Fwd: THE INALIENABLE RIGHT TO PROTEST.

[Anthony Akinola]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Anthony Akinola <anthony....@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 4:48 PM
Subject: THE INALIENABLE RIGHT TO PROTEST.
To: Anthony Akinola <anthony....@gmail.com>

4:3

THE INALIENABLE RIGHT TO PROTEST

By Anthony Akinola

I was just about writing this article when someone from Nigeria phoned to say he called me "severally" yesterday. I pretended not to understand what he meant until he said he called me five times. "Severally" has been the posh word in town, especially for those who would want to save words by not saying "several times". You could hear actors and actresses say it over and over again, even supposedly educated academics may not be an exception. With great humility, may I tell whoever cares to know that "severally" does not substitute for several times and a generation of Nigerians working on their English Language should not be confused by those who seek to rewrite the language.

Now to the very important subject of public protest I seek to write about. Except in an autocracy or dictatorship, the right of the citizen to protest against those in authority is both constitutional and democratic. It is inalienable in that the state cannot take it away from them. Protest represents a feedback to the activities or policies of those who govern. The concerns of individuals outlined during a protest should constitute a new input into the process of governance. Such a new input could generate another feedback that resolves a potential crisis situation.

However, what constitutes the inalienable right of one group could also infringe on the rights of another. Your right to free speech, free association, or free anything could encroach on the rights of another if not regulated by the state. In a civilised political environment, those with an interest in protesting whatever to them is an injustice seeks permission to stage their protest.

In Britain, for instance, those who seek to protest and would be marching through the streets apply to the police for permission. The police would demand for the names and addresses of the organisers, and could decide on the time frame and the route the protest can take. Police presence is inevitable lest what is assumed to be a peaceful protest degenerates into something else.

There is a world of difference between a protest and a revolution. The latter connotes the involvement of violence and an outcome that could possibly overturn an established order. Those who have opted for a revolution do not have to seek permission from the state, not least because what they have set out to achieve is anti-state. In this regard, it would be naive to assume that state authorities, in the name of democratic expression, would condone a revolution in whatever guise it presents itself. Of course, a protest can go out of hand and graduate into a revolution. Examples abound in history and that history of revolutions is one cause for political leaders, especially in highly volatile states, to be jittery and suspicious of the intentions of political activists.

The much-talked about recent attempt at a revolution or protest by Omoyele Sowore and others, might have worried those in authority for a couple of reasons. The scale of insecurity in Nigeria today is unprecedented. Not many would wish for a more chaotic environment than we already have. There are the Nnamdi Kanus of Nigeria praying fervently for the breakdown of law and order, not least because it is in such a situation that their dreams of a disintegrated Nigerian state can be achieved.

It can also be argued, just as many have done, that the protest by Sowore and his comrades, no matter how well-intended, was ill-timed. We are yet to settle into serious governance after a presidential election whose outcome is being contested. Mr. Sowore was a candidate in that election. There might be those who would assume that his intention of a revolution was to walk into the presidency via a chaotic route, having been rejected at the polls. Sowore has no history of experience in governance, at any level, quite enthusiastic in referring to a history of protests and placard carrying. I said this in one of my commentaries after the 2019 presidential election.

Be that as it may, the Buhari-led administration now has on its table a list of grievances that should not be swept under the political carpet. Issues of insecurity, unemployment., and general poverty, are more than serious issues the administration must be seen to be addressing with great urgency.. There would be no reason to keep Omoyele Sowore in detention lest the government is anxious to make a Mandela out of him. We must have rules that govern public protests, just as those in positions of authority must also respect and actualise the aspirations of well-meaning Nigerians. We are all governed by rules of engagement.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

I thank Hashem that the word is still free.

I pray to the Good Lord to please forgive me.

I pray for forgiveness, bearing in mind Obasanjo crowing that his Merciful God

would not forgive him if he ever supported Alhaji Atiku.

Eliot the Anglo-Catholic did ask the question: “After such knowledge, what forgiveness?”

I pray for forgiveness, because up till now, I haven’t read most of Paul’s letters, have not read the Acts of the Apostles and I still haven’t found the time to read Baba Kadiri’s lengthy epistle to Ogbeni Obasanjo, former General in the Nigerian Army, former Military Head of State, former President of Nigeria.

