On February 12, most of Ghana woke up to the news that one Oliver Barker-Vormawor, a figurehead of one of the West African country’s most significant protest movements, had been arrested.
His crime? A scathing post on social media that criticized the government while recklessly proffering support for a coup. It earned him a questionable treason felony charge.
His call for a coup came against the backdrop of rising costs of living in Ghana and the government’s attempts to compound this with unpopular tax measures being opposed by the masses.
Amid the tensile political climate in West Africa, where Mali, Guinea and most recently, Burkina Faso, witnessed the overthrow of governments, Barker-Vormawor’s comments have been described as unwise.
But his sentiment cut to the core of the disease festering across parts of Africa, of which coups are a mere symptom.
Ewald Garr, a governance analyst, bored this down to broken democracies run by a political class that is out of touch with its people.
“When there is unresponsiveness, you see people begin to lose trust in their elected leaders and once people begin to lose trust in the elected leaders, you see frustration and despondency,” he explained.
He noted that the disease we should be looking to cure is the broken perception of good governance across the continent.
“All these things [coups] are arising is because our institutions are not well composed. Our governance system is just weak,” he said.
The simple diagnosis of the problem is matched by the casual air surrounding the recent military takeovers.
Take for instance the Burkina Faso coup, where military officers appeared on state television and announced the military overthrow like it was a weather report.
But for the people, who had been fading in a drought of despair, the announcement of a coup was like a forecast of rain. It brought joy.
This has played out in Mali and Guinea over the last two years, as well as beyond West Africa in Chad and Sudan.
The specific contexts of the coups have differed in each country, with alarming insecurity being cited by coup leaders in Burkina Faso and Mali, amid the threat from jihadists.
But there have been some constants that cut across, foremost among them economic hardships, inequality and a lack of empathy by the ruling class.
Even more worrying is the fact that these constants are ripe in countries that are hailed as beacons of democracy, like Ghana.
For Dr. Afua Yakohene, a research fellow at the Legon Center for International Affairs and Diplomacy, it is clear that “all the conditions that called for coups in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali are right here in Ghana.”
It has also been hard to ignore the fact that these coups were met with overwhelming approval from their mostly-youthful populations.
Consider the situation in Mali, where thousands have rallied in support of the junta after sanctions meted out on the West African country.
Dr. Yakohene observed that these countries have “frustrated masses; a large youth bulge that is unemployed.”
These people are most likely frustrated by the “lack of dividends that they hoped democracy would deliver,” she added.
Settling For Elections
The bar for democracy has been noticeably lowered for African countries.
It is increasingly being equated to relatively incident-free elections with no scrutiny of what happens in between polls.
The worth of Africa’s democracies has been reduced to the conduct of elections. Credit: Delali Adogla-Bessa / Ubuntu Times
But Dr. Yakohene stressed that “the holding of periodic elections is just the tip of what democratic states must be.”
“Many west African citizens even have come to not appreciate elections, so there is voter apathy and there is low turnout during elections.”
This could be traced back to the end of the Cold War and the fall of the iron curtain.
With the victory of the West over the Eastern Bloc, the idea of democracy became a necessary benchmark for countries seeking aid and development.
“It gradually pushed many African countries to adopt the policies of democracy,” Dr. Yakohene recalled. “Some leaders realized that if you need loans, and you need aid, and you want to satisfy the expectations of the western leaders, hold elections.”
These elections can be nothing more than ticked boxes because West Africa has witnessed a number of situations where political power has almost become a birthright.
Consider the example of Togo, where Gnassingbé Eyadéma was President from 1967 until his death in 2005, after which he was succeeded by his son, Faure Gnassingbé. Yet, Togo claims to be a democracy.
Dr. Yakohene described this as a form of “autocracy and monarch-cracy” that was cultivated out of the West’s insistence on the adoption of democracy, however superficial.
This very international community is often silent when there is clear evidence that democracy is subtly being undermined, with arbitrary amendments to term limits or voter suppression. But it sounds an alarm when coups occur.
The same could be said about regional bodies like the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which also turns a blind eye to abuses of power and democracy by its own members.
The community’s chair, Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo, has himself faced criticism for attacks on free speech and voter suppression following Ghana’s bloodiest polls in 2020.
Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo has been the Chair of ECOWAS since September 2020. Credit: Delali Adogla-Bessa / Ubuntu Times
ECOWAS has been instead known to spring to action and propose sanctions when it should rather be in a lab working to find a cure for the disease spawning these coups.
This cure lies simply in committing to the basic tenets of democracy, said Mr. Garr.
“What ECOWAS should be doing is having strong institutions that are able to diagnose the poor governance.”
He doesn’t think the continent has been learning from mistakes that date back to the ‘60s, where there were 26 successful coups on the continent in the wake of independence movements.
Mr. Garr is of the view that some re-orientation and a stronger commitment to engaging citizens in the process of governance is the most important step to finding a cure for the conditions that birth coups.
“It is the lack of transparency and the lack of the basic tenets of democracy in our countries that is steering all these coups we are seeing,” said the analyst.
As simple as the solution sounds, there is a clear lack of accountability and lack of political will across the continent that gives Mr. Garr little cause for hope.
“As a continent, we have a very long way to go because most African countries still can’t see the importance of good governance,” he says. “They only see elections.”
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso —Thomas Sankara’s trial is set to resume on Wednesday, February 2nd after a military court restored the constitution on Monday, January 31.
The trial was due to resume on Monday; however, civil representatives voiced their concern, citing the need for “judicial normalization.”
Prosper Farama, the lawyer representing Sankara’s family clarified that the legal team and civil representatives believe that the trial time frame should be reasonable though they leaned toward a trial not marred by “irregularities.”
Sankara was assassinated while attending a National Revolutionary Council meeting alongside twelve officials in an October 15, 1987 coup aged 37.
After the bloody coup that saw Sankara killed, Blaise Compaoré who is suspected to have instigated Sankara’s assassination came to power, ruling for 27 years before being deposed by a popular revolution in 2014 which led him to flee and has since remained resident in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire.
