By Femi Idowu
Our dear country, Nigeria is one with great potentials.
No question about it, Nigeria is that land flowing with milk and honey.
In our country, all things are possible.
For quite a long time now though, it’s been a lot more negative news from and about Nigeria.
Although I don’t physically live in Nigeria, I have a feeling that I might possibly have a lot more information about the country, than many people who live there- in addition I try to visit as regularly as practicable.
That’s because I love Nigeria indeed!
To love is however not just to pat on the back. To love is not to look away from that which is not good enough in the one you love.
To love is not just to defend without being objective.
I have for quite some time had this running battle with some of our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, they are political stalwarts, once they pitch their tent with one party, particularly if it’s the party in power, they get so obsessed, and really annoy me trying to defend the indefensible.
Some of my colleagues, friends that I would have been able to vouch for as objective analysts seem to have decided on going the opposite direction now, yet most of us are yearning for a better Nigeria.
I ask myself this question every now and then, how can we have a better Nigeria, when one of the most major issues, I consider as the bane of forward movement remains unaddressed.
I am talking about OPPRESSION!
I have lived outside Nigeria in the past twenty something years and I feel oppressed by what’s going on in country.
I am currently going through economic and financial oppression by Nigeria, though I live in Britain and I will discuss the details(maybe EFCC might be able to help me).
My country, Nigeria, God’s special country is unfortunately a Country that has institutionalised and in a way legitimised oppression.
With that in place in different dimensions in Nigeria, we are not going anywhere. Nothing is likely to get better until the issue is properly addressed.
As far back as the 70s, popular Afrojujju musician, Sina Peters, sang a best seller song to glorify oppression. We all embraced it and sang it heartily.
Many of us were happy and proud to be referred to as ‘OPPRESSOR’!
I think Sina thought he was simply entertaining, or didn’t realise that care needs to be taken in all issues of life including humour and entertainment.
I also danced the Sina dance then, I was quite young but now I am 73 and surprisingly I see that that Sina music still gets very good attention in social circles.
This, I believe, is because many of us don’t see anything wrong in ‘dancing away our sorrows’ no matter at what cost. Some people seem to be amused but some have actually died and many more in serious discomfort.
My take now is however that the condition into which Nigeria has been plunged is such that our people should not continue to be tortured with the offer of palliatives. Particularly political palliatives! A palliative (of a medicine or form of medical care) is about ‘relieving symptoms without dealing with the cause of the condition’
Nigeria is thriving, we are doing well in drama, entertainment, comedy, music. Our people are smiling at the screen but aching bitterly inside. Oppression, depression is on the increase due largely to what is coming from the powers that be.
That’s what successive governments have been doing to the masses of our people. And things simply continue to degenerate. Today the situation in Nigeria is ‘unbelievable’- I never imagined that we would get to this point. When Naira to Dollar became 1-4, we were living in the United States then, I was so concerned. It was as if the world was coming to an end. Here we are today, the Dollar to Naira creeping or is it galloping uncomfortably to 1-2000( I hope that never happens). Although many people believe things can degenerate further if care is not taken.
I am still very optimistic though, that we can salvage Nigeria- the sleeping giant of Africa. It can be done if we all get genuinely committed, shun partisanship and face our issues squarely.
We need to stop politicians from further oppressing the masses, and if we desire to avoid a violent revolution, we should stop being superficial in our approach to issues relating to the well being of our country.
Oppression is defined as prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or exercise of authority.
Oppression can be palpably felt in every aspect of Nigeria’s life and we have to start to dig deep to pull it all out.
Synonyms for oppression include: persecution, abuse, maltreatment,ill treatment, tyranny, despotism, enslavement, ruthlessness and so on.
I have identified some shades of oppression that we need to begin to deal with in Nigeria right away.
Political oppression
Religious oppression
Domestic oppression
Economic and financial oppression
(There’s surely many more shades)
As the discussion continues, I am sure more Nigerians will come up with more dimensions of oppression.
Should I be explaining what political oppression means to the average Nigerian? Is it not what we have all been forced to live with particularly since 1966 in Nigeria?
I did my West African School Certificate examination in that year at Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo
1966 was also the year the first military coup took place in Nigeria.
That was the year Nigeria was seriously destabilised. That was the beginning of our downward trend. That was the beginning of very serious political oppression in Nigeria. I was 16 then and had been taking a lot of interest in Nigeria’s politics even before then. I don’t think I need to get into the details of how I got to develop keen interest in politics early in life. Suffice it to say it had to do with my family’s social/religious relationship with the family of a Western Region politician,
Chief Adedeji, popularly known as ‘BABALEJE’ from Eruwa.
The tyrannical rule of military oppression that started in 1966 however continued to be ‘Refined’ by successive military regimes and even when the country returned to civil rule, the level of oppression just got worse and things continued to degenerate.