When the Rev. Olusegun Obasanjo talks about forgiveness

We must not take his words lightly

He has a Ph.D. in Christian theology

I pray for forgiveness because I’m behind in my dues, - I just now got the news

from the BBC, that Bobi Wine is going to be tried for treason - for “annoying” Uganda’s El Presidente Yoweri Museveni.

Mr. President’s prosecution team should have no difficult giving due flexibility and presidential latitude to the Ugandan English legal definition of “annoy” with due to regard to Mr. President's sensitivity. Museveni is obviously the kind of President who is easily annoyed – and so am I, with Stella Nyanzi, but I don’t think that Omoyele Sowore is being rude, although, given the current state of affairs in the Naija nation, the war against corruption, against Boko Haram and all that I dare say Sowore was not singing the old Beatles song “Revolution” ( “But when you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out”) or indeed the Rev Bob Marley’s “It takes a revolution (revolution) to make a solution” or that he should not repeat some of what Dave Dellinger said in his own defence at his trial – published as “Revolutionary nonViolence”

Even with the best of intentions, a very frustrated Sowore’s thrust is surely irresponsible.

Consider Fela’s Zombie

Consider Fidel Castro saying

“A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.”

Consider : Chidi Anthony Opara: Revolution ( Maybe time to put him, poetically at least on trial)

The Revolution will not be televised, Ojare!

Even more dangerous stuff …

In my humble opinion, or as Oxford’s Chief Anthony Akinola expresses himself in this thread, “With great humility” when taking it upon himself to correct his fellow Nigerians – who after all maybe were not, are not, cannot and probably do not speak a regional dialect of West African Francophony's pidgin French – the common parlance / vernacular among our neighbours in Senegal, Cameroon, Ivory Coast etc., which could be unintelligible to Chief Akinola. No Sir, the several people who called him “severally” ( maybe of many different stripes and tribes ) were obviously speaking in the modern tongue ( speaking in tongues?), speaking an intentional/purposeful Nigerian English, the common language of every “man of the people” - including the “posh” ones and that is a language which we are all socially equipped and sufficiently competent to fully understand/ comprehend – never mind the habitual defaults in grammar, the lipslides in pronunciation, the excruciating deviations from normal street vocabulary or the kinds of lapses that would propel a Don Kperogi type to press criminal charges for violating the everyday legal fare when it comes to all that is decent about Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth's Mother tongue. As Robin Crusoe said about his Man Friday - as quoted in Coetzee’s Nobel Lecture

“But to return to my new companion. I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him everything that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak, and understand me when I spoke; and he was the aptest scholar there ever was.”

Just as Chief Akinola has corrected the Nigerian who what to abbreviate or replace serial by “several” so too when the on the Banks of the River Niger, the Nigerian sings of Revolution, it could be that he is localizing the term. ( In the third form at our Prince of Wales School we had an English Master Mr. Chapman ( M.A: Cantab) - an English geezer, another one, Mr. I.E. Davies ( M.A. Cantab) a distinguished Sierra Leonean and what I remember most about that latter is that in the classroom “ Indigenous Language interference “ was his main claim to fame as he was very adept at identifying, recognizing and in pointing out what he referred to as“ localisms” and indeed that became his nickname: “Localisms”

Offhand, we may adduce the upper-class Naija use of “severally” to this piece of indoctrination they have received from Shakespeare's Elizabethan English an essential part of what Derek Walcott called a” sound colonial education: Julius Caesar: Act 3, Scene 2

Another plebeian :

“I will hear Cassius and compare their reasons

When severally we hear them rendered.”

Sorry about the winding preamble, the fact is, one cannot help but agree wholeheartedly with Chief Akinola’s last four paragraphs, even if those paragraphs are slightly at variance with my own temporary conclusion :

Fela doesn’t have to be resurrected: Fela lives, Fela can sing the blues because Fela has paid his dues. In my most humble opinion like every true artist,, Fela = Revolution

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Mostly Corrected :

I thank Hashem that the word is still free.

I pray to the Good Lord to please forgive me.

I pray for forgiveness, bearing in mind Obasanjo crowing

that his Merciful God would not forgive him if he ever supported Alhaji Atiku.

Eliot the Anglo-Catholic did ask the question: “After such knowledge, what forgiveness?”