When Sankara’s trial began in October 2021 before a coup interrupted closing proceedings, twelve out of 14 defendants appeared in court including one of the top leaders of the 1987 coup, General Gilbert Diendéré. The main defendant, Blaise Compaoré, and Hyacinthe Kafando, Compaoré’s former guard commander, were absent. Most of the defendants who were present pleaded not guilty to the murder of Sankara.
The resumption of Sankara’s trial is another turn of events in Burkina Faso after former president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré was toppled on January 24, 2022, by mutinous soldiers stemming from his inability to address the people’s outcry concerning violent jihadists threatening lives and properties.
34 years on since the infamous coup, Burkina Faso is still haunted by Sankara’s ghost. He was an influential soldier and servant-leader. Sankara left an indelible mark in Afrika’s liberation struggle by not only sensitizing Burkinabe people but also raising the collective consciousness of Afrikans against French colonialism and European imperialism.
He was a revolutionary who won the hearts of Burkinabe and Afrikan people through his strides against corrupt practices, his commitment toward reforestation, food self-sufficiency, women’s rights, rural development, education, health and well-being of his people. To the dismay of the colonial regime, internal detractors and traitors, Sankara even renamed the country from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso which means “the land of upright people.”
In a continent where justice is often delayed due to both internal factors and external interference, Sankara’s family and staunch followers will hope for a just verdict that will put an end to Sankara’s protracted trial.
Africans and other blacks abroad need to develop a historical consciousness that enables them to revisit their forefathers’ history to validate the true journey of the black race. Slavery, colonialism, Christianity and the colonial education systems have created dominant narratives by the west that have registered successes in whitewashing African and black history.
This erasure continues to systematically act towards whitewashing the history of Africa through European hagiography. As a result, Africa has become a victim of European historiography that exclusively acknowledges its own cultural and historical contributions, dismissing the successes of Africa and the black race along the way.
Before slavery, African progress in the fields of nationalising African knowledge systems was remarkable. More so, through slavery Africans who were forcibly removed from their birthplaces to the United States through slavery, also succeeded in various spheres. Unfortunately, their contributions remain unnoticed despite their importance.
Some blacks taken from Africa participated in the United States war of independence against British oppression. Others also contributed through architectural designs which are today still visible in America. Through information suppression by the white establishment, the heroic adventures and contributions of blacks remain in the periphery. The first person whose blood was spilt in the revolution which freed America from British oppression was a black man named Crispus Attucks. Another black man, Benjamin Banneker, was amongst the team that designed the capital of the United States, Washington DC.
In 1721, the United States went through a perilous phase when it faced a smallpox outbreak. A black slave named Onesimus, who had been bought in 1706 by one influential Boston minister Cotton Mather, shared significant knowledge with his master on how to treat smallpox. According to black tradition, before being enslaved in the United States, Onesimus, whose name means Useful, and his people had knowledge on treating smallpox through variolation. The treatment of smallpox in the United States was not a white man’s discovery, but a knowledge system that was passed by a black slave.
From Onesimus, Mather learnt that in Africa, blacks took pus from the wounds of an infected individual and inserted it into a cut made on a healthy person. This process, while adjudged not to be entirely effective, caused a mild reaction that gave people a degree of smallpox immunity for the healthy individual.
Because of mistrust in African remedies, Mather shared information he acquired from Onesimus with a white physician named Zabdiel Boylston. Recorded history informs one that Boylston tried the technique on several people, including his own son, and was pleased to ‘discover’ that Onesimus’ procedure was a largely successful one.
Through the misrepresentations of white supremacy, Mather and Boylston were hailed as heroes and the African, Onesimus, was nowhere close to securing a place in this important milestone in medicine. And despite his life-saving contribution to the smallpox outbreak, he was still not a free man.
Countless blacks have been unjustly stripped of their rightful recognition as vital contributors to science and medicine, among other disciplines. These also include Lewis Howard Latimer, the black man who invented the carbon filament board that made the light bulb give its glow, continuously. Today credit on who invented the light bulb has been given to Thomas Edison.
While nothing can undo the damage done by such cruel omissions from defining moments in history, Africans need to work hard and do their part to acknowledge these innumerable contributions to humanity by continuing to share these important historical discoveries… Unfortunately, blacks are not told and taught this in school; instead, end up praising the white man.
These past lessons by Africans, slaves and descendants of slaves are never told because they humiliate the white man. To get into the future, the past has to be studied to get new perspectives, unlike the white man’s narrative that continues to brainwash black people by developing false narratives that even other races continue to believe.
Western Philosophy ‘Unimaginative, Even Xenophobic’
In his book Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto, Bryan Van Norden, a Professor of Philosophy at Yale-NUS College in Singapore writes that the way the west projects African history is “narrow-minded, unimaginative, and even xenophobic.”
There have been ‘discoveries’ through exploratory excursions and military conquests done by white ‘explorers’ through the displacement of Africans in their territories. Statues have been erected in honour of these white ‘explorers’ and places renamed in their honour.
History shows that Africa, originally called Alkebulan, was named after a Roman general Scipio Africanus who had defeated Ethiopians. More so, one of the world’s seven wonders in Zimbabwe, the Victoria Falls, was ‘discovered’ by Scottish ‘explorer’ David Livingstone in 1855. Livingstone named the place Victoria Falls in honour of the British Monarchy’s Queen Victoria.
Livingstone named the falls after the queen, but the Kalolo-Lozi people in Zimbabwe had their own name for it, Mosi-oa-Tunya, “the smoke that thunders.”
Western ideology and narratives have morphed into a false white knight in shining armour, itching to swoop in and enforce their model of “progressive” Eurocentric history over black successes.
Van Norden: “The west has written Africa out of the history of philosophy and black success, presenting all of Western philosophy as a linear progression from the ancient Greeks.”
Professor of Sociology at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Claude Mararike said the black race needs to record, research, teach and distribute literature that praises black successes under the “patriotic history” platform.
