THE SEASON OF ANOMIE: STEVE BANTU BIKO WAS RIGHT

Opinion

By Nkem Ossai

Steve Bantu Biko, in his frequently quoted book “I Write What I Like,” articulates several profound insights. Here are some notable excerpts:

“What is a character of a defeated race?

• A race that brags about expensive clothes that they wear, that are produced by another race.
• A race that brags about cars that they drive, that are manufactured by companies owned by another race.
• A race that brags about their houses that are financed by financial institutions owned by another race.
  -A race that takes their kids to school to be taught by another race.
• A race that will celebrate their wedding in the style of another race.
• A race that has fully adopted language and religion of another race.
• A race that will hate each other defending another race.
• A race that will get excited to work for another race.
• A race that the only freedom it has is the freedom to vote and not economic freedom.
• A race that will kill each other just to have a political position and be in office and not be in power.
• A defeated race is that race that is in majority but it’s survival relies on the minority race.”
  “Are you part of the defeated race?” Stephen asked sadly and replied himself, “I am.”

He continued, “the first step therefore is to make the black man come to himself; to pump back life into his empty shell; to infuse him with pride and dignity, to remind him of his complicity in the crime of allowing himself to be misused and therefore letting evil reign supreme in the country of his birth.”

There is no doubt that Steve spoke in the context of ‘Apartheid rule’ in South Africa and its brutality on the blacks of South Africa then, but it can still be argued that the same brutality that Steve complained of, still applies today’s twenty-first century Nigeria and indeed Africa.

So, the “season of anomie” could symbolize a time of uncertainty, disorder, or transformation, where individuals or societies are struggling to find new norms, values, or direction.” In this respect, it is the season where our leaders or rather rulers lost consciousness of what is defined as good beyond everything that can be seen as reasonable.

What do you call leaders who invest billions on the esthetics of their residences while hunger and famine is ravaging the entire population? What do you term leaders basking in the euphoria of the kind of jets that is feat for the president and investing billions of borrowed money from China when majority of their subjects can no longer afford a single meal in a day? How can you explain a situation where Nigerian people are dying in droves as a result of uncontrollable crimes of kidnapping, robbery, banditry etc. but instead of finding solution to these ills, the leaders and the rich have chosen to make their travels by air leaving I and I, according to Bob Nesta Marley, to travel by land and be kidnapped. The law enforcers have since turned their blank face on the rest of us? How can we be so callous and unfeeling about our fellow citizens who toil day and night to find food for their children?

This is the message of Steve Biko. This is the message which the black man cannot comprehend and cannot come to terms with.

I had thought that the lessons learnt from the brutality of the previous regime had thought us a lesson not to embark on a government by squandermania. The eight years of APC “government by family and friends” which has plundered this country into an intractable quagmire, should have been a case study for this generation of rulers. But no, the visions of that great son of Africa, Steve Biko about black man must be fulfilled.

More time is now put in debating about RUGA and comparing animals with man than the food for the rest of us. Indeed, Trump was stark right about the black man’s priorities.

Our understanding of development is jaundiced. Development is not just putting up new structures it is positively improving the standard of living of the citizenry. Development is doing anything that adds or improves the standard of living of the governed. It is adding value to people’s lives.

I watched both the recent French and British elections. It was so peaceful and civilized. Rishi Sunak, the immediate past Prime Minister lost election but you can see his level of humility as he congratulated the winner, Keir Starmer. Then I asked, is it not the same British people that ruled Nigeria and handed over to us? Why has ours been always “Electoral Armageddon?”

Being black, Steve Biko maintained, is not a matter of pigmentation – being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.