‘Success’ revolutionary example
By Bayo Fasunwon
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Revolution is a word loved by the oppressed, feared by the oppressors, desired by many, but actualised by a few. Revolution is the fundamental change in a given political organisation and it involves the renunciation of one government’s practices and its substitution by the governed. In other words, revolution is a change demanded and actualized by the governed in any given society. The fear that accompanies revolution(s) is hidden in its actualization. Often times, due to recalcitrant and despotic nature of those in power, revolution takes a violent form. However, not all revolutions need be violent. In places where violence predicts and prepares revolution, the violence itself is not the revolution but the fundamental change that accompanies the violent act. Thus, a peaceful amendment of constitutions to make fundamental changes in the governance of a political system is in itself a revolution.
Revolution normally changes the perception of the governed and the ‘Governors’ about governance. It often comes with an ideology, a phrase, or a sentence that challenges the status quo and opens the eyes of the people to the antics of the ruling elites’ desire to use the power of the State to imprison the peoples of the State. Revolution is therefore the agitation of thinkers who propose better ways of governance and are vehement about the execution of their propositions. It is a cry o those ‘who cannot take it anymore’. It is the unrestrained cry for change. Revolutions begin as a persistent humble request for a good life.
When such cries are rebuffed, agitations follow; then come protests and demonstrations. At this point, the number of participants increase, and the concentration of the Protestants thickens to a point of lamentations. Government often times would resort to force to subdue the ideological hunger, and this escalates the wound of betrayals. Next would be planned insurrections, insurgencies, and finally guerilla warfare that have no time limit, until the revolution occurs.
However, just as Success has shown us, revolution can take place without resulting to violence. The necessary transformations in Nigeria could have taken place if Nigerians had not been as silent as Success would have been. Had she been ‘flogged tire’, she would have continued to endure the unlawful pain (just as Nigerians do), as long as she had access to a lopsided education. Providence however smiled on her, when someone decided to report her unreported frustrations, because she found it funny. In Nigeria, the needed revolution had not taken place because people have not found their voices against tyranny. Nigerians are experts at keeping their mouths shut against injustice. The question that comes to their mind is: ‘Who wan die?”.
Therefore, Fela Anikulapo Kuti captured their cowardice in his song ‘suffering and smiling’. Complaints are only heard in the bedroom, in an outburst of transferred aggression against neighbours and in internal turmoil characterized by suicide attempts. The revolutionary spirit of Success and the revolution that came with her unprepared outbursts would have been like the grunting of pig. Who knows, Success might have died academically and physically if she had not cried out in a stubborn defiance against perceived unjust treatment. Until the revelations of maltreatments fill the airwaves, revolutions remain a mirage, the dream of a dog.
The Delta state government responded swiftly to this video by suspending the Headmistress of the primary school. Her offence was that she demanded for illegal fees from the pupils, and that led to the ‘suspension’ of Success. However, the state of the school demands many questions. Personally, I doubt if the school gets enough imprests from government to run the school. Was the Headmistress trying to do what is right (to keep the school running), by doing what was wrong (demanding for fees)? The civil service rules that require a government worker to be seen and not be heard could have prevented the Headmistress from going to Press to state her own side of the story. Was the government angry that one of the various dilapidated structures of the public primary school (which did not benefit from the massive oil wealth and SUBEB funds) was exposed to local and international ‘observers’ and ‘careless’ commentatators? It is therefore uninteresting to the world that ‘renovations’ could commence at the long forgotten school due to the misguided labour of a helpless Headmistress. The spontaneous revolution of Success video earmarks the rewards of faithful, loyal, and honest Nigerians.
For a successful revolution to take place in Nigeria, the downtrodden and gagged masses must find their voice. The social media, is a very strong and viable platform to expose the perfidy of those to whom they had surrendered their power to govern. Few are the conventional press outfits that have the political will and integrity to expose injustice, tyranny, and authoritative lawlessness. Nigerians would do themselves many good by crying out on social platforms through videos, posts, and pictures against the neglect of the people by the people to whom power is entrusted.
Revolutions are delayed when a select few of the suffering congregation are corrupted by the few crumbs that fall from the tables of the gluttons who fills their alimentary canals with the gold and silver of the people. These bootlickers are often found in the unions, associations, and clubs. They sabotage collective desires by their primitive urge for self-preservation. A few bottles of wine, vain leadership positions and brown envelopes with limited bank alerts are enough to sacrifice the collective will and sabotage the revolution that would have emancipated the nation from the dungeons of hell.
Like Judas, they sell out their compatriots who are willing to take the bulls by the horn, call a spade its right name, and fight for the change that would change the people’s lives for the better. While chanting that they are working for the people, they fill their stomachs with fibroids of corruption and douse the flames of change with rhetoric of placation of ‘it shall be well’. Revolution will continue to tarry except these manufacturers of shenanigans are prevented from leading the oppressed masses the valley of extinction.
The revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx would not have been possible without the hand of Engel. The woman who filmed the anger, anguish , frustration, and determination of Success is the fuel for her revolution. She must be honored and rewarded for her ingenuity. Those who shared the posts for whatever reasons are part of the revolutionary forces, and must be commended. They represent the peoples’ press, whose reports are neither censored nor edited to cover up the ordeal of the masses in the midst of plenty. For revolutions to thrive, the Press must not concentrate their selling points on printing and disseminating just political and sad news that are of no value to the emancipation of their fellow men from the handcuffs of extinction. We need a press without gags, a press whose eyes are not covered and whose mouths are not padlocked.
Press operators and women who would not close their eyes to man’s inhuman treatment to fellow humans. A Press that seeks not for money to alleviate the oppressions of the oppressed; a Press that would not keep quiet until the revolution occurs and brings about the required change. In the absence of such a Press, the oppressed must be their brothers’ keeper, recording, posting, and sharing until it gets to those that would promote the revolution. Every oppressed has a role to play against oppression. As long as people wait for another to champion a cause, revolution tarries. Dumbness in the face of oppression is the fuel that energizes the spread of the wild fire of tyranny.
What is revolution. Revolution is nothing but a movement against the oppressive status quo. It is a movement from lies to truth, a concerted movement from the village of bondage to the city of liberty. Revolution is a call on the rulers to live for the people they govern. As the revolutionary train of Success moves along, aluta continua, Victoria acerta!