I pray for forgiveness, because up till now, I haven’t read most of Paul’s letters, have not read the Acts of the Apostles and I still haven’t found the time to read Baba Kadiri’s lengthy epistle to Ogbeni Baba Obasanjo, former General in the Nigerian Army, former Military Head of State, former President of Nigeria.

When the Rev. Olusegun Obasanjo talks about forgiveness

We must not take his words lightly

He has a Ph.D. in Christian theology

I pray for forgiveness because I’m behind in my dues, - I just now got the news

from the BBC, that Bobi Wine is going to be tried for treason - for “annoying” Uganda’s El Presidente Yoweri Museveni.

Mr. President’s prosecution team should have no difficulty giving due flexibility and presidential latitude to the Ugandan English legal definition of “annoy” with due regard to Mr. President's sensitivity. Museveni is obviously the kind of President who is easily annoyed – and so am I, with Stella Nyanzi, but I don’t think that Omoyele Sowore is being rude, although, given the current state of affairs in the Naija nation, the war against corruption, against Boko Haram and all that, I daresay Sowore was not singing the old Beatles song “Revolution” ( “But when you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out ?”) or indeed the Rev Bob Marley’s “It takes a revolution (revolution) to make a solution” or that he should not repeat some of what Dave Dellinger said in his own defence at his trial – published as “Revolutionary nonViolence”

Even with the best of intentions, a very frustrated Sowore’s thrust is surely irresponsible.

Consider Fela’s Zombie

Consider Fidel (Castro) saying

“A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.”

Consider: Chidi Anthony Opara: Revolution ( Maybe, it's  time to put him poetically at least on trial ?)

The Revolution will not be televised, Ojare!

Even more dangerous stuff …

In my humble opinion, or as Oxford’s Chief Anthony Akinola expresses himself in this thread, “With great humility” when taking it upon himself to correct his fellow Nigerians – who after all maybe were not, are not, cannot and probably do not speak any regional dialect of West African Francophony's pidgin French – the common parlance / vernacular among our neighbours in Senegal, Cameroon, Ivory Coast etc., which could be unintelligible to Chief Akinola... No Sir, the several people who called him “severally” ( maybe of many different stripes and tribes ) were obviously speaking in the modern tongue ( speaking in tongues?), speaking an intentional/purposeful idiomatic Nigerian English, the common language of every “man of the people” - including the “posh” ones and that is a language which we are all socially equipped and sufficiently competent to fully understand/ comprehend – never mind the habitual defaults in grammar, the lipslides in pronunciation, the excruciating deviations from normal street vocabulary or the kinds of lapses that would propel or compel a Don Kperogi type to press criminal charges for violating the everyday legal fare when it comes to all that is decent about Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth's Mother tongue. As Robin Crusoe said about his Man Friday - as quoted in Coetzee’s Nobel Lecture

“But to return to my new companion. I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him everything that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak, and understand me when I spoke; and he was the aptest scholar there ever was.”

Just as Chief Akinola has corrected the Nigerians who what to abbreviate or replace serial by “several” so too when on the Banks of the River Niger, the Nigerian sings of Revolution, it could be that he is localizing the term. ( In the third form at our Prince of Wales School we had an English Master, a Mr. Chapman ( M.A: Cantab) - an English geezer, another one, Mr. I.E. Davies ( M.A. Cantab) a distinguished Sierra Leonean and what I remember most about that latter is that in the classroom “ Indigenous Language interference “ was his main claim to fame as he was very adept at identifying, recognizing and pointing out what he referred to as“ localisms” and indeed, that became his nickname: “Localisms”

Offhand, we may adduce the upper-class Naija use of “severally” to this piece of indoctrination they could have received from Shakespeare's Elizabethan English, an essential part of what Derek Walcott describes  as "a sound colonial education": Julius Caesar: Act 3, Scene 2

Another plebeian :

“I will hear Cassius and compare their reasons

When severally we hear them rendered.”

Sorry about the winding preamble, the fact is, one cannot help but agree wholeheartedly with Chief Akinola’s last four paragraphs, even if those paragraphs are slightly at variance with my own temporary conclusion  which is, that Fela doesn’t have to be resurrected: Fela lives, Fela can sing the blues because Fela has paid his dues. In my most humble opinion like every true artist, Fela = Revolution

On Wed, 7 Aug 2019 at 18:33, Anthony Akinola <anthony....@gmail.com> wrote:

--

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Mazi Cornelius,
How on earth would you put a poet on trial (even poetically)?

