The Logic of Imprisonment for insulting the Nigerian President is primitive

Ipemndoh dan Iyan 

I am not aware that Nigeria is still a Colony of the United Kingdom 

The Principle, Dr Reuben Abati (PhD), of your quite obvious Disapproval of the criminal Conviction of the young Man who insulted President Muhammadu Buhari is quite sound. It is solid. However, your demonstrated Arguments against it are inconsequential albeit valid. Valid only in the Sense that they are Examples you can point at, as good Practice. Nigeria ceased to be British Colonial Possession on 1 October 1963 when it became a Republic (nevermind its Independence of 1 October 1960). You should, ergo, not expect it to take Guidance from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK, for short) thereafter. Let me tell you something. If you like, accept it, if you like, discard it. When I settled finally in the UK ca 40 Years ago, I successively came to recognize the unjustified Esteem in which Nigerians were (and are still) made to hold Eyinvo (Oyinbo - 'White' Folks) by the dishonest Appraisals of Nigerians who had studied in the West and had returned to Nigeria. Even those who just visited for split Seconds (I exaggerate) knew how superior the Eyinvo were (and are) to Africans. I found that Nigeria was more advanced than the UK in some Respects. I also increasingly realized that the worst of them were (and are) as contemptible as the worst of Nigerians (and Africans), and that the best of them were (and are) no better than the best of Nigerians (and Africans). I will not go into all these here, and I do not need to, really. Human-beings are Human-beings, after all, and we are all Human-beings.

The Shallow believing itself deep

What I find shallow about the Nigerian thinking that I come across nowadays in the Nigerian Media is the Readiness to always compare the Nigerian Situation with what they believe as current of Western Countries. Yet, they observe from afar only. They know Zilch about what really goes on in the West, but they flatter themselves that they do. Which Government Institution have they interacted with? Which Business have they dealt with? Do they know anything about the Intricacies of our educational System? What do they know about the unreported by-the-way abusive Treatment  of 'the People' by our Police Forces? Are Nigerian Commentators so short-circuited in thinking that they cannot reconcile what they come across in the News about Police Brutality, and "Injustices" in our Western Court Rooms? How many of you self-ascribed Experts know that the two mutually-inclusive prerequisites in the English Workplace are to be well disposed to (i) following Instructions, and (ii) knowing your Place? This is notwithstanding that you might be far superior academically and/or intellectually than the Person whose Instructions you are expected to follow and/or know your Place before. Nigerians should really be careful with parading their Inability to understand what they claim or suggest they are conversant with. It is so sad that Nigerians, especially, look up to 'white' Folks as the Hallmark of whatever it is they ponder upon. Why are you People forever worshipping the Eyinvo? Y'all should meet up, or should I write 'catch up', with Frantz Fanon 1961.1 

In my early Years in the UK, I was so proud that I came from the Socialization I left in Africa. No regimentation of Actions or Thoughts. Let me rephrase. My Managers who were University Degree Holders did not restrict me in any Way even though I was not then as educated as they were. I am still grateful for the Breadth of the Independence of Thought I, and my Friends had. Today, I am disappointed when I hear Nigerians talk and encounter the Tripe they utter. I miss my Friends with whom I used to have serious intellectual Talks even though all we had in Way of Education was our West African School Certificate (WASC) except for my redundant 1 Year Correspondence Diploma in Journalism. I had it as early as 1976, two Years after my WASC. I remember taking it to the Office to show a Friend who had disbelieved I had it. He took it from me, and the Fool (Joke) kissed the useless Thing saying he would be sleeping with it on his Bed had he been the One who acquired it. I repeated to him that the damn Thing was 'not fit for purpose' otherwise I would not be working in an Accounts Office, as a Clerk. We were all Clerical Officers, but I cannot recall if he worked Accounts. Where is Feyi Pereira, that phenomenal Brain? No, he did not kiss the Diploma nor did he work Accounts. We both worked as Technicians for Nigeria's Post and Communications (P&T) before my Accounts Stint. Sorry, Feyi, I never got back to you on final Arrival in the UK. The first Year was really harsh, and I simply could not reach out. Afterwards, it became for me; if it is belated, it is late. Where are these Friends now? What are they thinking? What are they doing?

