BEFORE ‘THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH REVOLT’ (3)

By Martins Oloja, MD/EIC Guardian Newspaper

When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe…

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And it is clear that in the colonial countries the peasants alone are revolutionary, for they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The starving peasant, outside the class system is the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays. For him there is no compromise, no possible coming to terms; colonisation and decolonisation is simply a question of relative strength’. ― Frantz Fanon 

On Sunday July 23, 2023, the oracle in this column looked into the seeds of time and warned here in an article titled, ‘Cost of governance and our leaders’ lifestyle’ thus:

“I wish the new authorities in Abuja would listen to the many voices of reason and wisdom, which continue to pour in at this time that photo opportunities should be frozen immediately. The new strong man in Africa needs to freeze the meretricious visitations and photo sessions so that he can observe the implications of the flame of fire from the midst of the bush called Nigeria at this moment. The bush is already burning with fire even as the bush isn’t consumed yet.  

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In other words, the oracles are already out warning our leaders about the fire of inflation rate that is already burning enthusiasm that came with having a New Sheriff In Town. Now is a time to reflect on the likely consequences of rising cost of transport, which Frantz Fanon’s “wretched of the earth” still can’t understand. 

It is a time for the new men in power to step aside and look closely at the burning bush of rise and rise of cost of living the morning after the removal of the devourers called fuel subsidy. It is indeed a time to organise a think tank, a study group on the status of our local currency against the dollars. I hope the duty bearers in our national capital would step out of the Aso Villa’s presidential cocoon and ask for real reports of risk analysis on the daily announcements of rising school fees at all levels of public schools even when the framework for the bait called student loans has not been clearly set up. 

I hope the risk analysts in the powerhouses in Abuja and 36 state capitals would consider the implications of a report at the weekend that, ‘Residents desert roads in states’. In other words, I wish the intelligence agencies would study the reasons the endemic traffic on even Lagos roads and routes are disappearing fast. Is it organic and healthy that even bus drivers and other ad-hoc transporters are fast running away from even intra-state transportation business?

And so as the bush is still burning but not yet consumed, it is relevant to draw attention of the authorities at all levels to the need to engage in some introspection on their personal comfort, personal emoluments within the context of public service and sacrifice. Our leaders should not get it twisted, this isn’t a time for careless public policies and mediocre calls on people to understand the times without concomitant attention to calls on the people to look at their lifestyles. 

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Life styles of our leaders have hitherto ruined our future. For their lifestyles today, they have ruined our tomorrow. What is worse, our leaders haven’t been paying attention to the ever-rising cost of governance, no thanks to their recklessness. They give directives to civil service leaders for reckless employment of even unqualified cronies and emergency friends. They don’t study the colour of expenditure framework before implementing their numerous consultants’ projects. 

The public service nationwide is full of people they can’t even pay. The revenue agencies and institutions of governance even have special remuneration packages different from the mainstream public service. But now even the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation or indeed the presidential bureaucracy can’t answer any questions offhand on the number of public officers we have even with IPPSS and other digital tools for payments in the federation….”

The authorities didn’t read this writing among others on the walls. They don’t care. They don’t want critical commentaries on the correlation between their embarrassing lifestyles and the state of the nation’s economy. But now the fire  burning… referred to in July last year is beginning to consume the bush: the poor are stoking it because they can no longer breathe. I hope the duty bearers, the big men in Abuja and the state capitals are reading the headlines about the fire already burning in the north-central state of Minna and Suleja and the north-western state of Kano. 

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No one expects our leaders to continue to dismiss such occurrences as an act of opposition from partisan politicians. I hope they are paying attention to the implications of other front page headlines including “Northern monarchs fear mass revolt”, ‘There is hardship in the land’, says Kano emir”. I hope they will dismiss misleading opinion by their friends who are pushing irritating headlines such as “Buhari’s reckless policies triggered current hardship”. These public relations irritations can’t prevent revolt at this time. This is like truth you hide in a grave, which won’t stay there, as I have written several times here. 

The current reality and careless reading of the times by the authorities in Abuja remind me of the warning on this page on October 24, 2021 titled, ‘Before The wretched of the earth revolts soon’. Let us revisit the deconstruction of Franz Fanon’s work for our leaders to deepen their understanding of the classic so that they can swallow their overconfidence, pride and vanity at this perilous time. 

