DPA News

It doesn't matter how I look at it, I cannot ignore the fact that five months ago, there was an election in this country. Sowore was a candidate in that election. His party, AAC, contested in that election. Sowore had an excellent opportunity to present his vision to the people of Nigeria, and he did very well and very clearly. The election was an excellent opportunity for you to support Sowore by voting for him in order to actualize his vision. You carefully considered his vision and completely rejected it. You refused to vote for Sowore. You refused to help actualize his vision. If we go by the election result, even as flawed as it might have been, Sowore did not get even 1% of your votes. Less than six months after, the same Sowore came back to you for you to support the same vision you rejected, but this time he seeks your support through a revolution that he would lead. And you, having refused to support his vision in an election through your votes, decided to support his vision by revolution through your protest. You have to be foolish really, or totally dishonest. If Sowore had not been part of the election process, I might have supported his revolution because that would be his only option to bringing about his vision. Indeed, it is the absence of election that makes revolution inevitable. Those who have the option of election cannot also have the option of revolution. What Sowore tries to do is stupid and dangerous. If he is allowed to do it, it will mean that any politician who loses election can start a revolution in other to overturn the outcome of the elections. You can argue from morning till night, what Sowore did is a classic case of treason. Nigerians rejected him in an election, and he tried to force himself on Nigerians via a revolution. Who is he trying to fool? Given the election results, he did not even come close to a point where he could claim to be a victim of rigging. And if we may face reality for once, if we may drop all this noise and irrational sentiments, the government will prosecute Sowore for treason and they have very strong case. They can show that Sowore was trying to change the outcome of election which he lost. He was trying to overthrow the government that was produced by the election he lost. The fact that thousands of people moved into the street in response to his call for a revolution is the evidence that he moved from a mere wish to action. The problem we can see is that because some people don't like Buhari, they are ready to be flexible with their morality and logic. You are ready to support the revolution of the man you rejected in the elections because Buhari is the one in office. If Atiku were to have been the one in office will you support Sowore's revolution? Indeed, if Sowore had won the election, will he be carrying out this revolution? You really have to understand how illogical you are. Buhari has a moral power to crush you and your ill-conceived and fraudulent revolution. You lose election and you try revolution. Everybody that knows DPA will know that we never supported Buhari and we oppose nearly every one of his policies. But we have chosen to remain objective and rational over this. We will not join an irrational mob because it is popular to do so. Most of these people clamoring for revolution are professional agitators. They will join any riot or protest or revolution provided it is against their political opponent. Also, many of the promoters of Sowore revolution are so unstrategic in their thinking. If you cannot mobilize in Kano and Port Harcourt for your revolution, it is a waste of time. If you whip up ethnic and religious sentiments against Buhari, he can counter in equal measure. Every successful revolutionary must take a realistic view of the factors on the ground. Sowore's revolution is not consistent with the Biafran movement because while Sowore wants the Nigeria he can rule, the Biafrans want to be out of Nigeria. The only way support each other is if they are dishonest to each other. In other words, for Sowore to succeed even as a theory,  the Biafran project must fail. And for the Biafran project to succeed, there will be no Nigeria for Sowore to rule. Likewise, Sowore's revolution is not in the interest of PDP. The PDP is interested in winning the case at tribunal. It is only if they have lost hope in a favourable outcome at the tribunal that they can support any revolution, unless they are the secret sponsors of the revolution. It will be irrational to support Sowore. However, as a human being, I will support his release but only on humanitarian consideration and on the condition that he will stop trying to use revolution to overcome the election result that he lost. Dr. Greg

