Why are we advocating for justice? It is in order to reform our social system, which is full of inequality, discrimination and other things, which conflict with our fundamental rights.
The demand for what is right and just is a fundamental right of every human person. Every human person deserves just and fair treatment from fellow citizens and the government. A Wikipedia article on the purpose of government has it that: “… it is, but not limited to, providing the best life possible to its people and it should be done in a manner that provides equality and justice, not favoring any class of society. All other ideas, such as, freedom, rights, laws, order, and any other matter concerning how the government is run are all aimed to conceive its main objective which is the well-being of society. Laws are made to keep order.
Unfortunately, the above-stated reason for the establishment and purpose of governance is completely negated by the structure of governance in Nigeria. Today, we have come to the highpoint in Nigerian history when mouths can no longer be shut and fear must give way to courage to challenge an unjust status quo.
When tolerance exceeds the threshold of indignation and when patience exceeds its elastic limits, orchestrated by humanizing treatments, the human person reacts in an unbecoming manner. What is going on in Nigeria today is the outcome of decades of endurance in the face of a colossal and monumentally corrupt and unjust system set up by the British.
Today we are fighting for freedom. This is a peaceful fight for a future that has been mortgaged on the piles of foreign debts with no noteworthy infrastructural achievements. This is a fight to flush the system of generations of corrupt leadership that has stifled the potentials of this great nation. A fight against a British enclave that has drained the commonwealth of the citizens and made them captives and prisoners in their fathers’ land. Nigeria is a country that has ceased to be a mother, having all her children flee from her in search of greener pastures, scattered all over the world even to places of tragic and dehumanizing experiences. They have become fraudsters and scammers because they were not given the favorable environment to develop their potential and creative genius, to become well-accomplished citizens, of whom all could be proud. This is not just a fight against SARS or it’s dubious rebaptized nomenclature SWAT. The time is here when the just pleas of the children must be heard. Many indeed have shed their innocent blood in hands of malicious and bloodthirsty security agents who destroy those they are called to defend. The time for dialogue is now or never.
The Federal Government of Nigeria must be ready to face the worst time in the annals of her 60 wasted years of corrupt history marked by outrageous looting and visionless leadership. Sixty years of no accountability. We are no longer entertained by your dramatic orchestra on the table of accountability such as we have witnessed with the NCDC and NNPC. We are fed up with your dubious and empty political promises. We demand nothing less at this point other than a total restoration of a motherland and a country of which we can be proud. A country whose public image in the face of nations, you have painted black and has been miserably tagged the poverty capital of the world. We can no longer fold our arms and watch you deprive and deny us our fundamental rights. We can no longer tolerate your maladministration. Our country is on the brink of complete collapse. Like the biblical analogy of the man who built on sand, our foundations are on the edge of collapse. This is the time to salvage our nation because we are tired of living in a jungle, where the lion kings devour and savor the sweet delicacies of its kind. A jungle where jungle justice, elimination of the ‘unfit’, and survival of the most corrupt seem to be the natural way of selection. This reign of terror must end now to usher in a new country or face the reality of what Chinua Achebe implied when he said ” There was a country”.
Peaceful negotiations and dialogue are the way out now and no longer endless protesting and bloodshed.
Pope John Paul II in his message on the World Day of Peace,1983 entitled ” Dialogue for Peace” opined : “…And yet, dialogue for peace is possible, always possible. It is not a utopia. Moreover, even when dialogue has not seemed possible, and when one has come to the point of armed confrontation, has it not been necessary, after all, after the devastation of war, which has shown the power of the conqueror, but has resolved nothing regarding the rights which were contested, has it not been necessary to seek for dialogue? To tell the truth the conviction which I am affirming here does not repose upon this fatality but upon a reality”.
We want dialogue for peace and this peace can only be achieved if our demand for constitutional amendments is met. There must be a complete overhauling of the outdated legal system created by the British to divide and rule a people whom they have indirectly looted in her entire years of history. I have no malice in whatever I say here. I am writing as a concerned citizen of Nigeria, who would have loved to study in his home country rather than face racism and the harsh realities of living abroad.
To our political leaders, I do not in any way intend to insult you,but I come in peace to advise you to react now to our demands. Your exploitation of the masses now cries to heaven for vengeance and sooner or later you all will live to regret your indifference to the plight of those you represent in government in your different capacities. Do something positive now or risk living in insecurity for the rest of your lives. You can surround your-selves with armed bodyguards, but sooner or later you will be brought to your knees and the consciousness that the will of the masses always prevail. The voice of the people is the voice of God.
End bad governance in Nigeria!!!
Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life . . .
Nelson Mandela