‘Before ‘The Wretched of The Earth’ Revolt Soon’ (1&2 October 24, 31 2021)

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‘When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe’ (Frantz Fanon)

“The classic of Franz Fanon from which the dominant element in the title of this piece, ‘The Wretched of the Earth’ is taken is quite instructive. It is a 1961 book originally written in French. Let’s explore it for our understanding of the message here today.

‘The Wretched of the Earth’ (French: ‘Les Damnés de la Terre’) is a 1961 book by a psychiatrist Franz Fanon, in which the author provides a psychological and psychiatric analysis of the dehumanising effects of colonisation upon the individual and the nation. 

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The book discusses the broader social, cultural, and political implications of establishing a social movement for the decolonisation of a person and of a people. The French-language title derives from the opening lyrics of “The Internationale”. 

Through critiques of nationalism and of imperialism, Fanon, a French West Indian psychiatrist and political philosopher from the French colony of Martinique presents a discussion of personal and societal mental health, a discussion of how the use of language (vocabulary) is applied to the establishment of imperialist identities, such as coloniser and colonised, to teach and psychologically mould the native and the colonist into their respective roles as slave and master and a discussion of the role of the intellectual in a revolution. 

Fanon proposes that revolutionaries should seek the help of the lumpenproletariat to provide the force required to effect the expulsion of the colonists. In traditional Marxist theory, the lumpenproletariat are the lowest, most degraded stratum of the proletariat—especially criminals, vagrants and the unemployed—people who lack the class consciousness to participate in the anticolonial revolution.

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Fanon applies the term lumpenproletariat to the colonial subjects who are not involved in industrial production, especially the peasantry, because, unlike the urban proletariat (the working class), the lumpenproletariat have sufficient intellectual independence from the dominance of the colonial ruling class, readily to grasp that they can revolt against the colonial status quo and so decolonise their nation. One of the essays included in ‘The Wretched of the Earth’ is “On National Culture”, in which Fanon highlights the necessity for each generation to discover its mission and to fight for it. 

You know ‘the wretched of the earth’ in this milieu called Nigeria, currently one of the poverty capitals of the world. This is therefore another warning signal note to all the duty bearers and the authorities in Nigeria that the next revolution heat they will feel may not come from the ranks of the followers of Nnamdi Kanu, or Sunday Igboho, or unknown gunmen or even the terrorists we call bandits. The rage next time may not be from the artistry of Omoyele Sowore’s ‘RevolutionNow’ operatives. 

The next revolt is not likely to be from the armoury of the experienced tormentors inside Sambisa Forest. The fire next time will come not from a particular culture but it will come in unexpectedly because ‘the wretched of the earth’ in Africa’s most populous nation will sooner than later scream, ‘we can no longer breathe’. The oppressors in Nigeria should not ask me, for whom the bell tolls: hold your breath, it tolls for thee! 

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The two clear signals on the imminent fire have curiously appeared in the two capitals of Nigeria, Abuja and Lagos, one a political capital and the other commercial capital, where the oppression of the vulnerable and the oppressed ones, have become dominant. And so those who run Nigeria from these two capitals had better watch it as the dust of the aftermath of the first anniversary of the remarkable #EndSARS (20-10-2020) hasn’t settled. Here are the warning signal notes:

‘Lagos NURTW generates N123bn annually’

On July 22 this year,(2021) the International Centre for Investigative Report (ICIR) revealed in a major report that the Lagos chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, (NURTW) locally tagged ‘agberos’ generates about N123.08bn annually, which could service the annual budgets of Nasarawa, Niger, and Yobe states put together. The data released on Thursday July 22, showed that the money was realised through levies on passenger vehicles, motorcycles and tricycles.

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According to the reliable report, other sources of income not included in the report were money levied on hawkers, articulated vehicles, and persons who visited certain markets to buy goods. The report recorded a total of 75,000 buses; 50,000 tricycles; and 37,000 motorcycles in Lagos. 

It showed that on a daily basis, N3,000, N600, and N1,800 were levied on buses, motorcycles, and tricycles respectively. These levies sum up to N82.1bn for buses; N8.1bn for motorcycles; and N32.9bn for tricycles yearly; making a total of N123.078bn yearly…

We will continue next week to examine the implications of these lines to our leaders: ‘The unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and, let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps’ ― Frantz Fanon

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