Non-violent resistance is not Non-existent resistance

I write in response to a certain Mr. Ikenna Ebirim who wrote a piece of letter accusing Pastor Bakare of inciting people to violence in the next elections. In Ikenna’s words, he wrote, “Does it not amount to treason, for a presidential candidate (or VP) to call on Nigerians to take up arms (Jerry cans of fuel – arson) against an elected government if their candidate does not win at the coming polls? If their supporters set this country ablaze, which country will he govern?” Indeed, the above is a twisted account of what Pastor Bakare said at the NN24 debates, and such twisting is understandable, considering the fact that this is a season for politicking and electioneering.

Pastor Bakare never called for people to resort to violence against an elected government if their candidates do not win, no, not at all. What Pastor Bakare said and I quote him verbatim here is this “General Buhari never said anyone should spill blood, if he had wanted to do that, he would not have spent 50 months (that is more than 4 years) within the court system, to prove his case that he won the elections that were rigged in 2003 and 2007. But in this year 2011, he said ‘We will not go to courts at all, we will settle this at the polls', because of the level of awareness; an awakened citizenry, a people who are willing to protect their own votes…. Every Nigerian citizen must rise to vote, those of voting age, and they must not only vote, they must protect their vote because that is their voice and their voices must be heard, and anyone trying to stop that, is playing with Yemen, with Egypt, with Tunisia, all together, rolled into one, it is called the revolt of the poor.“

When the revered man of God was prodded to provide more explanation into what he meant by the revolt of the poor, asked if he meant people should lynch and kill people, he replied “No, I didn’t say people should kill anyone. Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, is the ruling class pushing the people to the wall. The truth of the matter is, when people say enough is enough, they mean it. In recent times in Kano, the election that brought in Shekarau to power; was because people rose up to defend their votes. It is recorded, they went with jerry cans in their hands, match in one hand, jerry can carrying petrol with the other, they cast their votes, and they followed those who were carrying the ballot from place to place to collation center. It got to a point, to a critical point, that they started calling Aso Rock and they were speaking to Obasanjo, and he’s alive to confirm this, that we cannot change this figure like we used to. That’s what we are talking about.”

The statement is clear. The people are tired of being cheated and oppressed. The season is combustive, like Chief Oyegun, vice presidential candidate of the ANPP said in defense of Bakare. If someone says to an aggressor, “You have slapped me twice, if you slap me one more time, I will engage you in a fight”. It is not the person who has been slapped twice and refused to respond that ought to be cautioned, it is the one who has slapped the innocent without reason that is inviting chaos and violence and he is the one that should be cautioned.

Mr. Ikenna then goes ahead to quote non-violent resistance as the systems of societal change preached by the late Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jnr. Of course, it is divine to engage the use of non-violent change when the aggressor has in him a chance to meet reason with morality. But when an aggressor is sworn, sworn in hell, to utterly destroy his victim, non-violence may not be the best option of resistance. The British occupation and domination of India; racial injustice against the blacks in America, all those were ideological differences in which the oppressor possessed a chance, a possibility of conceding to reason. There are fights of attrition, and there are fights of annihilation. A fight of attrition occurs because of a difference in ideology, in which both parties involved resort to muscle flexing to push their own agenda as the superior agenda. In such a fight, non-violent resistance is a great method of resisting evil. However, in a fight of annihilation, where one party is sworn to exterminate and extinguish the opposition, based on intense and unexplained hatred, non-violence is definitely not the way to go. Adolf Hitler’s mad ambition could not have been stopped by non-violence, neither was Pharaoh’s insistence on having the Israelites remain slaves forever in Egypt.

However, what irks me personally is the speed at which a lot of our people are wont to quote non-violent resistance as the best method of stopping evil, yet evil is continually committed against them and their people but they never put up any resistance, be it non-violent, or otherwise. A lot of Nigerians are well read, and widely exposed; they possess the ability to quote all the sages of this world having read lots and lots of books, but to put these things to practice is a big challenge. The purveyors of non-violent resistance in our nation are many, but how much of such resistance have they put up against evil? Oppression, cheating, injustice are perpetrated everyday but they never have felt the obligation to lead a resistance against this. Is it in the quoting, or in the doing? I have come to the conclusion that majority of the purveyors of non-violent resistance in Nigeria do so out of fear and cowardice. Not willing to suffer or get molested, they hide under the concept of non-violence.

Even Gandhi himself stated that non-violent resistance must be done in courage, and that it was better to fight than to embrace non-violence out of fear. Gandhi in his words defined non-violence in these words “Non-violence implies voluntary submission to the penalty for non-cooperation with evil.” A voluntary submission to the penalty for the non-cooperation with evil! In the days of Gandhi and MLK, they opposed every appearance of injustice with their non-violent ways. When unfavorable policies were imposed by the British government, Gandhi organized non-violent resistance against it. An example was the Great March to the sea, where Gandhi marched with 79 followers for hours to the sea and crystallized salt from the sea water to protest against the salt tax imposed by the British government. By his action, millions of Indians rose up against the salt tax until the British government was forced to make concessions to their demands. Martin Luther King on his own marched over 25 occasions, protesting against different policies in different cities for oppressed black people. In places, against the transport system, in other places against the housing system, in certain places against the school system! Gandhi and MLK suffered great physical brutalization in the pursuit of their cause but eventually overcame. They are the true heroes of non-violent change. They boldly stepped between the oppressor and the oppressed; the impostors and the victims, received on their bodies the pain and torture that would have been unleashed on the oppressed, and enforced positive change in their polity.

