By David Hundeyin
"Smug cynicism" is what I termed it as a teenager
in the mid-2000s.
Growing up as a Jehovah Witness in Nigeria, what I was
repeatedly told was that all the problems that I read about in the newspapers
everyday were the result of humanity's inability to rule itself. Only God's
kingdom could solve problems like poor electricity supply, grinding poverty and
rotten infrastructure. Any attempt to fix these problems using the levers of
politics and government was doomed to fail because "God did not create man
to rule himself."
For this reason, JWs were and are not allowed to take part in politics or take up political appointments. To take an active part in politics and government in an attempt to solve our own problems would be to engage in a futile struggle against the baked-in limits of human capacity, set by none other than God himself. I was taught this everyday.
Despite firmly believing that all of Nigeria's problems were
beyond human solution and that to even try to solve them would be a foolish
rebellion against Jehovah himself, I noted that my parents made absolutely sure
to insulate our family from these problems. Trying to achieve constant
electricity for 160 million people might have amounted to fighting God, but
somehow the 35kVA Marapco generator at home and its 1,000 litre external diesel
tank which gave the 7 of us constant electricity, was apparently just fine with
the same God.
When we would travel, I would note that practically
everywhere else, from Cotonou to Frankfurt to Lomè to London had constant
electricity. Apparently these people had successfully fought God, since
constant universal electricity supply in Nigeria was supposedly a pipe dream
under human leadership - such things were only supposed to be possible in a
theocratic, utopian paradise led by Jehovah himself. Clearly, something wasn't
right or someone wasn't telling the truth. This became increasingly obvious to
me as I got older.
Ghana was not a paradisaic theocracy led by God - in fact
Ghana wasn't even all that different to Nigeria. But Ghana had light and
Nigeria didn't. The UK was led by a dour Scottish bloke called Gordon Brown,
not by Jehovah God. The British by and large weren't even a particularly
religious people. But they had light. And great infrastructure. And machines
that sprayed salt on the roads whenever it snowed. And a fire service that
showed up inside 4 minutes when I accidentally set my kitchen at Ferens Hall on
fire in 2008 as an 18 year-old 1st year in Hull.
Someone was telling lies.
That "smug cynicism" of my parents and so many
around them, I later came to understand, is a major part of the reason why
Nigeria does not change. There is actually no cosmic power in operation that
prevents Nigeria from becoming a more functional and better-organised society.
Nigeria is Nigeria because Nigerians are Nigerians, and they traditionally do
not believe that Nigeria can change because they do not believe that they can -
or should - change.
Within this demographic of cynical, comfortably smug people
lies the key to understanding the supposed docility and resigned acquiescence
of Nigerians in the face of provocations and malfeasance that has brought entire
countries down. This demographic, to which Seun Kuti belongs, believes
fervently that it knows best and that it has some deep, profound understanding
of Nigeria and the world which it actually does not have.
Whether it is the religious variant like my parents who
believed that young people pursuing change are pursuing a futile fool's errand;
or the political/activist variant like Seun Kuti who believe that any kind of
change that does not conform to their narrow vision of change is invalid; or the
journalistic variant who have never produced any valuable journalistic work of
their own, but criticise, nitpick and endlessly complain about other people's
work; what they all have in common is that while they believe they know
everything, they can never demonstrate the validity of their supposed
knowledge. Their comfortable forte is criticism and running commentary. All
talk, no do. Plenty of English, zero utility.
When young people came out to protest in October 2020, these
were the people who stridently opposed and criticised the protests with the
refrain: "You have to find a better way to express your grievances. Take
your grievances to the polls and vote instead of constituting a nuisance."
When young people took this advice and overwhelmingly chose Peter Obi as the
bearer of their mandate ahead of this month's elections, it then became:
"You need to stop building castles in the sky and vote for a candidate
with a nationwide structure and realistic chance of winning."
When both of these things were achieved in record time and
in unprecedented fashion, it then became "Peter Obi is not a saint either
because in 1929, his grandfather's cousin's best friend stole a tuber of
yam…" These guys offer only a never-ending stream of complaints, criticism,
nit-picking and pointless, sterile English-speaking, often spiced up with
a contrived and shallow simulacrum of
the "weed-puffing-counter-culture-intellectual" aesthetic initially
popularised by Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. They offer no actual ideas or solutions.
Just endless empty talk that tries to mimic intellectual discourse.
If you listen carefully to these voices like I did as a
teenager, you will realise 2 things that will make you understand why you
should stay as far away from such people as possible:
1.) The entire reason behind the "counter-culture smug
cynic" aesthetic is fear of confronting their own ignorance and lack of
power in a world that is huge and scary. It is much easier to pretend to have
everything figured out, and walk around with an aura of knowledge and
mysticism, than it is to accept one's own smallness and inability to control
anything in the larger scheme of things. It was easier for my parents to hide
behind their faith than to acknowledge the reality that they were effectively
hostages in a country ruled by a violent, dysfunctional military establishment
which they were so terrified of, that they wouldn't even say Abacha's name out
loud in conversation.
2.) They know nothing. When you prod the likes of Seun Kuti
more than an inch deep, their glaring lack of intellectual depth becomes
evident. There is no greater protection for the ego of an ignoramus than the ability
to perform intelligence.
What every young Nigerian needs to understand is that power
lies with them when they act as a collective. There are several people who are
invested in propagating the idea that Nigeria is way too complex for any of us
to bother about taking an active part in its politics. There are people in and
around power since 1999 who have never won an election with more than 25%
turnout of the total possible voting population. These people and their proxies
are not happy to see young Nigerians under 30 becoming such a fearsome political
force. It is a direct existential threat to them.
It is in their interest to throw out as many loudmouth
proxies with as many narrative distractions as possible to stop young Nigerians
from realising and exercising the power that they now have. I have mentioned
before that if perchance Peter Obi loses this election, but finishes ahead of
either of the 2 amigos in PDAPC, that would be every bit as much of an all-time
political game changer in Nigeria as a Peter Obi victory this month. It would be
a direct and unrecoverable victory of young, ordinary Nigerians against an
establishment that is many decades older than them.
The solution is not God's Kingdom, or obscure aluta-continua
candidates promoted by Fela wannabes with the tiresome weed-smoking-faux-intellectual
aesthetic, or hundreds of pages of English expressing nothing in as many grandiloquent
words as possible.
The solution is young Nigerians acting in unison to take
decisive political action.
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Well crafted bro
ReplyDeleteOn point, as always 👌
ReplyDelete