Would the Judge(and jury)understand the cryptic chants that would be advanced as evidence?

CAO.

[Adeshina Afolayan]

Cryptic chants? Hian!

I poet is not a poet in court. He or she is an ordinary human who committed a crime or misdemeanor, and would be charged as such. No poetic rendition will save him or her. In fact, such a rendition would be in contempt of the court.

Go ask those, like Dennis Brutus who spent time in prison, even if unlawfully.

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Adeshina,
You missed the point. I am speaking on the context of a poet being tried on what he/she wrote.

Was Brutus sentenced (in a court of competent jurisdiction) or just detained?

CAO.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

 Dear Chidi,

I agree with you 100 %, but when it comes to the law It’s the sort of question that only someone like your good friend Ibukunolu Alao Babajide is equipped to answer satisfactorily.

Should you ever find yourself in such a situation – find yourself on trial for poetic libel and sedition - or as in this case, for vilifying the venerated Mother of Nigeria’s president – as if you don’t know the Islamic Hadith that “Paradise is at the feet of your mother” you will only have yourself and the devil to blame.

In Catholic countries where the veneration of “God’s mother” Mary is strong, you had also better be careful with any poetic or unpoetic abuse of anyone’s mother.

In the United States, the Mutha-Fukker word came into operation directly from the plantation where the slave master could roger or rape any of his slaves’ mothers, daughters, sisters, girlfriends or wives, with impunity

You Chidi know that even though you possess a driving licence, you could still kill somebody at the Owerri Motor Park. If you are ever on trial for a poetic misuse of your license, I would advise you to get yourself a good lawyer or a good team of lawyers. Kenneth Harrow of course would be pressing all the buttons that he can press, Amnesty International etc. and holler all he can, even threaten sanctions, but there’s no guarantee that will save you. In such a situation, this too is possible: Jesus will not save you

You find yourself in such a situation, quoting Pope will probably not be of much help; it’s doubtful that the Sharia Judge will sympathise with you or with Pope. You would need a panel of poets as judges just to avoid the guillotine,,,

I admit that it’s a tricky question. Just recently,

concerning the country of Okot p'Bitek the worthy

you must have heard about one Stella Nyanzi

who thought that the obscenity

that she was writing

as criticism of the presidency

should be taken as “poetry”

maybe, uniquely “Ugandan poetry”?

She should count herself lucky

that she got away with only

18 months in the Uganda penitentiary

enough time to regret disrespect, unhappily...

If it was Cornelius Ignoramus or Yours Truly

that was wearing the shoes of Yoweri Museveni

at this very moment she would be feeling very sorry

as she would be facing the death penalty

Elsewhere, she could have attained martyrdom happily

As a member of Muhammad's Dead Poets Society

A mere 18 months will not ensure that she will never do it again – not now, not ever.

In your case, if - against your better sense (wisdom) if you should ever decide to revile your president in such a foolish manner, because you do not fear God, how would poor Cornelius Ignoramus ever be able to help you? That I should go down on my knees to pray to Brother Buhari (God forbid) or to beg Brother Buhari or Nigeria’s Chief Justice for you? I would not even sign Oga Falola and Ken Harrow’s petition.

Than the Almighty that at least your life is not under any threat for your poetry so far - at least not directly – from either Boko Haram or Adepoju’s much-feared Fulani Herdsmen. ( BTW, I think that he fears the Herdsmen, the purported Northern Hegemony and the Muhammadu Buhari more than he fears the Almighty - perhaps precisely because he doesn’t yet know or Inuit the poetic truth that

“The beginning of wisdom is the fear of HASHEM! “

You Chidi, may award yourself a poetic license to inveigh against the death penalty like Danny Glover – and if sentenced to lethal injection for vilifying Mr. President or his dearly beloved mother to write your last poem that no president was ever elected to wear the mask of a killer.

N.B:: If Sowore had merely written something like “To take up arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them” he would still be a free man today...not that you can get away with murder or incitement  to murder by calling it poetry 

More seriously, over here the fast for the 9th of Av begins at 20.52

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