Tired OF or FROM the long walk to Freedom? -By Mokolade Immanuel McGerrard

Slavery, according to Wikipedia, is, in the strictest sense of the term, any system in which principles of property law are applied to people, allowing individuals to own, buy and sell other individuals, as a de jure form of property. A slave is unable to withdraw unilaterally from such an arrangement and works without remuneration. Slavery started long before Joseph was sold to an Egyptian trader. It includes but not limited to domestic servants or househelps, adoptions without care, and forced or cheap labour. We have slaves by birth, slaves by force, and slaves by choice. There are certain adoptions in which children are forced to work as slaves. Child soldiers, and forced marriage as forms of slavery are not left out.

Democracy has given a lot of people a chance at intentional slavery and they have grabbed that slavery with both hands. Democracy was defined by Abraham Lincoln as the government of the people, by the people and for the people. This type of government should be people-centered and people-focussed, but what is, is in stark contrast to what should be. Those who become slaves out of gullibility are countless and in Nigeria, they seem to be the majority- they are democratic slaves. Instead of enjoying dividends of democracy, they rather get crumbs of democracy because of wrong choices of leadership, where they had the options of opting for someone with integrity, accountability and transparency and sense of leadership. They choose to collect a bag of rice- I bet if it’s up to that- and stay many a slave for the following four years and the following four and the next four- recurrent slavery I call it.  Sir Winston Churchill was right to say ‘democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time’?

I have seen the movie ’12 years a slave’ but most Nigerians have perpetual slavery partitioned into multiples of four years entrenched in their thinking. Little wonder, there are times when slaves, presented with the chance of freedom, wouldn’t embrace or accept the freedom because of many fears, ranging from facing life all alone to falling into the hands of harder taskmasters. We have become slaves of democracy as democracy in Nigeria has been redefined ‘the government of the people, by the people but for the public office holders’ or worse still ‘government of the corrupt, by the crooked and for the gullible.

Adoptions of children to work as slaves (domestic-help as an appellation looks lenient and PR-friendly). Sometimes the adopted may be a son or daughter of an impoverished relative who is less able to cater for the offspring. The adopted are made to work harder and more strenuous chores by the adopter while the adopter’s children stroll around the house with raised shoulders and foul mouths. Pause to think about forced labour without pay and cheap labour – payment that doesn’t commensurate the nature and bulkiness of the chores/jobs. The adopted go to cheaper schools, wear worn-out clothes at best- if the clothes are not rags passed on to them by the children of the adopter. The adopted use different plates to eat to show the demarcation and the difference in class in the house. But we have seen movies where the adopted turn out to be very successful and we think the slavery he or she passed through was necessary, scarless and this is rarely so in reality.

We all are aware slavery did not end with its paper abolition as women are still forced into prostitution, the young ones are being forced to work as domestic servants and human trafficking is not left out and we even have a name for all these; contemporary or modern slavery.

What is happening in Libya has opened many eyes to the veiled; awareness and emotions were raised and triggered; CNN and Paul Pogba and other sportsmen and women being instrumental, yet I am not sure if it would be enough to stem modern slavery and if the newly-awakened outcry or revolution against slavery could be sustained.

If we are saying no to slavery, we are to say no to extended apprenticeship and church membership by compulsion. Vocational Masters using the apprentices like slaves and pastors threatening to curse church members who are not developing and are willing to go in search of greener pastures elsewhere, are still part of the society. The slavery mentality needs to be exorcised completely.

There are still, sadly, men whose god is their bellies, who would prefer to get rich and be a slave rather be poor and free; youths who would prefer to get stipends rather than be employed and young men and women who would rather vote for someone who would give them a paltry sum and mortgage their immediate future in the process than one who has a grand and executable plan for the masses. We cry about youths’ unemployment when the same youths are slaves to their stomach and pliable to grab immediate gratification and take things that provide short-term fix. They vote for people who have run out of ideas of governance but have finances to grease their palms, brainwashed them and buy their thumbs with which they vote. Most people are suffering from buy-one-get-two-free mentality and the earlier we get rid of it, the earlier we move out of biblical Egypt… completely.

Nigerians running out of the country in search of greener pastures should know it’s not always greener on the other side. Instead, they should give it their all and ensure they make something of their lives here, whether there is no structure in place or the structure is faulty. If everyone leaves, who will stay to build the nation?

Also, we have had enough rotten and recycled leadership and there should be a good riddance to the bad rubbish. We should stop being slaves to corrupt leaders and we should show them and the recycling process the exit and there is no better chance to do that than next election.

Youths should seek to be empowered and the desire to gain new skills should be prioritized as it would always be helpful and the skills, handy in hard times. We should be solution-oriented and move beyond the realms of trading blames.

Freedom from all slavery is sweet but it comes from the knowledge of the truth and gotten fully when the truth is embraced and applied. The truth we know but wouldn’t apply is as good as useless and the earlier we embrace the truth; the earlier we break totally the shackles of slavery plaguing generations. Fellow citizens, if we are allergic to the truth- bitter or sweet, we are allergic to freedom.

Mokolade Immanuel McGerrard is a prolific writer, inspirational speaker and a customer-care strategist. He lives in Abuja, FCT. You can reach him at immagerrard@gmail.com