On August 3rd 1857, in what
can only be described as one of the most profound, moving, passionate and
inspiring speeches in human history, Frederick Douglas, the former black slave
and the great freedom fighter and philosopher said, inter alia, the following:
“Let
me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the
progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august
claims have been born of earnest struggle.
The conflict has been
exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other
tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle
there is no progress.
Those
who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops
without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning.
They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
This
struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral
and physical, but it must be a struggle.
Power
concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out
just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact
measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will
continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
On August 3rd 1857, in what
can only be described as one of the most profound, moving, passionate and
inspiring speeches in human history, Frederick Douglas, the former black slave
and the great freedom fighter and philosopher said, inter alia, the following:
“Let
me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the
progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august
claims have been born of earnest struggle.
The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time
being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does
nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress.
Those
who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops
without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning.
They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.
This
struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both
moral and physical, but it must be a struggle.
Power
concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out
just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact
measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will
continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they
oppress. In the light of these ideas, Negroes will be hunted at the North and
held and flogged at the South so long as they submit to those devilish outrages
and make no resistance, either moral or physical.
Men
may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for all
they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us,
we must pay for their removal.
We
must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our
lives and the lives of others”.
These
powerful and insightful words are as true and as relevant today as they were
150 years ago when they were first spoken.
They are words that have
universal application to humanity and that have been recited and repeatedly
chanted like a haunting and inspiring mantra by virtually every notable
prisoner of conscience, freedom fighter and agitator for equity, liberty and
human rights over the last one hundred and fifty years.
They
are particularly relevant in the Nigeria of today where tyranny and injustice
runs deep, where any form of resistance or opposition is regarded as subversion
and is met with brutality and lethal force and where any telling criticism of
the ruling APC party, government officials or the President is regarded as
“hate speech” that must be supressed.
Permit
me to give just one example of the latter in this contribution which, in my
view, clearly reflects the nervous and obsessive disposition, the sheer madness
and the sociopathic narcissism of the Buhari administration.
.
A
few days ago I had a revealing, probing and in-depth interview with a leading
television station about President Muhammedu Buhari, his record in office over
the last two years, his health and his governent.
Lai
Mohammed, our notoriously excitable and mendatious Minister of Information, was
so upset and disturbed by the contents of that discussion that he personally
called the television station that recorded it and told them that the
government would close them down if they dared to air it.
His
call was followed by an equally threatening one from the chief executive of the
Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation who issued the same threat.
Yet
it did not stop there. Femi Adesina, the President’s spokesman, almost
defecated in his pants when he got a whisper of some of the things that I had
revealed and he wondered out loud how I managed to get all the facts and
information that I shared during the interview.
He
begged the station not to air it as well and also threatened them with dire
consequences if they did so. Sadly the station in question got cold feet, succumbed
to the threats and fell for the blackmail.
I
am not surprised by this and neither do I blame them for doing so. I say this
because they, more than any other, have been subjected to all manner of
harrasment over the years yet despite that they remain one of the most
balanced, professional, forthright and courageous media outfits in the country
till today.
They
are indeed the first amongst equals but they also know the monsters that they
are dealing with when it comes to the Buhari administration and they appreciate
the fact that they have to be extreemly careful even when it comes to reporting
what are essentially notorious facts.
They
have to be even more careful when it comes to allowing strong opposition
figures like yours truly and other non-conformists and perceived enemies of the
government to use their powerful platform to air their personal opinions and
strong dissenting views.
The
truth is that this government is vicious and dangerous and, in my view, they
are only one step away from “disappearing” (Argentinian style) media
practitioners, publishers, essayists, columnists and writers that are not
prepared to bow down to their unholy will and lick their filthy, unclean and
unwashed posterior.
Simply
put they are a chicken-hearted government that are terrified of their own
shadow.
They
are a government of uncircumcised Philistines who were put in power by heathans
and unbelievers and who attract and enjoy the support of every low-life and
apostate from the south side of hell.
Nothing
terrifies them more than public scrutiny and the glorious light of
accountability and truth.
From
the top to the bottom they are all the same: gangsterish and paranoid
charlatans who flourish in darkness and who thrive in division, conflict, lies,
deceit, suppression, threats, murder, violence and intimidation.
Femi
Adesina’s cowardice and perfidy particularly is nothing new. This is the same
man that threatened the publisher of two leading national newspapers to close
my weekly column and that has been begging and offering inducements to
virtually every online magazine that I write for to stop publishing my essays.
That
is how fearful, feeble, powerless, shameless, cowardly and paranoid the Buhari
government has become. That is the level of their depravity and that is the
level that they have degenerated to.
They
cannot take criticism and they cannot bear any form of factual and in-depth
analysis of their abysmal and woeful performance.
They
do not have the stomach or intellectual stamina for a strong and lively
challenge, for what I would describe as “hardtalk” or indeed for any form of
virile debate and contentious public discourse.
Simply
put they behave like a congress of baboons and a colony of monkeys. They always
run away from a real fight and a real debate and they are terrified of those
that are ready to take them on.
Instead
of attempting to defend themselves in the court of public opinion they seek to
silence the opposition by the power of their might and they seek to supress
dissent, muscle the media and bury the truth.
Despite
their sheer desperation to hold on to power at any cost and to cower the people
and in spite of their despicable, tyrannical and inglorious mindset I have the
following to say to them: like satan, your time is short.
You
oppress the people and whip them into line, not by good works or inspiring
leadership, but through the usage of nothing but intimidation, lies, threats,
blackmail, disinformation, witchunts, fear, hate, division and terror. Your
tactics are as despicable as they are deplorable.
Yet
despite your subjugation and tyranny it will soon be over for you. The earth
and the heavens have rejected you, the elemental forces oppose you and the
Nigerian people secretly despise you. This is the doing of the Lord and it is
marvelous in our sight.
You
cannot wash away the blood that you have shed. You cannot erase the memory of
your failures and your atrocities and those that you have humiliated,
destroyed, insulted, tortured, incarcerated and subjected to persecution and
the most vicious and callous media trials.
You
cannot silence the voice of the voiceless, you cannot intimidate the servant of
truth and you cannot supress the champion of the oppressed.
The
finger of the Lord has marked you down for shame, torment and destruction and
the sword of the Lord has wounded you beyond redemption. The rats were just the
beginning. More miracles and wonders will soon come.
The
truth is that no matter how hard you try to put out the raging fire and the
crisis of confidence that has afflicted you it will not stop.
Your days are numbered and your end is nigh. The Ancient of
Days has spoken and He shall perfect it.
Femi Fani-Kayode is a lawyer, a Nigerian politician, an
evangelical christian, an essayist, a poet and he was the Special Assistant
(Public Affairs) to President Olusegun Obasanjo from July 2003 until June 2006.
He was the minister of culture and tourism of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
from June 22nd to Nov 7th 2006 and as the minister of Aviation from Nov 7th
2006 to May 29th 2007. He tweets from@realFFK.
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