Comrade Omoyele Sowore shouldn’t feel too lucky. The Federal Government let him off because he didn’t take up arms against the state. It’s just talk and talk from him.
The very day he takes up arms or sponsor an armed rebellion against Nigeria and constitute himself into a clear danger and security threat to the corporate existence of the country, that day him go know say water pass Garri. That day, all the young men hovering around him in the wierd imagination of a ‘revolution’ go disown him and pick race. Still, Sowore deserves some thumbs up for making the effort and even mentioning the word but a revolution is much more than we think. You can’t be in Nigeria under the control of government institutions- police, military, DSS- and still cause a revolution. A revolution is organised from outside the country and executed inside the country.
A revolution cannot happen in Nigeria through the template Omoyele Sowore is proposing majorly because of the inherent ethnic and religious divides and deep mistrusts in the country which we can not ignore for now.
If the North comes out for a revolution, the SW will stay away. If the SW comes out, the SE will stay away and so on. Nigeria is seriously and deeply divided ideologically, mentally, religiously and ethically. Yes, these divisions should be a source of strength but not with us in Nigeria where we use our divisions as sources of weakness to weaken our nationhood. The three major ethnic groups in Nigeria think from different ideological perspectives and the so-called minorities follow suit. The Nigerian people hate one another partly because our leaders pitch us against each other to create political opportunities for themselves to win elections and partly because of religious and cultural upbringing. The right leadership like Rawlings Ghana could erase all that hate.
Just take for example, the #Endsars protests in 2020. The South came out but the North stayed away. The SE stayed away too because of tribal mistrust. At the end, nothing was achieved but destruction of life and property. Nigeria lost over 100 lives and property worth over N10 Trillion. It was a colossal waste indeed.
During the #Endsars protests, our leaders in the North told us that the protest was organised by a Church as a Christian agenda against the North so we should stay away and never join the protest. We stayed away as we were told. You can see why Nigeria cannot experience Sowore’s ‘theoretical revolution’. Yes hunger has no tribal marks but i am sure that the North will never participate in any so-called revolution or uprising that will dismember Nigeria. You could see some pockets of protests against hunger in the North but not to a level that will dismember the country.
The only way a Revolution can happen in Nigeria is when we get a strong and committed young military officer (Ala Ghana’s Jerry Rawlings) who can seize power, push out the current crop of corrupt politicians. Not kill them but push them out of relevance by putting young, knowledgeable and committed Nigerians in positions of authority to drive the political process and reset Nigeria. Thus providing the desired radical leadership that will turn the page from the present Nigeria as currently constituted to the New Nigeria of our dreams. This recycling process of corrupt politicians changing the baton within themselves will never give birth to the New Nigeria of our dreams. Never!
Only the right radical leadership can unite the country and the current crop of politicians who cannot stop hoarding of both US Dollar to create artificial FOREX scarcity and post the exchange rate high enough and hoarding of foodstuff to create artificial hunger cannot provide that kind of leadership, not even close.
I am afraid, Sowore’s so-called ‘Revolution’ will eventually turn out to be a money-making machine just like the terrorist IPOB enterprises Biafra (Ltd).