The Nigerian Intelligence of nowadays does not represent the Savvy of the Nigeria I left behind. The other Day, I heard the Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, arguing that if Nigeria had been divided he would have needed a “Visa” to be in “Kaduna.” It was so mediocre an Illustration that I did not think of commenting on it, ergo, I did not keep it aside not knowing that I might need to refer to it at any Point, just as Evidence. It was so symptomatic of the lacklustre Cognition I have now come to identify with Nigeria.2 What Bullocks yet the Man is PhD (in Law). I could not help wondering if my Friends and I were specially gifted. After all, Osinbajo is in my Age Group. Has the Man never heard of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Protocol A/P 1/5/79? Redundant Question. Does Professor Osinbajo envisage the Territorial-States emerging from a divisible Nigeria not being Part of the ECOWAS Community? He and Others insist on an indivisible Nigeria, but not any of them has been able to articulate the Rationale for this Indivisibility save for their peremptory  Demand. No matter how much they delude themselves, Nigeria came into being consequent to Colonization and the trading Policies of Colonialism which amalgamated disparate Peoples into a trading Composite. I witnessed the same Irrationality in the Ibrahim B. Babangida Interview https://youtu.be/dcbs4MMCsFc with Ms Ngozi Alaegbu of Arise News where he suggested "we have to change the narrative" in order to keep Nigeria one. I saw the Interview in the Afternoon of 8 August 2021, as I was tidying up this Essay for Publication. When asked how the Narrative should be altered, Babangida was unable to expatiate. Go watch it. The Narrative that Babangida wants changed  is so manifest, and it is an Argument I have maintained. Nigeria, the Composite, would never have been, but for Colonization and Colonialism. This is why the Igbo want to go their separate Way ditto the Yoruba. The Fulani, the Hausa, and the Kanuri are not saying anything, but they have already said everything through the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello in the 1950s. Nigeria was not a viable Project. Changing this Narrative, President-General Babangida is to articulate how these disparate Peoples could have come together in Union as a Country without the Shackles of Colonization and Colonialism. What is it that they have in common? It is so pedestrian of this Man to deflect responding to this 'Problematic' with the Proposition that he is a 'free market Economy' Person. So what? France is free Market as the UK, but do both belong to the same Country? The UK has even refused to be in the same Economic Community as its 'free Market Economy' Neighbors. Really, Mr President-General?

Imprisonment for insulting a Politician? That is rich

Now, let us talk about sending a Person to Prison for calling Rtd Army General Muhammadu Buhari, and whomever, Names. I do not care what Name anybody calls anybody. The intellectual Person knows that whatever Name you call anyone testifies to the Extent of Disgust you feel towards that other Person. What Names you choose to call anyone is just a Matter of your Sense of Decorum. Name-calling means nothing to me. As the Yoruba say: “ebu ohun so” (Insults do not germinate). Punishing the Person by Law for insulting Another is not of African Mentality, but from the Insecurity of European Monarchs. This is where our so-called Professors of African History should show how much they are worth the professorial Titles given them by undiscerning American Universities. These Universities are simply awed if you can tell them, i.e., that the Yoruba god Sango4 was the Son of a Nupe Princess (non-Yoruba) who became the third  Alaafin of Oyo, the most powerful Yoruba Empire of old Age. It matters not that you are unable to tell them that the Monarchy of Alaafin is rotational among Families, as with other Monarchies of Africa and/or that the African Monarch could be deposed (removed) by the Council of Chiefs representing ‘the People’. If you know of one African Tradition, you know, more or less, of all African Customs. The revolving Monarchy, and the Mechanism to recall a reigning Monarch are cast Iron Aspects of African Democracy unlike the immature European Monarchies of direct Descent unless something uncontrollable happened to the linear Line or where a reigning Monarch cannot be removed unless by violent Revolt – the Civil War of 1642 to 1651 is a notable Example –  or Parliamentary Act that is itself a feature of modern Society. 

