The audacity of resilience, By Udo Jude Ilo

Never say it can’t be done, always try!

…power concedes nothing without demand. Therefore, it is not about change being impossible, it is about how soon and how impatient do we want to be in demanding for it. Like my father said to me 39 years ago, we can never say we can’t, we must always keep trying because it is possible.

Impossibility is learnt, and so is the can-do spirit. As a seven-year-old kid who had just returned to my village in Adu Achi, Enugu State, following my parents’ decision to go home and teach, I had considerable difficulty performing some of my domestic chores. I remember vividly one afternoon when my mum asked me to perform one of those ‘village’ tasks and I retorted: “I cannot do it. It’s too hard.” My dad was observing that interaction.  He pulled me aside and said to me, “never ever say you can’t. Always say, I will try.” It’s been almost two decades since my dad gave me this advice, but it has stayed with me and motivated me through the years.

The trajectory of our continent is one that hollows out hope. It has defied efforts at reforms and the promise of the independence era has been lost in translation. The governance system is wired to frustrate efforts at improvement, strategic growth and development. A combination of perennial poor leadership, missed opportunities, state capture, progressive gains of impunity and rent seeking have understandably given boost to hopelessness. There is a bleakness to the idea of national transformation in these parts.

However, we do not have the luxury of helpless despondency nor the good fortune of kicking our frustrations down the road for a future generation to tackle. We cannot rely on others to heal the land. The world is distracted by a myriad of global challenges as it is right now, and no one is coming to save us. The change we want is ours to give and we need to only look around us to realise that we are stronger than we think we are. Our collective frustration is a tsunami waiting to be unleashed if we only believe we can make a difference by turning our frustration into targeted action. Our history validates the assumption that we can achieve whatever we set our minds to. There is enough in our collective stories of survival and triumph to inspire hope and the prospects for possible change if we dare to try.

In 2020, Nigerian youths put the country on trial, found it wanting and called out the nation for its bloody and abusive relationship with the youths. The fact that for about eight days, the youths held this country hostage and demanded an end to police brutality was a big step. Yes, it ended in blood, but something changed.

In 2019 a dedicated group of men and women, under the auspices of Concerned Abuja Residents, took on the task of confronting government sponsored assault of women in Abuja on the unproven allegation of prostitution. The obnoxious practices targeted only women, without looking at their patrons. The Concerned Abuja Residents came together and provided support to the arrested women, told their stories, took government to court, and mobilised perhaps one of the biggest public protests for the protection of women’s rights in Abuja. They were able to change the narrative and put government on a pedestal, forcing the practice of indiscriminate arrest to stop, but also pressuring government into adopting policies to protect women. Their action fed into the national outrage that helped push the Nigerian federal government to call for a state of emergency on gender-based violence.  Because the Abuja residents tried, they succeeded. Never say it can’t be done, always try!

In 2020, Nigerian youths put the country on trial, found it wanting and called out the nation for its bloody and abusive relationship with the youths. The fact that for about eight days, the youths held this country hostage and demanded an end to police brutality was a big step. Yes, it ended in blood, but something changed. The nation was put on notice and that notice has been a menacing shadow often limiting the recklessness of security agencies. It may not have solved all the problems, but something changed because the youths of Nigeria tried. They did not accept that it was impossible to hold Nigeria to the dictates of its constitution and its obligation to its citizens.

And in Senegal in 2011, it took the power of citizens to truncate then President Abdoulaye Wade’s attempt to manipulate the constitution and the electoral system to stay in power. It looked impossible but unique cooperation across political and social divides, consistency in approach, and clarity of mission made those effort successful. With almost all the structures of government captured by Wade, it looked impossible, but consistency and resilience of demand and action paid off. He lost!

We are still standing at a time when our reality is meant to break us. But in the face of extreme hardship and purposeless leadership, we are still able to keep moving. We cannot give up and we cannot stop trying. That is the resilience of the Nigerian spirit. In the young people of Nigeria, there is yet untapped energy for a different world.

The primer ‘It is imPossible’ draws from my years of experience working in the development space. It is also a product of my own frustration in that space. It is the result of an internal debate with myself, where optimism won and triumphed over despondency. I have had reasons to lapse into hopelessness but that internal debate helped me clarify my perspectives. There was always something to push for, a nuanced perspective to explore or an unlikely collaboration to build. While I acknowledge the heavy challenges we face and the seemingly hopelessness of our situation, I found enough examples to support my optimism.

We are still standing at a time when our reality is meant to break us. But in the face of extreme hardship and purposeless leadership, we are still able to keep moving. We cannot give up and we cannot stop trying. That is the resilience of the Nigerian spirit. In the young people of Nigeria, there is yet untapped energy for a different world. In some of the elders, an untapped reservoir of wisdom drawing from lessons learnt and opportunities missed. For every selfish politician, there is a selfless citizen trying to do what is right. For every damaged dream, there are positive stories of triumph, in spite of extreme difficulty.

Change and time are not value neutral. They will happen anyway, with or without us. Our effort will help us navigate the kind of change we believe in. As Fredrick Douglass said in 1857 at a period when slaves we are struggling to be free in America, power concedes nothing without demand. Therefore, it is not about change being impossible, it is about how soon and how impatient do we want to be in demanding for it. Like my father said to me 39 years ago, we can never say we can’t, we must always keep trying because it is possible.

Udo Jude Ilo has been the Interim Executive Director at the Center for Civilians in Conflict and is author of the primer It is POSSIBLE: Influencing Change in Nigeria.