“We need to teach patriotic history, which is the interpretation of history in our context as blacks and Africans. There has to be more funding into research, publication and circulation of such information. The media (personnel) should be able to dig more into the archives because some history has been distorted,” says Prof. Mararike.
The academic also blamed religion, both Christianity and Islam for enabling colonialism and oppression of the black man through slavery and colonialism.
“The revolutionary patriotic history of Africa also has to be understood from the context of Christianity and Islam as the two religions that have also done a lot of distortions to African history.
“Missionaries are the greatest culprits and the church has been distorting African history and culture. So writing about that is not opening old wounds, but that is the correct interpretation of history and Africa should know these things,” added Prof. Mararike.
Undermining Western Intellectual Foundations
The African Union (AU) and its governments ought to invest in knowledge that shakes the western foundations.
Strides by Africans and blacks from all over are written, the continuous recording of their successes are there. There is evidence that shows that black movements like the #BlackLivesMatter are giant testimonies to undermine racially skewed Western interpretation of history.
History has been white-washed so severely that often, African philosophers who generate ideas about Ubuntu, colonial independence and sovereignty are only regarded as public intellectuals. In the textbooks of Europeans, these African heroes are not incorporated.
The white race seeks to amass all the historical glory, incentives and talents for itself while consciously and voluntarily disadvantaging strong black constituencies.
This is a key matter of national and intellectual independence in which “woke” black students need to raise in order to undermine the intellectual foundations of the West and expose them for their desire for “multicultural inclusion”.
As the West gets away with murder on white-washing history, this continues to reinforce false assumptions that black history is substandard to other cultures in general, but to the dominant white culture in particular.
It is not ahistorical to remind people that Christianity was evil colonial machinery that was used to evangelize Africa.
“Areas of concern are schools and universities. It is unfortunate that in some African countries, they do not want African history to be taught. In the United States, Britain and South Africa, they do not want to teach African patriotic history,” Prof. Mararike continued.
It is time for African governments and the AU to put more funds to promote the Afro-centric movement. This, in the long run, will effect change from the enlightened grassroots.
Written by George Orwell in 1949, 1984 detailed the imperative of resisting oppression and tyranny, offering great insight into a twisted and very cruel future if nations are allowed to fall to the rule of totalitarianism.
The book helped put in proper perspective, how totalitarian regimes attempt to control our thoughts and lives through surveillance and by seizing control of the mass media, most times, violently. In this brilliantly articulated piece of work, we see a “party” that deploys enormous resources into eliminating dissent to the extent of establishing edicts that criminalize holding anti-government thoughts and opinions. Do these methods sound familiar to you? If so, then I welcome you dear reader to 1984
In an event described as the “Nigerian Drama” by The New York Times in 1984, the regime of Buhari, violating human rights and international laws, staged a kidnap of a former Minister of Transport, Umaru Dikko, after he was ambushed at his London base. This is the same junta that had just overthrown an elected government of Shagari under whom Dikko served as Minister.
Biafra agitator, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Credit: MNK
Fast forward to 2021, close to four decades after, the same serial law offender staged a similar attack on Human Rights and International laws in the abduction of the IPOB leader and British Citizen, Nnamdi Kanu, in Kenya. This is after he returned in 2015 in a disguised democratic toga.
Shortly after the abduction of Kanu, barely 24 hours to a July 3rd protest declared by Yoruba secessionist group, the regime sent in masked DSS operatives after the Yoruba secessionist agitator and leader, Sunday Igboho, stormed his Ibadan residence at the dead of the night like armed assassins, arrested thirteen persons and in a public statement released by its PRO, Peter Afunnaya, boasted to have extra-judicially murdered two of Igboho’s allies.
On the day of the protest, however, the regime deployed combined forces of the police and military. The security forces shot violently and sporadically against the peaceful agitators and protesters, killing Jumoke, a 14-year-old female trader.
It should be recalled that as far back as 2015, there have been renewed calls for the secession of the Igbo people from Nigeria by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. The secession campaigns attained a threshold of popularity upon the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu on the 20th of October, 2015. And as the agitation grew bigger and larger, no thanks to increasing insecurity and socio-economic injustice in the country that has pauperized millions of Nigerians and made the country totally unsafe for habitation. This is also complicated by the manner in which the government protects and funds terrorists and bandits while deploying enormous resources into hunting, arresting, and killing protesters and all who maintain dissent against the regime.
But the secessionists were not the only group or persons to fall victim to the tyranny and brazen human rights violations of the Buhari regime. Recall that on August 3rd, 2019, at about 1 AM, Omoyele Sowore, leading investigative journalist and revolutionary activist was abducted in the middle of the night by masked men of the DSS who stormed his Lagos temporary residence like assassins.
For calling a RevolutionNow Protest against misgovernance and crass incompetence of the regime, Sowore spent five months in unjust detention after the regime violated two court orders for his release. Worst still, the regime in desperation to rearrest Sowore after it reluctantly obeyed the order to release the latter on bail, the DSS stormed the courtroom, violating the sanctity of the court right in front of the presiding judge who had to escape the violent scene instigated by the gun-wielding DSS operatives. The regime created an unfathomable precedent of judicial impunity when it turned Justice Ijeoma’s court into a war zone.
There is also El-Zakzaky whom the regime continues to hold hostage despite court orders that have mandated it to release him on bail. Aside from murdering his children extrajudicially, the regime has murdered scores of his followers for asking the government to comply with court orders granting bail to the Sheik.
The regime for the past six years of administration had equally devoted time to arresting, intimidating, and harassing journalists. According to media reports, no less than eight journalists have been killed on duty under the regime with over 500 falling victims to harassment, intimidation, torture, and unjust detentions. Today, it has become a norm to see journalists who have come to cover protests dressed in bulletproofs as though covering a war zone. No doubt, the regime had turned protest grounds into a theatre of war.
