Where all are prisoners
The Tribune of February 4, 1985 carried an article by Askia Olurode, under the headline: "Where all are prisoners”. We reproduce excerpts from the article below:Nigeria is today an unfree society. It is easy to come to the conclusion that only those in detention are unfree. But looking at it more critically, in the sense of freedom to make an alternative choice, everyone is a prisoner. The freedom which the well-off seem to enjoy is a farce. The concept of freedom can be looked at from different perspectives. In a purely Marxist language, labour is unfree under capitalism. This is obvious enough inasmuch as labour is tied to the movement of the market forces - the peaks and troughs of capitalism. Put crudely, whether labour is to be used or unused is dependent on the decision of the capitalist. But the capitalist himself is neither free he is subservient to his profit motives.
The various decrees have further emasculated whatever freedom we enjoyed under the previous dispensation. What with Decree No. 2 1984 on state security (Detention of Persons) and Decree No. 4 (Public Officers Decree) - Protection Against False Accusations. At least we then had the freedom to differ.
Everyone nurses a high sense of insecurity today as to what to say, how to move and how to sleep. The other time heads rolled merely because the educational policy of a former civilian administrator was praised. Who says we are free to pronounce what we regard as an honest assessment? Governor Mudashiru has since learnt his lesson and he recently tagged Lateef Kayode Jakande's school buildings as a shame. He must have got a pat on the back by the Supreme Military Council for that.
In November, someone was detained for daring to write a letter to a friend who was already in detention. And recently, a Tribune journalist based in Ibadan was detained for hours for only daring to report on the demonstration carried out by the Shagamu market women over levies. The market women themselves were rounded up, charged and convicted for daring to ask His Excellency, Governor Oladipo Diya of Ogun State, to clarify the levies he imposed irrespective of income and sex.
In Niger State, emirs have been told that they would be destooled if sufficient number of pupils failed to register under their domains. But parents are partly withdrawing their children from the school system in order that they can help to meet the escalating levies and other costs of social reproduction. This is the dilemma of an unfree emir and people.
At least three state governors have issued policy statements that discriminate against non-indigenes and punish them by making them pay for the same educational services. And as Shagari would say, this is one nation with one destiny. In Oyo State, parents have been asked for the first time in 30 years to pay N15.00 per session per student in the primary school. What a reactionary step. Everyone is crumbling under the heavy hands of the state via taxes and other compulsory levies.
There is another dimension to the glaringly unfree nature of our society. Everyone that has the means desperately searches for what is tagged 'essence', the essential commodities. The distribution of these commodities has subjected civil servants, nurses, doctors, lecturers, typists, cleaners, and others to its criteria. There are those who have to be beaten by law- enforcement agents before they are told that the goods are not, after all, available.
In chasing after these commodities office hours atrophy. So those working are not even free to do so because of the comprador nature of our state- a typical buying and selling society.
Maybe we should set up a Federal Ministry for the Distribution of Essential Commodities or rather a non-presidential task force.
There is an unfree air all over the place. School leavers who have no jobs cannot be said to be free. They are being rounded up for wandering. Kiosks have been demolished as they constitute part of the illegal structures that uglify our urban scene. The government itself seems set for those who are being rendered physically unfree daily and it presently spends N70 millions to feed 50,000 inmates in Nigeria's prisons. Contracts have already been awarded for the construc- tion of 47 new prisons among which are four maximum security prisons.
Even those who lock themselves up inside their buildings with the heavy use of security gadgets could not be said be free - even from armed robbers against whom they are seeking protection. Nor are they free from sudden incidents of fire. In wanting to be free, they voluntarily imprison themselves. What a paradox!
From newspaper comments, sympathies seem to be directed at those who are physically unfree but probably freer than others from wants of food, employment, good health care, shelter and self-thoughts. There is a sense which the detainees are free from the numerous decrees. Here in this 'free world, we do not trust the man we talk to today for he can turn out to be a security agent. So we all gasp not the air of freedom. And until the very forces that imprison us are loosened, everyone of us remains a prisoner a unable to perform any historical task.
Our leaders are unfree from their own security staff as the Indira Gandhi-style drama is repeatable. They have lived in fear for too long and have persistently been told of an enemy there. One could understand this during the civil war years, but not now. We were once told that Dikko was Nigeria's number one enemy. And anything on Dikko is presented as newsworthy. Nothing short of bringing Dikko back will alleviate our econo predicaments, it was adumbrated.
Now we are told that things have to be bad before they are good. This is purely a capitalist argument Thatcher and Reagan have proffered. But is Nigeria a capitalist state with its unfree elements? It is not that this freedom as much under capitalism.
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The argument could be made that publication of such an article at all refutes Mr Olurode's proposition fears about present Nigeria being unfree society". But the betting in Lagos was that he would be "invited for a chat with the NSO".
As the saying goes, watch this space
