Gakem Village, Bekwarra LGA, Cross River North, Nigeria. 1970. About this time and specific year mentioned here, this writer was in Primary Three in St. Mark’s Primary School in this village indicated. In those days, there was a subject (what we now call course) in the primary school curriculum called Civics. I don’t know whether this subject still exists as one in the body of ideas taught to middle level and upper levelclasses of the primary school education system. Civics was principally about training early school leaners traits of good citizenship so that these children will later on become responsible and responsive citizens of the country or any other country of the world they choose to live in in their adult lives.
In today’s world, Civics can be said to be an amalgam of politics, social studies, history, economics, and some aspects of commerce and sociology. One day, our primary 3A class teacher, Mr. (now late) Bernard Ogar, taught us something that I have not forgotten since then and I am not likely to forget until the day I will be called upon to go to heaven. Istill remember Mr. Ogar’s name and person so vividly even now that we are more than 50 years removed from the incident under consideration.
This is because Mr. Ogar was such a damn good teacher and a plain good man and a great good citizen of his country. What he teaches you has a way of getting imprinted in your brain and remaining there for a very long time such as the one I will be recounting here. He taught us one lesson on a topic in Civics he wrote on the black board called ‘’Good and Bad Leadership’’. In it, Mr. Ogar taught us what he called peaceful change and violent change. He told us that what we have come to know as the British Empire was founded several hundreds of years ago and expanded and was consolidated upon until it crumbled.
He said that empire survived for so long before its eventual demise because the ruling class were wise enough to take care not to allow the ruled class to be pushed to the wall. He said when the rulers sensed that the ruled were not happy about the state of affairs in the society, they (the ruling class) will quickly do somethings to bring relief to the people and stave off the possibility of an imminent violent change. They never let things go out of hand. And this was not the way of other empires in history such as the French who suffered a violent revolution in 1879. The British Empire, he emphasized, never suffered such a fate. Rather, he said, it witnessed peaceful and progressive changes.
About 8 years later after that 1970 teaching, I graduated from Primary School (1972) had my secondary school education (1973-1978 and went to the university (1978). Among my Year One courses there was one called GSS. In this course, one of the lecturers taking us in it handled this issue of peaceful and violent changes in many societies, empires and nations. Like Mr. Ogar had said earlier he cited the experience of politically stable African countries as those who followed the wisdom of the founders and runners of the British Empire. In those days the Colonial Office in London used to give an award Order of the British Empire (OBE) to some colonial administrators who had deployed wisdom and tact to maintainlaw and order and pacify ‘’anti-colonial agitators. Some of our emergent anti-colonial activists used to described derogatorily winners of that OBE medals as ‘’Obedient Boys of the Empire’’
At the time Mr. Ogar taught us this there were a good number of African countries about 20 or so that had not been touched by military coups. He cited these ones as examples of those African countries which had the good sense of the runners of the British Empire to apply a good dose of the good governance skills when things were about to spiral out of control in their domain. But these days the number has shrunken significantly to only about seven now and they are: Botswana, Senegal, Zambia, Tanzania, Mauritius, Kenya, Namibia and any ones else?
I am reminded of this Civics teaching which made such a significant impression on my life in the first ten years of my life by a contending issue in our country today. The issue is about what type of election do we want in our country today?Nigerian is today sharply divided between those who appear to want election rigging and by extension those who are routing for violent change as against those who want free and fair election and peaceful and progressive change. This is the setting that I have chosen to label metaphorically as a boxing heavyweight championship between the two contenders.
Will the Tinubu ruling party and class choose to apply the wisdom and tact of the glorious British Empire builders by softening and retracing his steps and accepting the framework for a free and fair election in 2027 or risk facing the wrath of the ruled class who are now leaning towards the option of violence, blood and death if their plea is not accepted? Let Tinubu ronu (which is a Yoruba word for think or meditation) now or expose himself to some unwarranted outcomes that may consume his country that has blessed him so much. Nigeria seems set for a heavyweight boxing contest between the ruling class and the mass of the ordinary people who now feel deeply slighted.
As we march towards 2027, I can see clearly that if the newly signed amended electoral act is not changed providing unambiguously for real times electronic transfer of election results to the INEC portal, we may be heading towards a titanic clash between the forces who want the usual rogueryand those who want a peaceful change. Brothers will war against brothers, friends against friends, party men against party men and the Centre will no longer hold. Something will have to give before Nigeria can become a country where people live in peace and harmony.
