVID-19 palliatives. There was no mercy for the items found.
It was way back in 2011 on one of my return trips from the United States of America, just after the general elections in Nigeria that I sat at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja lobby bar and had this discussion over coffee with some friends. The topic was – The youth and the influence of money in Nigerian politics. My friends then told me that money was never going to leave Nigerian politics, that politicians were always going to influence and buy the youth with money.
I said to them, that the language the youth would speak from 2019 onwards was going to be different from what obtained at that time because the only thing that gets easily outdated is information and communication. Kids born at the break of democracy in 1999 would have turned 20 and the methods of communication would definitely not be the same, so we as elders needed to reinvent ourselves to speak the language of the youth which was: performance, performance, performance.
The #ENDSARS protests brought about an exposure of the weaknesses of the political class in thinking that the Nigerian Generations X, Y and Z would be same as the millennials. These millennials think faster, work faster, act faster and above all are fearless. It is glaring that the behemoths called the two big political parties holding sway in Nigeria today have failed the nation.
Granted, Nigeria’s problem did not start with the current administration but this administration led by General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) indeed worsened a very bad situation. Sometimes I wonder who advises this government when I begin to think of how hunger and poverty were weaponised against the people.
The failure in leadership is something else. The people are angry at the level of wickedness and ineptitude of the government and current political class where the people have been taken for granted.
I have listened to various rhetorical narratives of wanting to mix up the Goodlums with the Hoodlums and blaming the goodlums for the violent turn of events. I simply smiled at the foolishness of the proponents of crass idiotic behaviours on television who believe that all other Nigerians are fools and that they are the wise ones because they are in positions of authority today.
One of my teachers at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Prof. Dean Williams, posited in one of his books – Real Leadership, Helping People and Organisations Face Their Toughest Challenges – published in 2005, that the gorilla clan in the jungles exhibited the silverback mentality wherein any gorilla that sprouts a silver or grey back automatically assumes leadership of the clan such that whenever there was external aggression on the clan, the silverback gorilla mounts a tree top, howls at the rest of the clan to warn them of danger, forgetting that he has become easy target for the hunters to aim at and become meal at the kitchen and table later on.
Imagine if the gorillas had today’s tools like the mobile phones and were able to tweet, send WhatsApp messages, emails or even phone their colleagues to warn them of danger. Hunters not the gorrilas would certainly be the ones going extinct. The gorilla still practises this age old tradition till today and our political class are not different.
We saw how the tools of today helped drive the #ENDSARS protests and the government became helpless. The phones saw to the recruitment of international stars into the #ENDSARS online campaigns to the fear and chagrin of the government, who rather than employ adaptive solutions to the adaptive challenges of the protests, chose to use technical solutions (recruiting hoodlums and sending our brute force) to solve adaptive problems. How wrong!
We all saw how it has blown up in their faces. Till this moment, they are still employing fear as a tool for stabilising their grip on power. Time always, always overpowers brashness. This too shall pass away.
The current silence of the graveyard currently pervading the land is albeit pyrrhic to the best of my understanding with a false sense of victory being paraded if you ask me. The different groups have gone back to their respective drawing tables to strategise on their next moves, which tells me that 2023 will be the ultimate battle for the soul of Nigeria.
As we try to wind up this discourse, it becomes pertinent to understand the dynamics of the challenges and opportunities of the future. Hearing protesters or youthful Goodlums chant, No more APC, No more PDP clearly tells one that the end of the political behemoths is around the corner; the people have woken up.
In 2023, it is going to be business unusual and I admonish political parties like the African Democratic Congress (ADC) which I proudly belong to, to take advantage of this situation to provide an avenue to recruit the Goodlums and Foodlums into its fold to foster a democratic change in 2023.
Why ADC you may ask me? In my over 30 years of political activism from a youth to a ‘sandwiched’ elder, the ADC is the only political party that is truly owned by the members as enshrined in its DNA.
Members pay their monthly dues regularly and no ‘big man’ or godfather, runs or calls the shots. Another reason is the vast opening of the political space for the participation of the youth, women and persons with disabilities as contained in their constitution and manifesto.
Another question will be, what happens to the hoodlums who in their uncontrollable venting of anger went into looting of private shops, perpetrating arson on public owned assets, full blown confrontation and unjust condemnable murder of policemen and soldiers in very barbaric manners of beheading officers, burning them and eating of their flesh? No, this group needs to be saved and guess what? Sports and entertainment are veritable tools of winning such lost souls and even uniting all warring factions.
The Goodlums can use football matches to draw in the Hoodlums and end the day’s events with musical icons in the Goodlums to ‘battle’ it out with the Hoodlums. The air of conviviality provides a serene avenue for discussions to prevent both groups from combining to become Foodlums.
Oh yes, Foodlums we saw were a blend of both, working in rhythm for the same goal – cart away as much food items as possible. Even the uniform wearing frenemies were equally Foodlums; we all saw videos of this, meaning that hunger knows no barriers. The good in hoodlums appeared in many tales of how they assisted the weak and vulnerable to cart away the palliatives found in warehouses.
We should henceforth look more at the things that bind us than the tiny things that divide us. No human being is born to be destructive. We learn hate from the bad environments and information around us. We need to explore our positive values and use same to unite us. Nigeria shall and must arise and shine in 2023 like the African Democratic Congress.
Leadership is about facing realities and getting the people to appreciate these realities. Then work with the people to find solutions to the problems with a view to achieving progress and success for all.
– Churchill Ify-Mathews is a public affairs commentator based in Abuja
