Critics are Patriots Too

Critics are Patriots Too

Moses Ochonu

It has become faddish for supporters of the status quo in Nigeria to attack critics of it as unpatriotic, or to at least insinuate this critique of the critics into their commentary. Paradoxically, this stealthy attempt to monopolize the patriotic label and the rhetoric of patriotic devotion for a few, unquestioning and vocal supporters of the government in power is more dangerous than the pessimistic criticism that it purports to detest. So vocal have these accusations become that it has become necessary to reiterate, even if for a purely intellectual purpose, that the uncritical, self-declared patriot and the perennial critic and pessimist are actually motivated by the same patriotic instincts.

Let’s dwell a little on these increasingly vehement preachments on patriotism. In the first place, patriotism is not a finished product, a settled state of being. It is a progressive emotional evolution towards the love of country. Therefore, for a group of people to claim that they have attained a patriotic place of comfort, a patriotic state of nirvana where the love of country is without reservation and pessimistic interludes, is insincere. This kind of patriotic proclamation is usually a strategy of claim-making, of strategically projecting a sentiment for political and self-interested purposes. Patriotism can be expressed in degrees, not in absolutes. The degree of its expression corresponds naturally to one’s endearment to the object of that patriotic feeling. In most cases this object is a nation-state.

Secondly, if a patriot feels the need to declare his/her patriotism, and to construct it in opposition to the views of people he regards as non-patriots, the self-consecrated patriot inadvertently makes himself the object of skepticism. For if you are a true patriot, why would you advertise it at every turn? Would your patriotism not be obvious from your intellectual and programmatic engagement with your country and its affairs? In other words, as Wole Soyinka aptly said, why should a tiger project its tigeritude when its attributes and physiological qualities already identify it as such? Patriotism, like threats of violence, can become tired, boring, and ineffective when constantly declared rather than performed. That is one of the problems of self-declared patriotism; it is louder than it is practical and tangible.

Understandably, those directly invested in the status quo, that is, those in government are usually the most vocal in demanding unbridled patriotic commitment from Nigerians. They are also the ones who routinely accuse those who disagree with their policies, conducts, and priorities of being unpatriotic, as if our leaders' interests are coextensive with Nigeria's. But this appeal for a patriotic citizenry is, as many perceptive Nigerians have pointed out, often unaccompanied by a recognition that patriotism usually follows from a sense of gratitude and pride. None of this is easy to express in today’s Nigeria because the state has deprived Nigerians of the reasons to be grateful and proud.

Having underscored the flaws of self-declared patriotism, let us scrutinize the ideological and intellectual basis of the sentiments that underlay such posturing.

Self-declared patriots claim that they are optimists, and that that they are able to visualize the brighter side of things, no matter how bleak the picture may appear. They take the glass-half-full view on Nigerians affairs. Conversely, they claim that non-patriots are pessimists and cynics who see nothing good in Nigeria and are quick to focus on the negative. There is no serious dispute here. In broad terms, patriots are optimists, sometimes unrealistic optimists, while so-called non-patriots are pessimists.

But this is only a fraction of the truth. Some so-called non-patriots are cynics but most are not—they are pessimists or cautious optimists. This clarification is in order because self-declared patriots exaggerate the pessimism of the so-called non-patriots to the point of branding them as aloof and indifferent to the affairs of their country, which is far from the truth.

The patriots also exaggerate the difference between themselves and those they regard as pessimistic non-patriots. For instance, the patriots ignore an instructive point of convergence and intersection between their sentiments and those of the non-patriots. Their motivation is the same as those of the non-patriots that they attack. Both groups of Nigerians want things to get better in their country. They are motivated by the same underlying commitment to Nigeria’s progress. The pessimistic critic criticizes because he wants those in power to change course and do the right things for the country. The optimistic patriot supports and praises the status quo and those in power in the hope that such support would motivate the leaders to do the right things for Nigeria. The premise, for both groups of Nigerians, is thus the same. It is empty rhetoric, then, for self-declared patriots to claim that they love Nigeria more than the pessimistic critics.

The only difference between the two groups is that pessimistic critics are more impatient with the pace of progress or with the lack thereof than are the optimists. The under belly of these two persuasions is however the same: a level of love for one’s country that motivates one to take active interest in its fate and plight. Contrary to the claim of the optimists, then, the pessimists are not aloof to their country and its affairs. They criticize and ventilate their frustration and disappointment precisely because they are not aloof. Indifference produces disengagement and apathy, not active critical engagement, and certainly not the tough love that critical pessimists shower on their country.

Two groups of people constitute important caveats to the foregoing analysis. Sycophants and cynics occupy the extremes of the patriotism spectrum. Sycophants are quick to substitute their sycophancy and opportunism for patriotism. They also glibly attack those unwilling to display a similar subservience to power in the interest of personal gain. The patriotism of such sychophants and opportunists is questionable, as they are more loyal to their political patrons than they are to Nigeria's interests. Cynics, on the other hand, are afflicted with an enduring unwillingness to accommodate or admit any prospect of progress and development in Nigeria . For some cynics, a justifiable hatred for the government of the day can quickly morph into a blanket criticism of all things Nigerian. But not all self-declared patriots are sycophants and not all pessimistic critics are cynics.

Still, the point needs to be made that cynicism is not a productive conduit for patriotic sentiments, and pessimistic critics must be vigilant enough not to slide into the realm of cynical expression.

Let me use an analogous debate to illustrate this point. For about a decade now, there has been a discussion among African scholars on the ramifications and implications of what has come to be known as Afro-pessimism. Afro-pessimist thinking comes in different guises and generally denotes the pervasive notion that Africa is a lost cause, doomed to the congenital deficits of its peoples and the natural drawbacks of its landscape. For much of the 1990s, Afro-pessimism was defined in these terms, making it the exclusive expressive domain of Caucasian racists and self-hating Africans. More recently, the definition has been broadened to include any harsh and unfair criticism of Africa ’s affairs.

With this definitional revision, it is now possible and indeed common to associate many African critics of conditions in Africa with Afro-pessimism. It is also possible now to clearly separate these African critics and pessimists from those (mostly non-Africans) who do not associate Africa with anything good and discount any possibility of African progress.

One should not even dignify the latter group of Afro-pessimists and their racist attitudes to Africa by analyzing their views. Their verdicts on and criticisms of Africa are rooted in racial hatred and sense of evolutionary superiority. Their aim is to spite and put down Africa and its peoples.

African critics and Afro-pessimists, on the other hand, criticize conditions and the state of leadership on the continent precisely because they love and care about it. Their Afro-pessimism is thus rooted not in self-hatred or cynicism but in their almost insatiable desire for African progress. Their caustic style of criticism and their damning verdicts on the continent’s affairs do not invalidate this underlying commitment to Africa.

But the line between Afro-pessimism and Afro-cynicism is a thin one, so these critical Afro-pessimists, like their Nigerian counterparts, must be careful not to breach it.

In the final analysis, then, we are all patriots. The flowering of our patriotic praise or anger may take different forms, but the nationalist commitment that informs our critical or forgiving engagement with Nigeria is undeniable. The self-serving lectures on patriotism delivered regularly by bad Nigerian leaders deceive as much as they conceal the egregious failures of leadership.