When the regime appeared not to be satisfied with simply attacking and gagging the press, it went straight for the social media, prescribing death by hanging for “hate speech’’; a deliberate attempt to gag Nigerians and violate their constitutional right to free speech. The regime did not want a free press, it frowned against citizen’s right to free speech and protests. It does not want Nigerians to protest offline and also against them expressing their frustrations on social media, especially Twitter. It was this gross hostility to free speech that forced the regime into banning over 200 million Nigerians from using Twitter.
No regime in history, military and civilian, has treated the judiciary and the rule of law with such disdain and brazen impunity. No regime in the history of the country has been so hostile to its citizens without any modicum of regard for their lives or constitutional rights. No regime in history had ever treated the press and the Nigerian people with so much hate and utter contempt.
The only regime that ever measured close to Buhari’s despotism is the military junta of 1984; the only Junta to have ever dethroned an elected government. Buhari’s capacity for lawlessness and impunity is second to none, such that only Buhari could have surpassed the record of his own lawlessness over three decades after.
Buhari may not only be classified as a despot with the unique ability to harness the powers of Nigeria’s systemic impunity to muster a social, political, and economic siege against the Nigerian people, he is the only Nigerian leader fit to be described as a serial law offender, ever to occupy Nigeria’s political space.
Haiti is reeling from a new crisis after President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in his home last Wednesday morning by mercenaries. The gruesome act which has been condemned by the United Nations (UN), opens up new ways to understand the instability, poverty, and diminishing power of the country’s central government in contemporary times and for many years to come.
Upon hearing news of his President’s assassination, Haitian Ambassador to the US Bocchit Edmond said: “It seems this horrible act was carried out by well-trained professional killers.”
The police said it has killed and captured Colombian mercenaries. Colombia’s Defense Ministry also confirmed that among those captured are its citizens who retired from its army but “will cooperate to verify with Haiti officials.”
Haiti was already going through a crisis and Moïse’s assassination has taken it to another level. Moïse’s presidency was contested from the start. His government, in May 2019, postponed parliamentary elections and he started ruling Haiti by issuing decrees.
“I don’t see how there is anyone, after God, who has more power in the country than me,” Moïse said in 2019.
The political vacuum his death has created in Haiti is extremely dangerous. In Haiti, when things like this happen, citizen violence comes quickly. Citizens have burnt vehicles and exhibited an eagerness to mete justice on the captured mercenaries
“I Prefer To Observe The Tragedy”
The Senate – the upper house of the Haitian parliament – has nominated Joseph Lambert as the interim president bestowed with a huge task to take Haiti to legislative and presidential elections scheduled in September.
Haiti has not recovered from the devastating 2010 earthquake, the effects of the 2016 hurricane Matthews and it is the only country in the Americas said to have not initiated vaccination against the COVID-19 pandemic amid a surge in cases. Inflation, food, and fuel shortages are tasks Lambert is expected to tackle to avoid more chaos from the fragile constituency he is leading.
The situation is a desperate and hard episode for the nation to stay afloat and the president’s assassination raises a possibility of more lawlessness.
Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph asked the US to deploy troops and protect key infrastructure as it tries to stabilize the country. “We believe our partners can assist the national police in resolving the situation,” the Prime Minister has been quoted as saying. The Biden administration said it is sending a team of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers to help with investigations.
People have also gathered at the US Embassy in the capital Port-au-Prince pleading for a way out.
Haiti has a history of political instability and Moïse’s time was no different. As the crisis unfolds, a resident in the capital told Ubuntu Times: “I cannot give you any information (about developments going on) I prefer to observe the tragedy.”
In December 2020, Haitians held protests in Port-au-Prince against growing gang violence. Leading to the assassination of President Moïse, gunfire exchanges between police and armed gangs in the capital’s streets led to civilian deaths. Credit: Dieu Nalio Chery / AP
Since February when lawyers, citizens, and politicians contested Moïse’s “unconstitutional” stay in power after the end of his term, armed gangs started fighting for control of the capital’s streets. Gang violence in June led over 8,000 people to flee their homes.
At one point President Moïse offered a glimmer of hope.
“In no country on earth is it possible to talk about development unless there is political stability unless there is social peace,” he said.
The Past Has The Answers
Answers as to the crises in Haiti are in the past.
The tiny French and Creole-speaking country is the poorest in the western hemisphere yet it possesses a rich history. A rebellion by self-liberated slaves between 1791 to 1804 against French rule in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) made the country the first black republic in the world.
The victorious former slaves expelled the French and other slave owners who made a fortune through the inhumane practice. As punishment, Haiti was occupied, sabotaged, and embargoed into poverty and instability by the United States of America (USA).
On the other hand, France forced it to pay 100 years of reparations for “daring to kill their former colonizers” as the French, American, and British governments could not allow a self-created black nation to thrive.
The assassination of Moïse scarcely impacts or shapes the global developments in the minds of those nations that have colluded to put Haiti in this situation. The White House through its press secretary Jen Psaki has insisted that there should be “elections in Haiti this year in order to have a smooth transfer of power.”
The chaos that was created by countries that undermined Haiti’s revolutionary victory in 1804 is the one that continues to haunt citizens even there are claims of “independence.”
The reasons behind the president’s assassination must be looked into carefully because a misstep at the start makes everything all too wrong. Moïse’s death is not an isolated event that has happened over 200 years after the American and western undermining of true Haitian independence.
It is not a coincidence that events in Haiti are turning out this way, they are an occurrence that is designed for long to be such. The Haiti situation remains regrettable and answers becoming more elusive if citizens turn a blind eye and fail to learn on what made their fore-bearers emerge victorious against past slave masters.
In Nigeria of today, under the clueless leadership of Buhari, Pantamism has come to join the ranks of notorious ”Isms” that deals particularly in the Affliction of the Nigerian people with the virulent disease of terrorism.
Just like how the regime deodorized corruption, Buhari’s recent endorsement of Pantami is nothing short of the institutionalization of terrorism and religious extremism. it translates to the legitimization of the ongoing terrorism in the north and unfair vilification of thousands of those who have fallen victim, some in fatal dimension, of religious extremism that has assumed the shape of insurgency.
