Burning the 67: I do not agree, but I understand

Let’s begin here, a legitimate note of caution.

In this deleted tweet, Iyin had argued against crucifying young Nigerians who are trying to lead movements towards a different direction for Nigeria, on account of their past associations.

As most people know, Iyin is a good friend, and during the day, I work for him. Sometimes we work in the same industry, and we also agree on most things. One of the things we often disagree on is how to handle disappointment with leadership and dissent as a tool in bringing about positive change.

We have argued on and offline about whether it is okay to call leaders out in public and for the most part, Iyin believes it’s important to maintain a seat at the table. Publicly disagreeing and calling leaders out takes that seat away, and in a generation where we are sorely lacking in participation at the table, this is very important. I agree.

Personally I don’t believe in working for government, but I’d readily work with government if I could see a clear path to improving lives. Even if I don’t like a government, we have to understand this country will remain ours whether we like the government or not, so we have to help build it irrespective of who is in power.

I also believe that in order to bring about positive change in governance, we have to be equitable in holding our leaders to account, whether they be our friends or people we do not like very much.

While I understand Iyin’s point, as stated above, I strongly believe equity demands that our loyalty stays firmly on the side of country. This is why a strong opposition must remain to government, in order to keep it accountable.

This brings me to the tweet at the beginning of this post. Yesterday, as with many days in what has become Nigerian twitter fare, many young people were up on twitter cursing the government. They were also attacking proponents of a youth movement aimed at driving youth participation in politics. In the course of those conversations, some young Nigerians were also called out and in some instances accused of being sellouts on account of their former stances, alliances or jobs in politics.

I believe this is one of the reasons many of our fellow Twitizens called for caution. I agree.

But as always, perspective demands a counterpoint.

Let’s begin with the point that many of the political voices on twitter are aligned with political interests, more or less, and are often not speaking without conflicts of interest. This is an important point, because it immediately cautions the innocent “tweep” to take everything they read from prominent “overlords” with a pinch of salt. Before anyone goes to war on account of a political tweet, evaluate the unwritten disclaimer: this tweet might be backed by conflicts of interests.

In my professional life, I’m often been called in to douse fires or provide strategic guidance for various clients. As a rule, especially with politics, I never speak about the people I work with professionally in public. I do not associate with them publicly and never mention their names. Exception may apply under very exceptional circumstances, but this is a personal code of conduct to ensure I do not betray the trust of people who would think I am speaking from a neutral position.

I recently resigned from all paid politics-related consulting in the lead up to the 2019 elections, and the reason for that was to ensure that whatever I may get involved in is something I believe in. I also did so in order to ensure that I can speak my truth freely, with a clear conscience.

But in the disclaimer above, it is easily deduced that like everyone, I have biases and projects I believe in, but more importantly, those I don’t believe in. This is the case with most. It is also the case that the ethical practices I adhere to do not apply to all, so it is reality that most of the political opinions on Nigerian online spaces are biased by various relationships and incentives. It’s unethical more or less, but this is the world we live in, thus, we move.

In light of the above, it is easy to see why young Nigerians are wary of political movements. It is true that most of the movements of 2015 were backed by political money. I would know. I advised some and helped design some. So I do not in anyway blame young Nigerians for being suspicious of any new political movements that have risen in the lead up to next year’s elections.

I personally also swore off any political “youth” organizations or civil society support. Here’s why:

In 2015, I was involved in about 3 of such organizations and contributed time and money to them.

The people who knew my competences also brought me onboard their organizations in various capacities. One of those organizations (will not be named, but none of the people there was paid as far as I could tell, because they were quite accomplished young people) was directly involved with the then Vice Presidential candidate, whom I saw as a very passionate, honest man. I liked him. I still like him.

But I had a rule. Whenever I am called in to work with a political organization or person, I insist on speaking with the principal to personally hear their views and in most cases, only work with them if I either agree with them or see many points of convergence. In this case, I did not quite abide by my own rules. Time was short, and the candidate would not be available for a few days.

The candidate did become available. We had a session where I had to do interviews for advertisements, as well as record calls to voters. While prepping him for the session, I took some time to have that conversation. For about 20 minutes, I was blown away by the vision of this man, his passion, his knowledge and admission of humanity. I’m often rather cynical with politicians. But he seemed different.

Let me quote the line that really got me:

“I will never stand for illegality”, also stating that he would check any leftover dictatorial impulses in Buhari. He was a well respected pastor and professor of law. It was easy to believe him.

In 2015, I was clear in my objective — I was dissatisfied with the government in power and was going to work and vote against it. But in Prof, there was a glimmer of hope that the replacement could be better. I was probably stupid, but there is a place for stupid people in life.

Our paths crossed a few more times, and at every point, he spoke very passionately about his belief in the rule of law. This actually meant something to me. In one of those meetings, there were 5 other people in the room, including the then Presidential candidate Buhari, in what turned out to be a rather frustrating night which led me to ask “Why is this man running for president?” But Prof’s talk about the rule of law helped me refocus on the objective.

