OPINION
AGAIN AT RISK –
THE RIGHTS OF LAWFUL ASSEMBLAGE
By Wole Soyinka
 |
| Prof. Wole Soyinka. |
Yesterday (Saturday Feb 4), the
media offered the nation a space of relief when it carried the expected news of
a mutual accommodation reached by the organisers of the demonstration planned
for tomorrow Monday February 6th. The theme in summary: public discontent with
the state of the nation and its governance. From the beginning, the organisers
had cited quite an extensive list of such areas of concern and demands for
urgent attention.
To my personal consternation,
today’s (Sunday), the same media countered that announcement with a stiff
repudiation from the apex of the Police command – the office of the
Inspector-General. It is such a huge disappointment, and a disservice to the
cause of democracy, tolerance of dissent, and principle of inclusive
governance.
An unnecessary but important
reminder: the battle for the right of lawful assembly of citizens in any cause,
conducted peacefully, has been fought and won several times over. It is time
that this contest is gracefully conceded. It must be consolidated by its
routineness as a choice of action at the front of any people’s democratic
participation. This battle has been won legally, constitutionally, and even
morally. It enjoys near global acceptance as one of the means of actualising
the protocols of a people’s Fundamental Human Rights.
It comes therefore as a deep
embarrassment, and a national shame that this latest attempt at denial of these
protocols rears its head at a time when one of the largest gatherings of
humanity is taking place in one of the former totalitarian states of Eastern
Europe – Romania. Its size has been assessed as the largest in former Eastern
Europe since the fall of the Berlin wall. It was triggered by the state attempt
to water down the criminal code against Corruption, and has brought out
hundreds of thousands of people into the streets and stadia, day after day,
until the much awaited announcement of the withdrawal of the obnoxious decree.
This should resonate within the current Nigerian governance that has made the
anti-corruption crusade its mantra.
The Police attempt to reverse the
hands of the democratic clock is even more appalling at a time when open
demonstrations are taking place all over the world against the policies of a
recently elected president of the United States, whose democratic formula this
nation allegedly serves as Nigeria’s adopted model. Across numerous states of
that federated nation, ongoing at this very moment, is the public expression of
rejection of a president’s policy that has also pitted the Executive against
the judiciary. We have heard of no preventive action by the police, nor arrests
of demonstrators.
Again and again, efforts, both
under military and civilian orders have been made to stifle the rights to
freedom of expression by Nigerian governments – Buhari, Babangida, Obasanjo,
Abacha, Jonathan….and now again, Buhari? These efforts have been, and will
always be resisted. It is a moral issue, as old as settled humanity. It has
been settled in other parts of the world. Nigeria cannot be an exception, not
as long as her citizens refuse to accept the designation of second, even
third-rate citizens.
I have sent a message to the
Inspector-General of Police, through the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State,
urging both to respect and safeguard the constitutional rights of the people. I
hope that, even at this eleventh hour, legality and the democratic imperative
will prevail. Finally, I shall be less than honest if I do not add the
following, mostly directed as warning to the very polity on whose behalf the
democratic war is joined, again and again:
Minus a minuscule but highly
voluble minority, mostly of pitiably retarded polluters of the common zones of
public interventions, I do not know of any citizens of civilized community who
do not subscribe to the fundamental Right of the Freedom of Expression in any
form, as long as it is peaceful, and non-injurious to humanity. I would hate to
conclude that the security agencies, or the government they serve, at this
stage of national development and recent history, would choose to align
themselves with such an unteachable minority.
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