What If We Form A Poor People’s Political Party?

By Geroge Ugwumba

The root of discontent in Nigeria is solely poverty. Irrespective of an abundant mineral resources, one will question why is the country so much poorer than other developed nations? What are the constraints that keeps Nigeria from being prosperous? Is Nigerian problem immutable? Countries like great Britain and United states became rich because their citizens overthrew the elites who controlled power and created a society where political rights were broadly distributed, where the government remains accountable and responsive to its citizens.

“The suppressed fury of the wretched of the Nigerian earth have failed to find an outlet. This suppressed fury has forever gone in to devastate the oppressed of our clime. Frantz Fanon in ‘The Wretched Of The Earth’ knew that bottled dissension, suppressed discontent and buried fury, either admixture to become volcanic breweries of revolution or it becomes a hammer that shatters the self confidence and self worth of the oppressed, and keeps them forever in a limbo of being conscripted spectators, watching their own oppression and unable to lift a finger to challenge the status. Nigeria is a prime example of such.” Prof. Onyemaechi argued.

Be it as it may, the suppressed fury of the oppressed Nigerian, which has hitherto found no outlet, has gone in to devastate the oppressed Nigerians themselves, with serious consequences for the entire continent. This explains why Nigeria forever has been unable to overthrow the conglomeration of crooked elites and recycled bandits that have been “raping and sodomizing the country without Vaseline” since independence. The cabal made up of retired military generals (Brigade of Brigands) and their civilian counterparts (Consortium of Crooks) have been united in their ambition to loot Nigeria out of existence. That perfectly explains our dysfunctional reality, which Prof Chinua Achebe captured brilliantly in the Trouble with Nigeria, where he wrote: “The trouble with Nigeria, is simply and squarely the failure of leadership”

Consequently, it is pertinent to note that efforts should be made to wrestle and restore the dignity of the country Nigeria. Thus, the question. What if we form a ‘Poor People’s Political Party? Forming a such a political party could trigger a national call for economic, Political and social revival to salvage the sinking ship of this “western media termed third world country”. However, history has been unfair to Nigerians—unlike other nations. particularly United states. whom their religious leaders made use of their institutions in confidence to fight against government policies—and the forces that created the economic institutions, thus, economic trajectory of the nation.

Nigeria’s religious institution continually recycled the phrase “Pray for Nigeria” How long have the Nigerian Bishops fraudulently recycled the pray for Nigeria mantra? How do I tell Nigerians that prayer will never give them an excellent healthcare? How else can one subtly tell Nigerians that prayer will never increase the prosperity curve of a nation? Going to church to pray “thy kingdom come” has never led to the coming of any kingdom, neither has it solved any of Nigeria’s problems. It is either the God Nigerians are praying to (Nigerian God) with that litany is dead to their entreaties or those prayers are escape mechanism comfortably designed by Nigerian Bishops in a dinner party with their “Lord Politicals” to evade their responsibilities. This pattern has repeatedly been idolized, that these rich thieves, who apportioned our Commonwealth to their avaricious estates are given thumbs up, regaled with national awards and held in high esteem.

At some point in the history of Nigeria, citizens took laws into their hands to remind the government of their constant failure with a movement called “Revolution Now” whose Convener’s intention to reposition Nigeria positively was gaining grounds by giving the citizens fury an outlet to gush like a broken dam, of course the Nigerian government by all sadistic means possible quenched and subdued that movement.

The Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) in recent time have gained an unprecedented followership, because of a long history of repression and marginalization of the region after the Nigerian Biafran civil war. Only time will tell if IPOB would coalesce into a symphony of revolutionary elements in the psyche and history of Nigeria. Once again, the Nigerian government unleashed “operation python dance” on the region in the most potent uncivil effort to relegate the group and it’s ideology.

A former Nigerian Deputy Senator, Ike Ekwerammadu, who may be a fine gentleman, without any significant power to carry the burden of political expectations was an unfortunate victim of bottled anger of Nigerians in Nürnberg, Germany. Those angry people wrote a message with their fist on the deputy senator’s assaulted body, condemnable as it is, it can also be construed not as a personal message to him, but as a message to his class, the elites of a badly governed and dysfunctional Nigeria. Then again, this approach if repeated will ultimately be militarized and such group will be tagged a terrorist group. However, the evisceration of resistance has never succeeded in making resistance go away, while the conditions that gave rise to resistance persist.

This time we are calling on a more political approach to push these ‘Lord Politicals’ off the cliff by forming a poor people’s political party, which ultimately has the numbers required to push beyond limit, as the group running the affairs of the nation is just an insignificant micro group who understands the politics of numbers and are united in their pursuit to rule, bask on divide and rule ideology to foster their crimes against the masses. However, forming a poor people’s political party void of ethnic and religious sentiments is timely and a patriotic call. There’s a Lowest Common Factor uniting majority of Nigerians, and that LCM is poverty. It is a basis of alliance, everyone wants to feed his/her family, map out a future for the family, live a good, happy and healthy life. The suppressed fury of Nigerians by this call would find a channel to unanimously change the narrative for good and register their struggle in the history of social change. The reality of Nigeria has bequeathed us the unenviable title of “the poverty capital of the world” in recent time, yet we can change the narratives. Our destiny is in our hands.

(c) Geroge Ugwumba, 2020.