the discourse with 'Rotfas'

Dear Rotemila,

Thank you very much for yours. I would not mind using the euphemism "national rebirth" for REVOLUTION. At least calling a spade a shovel is not not calling it a spade. My simple problem with that is that very like the Frankfurt School which started with "critical theory" as a euphemism for MARXISM but which could still keep using the same phrase after the '68 risings for the very opposite, "national rebirth" could be the basis for a neo-fascist project (Hitler's lebensraum which guided his war was claimed to be in pursuit of a "national rebirth").

Anyway, I don't disagree with "democracy" generally. I also do not wish to further pursue an argument on the political or theoretical correctness or otherwise of Nigeria being a "democracy" or a "civilocracy" (if you will, please). I just want you to ask why it took America 105 years after that beautiful speech of good old Abe for descendants of we black folks taken yonder in chains to also have the primary right of citizenship (ie franchise) bestowed on them.

Well, at the bottom of it all is the transformative and transforming role of struggle. All this our turenche get to have real meaning when we align them with practice.

.....probably one of the reasons I have not only the time but the itch that's been translated by my fingers to these pages is the frustration of my restless spirit and tireless person's being spatially cut off from the trenches at home. Now I understand why Lenin did hold their emigre conditions in Switzerland etc as as one of the culprits for the "squabbles" and hair splitting that went with...and did eventually play their own roles in furthering their discovery and definintion of themselves and their struggle....


My regards,

Baba Aye

Zimmer 10, Heckershauser Str., 19A

D34127, Kassel, Germany

+49-1628714379

babaaye.blog.co.uk (titbits of my life, sort of)

solidarityandstruggle.blogspot.com (on theory and practice)
Skype name: iron1lion

"if you are the big tree, we are the small axe, ready to cut you down"
- Bob Marley

"We will no longer hear your command, we'll seize the control from your hands
we will fan the flames of our anger and pain....Amandla, Ngawethu"
- UB 40

--- On Mon, 1/5/09, rotimi fashakin wrote:
From: rotimi fashakin
Subject: Re: [FOIcoalition] MILITARY RULE: AN ABERRATION????
To: FOIcoalition@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, January 5, 2009, 12:49 PM

Ah Baba,

I thank you.

Yes, you are right; I fell short of calling it what it should be, REVOLUTION.. ....

For those that have restricted their minds from roaming freely within the intellectual plane, Revolution is ONLY synonymous with Blood shed(though that often results when agents of change are opposed by reactionary forces). Let us therefore leave it as National Rebirth.

There are different definitions of democracy, which point to representative government.

But the one most popular was what Abraham Lincoln gave (which Osita has once quoted) in his Gettysburg address of November 19, 1863:

".........That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom- and that government of the people, by the people and for the people , shall not perish from the earth."

Would you say that there is semblance of democratic governance when an incumbent president was seen as the sole determinant of his successor in office? There was the case of a Governor that brought his son-in-law to succeed him! Was it to help conceal a family secret? Or to ensure that scepter does not leave the locus of the family influence, at least in the absence of a credible scion?

That a section of the citizery is disenfranchised is a matter of injustice, BUT making the votes cast on election day, a perfunctory exercise, is UNDEMOCRATIC!

The former was what made people like Martin Luther King to be seen as bellicose until the iniquitous practice caved in under the weight of sustained struggle.

But the later is what YOU and I and all lovers of dignity of man and true democratic governance must contend with until victory is won.

Let me reiterate: Nigeria has not been under DEMOCRACY but CIVIL RULE! QED.

Thanks brother.

Oluwarotimi

--- On Mon, 1/5/09, Baba Aye wrote:

From: Baba Aye
Subject: Re: [FOIcoalition] MILITARY RULE: AN ABERRATION?? ??
To: FOIcoalition@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Monday, January 5, 2009, 3:05 AM

Dear Rote,
Thank you very much for defying PHCN even at cost of diesel/gasoline and all that goes with using the 'generator' for piecing your position together.

