SELMA and the Coming Elections

"You may ask ‘when will we be free of this darkness', I say to you today my brothers and sisters: despite the pain, despite the tears, our freedom will soon be upon us" - Martin Luther King (Jnr).

When the movie SELMA, starring the Nigerian Hollywood actor, David Oyelowo, made the big screens, the producers of the movie and its star actor, Oyelowo, came to Nigeria to premier it. They made it clear that the lessons the movie taught should add to the political discussions as the elections draw near and possibly help focus it towards better outcomes. The story of SELMA tell of the activities of the great human and black rights activist, Dr. Martin Luther King (Jnr), in the town of Selma in the southern American State of Alabama in the year 1965, that spurred President Lyndon Johnson to move the United States Congress to pass a bill that struck out voting restriction in all elections in the United States. The price that was paid for this great

The Real 1965 Selma Protest

social reform to come to be, that of pain, deaths, sufferings, denials and betrayals, amongst the people of Selma, is what the movie is all about. One cannot but realize that as Nigeria faces the 2015 elections, which has the possibility of determining its future, there are similarities between the suffering black people of those days and the Nigerian masses; and thus an election year like this one can actually help us redeem ourselves from our oppressors like they did. The 1960s was the decade of social activism in the United States of America. The results are still far reaching, with a black man ruling that great nation today but the price paid was even greater. Confirming the words of the great English writer Mark Twain: "No people in the world ever did achieve their freedom by goody-goody talk and moral suasion; it being immutable law that all revolutions that will succeed must (begin) in blood, whatever may answer afterwards".

Buhari

Nigeria has also had it own fair share of social reforms that have come through blood stained activism. One of them is the democracy we practice today. What we however see today is that at every juncture in our present history, this democracy stands on the peril of being truncated. This is because our democracy does not have a sound foundation. A constitution inherited from the military combined with an echelon of corrupt and undisciplined politicians have continued to make our democratic walk wobbly through the years. We find, however, an opportunity to get things right via the presidential candidature of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress. Buhari has been accused of truncating a democratically elected government of Shehu Shagarin in 1983. What his accusers never mention is that the government of Shagari was either going to truncate the future of Nigeria through brazen and galloping corruption, or it stood to be truncated. We are thankful to God that the latter happened. Buhari, either in or out of power, has succeeded in every public office assignment given to him. The consequence has always been that the General came out of each of such assignments even poorer than he went in. As chairman of the NNPC and someone who oversaw the construction of all existing refineries in the country today, Buhari never enriched himself illegally, neither does he own an oil block. His party, the APC, carried out a credible and transparent presidential primary in November 2014 that led to his emergence as the party presidential flag bearer. These are the revolution that the Nigerian political experiment has been witnessing in the past one year. The similarity with the story of SELMA is that the same way the black community stood oppressed by the whites in 1960 Americas, so also do the poor and ordinary Nigerian stand oppressed by a rich and corrupt political class. In Buhari, the ordinary Nigerian finds a representative because, although Buhari had had more than enough opportunity to enrich himself and join the corrupt political class, his high sense of integrity combined with his

Selma: The Movie

disciplined mien, has kept him from such. So that today, his leading credential is his integrity; a fact that his worst critic has not been able to dispute. Buhari represents the poor and oppressed Nigerian people, many of whom have decided to support him by purchasing the N100 "Buhari Support Organization" cards to lend their widow's mite for him. And in a dramatic sense, the biblical story of the widow played itself out in one of Buhari's campaign in Sokoto, when an eighty year old woman gave the General a million naira to support his campaign. It was a reluctant and tears filled Buhari that collected the money.

The 1965 Assault on Protesters

SELMA tells the story that non violence can overcome the most oppressive regime. Some have called for a revolution in this country. What they do not know is that most revolutions that turn violent usually have a beginning but no one can tell its end. In a democracy, the most effective revolution is a people coming out en-masse to vote out incompetent leadership. SELMA left a legacy of voting rights for all oppressed people around the world. Now that we can vote, we must come out and carry out our franchise in a manner that favors the ordinary man. Martin Luther King Jnr. Is the epitome of non violent protests for obtaining human rights and liberties. One of the protests that were carried out in those days, as depicted by the movie, went awry with local policemen beating and battering the protesters. In the process one Jimmy Lee Jackson was shot and killed. At the funeral of the young man, Dr. King said these words: "We will vote. We will put these men out of office. We will take their power. We will win what you were slaughtered for!" That is revolution. That is the power of what a voting public can do. If Nigerians are convinced that they could have a better deal, then they should heed the words of the late activists and come out and vote and take power from wicked men. If however they believe that this is the best life they could have and that Nigeria needs no change, they can continue with the status quo.

Oyelowo/King: Striking Resemblance

As for me and my house, we say "CHANGE!"

Pictures from Google.