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Self-immolation has always been a bizarre way of
ending one’s life or as a means of self-purification, but Mohammed Bouazizi’s
will remain with us for generations. Feeling quite hopeless after he was
stopped from selling groceries on the streets of the Tunisian town of Sid
Bouzid, the young Tunisian’s suicide by fire ignited the popular revolution
that is ravaging the Mediterranean coast of Africa. “Egypt will never be the
same again,” Barack Obama said, but beyond that, the world itself will never be
the same again.

The question is: must governments humiliate their
people with socio-political yokes to the extent of self-immolation before they
listen? The repercussions of Bouazizi’s act are many, ranging from the vacuum
created by the resignation of heads of governments in both Tunisia and Egypt to
Arab-Israeli relations. Already, there are copycats re-enacting the Bouazizi
effect, setting themselves alight to spark up revolutions in their countries.
That has resulted in adjustments by governments in Jordan, Algeria and a
renunciation not to contest future elections from the veteran leader of Yemen,
Ali Abdallah Saleh.

And so the hurricane continues. There are
widespread concerns in the West that those Muslim extremists represented by The
Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt will seize upon the opportunity of Hosni Mubarak’s
resignation to launch an Iran-like, conservative theocracy. Mr. Mubarak has
always capitalized on America and its allies’ fears to warn of the instability
that would result if he was forced to leave too soon. The same kind of fear that
Suharto of Indonesia capitalized on to stay in power while facing popular
revolt, before eventually vacating office in 1998. Indonesia, to this day, in
spite of its being the most populated Islamic country on the planet, has not
been taken over by the Islamists that Suharto warned of. The Muslim Brotherhood
in Egypt, though categorized by the U.S. as a terrorist organization, has
declared times without number that it renounced violence decades ago. But its
rhetoric on certain issues, like the Palestinian/Israeli, conflict says
otherwise, and regularly keeps potential allies from western democracies from
changing their minds.

What is remaining for the brave people of both
Egypt and Tunisia is to show the whole world that they can take their own
destinies into their hands and make something of them. Anything other than that
and the sacrifices of people like Bouazizi will have been in vain. The toppling
of unpopular regimes should not be the excuse for the ascendancy of other
dictators waiting in the wings. Mubarak’s only vice-president in history, Omar
Suleiman, may have seen a possibility of this happening when he ended the
speech announcing his boss’ resignation with the words: “May God help
everyone.”

Talking about divine help brings me back home to
Nigeria, where people are oppressed by leaders who sometimes hide under the
garb of religion, or pretending to be religious. The people’s wishes are not
heard even when they are audibly saying “No!” via the ballot box. Like
President Ben Ali, his wife Lela and her family who bask in untold wealth while
their fellow countrymen were being denied their legal means of livelihood on
the streets, Nigerian leaders are only serious when issues concerning their pay
cheques are on the table.

Numerous comparisons can be drawn from the
happenings in North Africa to what Nigerians are experiencing in the hands of
those who claim to care about them. The lessons from these sister African
countries are glaring to the discerning leader: power rests with the people.
Though it is with you now, it is transient. They can take it back when they are
determined to. True of all hurricanes, they begin from a different country at
tremendous speeds, destroying anything on their way, not recognizing boundaries
until they are done. Untypical of this hurricane coming from the North is that
it is named after a man.

Barau Emmanuel writes from
Kaduna