“The Beast in Us”

“Let’s get down into another underground spiritual game”

This was the start of one of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s greatest renditions, and one of my favorite; Beasts of No Nation. I listened to this song a lot during the #EndSARS protests, and some more after the Lekki Massacre. I listened to the song even more during the one-year anniversary marking the massacre.

I also found myself putting it on repeat again after the Judicial Panel report came out last week Monday confirming that the Lekki Toll Gate incident indeed happened — a full year after the attack.

“Na Nigerian government
Dem dey talk be dat
My people are useless, my people are senseless, my people are indiscipline
I never hear dat before oh
Make government talk
My people are useless, my people are senseless, my people are indiscipline”

I intend to make this a long and uncomfortable read. Long and uncomfortable being how I find most days to be as a Nigerian. Long, uncomfortable, confusing, exhaustive, whatever adjective you’d use to modify living in Nigeria. With an ever-increasing cost of living, a population plagued by poverty and insecurity, and corruption so putrid that it actually stinks, I don’t think anyone finds living in Nigeria a thrilling experience. It is long and uncomfortable.

When the #EndSARS protests were on full throttle, the Special Adviser to the President Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, was on record to have said this in a Facebook post.

If President Buhari hadn’t exercised the restraint and tolerance of a father, at a time that even hitherto respected people instigated the protesters to carry on (and they promptly went underground when anarchy ensued), we would have been talking of something else in the country.

The rivers of Nigeria could have turned crimson, and mourning and lamentations would have suffused the land. But we are thankful for the father in President Buhari, patient and enduring, almost to a fault.

If this doesn't sound like a paragraph from the book “1983”, then I don’t know what else does. The biggest standpoint for me was the rather gloomy and poetic conclusion to the article, with prophetic undertones of “crimson-stained rivers”, and very KJV-like praise of a Father Buhari who with his “faultless patience, and endurance” was able to prevent “mourning and lamentations”. All the attributes of a Shakespeare Plot.

The Judicial Panel set up in Lagos by Gov Babajide Sanwo-Olu confirmed on Monday in a rich 309-page report that soldiers indeed murdered protesters at the Toll Gate in Lekki. While this means absolutely nothing for the people who were murdered, as well as every sane thinking Nigerian who had since last year come to terms with this honest reality, it does however mean that the uncomfortable issue of a Government killing her people is no longer an issue to be disputed or countered. It is no longer a matter of “if, when, and maybe”, it has now become an absolute, definitive fact. And because of this, it is now permanently etched in the story of this nation.

A small almost insignificant win, but a win nonetheless

When we look at the story that is Nigeria and draw it in a parallel line to the events of October 2020, we can establish certain facts. And one of them being the simple matter that the Nation has never given a damn how anybody felt. You need to understand that to be Nigerian is to live in a perpetual state of anger and dissatisfaction. The keyword is perpetual which means a “never-ending or changing situation or one that happens so frequently as to give the impression of a never-ending situation”.

A perpetual state of dissatisfaction for 60+ years would be enough to signal a change in Leadership Dynamics.

Well, not in Nigeria.

You see this insane level of “not giving a damn” come to play a full one year after the Lekki Massacre. When not even protests, demonstrations, and public opinion are enough to get a Government to admit to her wrongdoings and attempt retribution or reconciliation. The Panel reports are out, and yet by and by a high percentage of this Leadership’s cronies and lackeys have come out to oppose the findings, calling it baseless and dictated by emotions.

I must admit, they did get one thing correct. The Panel’s report was actually dictated by emotions. But the issue with this half-hearted attempt at emotional blackmail is that it rules that emotions and facts are exclusive of each other. And then attempts to rubbish people’s beliefs based on this Ad Hominem Argument.

“You are emotional people. We saw it in the destruction of Private Property by a small section of you. Therefore we rule that whatever you think you saw or heard is wrong and you must be making things up”

And then attempts to make up illogical reasons to dispute hard evidence.

“The IG Live was doctored”

“Where are the families of the dead?”

“DJ Switch left the country. That means she lied” (Ironic given that a high percentage of these Lackeys are based abroad)

All pointless, callous attempts to label millions of Nigerians liars. Because well, Nigeria does not give a damn.

Some people say why I dey talk like dis
No be talk like dis dem take to carry me go prison ee-oh
No be me dey talk, na Prime Minister Botha dey talk ee-oh
No be me dey talk, na Prime Minister Botha dey talk ee-oh

Him say, this uprising will bring out the beast in us
This uprising will bring out the beast in us

Nigeria does not give a damn. Quite frankly.

Human Rights Violation? Nobody gives a damn.

Terrorism and Ethnic Based violence? Nobody gives a damn.

Corruption and Bribery? Damnless.

Increased crime rate? Still.

At the end of the day, the message is poetic. And it’s almost akin to Mr. Adesina’s statement. But unlike the grace and steadfast love of our Father Buhari that renews every morning, the patience of a mob is not enduring. It is fiery and intense and burns quickly.

Because when people have been programmed to believe that no one gives a damn, it’s almost guaranteed that they begin to prioritize their own safety and wellbeing, at the expense of others. At that point, nothing else matters and anarchy is imminent.

Maybe then, we would begin to properly sing Fela’s lyrics. Because the uprisings would definitely make us beasts.