Price Hike: Who needs Who is Who to a Protest? -By Tife Owolabi

“The more there are riots, the more repressive action will take place, and the more we face the danger of a right-wing takeover and eventually a fascist society.”

Generally, people will shy away from any course action especially if it confrontational except an individual or group who decides to bear the burden and damn the consequences. hence, who bears the cat? (person or thing that is marked by special  power or force to risk its life for others ). For us, as Nigerians, our struggle mostly is skewed towards a direction and we have never agreed on a course of action collectively. So when a group or an individual champion a position it is viewed as oblique to undermine the system or a vendetta against a tribe, region, or religion. This is what informed this the topic of who bears the cat as some people have started hurling insults and calling out names of who is who that is lips-sealed over burning issues affecting the country. They wonder why their silence at this critical moment. But why calling people out when you can lead as well? 

Those who called protest yesterday may have retired in their trenches and gone to sleep today or see things differently now. Must Professor Wole Soyinka always be the one to challenge your docility and give you the propensity to act?  You don’t need Pastor Tunde Bakare to fuel your react in the face of malfeasance, sleaze, and malfunction systems bedeviling our dear country before you stage your solo protest or form a group to challenge the status quo? 

Omoyele Sowore is taking the bull by horn with his revolution now movement.  Although he has been in the struggle since as a teenager back in his student unionism day. Ashia Yesufu is on social media challenging the government on daily bases on the different infraction, insecurity, and bad governance.

She had her first opportunity at Bring Back Our Girls Campaign and though the BBOG campaign has been whittled down, she has not stopped talking or join the bandwagon of name-calling on Dr. Oby Ezekwesili if she has abandoned the struggle even-though Dr. Oby hasn’t abandoned the struggle of emancipating the country. 

Power is dynamic and it is changing hand rapidly as soft powers are deposing hardware of armies. Your little campaign on social media can spark up big debate and a revolution across the board. So, why calling people out perhaps those who saved Nigeria at a time and they have retired or seen it all? 

The Arab Spring of 2010 didn’t start with big names. It was was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in response to oppressive regimes and a low standard of living, starting with protests in Tunisia. 

So, what you are waiting for ? with the current increase in the pump price some Nigerian Students have rejected the Petrol Price Increment and in their submission have asked President Mohammed Buhari to resign. The National Association of Nigerian Students didn’t reel out names or flagged old pictures of those who led a protest in the past that the pump from N148 to N151.56k per liter should be reversed. 

If I may ask again, what are you waiting for? Arab string started after Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor, killed himself in January 2011, Tunisians took to the streets. Bouazizi had been harassed by police officers who attempted to shut down his business with no recourse, and his suicide by self-immolation galvanized Tunisian protesters. They demonstrated against government corruption and Tunisia’s autocratic president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. A month later, after 23 years in power, he fled to Saudi Arabia.

Every Nigerian must take a course of action of his or her own account of conviction and not do-follow, follow, or ”sidon look” syndrome because Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles. Let borrow sense and stop being childish over who bears the cat? Push yourself, because no one else is going to do it for you. 

Tife Owolabi+2348064698045Journalist Niger Delta@tifeowolabi facebook.com/Tife Owolabi ” if it bleeds it leads”…