That Nigeria is a sick nation is not in doubt. That the sickness is extending to individuals enmass is apparent. That it is taking the dimension of mass disorientation and intellectual paralysis is equally evident. The reaction to the arrest of Sowore for his revolution protest is just one instance of this malaise. Otherwise, how come that reasonable and educated people would not see through Sowore's childish trick? You registered a political party under the Constitution.  You participated in the campaigns and elections. You realize that you had no chance of getting Nigerians to vote for your party. In other words, you lost woefully. You then ask those whom you could not convince to vote for you to come out and join you in a protest you expect to mark the beginning of a revolution. How more dumb could you be? And how more dumb could your supporters be? Yes, those who support Sowore's revolution are dumb. How could they refuse to vote for Sowore in the elections, but come out to support his revolution after he lost the elections? What would have happened if Sowore had won the elections? And what would happen if every politician who lost elections would start a revolution protest? It was so ironic reading where Atiku seemed to be supporting the revolution protest. If that is a remedy for losing elections, why is Atiku wasting time at the election tribunal? He should have started a revolution protest. Don't get me wrong. DPA supports and promotes the right of Nigerians to freely assemble and to freely express themselves. They have the right to protest, which derives from the freedom of association and freedom of speech. Protest is a protected form of speech. We support it. But for a defeated politician to call for a revolution after losing election is a totally different ball game. One thing is clear. No one in the international community will support the call for a revolution. Nobody anywhere in the world will support an unconstitutional overthrow of government. If it happens by default, it is another thing altogether. But to gather and plan it, the world will laugh at you if they think you are joking, and will be deeply worried if they see any chance that you may succeed. Sowore knows that a revolution cannot occur in Nigeria in the form of a protest he called. The state and its apparatuses of coercion are fully in tact. The people are not ready. Indeed, it is a joke, which is the only reason we feel he should not have been arrested. To arrest him is to give some weight to a thing that lacked weight. Some of the supporters of Sowore's revolution say it will not necessarily be violent, but they cannot guarantee it will not. And if they could, it makes the revolution more laughable. With the state apparatuses of coercion already engaged,  only a violent revolution can succeed against the onslaught that the state is ready to unleash on the revolutionaries. Is there any value at all to this call for revolution? Yes, there is. Every wrong thing has the value of showing us how not to do it next time.

Yes, Nigerian government, this and the ones before it, but particularly this one, have failed Nigerians. The conditions of human life in Nigeria have never been as bad as they are right now. The country is on the verge of another civil war, that is if one fails to admit that war is already ongoing on many fronts. We admit that a radical solution is needed for Nigeria to move forward in any positive direction. However, to believe that you can call for a protest "to start a revolution" is an exercise in naivete or a plain self-deception. Yes, the people have a right to protest and to express grievances against government. And indeed, such mass expressions of grievances may trigger or spin off into a revolution so to speak. But to declare ahead of time that your protest was for the purpose of initiating a revolution is highly unusual and effectively self-defeating. Revolutions are hardly ever planned on any specific date, otherwise any such plan will be treasonable at the outset. Regardless of what normally happens when and if a revolution has succeeded, the focus now is on what happens to a revolution that has not succeeded or which is just at the stage of social media declaration. The regime it seeks to oust will crush it, or at least try to do so. If we are to be realistic, to plan a revolution against the current regime is to do one of two things - to either invite the Executive and Legislative arms of Government to abdicate, i.e. to pack and go home and for at least a yet to be defined interim revolutionary administration to take over, or to invite the current Government to fight for self-preservation (law and order, as they call it). The Government will fight to crush such revolution. No government in human history has voluntarily succumbed to a threatened revolution. Some naive minds have adverted with hubris to recent similar 'revolutions' in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Venezuela. But in truth, nobody in his right mind will want the fates of these countries for Nigeria. That will be worse than what we have at the moment. Protests should be held for the purpose of pressuring the government to change its ways, but not for the purpose of a revolution which brings about a total collapse of government. It is foolish and unwise to live in such unsophisticated illusions and fantasies. What do you really think will happen if after series of protests (like in Sudan, for instance) the Buhari Administration collapses? That will not install Atiku. That will not remove the Governors. On the contrary, that will result in massive anarchy and uncontrollable violence. In that state, the only organized group with the capacity to impose itself is Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa. They will not disarm. The herdsmen will not disarm. Even if the Nigerian army disintegrates, they will not disarm. All those who have stockpiled weapons in anticipation of a situation like that will deploy their weapons. Then you will have uncontrollable violence on a scale never seen in history. The fact that Sowore would leverage his social media assets to call for a protest for the purpose of a revolution is an indication that he lacks crucial knowledge of history, social sciences and human nature. Indeed, what is on display is just an unbridled play for attention and publicity. Having said this much, should the DSS have arrested Sowore? No, they shouldn't. They should have known that was exactly what Sowore wanted to happen. Yes, a case of treason could be made out at least theoretically. But, sometimes, wisdom and power lie more in what you did not do rather than in what you did. Withholding action on Sowore would have been eminently wise. Arresting him for a fictional revolution is to make him popular. Just as the arrest and detention of Nnandi Kanu helped to transform IPOB into a cause celebre, arresting Sowore will create the false impression that there was a revolution that needed to be stopped, and that Sowore was the leader of such revolution. That is: the arrest turns Sowore into a revolutionary over night. The only cause such arrest will end up promoting is Sowore's cause which is an enhanced visibility and better outing for his party come 2023. The irony of it is that what Sowore wants is not the collapse which a revolution could bring about, but the sustaining of the status quo with assured better election outcome in 2023. We conclude as we started. We want fundamental changes in the Nigerian polity, with emphasis on improving dramatically the quality of life, justice, equity and fairness for the average Nigerians. However,  we doubt that the call for revolution in itself will meet our expectations of these ideals. On the contrary, we believe it will exacerbate tensions and chaos and precipitate wars on levels yet to be experienced in this country. We therefore call for a critical analysis of the situation on the ground.

