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‘Clampdown’ on #EndSARS promoters, social media: Bakare breaks silence, warns of ‘daring’ consequences

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The lead Pastor of Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC) Pastor Tunde Bakare has condemned arrest and freezing of account numbers of EndSARS protesters days after nationwide protests.

Bakere who is also the convener of Save Nigeria Group (SNG) spoke extensively against federal government’s planned control of social media in an address he delivered on Sunday in Lagos.

Read the full address

BEING TEXT OF THE ADDRESS BY PASTOR ‘TUNDE BAKARE ON THE STATE OF THE NIGERIAN YOUTH AT THE CITADEL GLOBAL COMMUNITY CHURCH
(CGCC), 30, KUDIRAT ABIOLA WAY, OREGUN, IKEJA, LAGOS, NIGERIA. ON SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2020

THEME: ‘THE YOUTH OF A NATION ARE THE TRUSTEES
OF POSTERITY’ (BENJAMIN DISRAELI)

Fellow citizens of our great nation, Gentlemen of the Press:
Today is the grand finale of the Diamond Jubilee Celebration of my
darling wife, Pastor Mrs. ‘Layide Adetokunbo Bamidele Bakare,
better known as The Authentic Mrs. B, and, of course, my 66th
birthday. With your kind permission, I would, on this great occasion,
like to address a very crucial issue of national importance, namely the
need to channel the tremendous energy of the Nigerian youth towards
building the Nigeria of our dreams, a nation of which generations yet
unborn will be proud.

For this address, I have chosen as a theme the evergreen words of
Benjamin Disraeli: ‘The youth of a nation are the trustees of
posterity.’

i This has become all the more necessary because of the backlash being meted out on some of the young Nigerians who participated in the EndSARS protests.

Sixty-six years ago, in a land forged beneath ancient rocks, the city of
Abeokuta, I was born into declining wealth by parents who had high
hopes for my future. After my father died shortly before my third
birthday, I was raised in abject poverty by a single mother who went
through untold suffering and an enormous amount of self-sacrifice to
give me an education and a sense of supreme confidence because she
believed so greatly in my future. My mother, who I describe as the
woman who saw the future, ii was a disciplinarian who groomed me
into a respectful but audacious young man with big dreams. She
infused into me an uncompromising sense of justice and an enormous
dose of courage and confidence to back it up.

That sense of justice was what inspired me as a student of the
University of Lagos (UNILAG) to join other students in the Ali Must
Go protests against a military government whose draconian policies
made living conditions difficult for students. That same sense of
justice was what gave me the boldness as a student leader in the
University of Lagos to stand face-to-face with the then military head
of state, General Olusegun Obasanjo, in the company of the then
Angolan president, Agostinho Neto, on November 11, 1978, and to
declare within earshot of the Nigerian head of state that ‘This
government possesses power without compassion, might without
morality, and strength without sight’ (paraphrasing Martin Luther
King Jnr).
iii I would later be told by an official of the State Security

Service (SSS), now Department of State Services (DSS), that it was
that day in 1978 a file was opened with my name on it.
I must say that such a sense of justice was what I saw in action as
young Nigerians rallied the nation last month in peaceful protests
against police brutality. As I reminisced on the unfortunate incident of
the shooting of unarmed protesters by Nigerian soldiers, I recalled
with solemnity how I almost lost my life in the Ali Must Go protests
as armed policemen fired live bullets into a crowd of students
protesting peacefully. Unfortunately, the bullet that narrowly missed
me gunned down the young man who was beside me, Akintunde Ojo,
after whom a library in UNILAG was subsequently named. As I said
in my address to the nation on October 25, 2020,
iv it is painful that the
younger generation has had to face the same beasts we fought in my
generation. This is why we cannot afford to keep sinful silence when
the youth of our nation are being oppressed by a Nigerian state that is
supposed to protect them.

As our nation returns to the drawing board in the wake of the
EndSARS protests, I have observed with keen interest the policy
actions and positions taken by national and subnational governments
to address the broader issues of youth development in Nigeria, from
the prompt disbandment of SARS, to the N75B Nigeria Youth
Investment Fund (N-YIF) launched by the federal government, as
well as the appointment of young Nigerians on panels of inquiry set
up by various state governments. I commend these actions by the federal and state governments. They have, to an extent, been forced to
self-reflect and align with the times.

