DENNIS OGU

Recently, I had a chat with one journalist on some democratic principles – the rule of law,  fundamental human rights, regular, free and fair elections etc – and if they are actually being practised in African states.

He was bitter about the kind of government found among African states, and how Africans are undergoing secondary slavery even under the leadership of their own kith and kin.

 From Africa, we shifted to Nepal and began to review what happened in that country early this year – the frenzy then as reports were coming in from newspapers, television and the radio on how the Nepali youths forced their prime minister out of the presidential palace.

The journalist pointed out how the ousted prime minister had all the opportunity and time in the world to make things right for people in the early days of the push, but instead he chose to use force to suppress them. That was when he encountered the greatest shock of his life – the people’s will power and the revolution that came with it.

It was like the Nepali citizens were taking their own sweet bites then; though things gradually returned to normalcy. That serves as a warning to all corrupt, oppressive and cruel leaders the world over. This slice of humble pie given to the Nepali prime minister then is a reminder to African despots  who have chosen to be ancestors on the leadership seat of their countries that “the partridge should understand that the way the fowl is dismembered is the same way its own body will be dismembered.” This is an African adage.

With the level of knowledge available in the world today, everybody should have been civilised and the society civil. But with what we see in our leaders every other day, we are often reminded of what one philosopher said that “if you want to know whom a man is, give him power.” Some people, when they ascend to power or once the feeling that they are now at the helm of affairs filters into their skull, they stop seeing other humans as fellow humans.

Their greed and selfishness automatically reduce them to the level of animals, and they begin to inflict untold hardship on their fellow citizens forcing them to be living from hand to mouth, shutting them away completely from civilisation and human dignity. At the end, jungle justice becomes the order of the day in such societies, and the people who have been condemned to animalistic life style through brute leadership style, would now take laws into their own hands against their leaders.

It is high time leaders at various levels and in various societies realised that power belongs to the people. We don’t have to compose songs with it before they hear or understand it. There is this African adage that “when a person cooks for the public, the public will be able to finish whatever he cooks. But when the public cooks for him, he has already found himself in trouble as nothing can make him finish it.”

Leaders have never taken this fact into consideration as they go about arrogating powers to themselves and oppressing the people. No matter the amount of oppression or cruelty meted out on the people, at least the majority will always survive it in one way or another. But any day the people rise against their leader, there will be no hiding place for him.  It happened to Idi Amin Dada of Uganda, Pinochet of Chile, Mohammed Morsi of Egypt and a number of other heads of states. This is why leaders should always put the welfare of their people first in their policies and government actions.

No leadership or government has ever existed without the governed in the history of this world. And no such government will ever exist!  Yes, it may not be easy to govern people; but whoever lacks the skills and mental strength for leadership should honourably excuse himself and allow those who have what it takes to lead. It is always sad watching leaders globe-trot happily, live in luxury and acquire enormous

wealth while their people languish in destitution and penury. It is always in such situations and at such

points that the people realise the power they never knew they had, and then use it against their leaders.

Leaders must understand that no matter how powerful they may be; no matter how they suppress their people and silence those who dare to speak up, they can never completely take the power of the people away from them. And the power of the leader can never be greater than the collective power of the people!

But the collective power of the people has always been and can only be effective when they see a common enemy in those who oppress them. It doesn’t matter how many times they have tried and failed, and it doesn’t matter the size and number of armoured tanks and military personnel the government uses to silence them. Whenever the people stand together with a firm resolve, even canons and gun boats will be silenced.

They don’t need to carry arms but only their will power. It happened in France and produced what we know today as the French Revolution. It happened in America and led to the first and greatest move for independence and democracy in the history of the world. It has happened in Egypt when it was used against Mohammed Morsi and his religious bigotry. It has happened in Tunisia, Algeria, Mali, Niger

and Gabon against governments whose policies were going increasingly against the people they were supposed to govern.

Early this year, it happened in Nepal. In addition to that, there had been coups and coup attempts in Guinea Bissau, Benin Republic and some other African countries. The people do not rise against a government that makes their welfare its priority. The people do not rise against a leader that governs them well. The current governments of Nigeria, Cameroon and other African countries that have shoved the welfare of their people to the gutter while the ruling class lives in affluence should be careful how they treat the people. Robert Hooke in his principle of elasticity says that “when the elastic limit of the wire is exceeded, it ceases to obey the law of elasticity.”

Abraham Lincoln once said that “you can defeat a whole army but you cannot stop a determined man.” Whenever the people stand with one mind against or in support of any idea, every other thing will come to a standstill, and the narrative will definitely change! Leaders should understand that people’s eyes are opening to the truth by the day.

OGU, a public affairs analyst writes from Sango Ota, Ogun state