Under Buhari’s regime, citizens are described as being anti-north simply for calling for the sack of a minister with concrete records of affiliation and support for Islamic terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda. Nigerians are regarded anti-Islam for calling for the need to protect the nation’s data from terrorists whom we can confirm have a sympathizer in a minister who handles the national data.
This government has not only justified our most ”esteemed” position as the third most terrorized country in the world; it has also assisted the narrative of ”fulanization” and ”Islamization” of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, this agenda in the real sense, have in the best scenario benefited elites of all ethnoreligious background, in a worse situation, profited their rich Muslim friends from across the North and South and in the worst circumstance, empowered their rich/powerful Northern cronies.
In the administration of Buhari, all government institutions have become institutions of terror against the Nigerian people.
Our security agencies terrorize and kill young people on daily basis, the ministry of Labor and employment terrorize workers in addition to being incapable of providing employment, the Ministry of power terrorizes the entire country with the darkness that is purchased at an expensive and unregulated rate.
The Ministry of housing terrorizes Nigerians with homelessness that has condemned millions of people to under-bridge settlers and street urchins that have now become child or teenage cultists and “hoodlums” that are available as government tools to foment election violence.
The regime on a frequent basis dispenses policies of terror that have rendered the naira useless, sustained Nigeria as the poverty capital of the World, reduced our nation to a situation where the law courts are shut down for weeks over issues that border on financial autonomy and independence of the judiciary. It has descended the country to where we have now resorted to the printing of money as opposed to policies that mobilize social wealth.
With Buhari’s Pantamism, we have lost our country to the rule of bandits and terrorists. But these beastly insurgents are not only organized in bushes, they have a full presence and adequate representation in government offices and sectors. They have now become emboldened by government patronage and empowerment to advance their nefarious activities from the highways to the schools and campuses.
And now, public opinion has it that they are now courageous enough to go after the national assembly; an institution built and sustained by taxpayers’ money but occupied by characters who have ensnared Nigerians in the webs of poverty and hardship complicated by the institutionalization of insecurity and total anarchy.
There is no getting out of this unimaginable mess if we fail as a people to put an end to a regime of terror and institutionalized poverty. There is no better time than now for the oppressed people of Nigeria, North, South, and across all religious divides, to come together in unison to chant the songs of BuhariMustGo and clench their fists for a people’s revolution.
Uganda’s youthful musician turned opposition politician, Robert Kyagulanyi has ended his long shot suit aiming to overturn President Yoweri Museveni’s disputed victory in the January 14 election, clearing the way for the long-serving leader to extend his 35-year rule.
Kyagulanyi, known by his stage name Bobi Wine blamed judges on the 9-man panel of bias and said he would now refer the matter to the court of “public opinion” setting the stage for a possible repeat of raucous street protests.
“We have decided to withdraw our petition from court because it’s clear that the courts are not independent, these people are working for Mr. Museveni,” he told a cheering crowd of supporters in the yard of his party offices, in the slums of Kamwokya.
Wine in his application to withdraw the petition listed several reasons including court rejecting amendment to his petition, arrest of his key witnesses, and alleged bias in the court towards Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986.
The decision marked a tantalizing end for the suit, which was poised to be a stern test for judicial independence in this east African nation. Across Africa, fewer courts have overturned elections although Kenya’s Supreme Court came up with a stunning ruling four years ago, reversing the 2017 election win of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Oscar Kihika, one of Museveni’s lawyers said that Wine would have to pay all the expenses his client had spent on the petition.
Last month, Wine through his lawyers, filed the petition seeking to nullify the election that saw Museveni win a sixth term with 58 percent of the votes and Wine just 35%.
Museveni, the electoral commission, and the Attorney-General filed their 185 affidavits in response to the 53 grounds that the National Unity Platform legal team had raised to prove that the election was rigged, and wasn’t free and fair.
Wine continues to call upon Ugandans to reject the results of the controversial election in which dozens of opposition party members and supporters were killed and arrested. The elections were further plagued with voter intimidation and heavy military deployment in several districts that were opposition strongholds. Wine was put under de facto house arrest for 12 days after the election and later released on court order.
Election monitoring was further complicated by the denial of accreditation to European Union observers and members of the United States observer mission.
Internet access was blocked across the country on the eve of elections and restored on Jan. 18 however access to social media sites like Facebook remains restricted and can only be accessed using Virtual Private Networks.
“A democratic playing field for free and fair elections was worryingly absent during elections,” said Oryem Nyeko, Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Ugandan government should take concrete steps to improve respect for human rights for all and remove all remaining restrictions.”
But Museveni continues to laud the elections as the most “free and fair” poll Uganda has ever had. “This was one of the most cheating free elections since 1962,” he said in January just after election results were certified by the National Electoral Commission. “I thank the 57% of Uganda’s 18 million registered voters that participated in the election.”
As though coming to battle notorious terrorists and bandits, they came at us with three loaded vehicles convening heavily armed men whose mean demeanor ricks only of lustful desperation for violence and blood. On the other hand, the only arm we had were the ones that acted as support to our revolutionary fists as they pointed to the direction of the cold air with full determination. The rest of our ‘’arms’’ and ‘’battle’’ artillery were placards, banners and our facemasks.
On the night of December 31st, 2020, at about 11 PM, we had gathered at Lokogoma junction and then proceeded to Gudu, Abuja for a CrossOver Protest/sensitization with demands bordering on good governance, respect for citizenship, end to police brutality, environmental justice and a permanent end to insecurity and bloodletting in the country. As of this time, similar actions were ongoing in other parts of Nigeria including certain parts of Lagos, Ondo, Osun, Ogun, Kano, Kaduna, Adamawa, Edo etc.