Truth be told, this season of our national life requires deep humility,
sobriety and deliberate thinking through, both by the government and
the governed, in order to ensure that our plans, policies and actions
are weighed before they are implemented to avert the re-occurrence of
our most recent crisis. In light of the foregoing, some of the actions
recently taken by the government on the heels of the EndSARS
protests may need to be reversed sooner rather than later in our
collective best interest so that they do not trigger further protests.
Among such policy actions is the freezing of the accounts of young
Nigerians who reportedly sponsored the protests. v While I admit that,
under our extant laws, banks may freeze an account upon an ex parte
order granted to a law enforcement agency by a court of competent
jurisdiction for the purpose of investigation, these provisions of our
Law should not be used to intimidate Nigerian youth simply because
they engaged in and promoted protests against the inactions of
government. In addition, targeting and arresting citizens on trumpedup charges, vi deploying court probes as a tool of intimidation,
vii and generally eroding our fragile peace, are deeply worrisome signs of
regression.
To extend the olive branch to the youth in one breath, and to deprive
the youth of the right to freedom of movement and property as
enshrined in our constitution in another breath, will send confusing

signals to them and cast doubts in their minds regarding the sincerity
of the government. The immediate reversal of these actions, therefore,
will calm raw nerves and fast track peace in our land. And if there are
serious or fundamental security breaches that necessitated the freezing
of bank accounts and the confiscation of a passport,
viii these should be
made known.
In the absence of any security breaches, citizens’ rights should never
be trampled upon. In the words of Robert Green Ingersoll, ‘I am the
inferior of any man whose rights I trample under foot. Men are not
superior by reason of the accidents of race or color. They are superior
who have the best heart—the best brain…The superior man […]
stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.’
ix
In this season, the government ought to lift the morale of the Nigerian
youth by all means and in every way possible, with the clear
understanding that ‘the best security against revolution is in constant
correction of abuses, and introduction of needed improvements. It is
the neglect of timely repair that makes rebuilding necessary’ (Richard
Whately).
x
Furthermore, I have followed the conversation around the regulation
of social media following the violence that accompanied the
EndSARS protests. I recall that my statements in this regard during an
interview on Arise TVxi were misreported and misrepresented by
those seeking occasion. Let me state, once again, that, although I have
been a victim of misrepresentation and needless defamation of character on social media, I remain an advocate of freedom of expression.

However, while I stand for the responsible use of social media, I will never subscribe to any attempt to deprive Nigerian youth of a space and context in which they have found a sense of self. Over the course of various interactions, I have outlined eight segments of our national life that I describe as constituting Nigeria’s political power blocs, each wielding significant influence in the outcome of politics and governance in Nigeria, namely: The Council of State and the Thirty-Six State Governors, Retired Generals, Traditional Institutions, Political Dynasties, The Private Sector (including the media), Religious Leaders, the Nigerian Labour Congress/Trade Union Congress (NLC/TUC), and Foreign Partners. My position has been that any individual or group that seeks to be reckoned with politically in Nigeria must not take any of these for granted. I would
like to state at this juncture that there is a ninth power bloc that must
not be taken for granted: it is the Nigerian Youth with the power of
social media. Any political group that takes the social media savvy
Nigerian youth for granted does so at its own risk or peril. This is why
I strongly advice the power blocs, including the South West
Governors who are calling for stricter regulation of social media,
xii to
desist from doing so. Let me at this point remind you of the
statements I made in this regard in my January 5, 2020, State of the
Nation address:
…the fact that some persons have deployed this tool [social
media] in ways that have been less than honourable does not justify the attempted clampdown on freedom of speech
by some legislators who major in minors. I, too, have been
a target of social media vitriol. I have been misrepresented,
maligned and falsely characterised by mischief-makers on
social media, but I will not support the suppression of the
most potent tool for citizen engagement in the 21st century
through a misguided Social Media Bill.

