By Remi Oyeyemi
“While Revolutionaries as Individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas.”
~ Thomas Sankara
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
~ John C. Maxwell
“The key to change… is to let go of fear.”
~Rosanne Cash
On April 22, 1990, when Major Gideon Orkar made his broadcast, it was ecstasy for me and I had thought that, having been born in April, I got the greatest birthday gift of my life, at least for the next twelve hours until the deleterious empire re-took charge.
Anyone familiar with the details of events in the hours leading to the execution of the April 22, 1990 Revolution (I used this word advisedly in place of the word “coup” which actually means the same as “revolution”, but in recent times and in certain parlances, has come to connote “an illegal act.” Attempting to overthrow an illegal and oppressive government is not an “illegal act” but a “revolutionary act”), would agree with me that Gideon Orkar was and still remains one of the most courageous human beings that has ever lived. I have lined him up with several great men in history of the world and of all ages, he stands shoulder to shoulder with them.
Even, in captivity, he was bolder than Daniel, as he exuded robust and uncommon courage, unconcerned about injury or death to his body but buoyed by his ideals of fairness and justice. His alluringly innocuous baby-face baring a look that bellied the inimitability of his conquest over fear. He was not afraid to die for what he believed but for which he was killed. Orkar represents the triumph of the spirit over body. He represents the conquest of sacrifice over crass opportunism. He represents the victory of self denial over gratuitous self indulgence. He represents the triumph of an idea, especially a type “whose time has come” over the stagnancy of thought of the subjugating sentries of the status quo.
Orkar still lives and would live on as an ideal of fairness and justice for which his body was taken but for which his spirit remains unconquerable. When Nigeria eventually accosts its destiny of dismemberment, Major Gideon Orkar would still remain a hero to the majority of all peoples that would eventually be the citizens of the different Nations that would emanate from it. This is because he represents an idea that transcends the rivers, the mountains and the valleys of his Tiv land. He represents an idea – justice and fairness – that transcends the abhorrent boundaries of the geographical expression called Nigeria.
In his determination to speak for the disadvantaged and the dispossessed, the denigrated and the dehumanized, the subjugated and the subverted within the contrived country called Nigeria, St. Gideon Orkar ended up speaking for humanity. Those who murdered him thought they got rid of him, but unfortunately for them, Gideon Gwaza Orkar is not dead. He lives on in our hearts; his defiance, our clarion call; his courage, our inspiration; his sacrifice, our motivation; his vision, our dream; his words, our elixir; his mission, our goal and the imminence of the realization of his dream, our consolation while his name remains our buoy as we march on.
Let all the protagonists of NIGERIA AT ALL COSTS hear loud and clear –The ethnic nationalities of this forced marriage would not be held in permanent bondage. We know this to be true and self evident. Restructuring Nigeria is a stale demand. Majority of those held captive within it’s borders are demanding its total dismemberment. The political slave drivers and economic pillagers are anxious and afraid. Their only source of confidence is the state control of violence. At the H – hour of the peoples’ judgment, forces of state would be toothless and powerless. State violence would not be able to deter the surge to freedom. They would not be able to stem the tide.
Protagonists of “One Nigeria at all costs” are panicky and disoriented. They are nervous and scared. It is very easy to fathom and discern. They are confused and befuddled. The levers of power and control have become slippery in their hands. Their anxiety is palpable. The slave is about to break free. The taskmaster is bewildered and jittery. Frightened rats whose only ability is to be parasitic. They are vile predators with noxious bile. They are fake nationalists that derive sadistic satisfaction from the woes of others. Logic is alien to greed. Greed is oblivious of danger.
Pity not the latter day nationalists with fake “common humanity” concept. They shout UNITY for Nigeria during the day and they go about defiling and raping her at night. They are often undemocratic and very afraid of the people. They are often holier than thou supposedly with all the wisdom of the world, yet they could only exude nauseating stupidity when they communicate. They are foxy, merciless, nasty, brutish and greedy. They have lost control over their own destinies. Yet, they want to control the destinies of others.
But their days are numbered as oppressors. The shackled shall be freed. The memory of Gideon Orkar is an attestation to this. And if the fake nationalists refuse to let the captives go, they would have deserved the judgment the people deemed fit for them. The judgment of the people is like the mill of God, it grinds very, very slowly, but very, very certainly.
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©Remi Oyeyemi
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