Thinking: Occupy Nigeria and the Nigerian Revolution; The Dream of a Million Dreams

Some soldiers slapped or sorry, beat up their Brigadier Commander for slapping a soldier who asked for their entitlements and official two-week leave after returning from Mali. Anyway, my take is that they shall be punished accordingly. Speaking for the Army now, we will not condone nonsense. We will organise Kangaroo court martial session for them, strip them naked of their ranks, deny them of all entitlements and throw them in jail. Rubbish.

BUT WAIT..................................

If soldiers could do this, does it not show the extent of the frustration the Nigerian system is offering? With my minute and limited experience of the military, other ranks (Army and Airforce) and ratings (Navy) are the most dangerous. They share anything and almost everything. The ogas still hide and keep things from one another.

Now, the history of all notable and known revolutions shows they become successful from the major alliance between the aspirations of the people and that of disgruntled soldiers; I mean the other ranks and ratings because they are the ones who will go out there to do the dirty job of killing protesters and once they are tired of the system too, they will join the protesters or revolutionaries. There and then; the revolution will be born.

BUT there can never be a Nigerian Revolution. WHY? The problem is not the soldiers who will be ordered to kill and detract from doing such but the people who will NEVER EVER start any concrete civil disobedience to show their dissatisfaction with the polity. These ones prefer to kill one another at the grassroots than use the energy to fight the oppressors. What is known in history is that the oppressed usually after some time will rise against the oppressors once their eyes have been PERFECTLY opened.

I was in Minna, Niger State during Occupy Nigeria when soldiers were indirectly in support of the protests. Some showed it directly by telling protesters to advance more than them while delaying their own movements. They were also tired of the system. We later learnt that their bosses in the barracks placed a call through to the men on the field on why the burning and arson were still going on in their presence. That was when they did kangaroo chasing and pursuit. Who killed that mini revolution? Was it the security forces known for notorious killings or the civilian organisers? It was the latter; the Nigerian Labour Union.

The Nigerian scenario is ironical. The oppressed in Nigeria usually beg the oppressors to oppress them the more. They give licence to those oppressing them by labelling them with all sort of 'catch phrases' ranging from "sai baba', 'jagaban of Africa', 'messiah', 'giver of fresh air', 'the man for the job' to mention with all modesty; a few. The oppressed in Nigeria have perpetually licensed their destiny to always eat crumbs from the oppressors.

Give them peanut like Atiku's scholarship and they will sing your praises to high heavens. With this renewed vigour coming from the people because of your scholarship, you will be powerful enough again and be emboldened to form a new PDP.

The Nigerian oppressed love to wait for the 'messiah' while forgetting that they are the messiahs of themselves. NO oppressor no matter how 'good' he appears will teach the oppressed how to liberate themselves. No oppressor wants the oppressed to be liberated either.

European Union Nominates Snowden for Sakharov Human Rights Prize that Celebrates Freedom of Thought

It has always been said that one man's villain is another's hero. One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. The onus of nomenclature lies with the side viewing such an individual. Apparently, when a particular section has the upper voice and hand through the media and 'Superpower' force respectively, its version will tend to sell above all others.

Such is the perfect case of Snowden but not centrally exclusive because the world is wiser as it concerns those who might naturally buy Washington's stance too. Had it been the European Union was not involved in the espionage game, it would have joined the White House in condemning Snowden as a villain and rebuked Russia for granting him asylum.

It happened that members of the European Parliament cannot conceal their joyous shock on the revelation of Edward Snowden, hence have officially nominated the whistleblower and former CIA employee for the prestigious Sakharov human rights prize which celebrates freedom of thought. The prize is named after the Soviet dissident scientist Andrey Sakharov and honours people and organizations for their work in defending human rights and freedom of thought.

Andrey Sakharov was a physicist who designed the Soviet Hydrogen Bomb but soon after began to regret what he had done and became a campaigner for the destruction of all nuclear weapons.  He became an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union. He paid the price trying to rid the world of those terrible weapons. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.

Snowden, a computer specialist and former contractor for the US National Security Agency (NSA) leaked classified files of US government and UK surveillance programmes, including spying on their closest allies, to the media. There was a massive manhunt for him especially when speculations about where his final destination would be were not known.

This even led to the embarrassment of the Bolivian President by some European countries when they blocked their airspace thinking Snowden was on board and forced his aircraft to land in Vienna. The US employed all means including threat and blackmail to cajole countries into not accepting him.

Leaders of the parliament's Greens group Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Rebecca Harms said in a statement that Edward Snowden "deserves to be honoured for shedding light on the systematic infringements of civil liberties by US and European secret services. Snowden has risked his freedom to help us protect ours."

He was granted temporary asylum in Russia in late July despite repeated requests for him to be extradited by Washington. Snowden was put forward as a candidate by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left faction. Christian Engstrom from the Swedish Pirate Party, who co-nominated Snowden for the award, said that the whistleblower has paid “a heavy personal price” for his “heroic” actions.

The official presentation of all the candidates for the Sakharov Prize will take place on 16 September, next Monday, the winner will be announced in October and the awards ceremony will take place in Strasbourg in December. Previous laureates of the Sakharov Prize include Nelson Mandela, Chinese dissident Hu Jia and Reporters without Borders, a French based NGO that fights for freedom of the press. The winner receives a prize of 50,000 euros.