That evening, I told these two gentlemen “I don’t believe in people, but I believe in contracts. If you betray the trust of Nigerians, I would work as hard as I’m working for you to be elected, against you”. We seemed to have an agreement that if they didn’t perform, voting against them was the obvious thing to do. I would be silly to think that two grown men in politics saying “we agree” means anything, but I was raised to believe people mean what they say.

After the election was won, I broke another one of my personal rules — attending politically themed events — I attended a reception in honour of the VP-elect. At that reception, as the VP-elect came by our table, one of his people, an RCCG pastor who lived in my neighbourhood, mentioned to him that I didn’t vote “the party” during the gubernatorial elections (we happened to vote at the same polling station). My answer was “I thought we all had freedom of choice. I also do not belong to any party”.

When I left the reception, I decided I wouldn’t attend the meet and greet in Abuja with the president-elect. In honesty, I probably would never have attended the Abuja event, but the “party man” conversation, as short as it was, shocked me back into grabbing a hold of my “no political events” position.

In 2016, things started going terribly wrong. 2015 was bad. Very bad. The economy tumbled on account of inaction by the new president, but I thought, baby steps. 2016, however, was just horrible. Then security issues returned and people were dying again.

I called my good friend from one of the organizations we worked with. I told him, look, this thing is just bad. People are dying and not even being acknowledged. Let’s write a letter to the people we worked to elect. If people who supported them disagree with them, they would take notice.

The response was “Hmm, it’s too early”. At this point, many of my friends had joined the new government. I clearly sensed that my friends would not speak up against the government because they were now either on the inside, or needed to preserve their access.

More people died and I raised the topic again, this time, an open letter, to be published as a full page ad in the national dailies. My friend then told me, “If we do that, it would hurt Prof”. I wasn’t surprised, but was surprised. I said “But people are dying…”

There was no response.

For perspective, I am only holding the government to account based on Prof’s own words about upholding the rule of law and opposing illegalities:

1. The current government has repeatedly flouted court orders to release political prisoners.
2. Journalists have been imprisoned for months without trial — Mr. Jones Abiri, a journalist who disappeared two years ago has now been charged to court by the DSS on weird charges that remind me of the Abacha days.
3. Petrol subsidy has ballooned — 80m litres of petrol are being claimed to be consumed per day against less than 35m litres just three years ago (in that same time, car imports have dropped because the government has doubled down on an auto policy that is rewarding special interests and punishing everyone else). There has been no investigation. The appropriations for this new subsidy (or under-recovery) have not been approved by the National Assembly.
4. The ruling party openly admitted to paying for votes in a recently concluded state election — a criminal act.

So I return to where we started from — Iyin’s tweet. I understand that young people should try to keep a seat at the table, and I see why my friends refused to criticize the man they worked with and backed as their champion, but where was this understanding for the other government? Where was the nuance?

Yes, it is naive to expect people to not grow from their ideals and face new realities, but if we do not apply criticism equitably, what right have we to expect equitable governance?

It is on this note that I decided, it is more important to hold everyone accountable, especially the leaders who are our friends. I’m deeply disappointed that Prof, the champion of rule of law, is serving when a sitting minister has been accused of forgery and for nearly a month, the government has simply unlooked.

No sir, that is not the rule of law that was promised. And if you compromise on the very small things, how then can we trust you to not compromise on the big, life and death things?

I don’t assume life is easy for our friend, the Prof, but he held the hope of millions of young people in 2015. He criticised incumbent government back then and promised to do better. If the reality of governing now means he has to go back in his own words, honour demands that he openly says so, and/or resigns. But I am more saddened that the young people who promised they would hold him to account have simply refused to.

This is why I have sworn off “youth movements”. I view them with a heavy dose of suspicion.

So, if I, a person who was part of these movements, views them with a very healthy dose of suspicion, how much more the “ordinary” Nigerian youth who jumped on a train because they believed and have been massively let down?

Yes, I disagree with the calling of names, but I understand. I understand why young people would be suspicious of any political movement. I understand why they would rather not vote and sit at home, after all “they are all the same”.

I understand why any of the young leaders who led 2015 movements cannot be trusted to lead another movement (this includes myself). They have not risen up to the responsibility of holding leaders accountable. If you supported publicly, it is expected that you hold them to account publicly.

Criticism never doesn’t hurt. Insults never don’t hurt. I see why Iyin is cautioning against attacks on young leaders. I really do. Young Nigerians need to keep their eyes focused on the task of building Nigeria, instead of attacking each other. After all, these old men are on their way out and this mess is ours to inherit, whether we want it or not.

So I agree with Iyin. We should be focused on building. I do not agree with the insults and mob calls for crucifixion.

I do not agree, but I understand.