Lest we forget, the 1985 locus classicus case of Arthur
Nwankwo v The State already removed sedition from our
laws and instead reiterated that a suit of defamation of
character can be brought against those who abuse the right
to freedom of expression. Rather than clamp down on
expressiveness, which is the lifeblood of innovation, what
we ought to do is pass laws that will further empower our
teeming young population to not just be constructive users
of social media platforms, but to be creators of homegrown
solutions able to compete globally in a technology-driven
world. To combat abuse, what we ought to do is provide
incentives for the proper usage of this tool through reward
systems that will encourage the honour code, promote
responsible conversations, and discourage dishonourable
use.
I, therefore, state without equivocation that these young
Nigerians who have found their voices on social media are
not the enemies of Nigeria. They are the hope of our

nation. They are simply expressing the character of our
DNA and the virtues that gave us independence – virtues
such as the audacity to assemble as communities, including
online communities, and to voice their opposition to
corruption and oppression. I assure you that if social media
had been invented in the days of our founding fathers, they
would have deployed the tool in resisting colonial rule and
fighting for our independence, just as they effectively
deployed conventional media such as newspapers to
achieve these objectives…
xiii
I made this point earlier in the year and I reiterate this position. Every
medium, from radio to television, to Twitter and WhatsApp, can
potentially be abused in amplifying our basest instincts, but this in no
way implies that these outlets should be repressed or clamped down
on. I would never align myself with the violation of freedoms,
including the freedom of speech. Progressive governments the world
over continue to grapple with how to maintain a fine balance between
upholding freedom of speech and curtailing the spread of
misinformation, which can have dire consequences. I note, for
instance, the creation of the ‘End SARS Fact Check’ handle on
Twitter intended to checkmate the spread of fake news.xiv A possible
way to address this holistically – and I am open to other suggestions –
is for the youth of Nigeria, with their track record of self-governance
during the EndSARS protests, to spearhead conversations in
conjunction with local and international civil society organisations,

with a view to adopting best practices elsewhere and innovating in the
light of local realities, and ultimately working with such media
platforms as Facebook and Twitter to flag dangerous content. This
could minimise the concerns around government regulation or
repression and places the power and responsibility squarely in the
hands of the vast majority of end users, the Nigerian youth. The
existence of this ‘honour code,’ which I alluded to in January of this
year, may effectively foreclose the need for bills that infringe on
freedoms and thus understandably generate suspicion and concern.
In addition, I call on Nigeria’s youth to begin to channel their
enormous energy into an organised movement for a New Nigeria,
using every resource at their disposal, including and especially social
media. Six years ago, on the occasion of my sixtieth birthday, while
articulating the Nigeria of my dreams, I said then that the Nigerian
dream ‘lives on in the hand-held devices of young Nigerians on social
media who keep on the front burner of public consciousness those
issues that affect the Nigerian people in the hope that one day a
movement for positive change will be ignited.’
xv Dear youth of our
nation, I announce to you that that day has come. I, therefore, urge all
our young leaders from across the length and breadth of our nation,
North, South, East and West, to join hands with the progressive forces
in our polity for a New Nigeria, the dream nation that it is your
destiny and birthright to breathe to life. I described the possibilities in
my last State of the Nation broadcast:

…a Nigeria where the right to life is sacred and no one
is brutalised or extrajudicially murdered; where no one
goes to bed hungry and no child is left without access to
quality education; where our homes, schools, streets,
villages, highways and cities are safe and secure, and
Nigerians can work, play or travel with their minds at
rest, and go to bed with their hearts at peace; a Nigeria
where our hospitals are life-saving institutions and
every Nigerian has access to quality healthcare; where
no youth is unemployed and our young men and women
are job creators; where businesses thrive on innovation
and made-in-Nigeria goods can compete anywhere in
the world; where homes and businesses have access to
uninterrupted power supply, and ideas are facilitated by
functional infrastructure and cutting-edge technology;
where no part of our nation – North, South, East or
West – has a reason to feel marginalised, and where
every Nigerian is proud to say, ‘I am a Nigerian;’ a
Nigeria that is a model for Africa and a beacon of hope
to the world…xvi

I believe that now is the time to build this dream nation, and that one
of the first steps towards this is the wholesale acknowledgement of
every level of government that suffocating the spirit, creativity and
liberty of Nigerian youth is both counterintuitive and
counterproductive.

Thank you for listening; God bless you, God bless the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, and God bless the continent of Africa.

Pastor ‘Tunde Bakare
Serving Overseer, The Citadel Global Community Church (CGCC);
Convener, Save Nigeria Group (SNG).

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