I am in a comfortable position to say we had a good deal in the days of the regions. I have been more comfortably positioned since to study Nigeria’s politics in later years as by 1976, exactly 10 years after the coup I was a Reporter with the Nigeria Television Authority in Ibadan and by 1978 I became the first political editor on Television in Nigeria.
I have seen, from close quarters, how politicians have politically savaged our people. It keeps getting worse and our people seem to think the best thing to do is endure the oppression.
It’s unfortunate that Democracy in Nigeria can no longer I be defined as government of the people, for the people and by the people.
I described it not too long ago as JUDIOCRACY- a situation in which our people have continued to be politically robbed and raped with the connivance of the political class and the judiciary.
Money rules in Nigeria. With a big cash armoury, politicians are able to wangle their way to power. We are being ruled, as it were, by self installed leaders.
I call it ‘sophisticated oppression’- we are being ruled unjustly and conditioned to like it. It is an expression of Fela’s suffering and smiling.
It’s unfortunate that the ‘smiles’ are being wiped off now through banditry, kidnapping, terrorism… absolute insecurity in the country. Oppression at its worst!
There is serious hunger in the land, the land supposed to be flowing with milk and honey.
And there is more.
Religious oppression- many Nigerians are now imprisoned in their different faith settings.
Religion which essentially should set people free is actually binding them with stronger chains. Seriously slowing many people down.
It is so disturbing that with religious oppression, our people are, most of the time, in denial. They think they are being faithful to the doctrines of their faith by being unconditionally obedient to their leaders. To the discerning, things seem to get increasingly cloudier to people in the shackle of religious oppression. All you hear them say is that ‘God is at work and we will continue to pray.’
There’s no question about the fact that ‘proper prayers’ work but indeed politics is a game we must learn to play properly if we want a better in Nigeria.
I will conclude this piece by discussing economic and financial oppression in Nigeria but I am sure there will be opportunities to revisit the issue of oppression soon.
I am concluding on this note because I am personally affected though, like I have said, I don’t live in Nigeria.
Economic and financial oppression affects thousands of other Nigerians too and particularly pensioners.
People who have served Nigeria faithfully are now being seriously punished, oppressed, brutalised. Many have actually died as they have been oppressively denied access to their pension entitlements. How callous can the oppressors be, how heartless!
My ordeal started 4 years ago when my pension in Nigeria which I started to draw in 2020 suddenly got stopped. It took a few months before I realised that it had been stopped.
As soon it was brought to my attention that my pension had been stopped, I went to work immediately trying to effect reactivation. The reason that was given was that I did not attend the verification exercise at the Nigeria High Commission in London. I never got any invitation to attend. No notification.
I thought it was going to be straight forward but when I saw the list of what was required, I sensed something sinister was in the offing. I was to present the letter of my first appointment dating back to almost 50 years earlier. I was to supply some other documents that made me conclude that PTAD was up to something unfair.
In the last ten years or so I have been living on my pension in Britain and Nigeria. I have responsibilities and obligations both ways, and I have been content living modestly on my pension.
Many things I used to do to contribute to the economy of Nigeria have had to stop since 4 years ago. The people I have been supporting financially ( not family members) I am sure, can’t understand why I have had to cut back on many things. There so many other Nigerian pensioners, living in the Diaspora, who would have continued to contribute to the growth of Nigeria’s economy, with the same plight.
A loss to Nigeria now looks like gain to the pockets of some greedy Nigerians.
What is more worrisome is the fact that one keeps hearing about financial irregularities with different government agencies. Someone told me that some officials fix our pension money in different bank accounts and thrive on the interest. I have that very difficult to believe!
At any rate here I am, with all the connections I think I have in Nigeria, unable to have access to what legitimately belongs to me, after supplying all the documents, which I consider most unnecessary for reactivating, as I was already drawing my pension, based on verified documents. I was not putting in a fresh application.
I feel oppressed, robbed, abused for no just reason. It’s more discomforting when one is told that PTAD says it’s approaching issues of life and death to many by saying that are doing this to curb corruption. We are not deaf, not blind (serious apologies to people with impairment in this regard) we can see what’s going on all over in Nigeria with corruption, why is it that innocent people are the ones suffering for sins they they did not commit.
This brazen act of economic and financial oppression must stop now, along side other shades of oppression.
Many government officials in Nigeria already have blood on their hands because many people have died through their recklessness, impunity, absolute disregard for sanctity of human life.
They need to know that if justice is not served on them on earth, it will definitely descend on them from heaven.
God sees all things, knows all things. He sees the sweat of innocent retired civil servants in Nigeria and the blood of those who died because they were denied access to money that could have paid for their health needs and blood of the dead keeps crying to God.
All shades of oppression have to stop NOW!
Femi Idowu is a retired civil servant living in London. He was a one time Bureau Chief, NTA News, Ibadan Bureau and currently Vice Chairman, WNTV Alumni.
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