Racial-Slavery and Colonization did not usher Africans into Modernity. As Ashley Montagu (Professor and PhD) – ‘white’ British-American – reminded us: “when Caesar set foot in Britain the African Negro kingdoms and their peoples were from the cultural standpoint in an incomparably more advanced state of development than the Britons, upon whom they might well have looked as a ‘primitive’ people.”3 Racial-Slavery and Colonization regressed Africa into European Backwardness of the Time. Again, we borrow Insight from Montagu among others: “Africa had long been in contact with peoples who had acted upon them as so many cultural fertilizing agents. The Britons had been isolated from the main course of such contacts until the time of Caesar, but as soon as he made such contacts available to them development followed with great rapidity.” I disagree with the Motion that African Culture enjoyed “fertilizing” from outside Contacts because there is simply no Evidence to support that prior to Julius Caesar’s Incursion into what is today Great Britain, Africa experienced such outside Pollination. Even about 200 Years after Caesar, Africans, starting with Septimus Severus, ruled the Roman Empire (ca 193 - 211 AD), and was buried somewhere in present Day England. It was the Africans germinating the Others either by Conquest or in the Others visiting Africa to study. I take the Lesson, however, from his Caution of the Influence of Acculturation. In the African Case, it was not Influence, but the Indoctrination of the Acculturation of a less developed, but savage Force overwhelming the African Peoples. The Agenda was clear in its many Forms/Facets: return these refined Peoples to the Past such that they will never remember they were ever in the Future, and would continue, ad infinitum, to question those of them attempting to articulate to them that they had been in the Future before Western Racial-Enslavement of their Peoples, and the Racial-Colonization of their Lands. Africans worshipped in the first Church on record at Raqote in Kmt (Egypt) in 181 AD, One Hundred and Thirty (130) Years before 311 AD when we know Judaeo-Christianity was given Freedom in Rome by Emperor Galerius' Edict of Toleration.  An African, Victor I, wrote the Roman Catholic Litany in Latin. The List is endless.

The early Leaders of Judaeo-Christianity, besides the Disciples of Jesus Christ who were as African as he was, were all Africans. We had Tertullian (160-220 AD), Victor I (mentioned above ca second Century AD), Origen – (second/third century AD), Agrippinus who was Bishop from late second century AD, and St. Cyprian who died during the first half of the third century AD. The much talked about St. Augustine of Hippo (354-386 AD) was also an African. St. Alexander, the Bishop of Alexandra, who chaired the First Council of Nicaea – convoked by Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325 AD – was African. The List continues. 

For me, just call me any Name you wish to call me to my Face so that I can defend myself, and “return to sender” – as an older Sister would say – if I wish. That a Person can be imprisoned by Law for insulting the President of Nigeria, the Vice, a Governor or Deputy, in fact any Nigerian Politician, I find abhorrent, repugnant, most primordial, and quite anomalous. It is sheer Horror. These are the Kinds of Indignations I expect Nigerians to be expressing instead of juxtaposing what is done in the West vis-à-vis the Nigerian Atmosphere. If the President or Governor or any political Post is the “Servant” of ‘the People’ in a ‘Democracy’, one of 'the People’, insulting a Politician is just another Way of expressing Anger and/or Dissatisfaction at the “Servant” of ‘the People’. Since when has a “Servant” become “Orisha bi bo?” (A god to be worshipped). As Abati rightly said, in the Tradition of the common saying; you ain’t liking the Heat, you ain’t  gotta stay in the Kitchen. That an elected Politician is “a Servant of the People” is one of the Fallacies created by Europeans to deceive the dimwitted of their Populations. Alas, it appears Africans have imbibed this Deceit because their many Numbers are equally as feebleminded. 

What Polity exactly, Ms Adesua Omoruan, has Nigeria borrowed from the West?

