A Stand Against Bigotry  

By

Tochukwu Ezukanma

maciln18@yahoo.com

 

 

Undoubtedly, General Jeremiah Useni was part of the most corrupt and brutal military regimes in the history of Nigeria. Like most members of those infamous governments, he must have acquired enormous wealth under very corrupt circumstances. He may also have been a party to some of the murderous excesses of the Abacha government. It has been alleged that as the Minister for the Federal Territory, he abused the land allocation process and violated the original master plan for Abuja. It is believed that his policies as the Minister for the Federal Territory would have reduced the city of Abuja to just another Nigerian city, something of an unplanned, chaotic and unlivable place. However, irrespective of his antecedents and moral deficiencies, he reserves the right to his own opinion.

 

He was quoted as saying that the Abacha regime “was justified to have killed Saro Wiwo” because of the gruesome killings perpetrated by his supporters at the time. His statement has “drawn fury of both human rights activists and politicians of the Niger Delta extraction.” Marvin Yobana, leader of Ogoni Youths Council (OYC) on October 28 “gave Useni a seven day ultimatum to either apologize for his reported justification of the killing or face legal action for the murder of the late activist”.

 

That Useni holds a view on the death of Saro Wiwo that is at variance with that of the generality of the people of the Niger Delta is not wrong at all. It is his prerogative as a Nigerian citizen to form and express his own independent opinions on national issues. To demand an apology from him because of his differing opinion on an issue is arrogant and presumptuous. Actually, it is nonsense, monumental nonsense. The people of the Niger Delta have been victims of unjust, corrupt and brutal government policies, but that has not conferred on them the right to gag anyone or to hold the only legitimate view on national discourse.   

 

The Nigerian constitution guarantees Jeremiah Useni’s right to free speech. Inherent in freedom of speech is the right to be right or wrong. So, the question is not the correctness or incorrectness of Useni’s statement. The point is that he has the right to shape and state his independent belief on the subject.  Moreover, in this context, right or wrong lacks a précised definition. We can all choose to define them from our different perspectives. Besides, the people of Niger Delta, as represented by the OYC, do not have a transcendental claim to knowledge, wisdom and morality, and therefore, do not reserve the exclusive authority to determine our collective concept of right and wrong.  Therefore, Useni does not owe any body an apology and should not apologize to “assuage anybody’s anger”. Those who are angered by viewpoints that conflict with theirs are petty, low-life, narrow-minded bigots.

 

Nigerians dream of national greatness, but as a people, we are yet to imbibe the attitudinal precondition for greatness. A precondition for national eminence is mental and emotional discipline that engenders respect, or at least tolerance for dissenting outlooks. There can be no progress without innovation, and no innovation without dissent. Not surprisingly, the Western democracies which have shown the greatest tolerance for dissenting views are the most successful countries in history. They do not repress individual rights to free speech in an attempt to protect the pretensions and follies of any privileged group or interest. The United States of America remains the most cacophonous country in the world. Her society permits unparalleled latitude for divergent ideas, opinions, beliefs, lifestyles, etc.  Paradoxically, she remains the wealthiest, most powerful and politically stable country in the history of humanity.

 

History has furnished the instructive precedence that the inhibition of independent ideas and freedom of expression enthrones mediocrity, undermines reform, retards progress and breeds elitism and inequity. The Soviet Union is potentially richer than the USA but hamstrung by years of diverse forms of dictatorship, totalitarianism and tyranny; she remains a colossus of unrealized potentials. Up till the end of the 15th century, Spain led the world in navigational sciences. Following the Spanish Inquisition which successfully imposed social orthodoxy and banished free thought and any form of dissent, Spain atrophied politically, culturally and intellectually. Up till this day, she remains the backwater of Western Europe.

 

Free speech can be likened to a lobster. The lobster is a contemptible scavenger of the sea. It voraciously devours the foulest refuse of the ocean floor. Paradoxically, from the lobster comes the most succulent and expensive seafood. While free speech can be noisy and unruly, intrusive and disruptive, discordant and dissonant, caustic and acerbic, it serves the public good. It enlightens the mind, liberates it from timidity and fear and stimulates its creative energies. It edifies a people’s collective mind, enlarges their horizon, nourishes their freedom and reinforces their progress.

 

No one Nigerian is more Nigerian than any other Nigerian. Every Nigeria has an inalienable right to hold and express his view on national issues. Nigerians cannot acquiesce to the suppression of free speech in an attempt to pander to any one man, group or interest because that will retard our democratic evolution, societal reformation and over all national progress. The demand by the Niger Delta activists and politicians that every Nigerian’s perspective on the trial and death of Saro Wiwo must conform to theirs is an assault on freedom of thought and expression. For our collective good, Nigerians must take a resolute stand against that willful obscurantism. 

 

 

 

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria

 

maciln18@yahoo.com