Chido, A Man of Organisation

 

 

By Femi Falana

 

Since his days as an undergraduate at the University of Calabar, Chido has been consistently an organizational man.  A well-organised personality, Chido is skillful in making decisive contributions to ensure the success of any organisation to which he may belong or support. So the attributes that friends, associates, and comrades may now notice in Chido’s persona at 60 have been there since his days as a student.

Like Professor Wole Soyinka observed sometime ago in respect of another personality of an earlier generation than that of Chido: not many former cadres of the movement retain their views of society in later years. Some have even turned out to be the most reactionary part of the establishment.   But Chido has distinguished himself as a cadre in the struggle for a humane social order, equity, genuine freedom, and progress. And he does so with enormous ideological clarity. This clarity is evident in his writings, imbued with the courage of conviction.

Chido is indeed an exceptional cadre. His quiet and unobtrusive exterior only puts a veil on the steely interior from which the energy and determination are derived for action. Chido is always focused on achieving results.   For instance, his approach, theoretically and practically, is to persuade compatriots of various perspectives not to ignore the Question and, by implication, the issues of Nigerian federalism.

Another side of the exceptionality of Chido is that he recognizes the limits of idealism on the National Question.  Chido makes the case for confronting the Question with honesty of purpose. He often argues that all compatriots should be involved in finding solutions. The Question can only be answered on the side of equity, inclusion, and the popular democratic interests of the people of Nigeria.

In his two books – “Nigeria is Negotiable” and “We are all Biafrans”, Chido makes this fundamental point eloquently.

Now, the National Question is at the root of the problems of Nigerian federalism. It is one of the issues bedeviling Nigerian federalism. The more honest it is answered in the interest of the majority of the people- the poor of all ethnic groups, regions, and religions, the nearer Nigeria will  be to the solution to the extant problems of its federalism.

We are celebrating Chido’s 60th birthday anniversary at a time of anxiety in the land. It has been alleged that the planned revalidation of permanent voters’ cards is designed by the Independent National Electoral Commission to frustrate registered voters from casting their votes for the candidates of their choice. Even though INEC has suspended the exercise, it should be cancelled completely because it is not backed by either the Electoral Act 2026 or the INEC Guidelines.

It is pertinent to draw the attention of the INEC to section 98 of the Electoral Act 2026, which stipulates that the period of campaigning in public by every political party shall commence 150 days before polling day and end 24 hours prior to that day. The ruling party and its allies are brazenly breaching the provision. Since governance is almost grounded in the country, we are calling on the INEC to stop the premature political campaign by the political class.

The national assembly has proposed to ban double membership of political parties. In the proposal, it stated that anyone whose name appears in the registers of two political parties will be guilty of double membership. With respect, the definition of double membership should not be limited to the production of the registers of political parties. The definition is restricted and misleading as double membership of political parties may be based on conduct through participation in the activities of two or more political parties or sponsoring and campaigning for candidates of two or more political parties.

No doubt,  Chido is currently involved in the struggle against the constriction of the democratic space in Nigeria. It is indisputable that it is only by expanding the democratic space, that the contest for political power can be waged on an ideological basis. In particular,  it is in an atmosphere of unrestricted liberty that the mobilisation of the masses for the socialist transformation of Nigeria can be relentlessly pursued by  Chido and other committed forces of genuine change in the country.

*Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is a pro-democracy activist