By SEGUN SOWUNMI
The rushes all over the international media about mass protest in Hong Kong on the local issues around extradition to the mainland for trials to the parliament, with around close to two million coming out with the yellow umbrella, has really sobered me up.
Hong Kong and China are supposed to be communist countries, yet the citizens have the courage and audacity to protest what they consider unacceptable, and as at the last news, I hear the Mayor has publicly apologised for the handling of the issue. But the protest has not stopped; instead, the organisers are insisting the Mayor must step down. So, I find myself asking: how did we induce a culture of indolence in Nigeria?
That our people, who have been adjudged to be the best in the world, in all areas of endeavour, have lost the ability to care and do anything about issues they clearly find unacceptable makes me really afraid for the future of Nigeria. Many thoughts rush through my mind right now, from the non-stop killings in the North, to the issues around the 2019 elections, the high point being the server issue from INEC, we seem to have become enslaved under one word: indolence!
Who will rescue us from ourselves? We watch other citizens demand accountability from their leaders and we see results of their efforts, with their leaders listening to them and shaping up. But here, it is always the business of nobody. Our so-called civil societies have become award giving and receiving platforms to their promoters, while the bigger issues of nation building is, unfortunately, left to no one. The political parties and their leaders are not also helping matters; there is a huge disconnect between the various parties and the larger society. Most people have become so skeptical of the consequences of even the best of civil actions and the youths, who are the driving force of all the protests in all countries of the world, have, in our own case, become paralysed by indolence!
Have we made a huge mistake in how we train our children? Have we done everything for them to the extent that they have lost the fire of youthful energy for nation building? Or have the culture of parents worshipping money sent a signal to the children that nothing matters apart from “kin sha ti lowo” (the bottom line is for me to be rich)? Is it the work of those religion merchants profiting from the emotional needs of the people at the expense of true teachings that has set a culture of ‘abdicate all responsibilities to God’ in the society?
There are so many questions to ask, yet very few answers. We can see all around us that active citizen engagements and civil protests are what governments listen to. How do we expect things to be different around here? What do we need to do to correct this malaise? The questions are for the media, orientation agencies, schools, churches, mosques, and even households.
Something has to give if we must get it right. We cannot continue like this, and think that Manna will just fall in the right places from heaven. It doesn’t work like that. Yet, the antidote is not to leave the country in droves in search of saner environments.
Peaceful public protests and outcry are the surest bets to get all the levers of government to be accountable, otherwise, the Executive will tilt towards dictatorship; the Legislature will tilt towards being a rubber stamp; the Judiciary will tilt towards being a castrated time wasting organ that cannot give justice for the common good; and the media may only be able to function as purchased praise
singers.
Youths of Nigeria, the Internet is meant to educate and inspire, use it well. I fear the day you will see the children of your oppressor ruling over you and you won’t like it. It is time to snap out of your indolence.
The nation needs your energy to move in all the right directions. Not all things are acceptable; there must be a sense of ‘no, this cannot happen here, the people won’t accept it, the youth will revolt, all hell will be let loose’. These are the types of things that guide leaders and ensure that they minimise their nonchalant attitudes to the peculiar issues of their countries.
Until we snap out of our indolence, we would continue to be taken for granted. There is nothing we desire as a people that we cannot create. We have the numbers and we have a suitable climate. All we need now is for us, citizens of this great country, to ensure leadership accountability. The interesting thing is that I don’t see the people of Hong Kong destroying their national assets or causing any violence. All they seem to be doing is showing up daily at the rallies and refusing to go away until someone with real authority responds to them. That is what democracy ought to produce, not an indolent set of citizens, where anything goes and all unfathomable excuses, bordering on taking people for granted, are allowed to happen. To think that we fought military dictatorship; we fought for June 12; we fought against Structural Adjustment Programme; we fought Ali Must Go, and so many
others, only for us to raise children, who will be so socially unconscious, lacking in patriotic zeal and indolently prostrate is just so sad. This is evidence that, as parents, we have failed! We need to think out a solution fast for this is definitely not a sign of a hopeful
future!