But in Nigeria, the purveyors of non-violent change are victims of incessant oppression, continuous subjugation and cheating from the ruling class, but they are unwilling to move against the system in resistance. They then cite non-violent resistance as their reason and abiding principle. Give me a break! Non-violent resistance is RESISTANCE at least! Show me your own resistance!! Presidential elections have been massively rigged twice; our transformation champions and non-violent change purveyors have never done anything about it. Corruption is at the highest level, we have never heard their voice. Nigerian legislator’s monthly pay is a monumental injustice against the average Nigerian worker and citizen, yet the purveyors of non-violent resistance do nothing. Thousands are being killed in Jos almost every week, but the purveyors of non- violent resistance neither speak up, march, nor do anything to force the government to stem this tide! The only thing we do is say and write quotes of great people. Is that the way Gandhi and MLK pursued theirs?

Indeed if Gandhi and MLK were Nigerians living in Nigeria in this generation, they would have grounded this evil, corrupt, oppressive governmental system to a halt a long time ago! They did not have the ability to stand this level of injustice. They would have grounded the system in 2007 when PDP unjustly rigged themselves to power. They would have risen to the occasion and inspired Nigerians to follow suit. Our transformation agents preach non-violent resistance yet they cooperate with evil by keeping silent and doing nothing. Meanwhile, they are supposed to call the attention of all, step out and disobey unjust laws, or stand in protest against unjust acts and invite the highest penalty to be laid on them!

If there is any Nigerian who has practically demonstrated non-violent resistance against oppression and injustice in Nigeria in recent times, it is no other than Pastor Bakare when he led thousands of us to march against the power hijack which the PDP had foisted on Nigerians in the wake of former President Yar’adua’s sickness and evacuation to Saudi Arabia. Indeed, when Nigeria became rudderless in the impasse that followed Yar’adua’s exit to Saudi Arabia, a lot of transformation agents again condemned Bakare for leading a non-violent protest march! I heard statements like “it is not timely” “they are supposed to be praying but they are marching” “Marching achieves nothing.” What a great betrayal! Betrayal of their running philosophy and betrayal of their nation! If Gandhi was living and this happened in India, he wouldn’t let it be; If Martin Luther King was living and this happened in America, he wouldn’t let it be!!

Pastor Bakare has not called for violence; he has not called for bloodletting, or killing of the innocent. He has only given a warning to the people of this nation. Pastor Bakare’s call for the people to protect their votes is definitely not different from the call of the revered Pastor Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God when he recently declared at the Holy Ghost convention “If anyone tampers with our votes in 2011, we will fight, we will fight!” The people’s wishes have been subverted twice; Bakare warns that any attempt to try that again this year might lead to anarchy and chaos. Has he not told the truth? Are the events in Tunisia and Egypt not evidence of the mood of Africans at this hour? A people who are tired of being cheated and looted? It is the PDP that must heed the warning at this hour and desist from doing evil. No one planned and executed the Tunisian and Egyptian revolution! They were spontaneous; the response of a people to the height of oppression and cheating.

Let the purveyors of non-violent change quickly step out of their comfort zones and take responsibility for peaceful elections and transfer of power if the ruling party loses in 2011, or else anything can happen in Nigeria. It is a hard saying; but that is the simple truth that stares us all in the face! It is God that establishes kingdoms and raises up kings, but when these kings do not glorify Him, He also orchestrates rebellions that will tear these kingdoms apart! Sometimes revolution can be from God. The Bible shows this.

Non-violent resistance is not non-existent resistance. Purveyors of non-violent change in Nigeria mostly do so in their speech but live non-existent resistance in practice! Let us not forget that non-violent resistance is done out of courage and not out of fear, it is practiced and not quoted, it involves sacrificing for the sake of the general populace. It involves deliberately planting oneself in between the oppressor and the oppressed. It involves taking a lot of pain and receiving blows without retaliation, it involves receiving willingly the highest punishment for non-cooperation with evil! And for those whose hearts are constantly drawn to the teachings of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, it is not for fun, or for mere acquisition of head knowledge, what God is telling you at this hour is that you are called to be the Gandhi and MLK of today; you are called to teach Nigerians the beauty of non violent resistance! There is a lot of violence going on in Nigeria today, ethnic clashes, injustices, religious clashes, God is waiting on you to rise up and step up to practically showcase to Nigerians how to register their ill feelings and demand for justice in non violent ways! Thousands are dying from violent resistance in our nation, perhaps their bloods will be demanded from some agents of transformation who have the passionate calling in their bones, but are too comfortable presently, preferring to keep quiet and lead their own lives…