If one were to ask you to define what it means to be literate, as opposed to being illiterate, you will probably say it is a person who can read and write in any given language. But it means a lot more. In fact, most people who can read don't understand half what they read. And most people who can write don't understand the meaning of much of what they write. For instance, an average Nigerian graduate may not be able to distinguish between "could" and "would" or between "I hope" and "I expect" or "I believe". Yet these are  basic language tools. One noticed, for instance, that when one use words such as "probably" or "seemingly" or "apparently" in a sentence, most Nigerian graduates understand the statement as if these words were not contained in the statement.   Many graduates don't understand the meaning of the phrase "by default'. So, we need to look for a better and more effective definition of the term that can give it meaning and purpose. So, you need to be referred to the definition adopted by the United States Department of Education. The Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, which is cited by the U.S. Department of Education, defines literacy as: “the ability to understand, evaluate, use and engage with written texts to participate in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential" By the above definition, you can tell that being able to read and write in certain languages will not make you literate. If you cannot "develop [your] knowledge and potential" in physics and human anatomy or calculus or algorithm in a given language, then you are not literate based on your skill or proficiency in such language. Let us reevaluate our understanding of what it means to be considered literate.

DPA News has had the opportunity of comparing the way certain church leaders addressed criminality under different administrations. Two men of God readily come to mind - Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration Ministry and Pastor Enoch Adeboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. The same social and political conditions that Mbaka condemned during President Jonathan's administration were tolerated during President Buhari's administration. In similar pattern, Adeboye was working to organize a million man match to protest the increasing spate of kidnapping during the tenure of Jonathan. But faced with a worsening of the same problem under President Buhari, Adeboye merely calls for prayers. He was an activist during Jonathan's days, but a man of God during Buhari's government. Questions can be asked why this noticeable inconsistency. Apart from these two church leaders, there are others on the other side of the scale. They were more tolerant of Jonathan than they have been of Buhari. This is a surprising development because the church and the men of God are expected to operate above politics.

While every Constitution of Nigeria since the 1967 - 1970 civil war has proclaimed Nigeria a united and indivisible country, everything else happening in Nigeria points in the opposite direction. If Nigeria disintegrates as is now very likely, it will be a classic affirmation that when it comes to building a united nation, action speaks louder than slogans. The real threat to Nigerian unity is not the types of Nnamdi Kanu and his neoBiafran agitation, nor the dramatic rhetorics of Asari Dokubo, nor the frustration of Ohaneze. In the end, what will take the credit will be the rampant corruption, the gross abuse of human rights, the government facilitated inequities and injustice and the instabilities they jointly created in this country. No enduring nation in history has ever been erected on a heap of injustice, as those who proclaim the unity and indivisibility of Nigeria seem to want. The Break Up Seems Now A Fait Accompli. The Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa have joined forces and have successfully carved out a caliphate around the Lake Chad region, but mainly within the Nigerian territory. Nigerian army cannot evict them and cannot stop them when they may decide to take more territories from Nigeria. And if they are able to mobilize the seemingly already armed herdsmen, who are already present in every corner of Nigeria, the entire country will be overwhelmed easily. Apparently, the army of the new caliphate are better motivated than Nigerian army. They have better battlefield experience, as many of their fighters saw battle in Syria, Iraq and Libya. They are better equipped. Nigerian soldiers have been considerably weakened by their unregulated dealings with civilian population - the mounting atrocities. Any army that could easily go and terrorize its civilian population as the Nigerian soldiers do cannot fight a war against any well disciplined army. They are demoralized. The ramblings among the military commanders further accentuates the crisis. The caliphate army has huge arms supplied from Libya and the Libyan civil war helps them in many ways. The vast expanse of space through the desert makes it so easy for them in the absence of airpower to move unhindered and to advance significantly. Algeria and Egypt are potential sources of arms too. Ethnic and religious sentiments coupled with endemic corruption in the system will not allow Nigeria to modernize its military forces. So, the army will collapse relatively easily. The Nigerian troops are fighting a defensive war within Nigerian territory. The ultimate outcome is that as the caliphate army wages territorial war against Nigeria, the Nigerian army could be on a confused retreat. And as the other ethnic groups in Nigeria realize that the Nigerian army cannot defend them, they will be forced to take their own defense into their hands, which also means asserting their sovereign status and redrawing the map of Nigeria. That could be the bitter end of Nigeria, and the emergence of new smaller states in place of the current Nigerian State. Ironically, it will be a tale of how the Nigerian governments helped break up Nigeria.