Our Action at Gudu had been peaceful and without any sort of hiccup until about 1 AM when we were about to leave for our various homes. The government deployed three trucks of anti-riot police, armed to the teeth with apparent resolve to leave behind an ugly scene of death and destruction. Seeing them in such a violent manner with which they invaded our peaceful assembly, a number of protesters understandably ran for their dear lives. Me and a few others like Michael Adenola that had seen them from afar chose to stand our ground as we were not prepared to surrender our country to the rule of tyranny and lawlessness. And like a pack of hungry wolves, they descended on us violently, heating us repeatedly with their guns even as torrents of heavy punches continuously landed on different parts of our bodies. We were bundled to the trunk of one of their trucks and chained to the vehicle like hardened criminals. It was the gory sight of our dehumanizing brutalization that caught the attention of Omoyele Sowore, Nigeria’s foremost revolutionary and investigative journalist who currently faces the charge of treasonable felony for protesting the tyranny, corruption and maladministration of the regime. Sowore all through our procession had been filming our action and made way to his vehicle when it was apparent that we were rounding up. He had to step down from his vehicle to challenge the bloodthirsty and husky looking security operatives. Sighting him, they also descended on him with such fury that made it apparent they had a score to settle with him. They broke his nose and hurled him into the truck with us. As if that was not enough, they sprayed directly on our eyes and faces, a very pepperish chemical substance that made even breathing very difficult. When I managed to challenge this unruly wickedness despite being chained down, one of the officers held me and the other started spraying this substance directly into my eyes and did not stop despite seeing how I struggled to grasp for breath. The pain was so intense that I could barely open my eyes for about two hours and my entire body felt so hot for more than four days.
The Buhari regime is generally popular for his lack of respect for civil rights and rule of law. His notoriety and uncommon penchant for rights violation were such that Punch Newspaper, a foremost Nigerian paper resolved in December 2019 to henceforth regard Buhari as Major General Buhari as against President Buhari, in all of its publication. Despite his infamous track records, a lot of us had thought the President was at least going to make the first of January, an exception, to at least indulge Nigerians in the freedom he had denied and violently attacked over the past 365 days. And as it turned out, we expected too much from a regime that has consciously expunged democratic creeds from his dictionary of governance.
From Gudu, we were moved to the detention facility of the Special Antirobbery Squad (SARS) at a police station called abattoir. This detention facility was notorious for torturing and killing its victims. Upon our arrival, the station officer, a SARS operative, led his junior colleagues to unleash on us more beatings and we were dragged into the cell like common criminals. The only warm reception we received was from other inmates who accorded us great regard and couldn’t stop talking about how greatly they appreciate our relentless struggles for the soul of our country. They went out of their way to get us mats and blankets with which to relax and rest our weakened joints. A number of these inmates were kept illegally in custody without being charged to court. For the next 3 days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were caged like animals in a cell within the cell and this was our abode till Monday when we were moved to court. We were in the first instance denied access to our lawyers, families and friends. And quite unusually, we were also denied access to our books. Upon granting us access to our lawyers after mass uproar, we had to declare a hunger strike in detention before they were pressured into allowing us access to our books. According to our lawyer, Abubakar Mashal, reports of our hunger strike caught the attention of the public and the uproar that followed forced the police commissioner into calling our lawyer at the early hours of 4 AM. The commissioner appealed to Marshal to come to our detention facility and avail us our books which they had initially denied us.
When we were being moved to court on Monday morning, we were prepared for all theatrics the government had cooked up to keep us in detention for as long as possible, hence, we were prepared for the worst. So that we were not caught off guard when the magistrate court, sitting at Wuse 2, Abuja, denied us bail, remanded us at Kuje Prison and impressed that our lawyer instead filed a written bail application. Prior to the pronouncement of our remand in prison, the police refused us phones to speak to our lawyers and arranged a team of five lawyers posing as human rights lawyers. The plan was to have those lawyers hoodwink us into taking up our defense in the absence of our lawyer and then use these so-called human rights lawyers to keep us in detention for as long as possible. When they approached us in court, we immediately told them off. Without the presence of our lawyer, the court session commenced and the prosecuting team announced appearances. When the magistrate, Mabel Segun Bello, called for appearance of the defense, the arranged lawyers whom we have told off attempted to announce appearance on our behalf but were immediately interrupted by Sowore who informed the court that the lawyers had no permission to represent us and lamented how we were denied access to our lawyers when we were being brought down to the court. The exchange between Sowore and the prosecuting team continued until the magistrate decided to adjourn for 10 minutes. By the time the magistrate returned to her seat, our lawyer was now in court. The disappointment in the face of the police prosecutors was so obvious. The arrival of our lawyer anyway did not stop them from achieving their devious aim of keeping us in detention. However, they would have been opportuned to keep us far longer if their game of imposing lawyers on us had worked. With our lawyers in court, we were able to take a plea on trumped-up charges bordering on “unlawful assembly”, “incitement” and “criminal conspiracy.” However, they would have been opportuned to keep us far longer if their game of imposing lawyers on us had worked.
Omoyele Sowore (Right), Sanyaolu Juwon (Left), Adenola Michael (Mid-Left) in conversation with their Lawyer, Abubakar Marshal (Mid-Right). They are part of many victims of police brutality, human rights abuses, and strangulation of civil rights by the Nigerian government. Credit: Witness
The road to Kuje was terribly bad and extremely tiring. The roads were so bad and highly discomforting to the extent that the police who were taking us to the prison complained very bitterly and relentlessly too. I had to immediately remind them how they would have shot at protesters if residents of Kuje had come out to protest bad roads. In fairness however to most of the Junior officers in the police, it was clear to us that a number of them sympathize with our struggles but lack the courage to turn their guns against the real oppressors of our mutual interest.
When we arrived at Kuje Prison, the prison officials professionally told the police delegation that brought us that they had stopped accepting inmates due to COVID-19 and that their isolation facility is equally unavailable at the moment. Desperate to keep us in Prison, calls began jamming calls. From the police commissioner to the IG to numerous power brokers at the higher ups until a phone directive came to the prison controller who had to drive all the way from his home down to the prison. Sowore during the period of the wait told the police delegation that ‘’if the Police Commissioner was so desperate about keeping us in detention, he can as well keep us in his house where he will volunteer as a teacher to his children and lecture his wards how not to be a lawless public officer like their father.’’