You are right, but you are also wrong, Ms Adesua Omoruan, that Nigeria has copied ‘Democracy’ from the Western World. You are right because the political Practice you undertake in Nigeria you have copied from Western-Europeans cum the West. You are wrong because the political Practice that you have acquired from the West and which you believe is Democracy is not Democracy. Europeans did not create Democracy in the delusional “Athenian Democracy.” The West can never educe Democracy. The Concept is alien to their Logic, and it is why, for Instance, you find their Polity unable to resolve the Issue of ‘minority Interest’. It is also the Reason a ‘simple majority’ Win, i.e., 50.1% can take Control of Government to rule the whole Population of a Country dismissing, notionally or not, the Needs of the Remainder 49.9%. 

It is not Democracy but electoral Politics 

No; it is not Democracy that the Western World practises. It is not Democracy that Nigeria is imitating from the West. It is ‘electoral Politics'. This is simply a Process of putting in Place Government over ‘the People' through the antagonistic Contests between Politicians for Votes. Some Political Science Theorists might, as I have on occasion, call this Process of casting a Ballot 'procedural Democracy'. The Results of lodging Votes are not always determined by the majority of Votes cast. We have Evidence of this in recent times in two Examples. One was the 2016 presidential Election of the United States of America where Mr Donald J. Trump Sr, the Person with the lesser Number of general (popular) Votes, became the President over Mrs Hillary D. H. Clinton. The other was in the 2019 general Elections in the UK which brought in a Conservative Party Majority into the House Commons, but was not a Majority of the general Votes. Western Theorization cannot explain why this Paradox should obtain, as it would also see a Difference in the Patterns of Win in both Jurisdictions. I am not that undiscerning. The Patterns are the same, and they explain the Paradox. They are the Pattern of Constituency Majority, not Majority of 'the People'. I am a Westerner, but I do not subscribe to the Western Paradigm of the Arrogance of Superiority. What is ‘Arrogance’? ‘Arrogance’ is Boast not founded on Reality or Substance. Boast on Reality or Substance can be known as ‘Confidence.’ The Western Paradigm is One where the Western Way of understanding Phenomena is the only Way. Where the Western Mind is stuck at providing adequate Explanations, it simply bulldozes. I do not blame this Attitude, but for its Ingestion by colonized Minds who perpetuate and propagate the Illusion, i.e., “we copy Democracy from” the West.  Other Western Thinkers, whom you might see as indigenous more than I, have disagreed with the Nonsense that the Western political Practice is Democracy. See my http://ipemndohdaniyan.blogspot.com/2020/12/address-by-ipemndoh-dan-iyan-to.html 

‘Democracy’, Ms Omoruan, began as an African Project. However, you do not have to believe me. Read Narcisse Tiky (2012).5 If you still refuse to accept what we say, do your Research and read widely as we have done. You will come across many other Writings as our's and equally with the Facts to hand. It is a question of Arithmetic and History. When you become acquainted with the Dates (Arithmetic) of Events (History) in other Parts of the World vis-à-vis the Western Hemisphere, you would understand the Fantasy of most of Western Claims to Originality. The only Ownership of Democracy by the West is the Fact that the ancient Greeks gave the Name ‘Demokratia’ to a System of Governance they had taken from ancient Africa, but had misapplied on the Ground, in Practice, in the mistaken Belief, and utter Arrogance that they could better a System they never even thought of. ‘Democracy’ is the anglicized Transliteration of Demokratia. 

Endnote

1Fanon, Frantz., The Wretched of the Earth, (trans), New York: Grove Press, 1963 - original publication in French - frantz fanon., les damnes de la terre, 1961.

2It was on an arisenews ‘Sunday Morning’ Show in May or June 2021, I think.

3Montagu, M.F.A., Man's Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race, New York: Columbia University Press, 1942.

4Sango is also known as Bade, Jakuta, Shango, Xango.

5Tiky, N., The African Origins of the Athenian Democracy, Annual Meeting Paper NCOBPS, Department of Political Science: University of Connecticut, 2012. Originally written in 2011.

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6 August