Daily Independent (Lagos)
Michael John
6 July 2009
Lagos — The Deputy Majority Leader of the Senate, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, is about to experience at mid-life what the rest of us Nigerians have come to accept as a fact of life - hunger. The senator was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and a golden tea cup on his side. His father was judge and he was a commissioner before the age of thirty.
Now the hunger-immune senator has decided to lead other members of the National Assembly from Cross River State on a two-week hunger strike over the decision of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission to cede 76 oil wells hitherto in Cross River State to Akwa Ibom State. It is good news for Nigerians because we believe that at the end of the strike, they will have a better understanding of the effects of hunger and the need to lift Nigeria out of the abyss of being one of the poorest countries in the world.
To people like Senator Ndoma-Egba, hunger is always like a passing ambulance; but now he has decided to step out of his comfort zone and confront the "ambulance" in the interest of his state. You cannot fault the gentleman for deciding to engage hunger gently and at minimal risk. He has decided to go hungry for just two weeks - much like testing a trial "software."
National Assemblymen are wise guys. Actually, a hunger strike (unlike fasting) is not supposed to be embarked on with deadlines. A man who goes on hunger strike should make it indefinite as a clear indication of his conviction. But you would not be unkind enough to expect someone like Senator Ndoma-Egba, who has never missed a meal, to hazard an indefinite hunger strike, would you?
You may not know why the National Assembly men and women decided to embark on the hunger strike, but I will offer the information at no cost. They are not angry enough about the matter, but they know that a hungry man is an angry man. It is believed that after two weeks of hunger, their anger will reach boiling point and they will come out breathing acid.
In the hunger line-up and ready to play the hunger game is the Chairman of the Cross River State Caucus in the National Assembly, Senator Bassey Ewa-Henshaw, who announced it in a press conference at the National Assembly.
Senator Ewa-Henshaw described the ceding of the oil wells to Akwa Ibom State as "despicable, unwholesome and a calculated attempt to defraud and deprive the good people of Cross River State of their natural endowment with long-standing genealogical antecedents." And guess what? This guy is not even angry yet! Watch out for his vituperations after he would have gone hungry for two weeks! He will be spitting fire and sulfur.
His announcement was not dramatic as Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu's declaration, in 1967, of the Republic of Biafra, but it was not lacking in combativeness. "We will, therefore, immediately, embark on a two-week hunger strike to emphasize the seriousness of this situation and the collective pain we feel. "But we must warn that the people of Cross River State have had enough. They have been pushed far enough. They now have their backs to a concrete wall and can go no farther. It is unacceptable that they should be cheated, abused, degraded and deprived simply because they are honest law-abiding, peace-loving, accommodating and responsible people..."
I have already prepared a letter of invitation to send to Senator Ewa-Henshaw to join me as my deputy in the National Association of Angry Nigerians. But I do not intend to send it to him just yet because I do not want him to come and introduce hunger-striking to our angry reactions repertoire. I swallow three round meals everyday and I distaste hunger. But for people like him who have never been hungry, they could afford to have a taste of it.
I will advise them to write a book chronicling their hunger experiences at the end of their strike. Not that it would add to the body of knowledge about hunger, but it might convince other senators and House of Representative members to consider this weight reduction venture. The honorable men with dishonorably bulging stomachs will do their "political pregnancies" some good by deciding to go on hunger strike.
Of course there is always something to go on hunger strike over. Poor roads, bribery and corruption, President Umaru Yar'Adua is not performing, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo still picks his nose from time to time, Ibrahim Babangida still wants to be president - so many of them. But the point is that I want as many politicians, senatractors (sorry I mean senators), representatives, assemblymen, councilors, the list goes on, to go on hunger strike.
It should become a popular method of popular protest, because it is a lot better than militancy and kidnapping. Fancy what the situation would be like if Senators Ewa-Henshaw and Ndoma-Egba were to become militants and take to kidnapping for ransom. These are men with international connections who would have caused so much damage in Cross River State that the prices of palm oil and cocoa would drop in the international market. But no, they have decided to ignore food and let the anger well up slowly in their self-deprivation.
The other reason I would want hunger striking to gain currency is because it could force down the price of foodstuff. Imagine what will happen if all the politicians were to go on hunger strike? The rest of us will buy garri, akpu, ogbono, and other essential commodities cheaper and Nigeria would not be classified as one of the poorest countries in the world anymore.
Perhaps we should even include it in the Constitution as an acceptable means of public dissent and try to convince the Niger Delta militants that instead of kidnapping and blowing up oil pipelines, they should consider going on hunger strike. And one good thing about hunger strike - it does not violate the fundamental human rights of your neighbour.
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