I agree with your view point which, in from my perspective adds up to a word we often don't use again but which sums it all up; REVOLUTION.

Every country needs to define itself by establishing meanings which make words like "justice", "rights", "equality", "liberty" to start with capital letters.

However I am always bothered when people say what we have is not democracy but civil rule. Do not be mistaken about my position, I'll be the last to see this regime (i.e. as system and not just the government on its musical chair at any point in time) as either representing popular will or being emancipatory. But I ask, when did America become a democracy? In 1776 when blacks where still slaves? after the Lyndon Johnson enacted the civil rights act that gave blacks the right to vote? How about Athens, the classical example of direct democracy in which 2/3 of the population could not partake of such 'democracy'?

Every democracy has inscribed in it elements of dictatorship. My practical political activities here confirms that. It could be subtle (like the bundestrojan with which the German state can legally hack into any computer in Germany), defended by appeals to 'anti-terrorism ' or by recourse to "emergency powers" (I actually addressed these here sometime in December or November). I thus prefer to look at democratisation the ever expanding sphere of democratic rights in the economic and social as well as political facets of human life. Even in political life, except we keep fighting for democratisation, what we get is "procedural democracy" or the right of franchise, to choose who dictates to us for the next four or whatever years.

I agree with you that we have not evolved a national character. This is why with some friends I assert that Nigeria does not exist! I will not want to go into that for now but does being a "geopolitical expression" makes a country a nation? We need to define our present and find our future which has eluded us in our past.

It is unfortunate that God sef had to cry for Nigeria, but if our generation wakes up to moving beyond agonizing to organizing for social change, who knows it might be 'Just Before Dawn' for this sleeping giant...?

My regards,

Baba Aye

Zimmer 10, Heckershauser Str., 19A

D34127, Kassel, Germany

+49-1628714379

babaaye.blog. co.uk (titbits of my life, sort of)

solidarityandstrugg le.blogspot. com (on theory and practice)
Skype name: iron1lion

"if you are the big tree, we are the small axe, ready to cut you down"
- Bob Marley

"We will no longer hear your command, we'll seize the control from your hands
we will fan the flames of our anger and pain....Amandla, Ngawethu"
- UB 40

--- On Sat, 1/3/09, rotimi fashakin wrote:
From: rotimi fashakin
Subject: Re: [FOIcoalition] MILITARY RULE: AN ABERRATION?? ??
To: FOIcoalition@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Saturday, January 3, 2009, 11:15 PM

Baba AYE,

I have followed the enriching debate you have had with Osita; expectedly both of you have articulated your positions creditably well.

But you have deviated from the main subject matter:Is Military rule an aberation?

What is an aberration? Something that is not normal or acceptable.. .....

If we posit this concept within Nigeria's political evolution vis a vis its 48 years chequered existence as a sovereign nation, then, there is need for scrutiny of our widely-held beliefs.

I strongly believe that evolution of an enduring democratic governance must go hand in hand with the development of a solid national character. A visiting Indian Army chief was asked why the Army had not seized power in India since 1947. He gave a rather simple answer which really revealed the character of the average Indian: At the Military academy, every cadet was made to swear an oath of allegiance to the civil authority and NEVER to partake in any seizure of power. So when the sikh body guards of Indira Ganghi killed and later her son, Rajiv; the Army did not see it as a veritable excuse to seize power!

How have we fared with democratic governance? In 48 years, we have had approximately 19 years of civil rule- in addition to Sonekan's ILLEGAL ING of 82days! Yes ILLEGAL because Justice Dolapo Akinsanya's court said so. Though the execution of the judgment was held in abeyance by an appeal but a court of appelate jurisdiction had not set aside that judgment; so, it remains an ILLEGAL regime!

Still on the evolution of a national character, have we trully developed it as a nation?

So may argue and confuse political culture with national character.

Some have said that the incessant truncation of civil rule had been responsible for the bad political culture in the country. May be, may be not. Ghana has just held a keenly contested presidential election. There was no 'do or die' stance by the ruling party.We have been told of the victory of the opposition party. Ghana was also ruled by the military for a long time. What was the difference in the two jurisdictions? We look at that later.