We were at last admitted into the Prison and each of us dumped in solitary confinement. The prison confinement we were dumped looked like the ones reserved for persons on a death roll, but the prison warders called it a ‘’COVID-19 isolation facility.’’ We were denied access to doctors, food and our books throughout the night of our stay in prison. The following morning, 5th of January, when we were processed and returned to court for a bail application hearing, information of our presence, especially that of Sowore had become popular amongst prison inmates such that the Niger Delta activists among them were seen struggling to come towards us but were sternly repelled by the prison warders.
Emanuel Bulus was violently arrested, brutalized, and incarcerated alongside four other activists for protesting bad governance. Credit: Witness
Like criminals, we were handcuffed and hurled into the prison’s blackmaria that would be convening us to court. Stepping out of the blackmaria with cuffs in our hands infuriated the mass of Nigerians who had come to court to show us solidarity. Our lawyers did not take it easy either as they immediately demanded the removal of the cuffs. As the court session began anew, the Magistrate, Mabel failed again to grant our prayers for a bail after our application met vehement opposition from the police prosecutors. The magistrate then ordered that we should be remanded at the Police Force Criminal Investigation Department till Friday, 8th of January when she would then give a ruling on our bail application. In her ruling, she included a caveat allowing us access to medical attention, our books and upon Sowore’s request, made a special order to avail Adenola Michael, a level 3 law student, internet facility with which to participate in his classes which had commenced online on 4th of January. But of course, the police had no internet facility, neither did they have any decent hospital or detention facility.
Upon our arrival at the Force CID, we were immediately processed and hauled into our cell. Just like abattoir, our first detention center, we were locked up in a ‘’cage within a cage’’. The Police officers before our arrival had warned all inmates to steer clear of our cell and not canvas with us. This apparently was to prevent us from radicalizing the rest of the inmates. And just like we had it at our previous detention centers, we also had great support from the other cell mates. Despite restrictions warning the rest of the cell mates to steer clear from our own cell, a number of them still took turns in confiding in us, several injustices they have had to endure in detention, including how poorly they are fed and how a number of them have been denied access to lawyers and their families. Of the numerous cases, one caught our special attention. And it was the case of one Solomon Akuma, a pharmacist who had been remanded since April, 2020, for anti-Buhari twitter comments. The Pharmacist faces charges of treasonable felony, amongst many other charges. And while in detention, the government had done all they could to demoralize him. He was tortured into making a self indicating “confessional statement with the police’’, denied access to lawyer, family and told by police to plead guilty to ‘’criminal charges’’ they had forced him into admitting in a ‘’confessional statement.’’ Despite this, Akuma Solomon remains unbroken.
On the morning of Friday, 8th January, 2021, at about 8 AM, the police PPRO had come to our cell to inform us about our movement to court by 9 AM as ordered by the magistrate. Seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours, until about 10 AM, we were still in our cell and it wasn’t looking as though the police were prepared to comply with the orders of the court. Out of nowhere, one of the police officers stationed to our cell showed up. He said to Sowore, ‘’Leader, your attention is needed. Once Sowore stepped out, I had asked our comrades to also get ready in the hope that Sowore’s invitation was about our movement to the court. Once Sowore got back, I laughed uncontrollably at myself when I realized the persons who Sowore’s attention was called on were comrades who helped bring us food, water and other necessities. The summary is that, again the government proved its capacity and penchant for lawlessness with the flagrant disregard of a court order. Worthy of note is that prior to now, the Buhari Junta has violated over 40 court orders. One of such orders is one that granted bail to the Shiite leader, Sheik El ZakZaky and despite several court orders ordering his release, General Buhari has illegally held the Sheik since 2015. The police however weren’t the only culprit of this episode. Upon realizing the wretched game the police were playing, our lawyer went to court with the hope that the magistrate was going to sit as ordered. The court did not only fail to sit, the magistrate told our lawyer she wouldn’t sit unless we were produced in court. Meanwhile, the magistrate could have still ensured the court seats as ordered and at least made a pronouncement on bail. It was also within the constitutional powers of the magistrate to move the court to the police headquarters where we were detained and still make a pronouncement that must force the police into immediate compliance. She failed to do any of this and consciously helped police violate the orders of her own court.
Failing to produce us in court on Friday, we were forced to spend the next three days in the mosquito-infested and shitty detention facility. The wait wasn’t so bad though as it availed us the opportunity to meet certain new inmates who had been transferred from Abattoir, our first detention center before Kuje Prison. They informed us of how the abattoir police immediately freed/charged over 40 inmates who had been illegally detained. According to them, the police feared we may expose this illegality on their part once we get out.
On Sunday, one of the inmates informed us that we will definitely leave detention on Monday and that he learnt that people were coming to protest at the Force CID. We became very certain that the police, fearing protest, had furnished the inmate closest to us with this information with the certainty that he would get us informed in the hope that someway, we’ll be able to communicate with ‘’our people’’ on the outside not to protest on Monday. Hence, it was the fear of a Monday Protest that influenced their decision to take us to court on Monday. We arrived at the court to the cheer of a mass of highly resilient Nigerians who have begun staging protests in front of the court building.
Entering into Magistrate Mabel’s court, the session as usual started with the prosecution and defense announcing appearances before the magistrate went into a long read of very verbose and deceitful ruling. Her ruling announced bail conditions that were no doubt not only vindictive and stringent but also that the court had preempted guilt before trial. One of the bail conditions ordered our restriction to Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. Aside from the general bail conditions, Sowore was also ordered by the court to henceforth make a registered presence at the office of the registrar of the FCT high court every Monday and Friday.
