Give me freedom, Give me fire,
Give me reason, Take me higher.
See the champions, Take the field now.
Unify us, Make us feel proud.
In the streets, our, Heads are lifting’
As we lose our Inhibition.
Celebration. It surrounds us.
Every nation. All around us.
Staying forever young, Singing songs underneath the sun.
Let’s rejoice in the beautiful game.
And together, at the end of the day,
We all say,
When I get older,
I will be stronger,
They’ll call me “Freedom”,
Just like a waving flag.
Dear Readers
The above words come from a song that became a global hit in 2010 during the FIFA World Cup hosted in South Africa. It was a gift from the talent of a Somali-Canadian artist who goes by the name of K’naan. The song was initially written in 2009 to celebrate and inspire the freedom of Somalia. The original song is cooler than our grammar-compliant missive: “Wavin’ Flag.”
In South Africa, where the song caught the attention of the whole world, flags of different countries were waved, and many from across the world danced and waved to the rhythm of the song. In those circumstances, nobody saw anything wrong with waving flags; it was all about joy and hope.
That was not the case in the northern part of Nigeria this past week during the protest tagged #EndBadgovernance, which aimed to express protesters’ displeasure with President Bola Tinubu’s government’s policies and their resultant effect on the welfare of the people.
In parts of Northern Nigeria, some people decided to wave flags, not the vertical Green White Green that makes the Nigerian flag (at least that is not what caught people’s attention) but the tricolour of three equal horizontal fields: white on the top, blue in the middle, and red on the bottom that makes the Russian flag.
For posterity’s sake, we must add here that the Russian flag was neither waved in joy nor with dances. The protestors (at least the ones I saw) were angry, defiant, and eager to destroy and loot. Of course, they did not go unnoticed. Treason! Disgrace! Shame! These are some keywords that sum up the reactions to this waving of Russian flags in Northern Nigeria in the first week of August 2024.
Many were and are still shocked. Can you blame them? When you consider it, you will readily see that people have never gone to protest waving any foreign flag in Nigeria’s history. Even my daughter asked questions, and I was delighted to share parts of a collection of essays I wrote a very long time ago and themed “Colours and Sounds of Europe” with her.
My daughter is young and has no national responsibility yet; allow me to say here that the shock and scandal felt by many Nigerian intellectuals and political elite is shallow and silly.
The reactions of the Nigerian intellectual and political elite say as much about them as they say about the Russian flag waivers. There is a widespread annoying tendency in the world, of which Nigeria seems to be the capital, that consists of people focusing on consequences but ignoring sequences. It is irritating because it seems evident to me that it should be clear to all that the present has its roots in the past and the future is a product of the present. It is annoying because too many of those who ought to know better refuse to think clearly or think at all, making one wonder if thinking and analysing is alien or painful for some. Heaven helps us in any society or system where leaders will feel rather than think. To lead, we need people who can feel yes but, above all, are also comfortable with thinking and analysing.
The display of the Russian flag in Northern Nigeria is an effect of the apparent fact that Nigerian borders are porous and that national boundaries in Africa are artificial and carved without care for and understanding of the continent’s people.
Those waving Russian flags in the North of Nigeria are either related or connected to people or influenced by events happening in neighbouring states like Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso etc., where Russia is the new cool.
There is a widespread perception that the current administration’s policies, led by Bola Tinubu and characterised by the removal of subsidies (on petrol, electricity, etc.) and increase in tax and cost of production, with a consequential increase in the price of living and provision of goods and services, are guided by IMF and Western dictates. The starkest alternatives to the IMF and the West are China and Russia. China has economic and technical strength but lacks the ability and interest to flex political muscle (at least for now); Russia is keen, in some cases even too eager, to flex her political muscle.
Add two plus three, and you will quickly see why those who see the West and IMF as the origin of their malaise turn their backs on the West and face Russia for prayers. Add two plus three, and you will see why those in Nigeria that are either related or connected to people or influenced by events happening in neighbouring states like Niger will see Russia as the country to turn to against oppression and suffering perceived to be genuinely or falsely generated by the West and IMF.
Can we truly, in knowledge and conscience, lament foreign influence in a global world where everything is linked and interdependent? I think not. Can we realistically expect social isolation and insulation or try to stick to the notion of the old national sovereignty in a world where most people interact and get information from the same eight top sources that make up the Internet? I refer to Facebook, Google, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and WhatsApp; you know the other two. I think not.
In a country where no one, save for a few strange, restless souls like Anthony Kila, sees nothing wrong with churches and other organisations hoisting foreign flags as a sign of heaven knows what or where, we have leading local private organisations advertising on CNN to persuade local consumers and investors and in a country where those who make money in Nigeria go abroad to celebrate, invest, study, holiday and even die whilst looking for cure, it is extraordinary to see why it is considered as shocking to see protestors resort one day to waving foreign flags.
I am sorry, but xenophilia is not only for the affluent and lucky; it is also a condition that affects the poor and angry…
•Please join us on Twitter, @anthonykila, to continue these crucial conversations.
Anthony Kila is an Institute Director at CIAPS Lagos. www.ciaps.org.