I have been careful using civil rule and NOT democratic governance because they are two different things(no pun intended PLEASE!). Thus far, i am afraid, we have had civil rule in the over 19 years and NOT democratic governance. In a democracy, absolute power is vested in the people! whether parliamentary or presidential systems, the PEOPLE have the final say in those that govern them. This power is often exercised through their votes on election day.So any subversion of this right-in stable democracies- is viewed as high treason against the state.Any subterfuge to the conduct of credible elections is usually expunged from the system.In America, elections are held on November 4(every four years) and the elected president is sworn into office on January 20(the year following). This is already an entrenched practice. But this democratic practice evinced as a result of the enduring character passed on by the founding fathers: George Washington et al.

On Washington, John Quincy Adams (another former president), "His character will remain to all ages a model of human virtue, untarnished with a single vice." He, as the 'commander of all rebel forces in the colonies', as King George referred to him; left a lucrative real estate business in Mount Venon and defeated an enemy that was superior in training, equipment and numbers. He prosecuted this war at his own expence! The American state(then) could not even afford to pay the soldiers in his army. But by listening to their Commander, especially when he pulled out a pair of glasses as a sign that he was almost blind in the service of his country, the men wept and understood without resorting to mutinous discontent.

An outgoing president in our nation had once used political chicanery to 'capture' power for his party in his regional enclave and had used the power of incumbency(the devious anti-democratic practice in our political dictionary) to maintain the status quo!

But for Nations that were not fortunate to have had legacy of strong, virile and visionary founding fathers; how have they evolved as stable democracies? ?? Through National re-birth!

In 1917, Vladmir Lenin succeeded, through a popular People-propelled revolution, to topple the czarist regime.

Now coming to Ghana....... .

In the early 70s, the Ghanaian situation was very much like Nigeria's with both failed military and civil governments. But in 1978, a Ghanaian patriot got on the saddle and deemed it fit to carry out necessary executions in the land. Three former leader(Afrifa, Akufor & Acheampong) were felled in one day! The message to all Ghanaians was clear: Go for leadership for service or face death! It was shape up or shape out! It marked a turning point in Ghana's political history.

Was Nigeria at the brink of evincing this national rebirth? Yes in 1966, but ethno-centric considerations destroyed what was to shape the country's political future.

Since 1978, Ghana had focus and knew clearly her charted course for national development. I am using a generator to piece together this write up. That had become a non-existent phenomenon in Ghana for over 5 years! Ghana had away from the rank of Nigeria into democratic governance.

Come to think of it, it took a military man to effect it! I have often heard from people that Military rule is a curse. I often retorted that it is because we have NOT had the priviledge of truly patriotic folks(away from ethno-religious considerations) as military rulers. I may not admire some of Ghaddaffi's policies, but he has given an identity to his people.To a large extent he has used the instrumentality of political governance to meet basic needs of the people. He turned a semi-arid region into a fertile land!

When it is convenient, the west knows how to pally with Military regimes. Example: the former regime of Parvez(or perverse?) Musharraff.

In 1998 after the dark-goggled despot expired, the only refrain from the political class and Civil Society Organizations was an expeditious return to civil rule without laying the necessary groundswell for a trully great system anchored on true constitutional governance. Little wonder that the first sentence in the subsisting constitutional draft is a fraud:"we the people of Nigeria..... ." When was the constituent assembly constituted from which a constitution must evolve?

Let me end with contribution with this joke by one of the teachers in my former school, Prof Kole Omotosho:

Developing and under-developed Nations of the world came to God to know the remaining period to reach their political eldorado. India was told 50 years and they burst into tears. China was told 40 years, Ghana (85), Brazil(55), Iran(72), South Africa(60).. They all burst into tears. Then a man came clutching the Green-white- Green flag.. It's Nigeria's! On seeing the man, God wept.... WHY?

Nigeria's years are indeterminate!

Thank you

Oluwarotimi.