Generally, the whole point to our brutalizations, arrest and 11-day detention at three different prison and detention facilities respectively was to discourage and punish our resolve to mobilize Nigerians in the line of social revolution that places public wealth into the hands and control of ordinary people. Alas, we have long surpassed the stage of fear into the realm of determination and courage, heading to the destination of freedom. And like the words of Leon Trotsky, the late Russian Revolutionary, ‘’We will not concede this Revolutionary banner to the masters of oppression and falsehood! If our generation happens to be too weak to establish a Revolution, we will hand the spotless banner down to the next generation. The struggle which is in the offing transcends by far the importance of individuals, factions, and parties. It is the struggle for the future of our country. It will be severe. It will be lengthy. Whoever seeks physical comfort and spiritual calm, let him step aside. Neither threats, nor persecutions, nor violations can stop us! Be it even over our bleaching bones, the truth will triumph! We will blaze the trail for it. It will conquer! Under all the severe blows of fate, I shall be happy, as in the best days of my youth! Because, friends, the highest human happiness is not the exploitation of the present but the preparation of the future.
The Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM), a significant political party in Cameroon, has announced that come 22 September 2020, it will carry out mass protests in a bid to oust long-serving President Paul Biya. The party’s spokesperson, Olivier Bibou Nissack said “Paul Biya must go” and rolled out the hashtag #CameroonRevolution.
Battle lines between the Biya government and the opposition were drawn on 7 September 2020 when President Paul Biya convened the first-ever election to put in place regional councils. The election is due to take place in all divisional headquarters on 6 December 2020. Maurice Kamto, Chairman of CRM and Biya’s main challenger in the 2018 presidential election, had warned in August that should the election be convened without reforms to the electoral code and a solution to the four-year-long Anglophone crisis, he was going to launch a gigantic campaign for the forceful departure of Biya. The president’s decision to call for the election has given momentum to the planned revolt.
Though supporters of the Biya regime are trying to play down the seriousness of the planned popular uprising, Atia Tilarious Azohnwi, a Ph.D. researcher in political science at the University of Istanbul, says Kamto’s threat to oust Biya must be taken seriously. “Cameroon already meets all the conditions necessary for a popular revolution. There’s the general perception that the government of the day has failed and the people are hungry for change,” Azohnwi told Ubuntu Times. He cited perceived political, economic, and social oppression, as well as political incompetence as factors which may push the people to revolt against the government at the slightest ignition.
“Most revolutions in history have often been started by the bold and the outspoken – it always starts like a joke and before long, those who are quiet and careful are co-opted. If the kind of crowd that welcomed Kamto from his tour abroad were to heed to his revolution call, then we can expect anything to happen,” the researcher said.
So far, two other opposition parties – Popular Action Party (PAP) and Mouvement Democratique de Conscience National (MODECNA) – have declared they will be joining the CRM in protest. The campaign organizers were still negotiating by press time to bring on board the Cameroon People’s Party (CPP), which is famous for its Black Friday protests, a CRM top official hinted. Many civil society organizations are said to be signing up for the mass protests.
According to the CRM top official, who preferred anonymity because s/he was not mandated to talk to the press, the protest will be staged nationwide and across the world in countries where Cameroon has diplomatic representation. “We are aware we are dealing with a rogue government. Our strategy is to keep the planning discreet so as to catch the government off guard,” the source told Ubuntu Times, indicating that the protest day could change for strategic reasons.
Government on Red Alert
Protests in Cameroon; be they peaceful or violent, are often met with force by the police and gendarmes. On 22 September 2017 when Anglophone Cameroonians poured out on the streets of the North West and South West regions to express dissent, security forces opened fire and teargassed many protestors. As the government violently squashed the peaceful protests, it pushed many to the extreme and fanned the ongoing, drawn-out Anglophone crisis.
Paul Atanga Nji, Minister of Territorial Administration, has warned that “no disorder shall be tolerated from any political party or any political actor.” The minister said in the event of any “public disorder”, administrative authorities would take necessary measures to maintain law and order. But the minister did not state exactly which measures will be taken against protestors of the planned revolt. However, in the past, such measures have often included arrest, torture and detention, as well as the firing of rubber bullets and teargas.
The external relations ministry on its part has called on heads of Cameroon diplomatic missions abroad to fortify security at embassies, consulates and diplomatic residences, citing recent attacks on such structures by the Cameroonian diaspora. Though the ministry’s leaked communication does not make allusion to the upcoming protest, it is likely that it was orchestrated by it. Brigade Anti-Sardinards (BAS), a global anti-Biya pressure group which supports Kamto, has attacked several of Cameroon’s embassies, especially in France, in recent times.
A source close to Yaounde hinted that the government might tamper with internet connectivity in order to frustrate social media and online mobilization.
Cat and Mouse Relationship
A former ally of Biya, Maurice Kamto turned to be one of Biya’s sternest critics. He has accused Biya of bad governance and says the 87-year old is unable to run the country due to his ailing nature. In 2018, Kamto challenged President Biya at the polls. But Biya swept 71.28% of the votes to extend his 36-year rule back then, to 2025, leaving Kamto at the second position with 14.23% votes. Kamto and the CRM contested the results on grounds that the election was marred by gross irregularities. Kamto declared himself the “President-elect” of Cameroon, and alongside his supporters, they organized several protests across the country against “electoral hold up” which landed at least 117 of them in prison.
Maurice Kamto, the main opposition leader in Cameroon, is bent on ousting President Biya through a popular revolt. Following the 2018 presidential vote, he declared himself “President-elect” and accused Biya of stealing his victory. Credit: Stephen Mengnjo / Ubuntu Times
Kamto and his close allies, including Albert Dzongang, Celestine Djamen, and Christian Penda Ekoka were detained for nine months for disrupting public order, perpetrating various assaults, insurrection and rebellion. The CRM leader and his supporters regained freedom in October 2019, following a presidential pardon seen as a national reconciliation move but which later turned out to be diplomatic pressure from France. Since then, the relationship between Biya and Kamto has remained hostile.
The International Crisis Group says Cameroon is a classic example of a fragile state in many aspects, especially with its characteristic weak institutions. According to the Fragile State Index 2020, Cameroon was the 11th most fragile state in the world, out of some 178 surveyed. Under President Paul Biya, the country has been poorly rated over the years by independent watchdog organizations with regards to democracy, political rights and civil liberties, with a sharp fall in press freedom. Biya has been in power for close to four decades now and there are no indications he is willing to leave soon.
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