They are coming for you and Us!

French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault writes that there is an assumption that because society has become “modern,” our response to prison, health, and punishment has become better. For instance, there is an assumption that because society has stopped executing criminals or offenders in public squares, prison reform and punishment have become better. Foucault disagrees with this assumption and suggests that we are still a society of discipline and punishment. In a culture of discipline and punishment, offenders are publicly disciplined so that witnesses can see the sovereign’s absolute power and learn to obey.  

For instance, during the screening of a young ministerial nominee who is now the minister in an ICT-related field last year, I saw the discipline and punishment meted out on him for telling the obvious truth about the country. He was meant to apologize publicly for saying what they all knew was true. As I ruminated, the Foucault idea of a society of discipline and punishment went through my mind.

The nominee’s apology and all the rambling and rattling off a bunch of cliches such as "watching what you say” "there is freedom of speech and not freedom after speech" by so-called “intellectual " that week reminded me of the “ceremony of degradation” that Professor Ebenezer Obadare suggested the Pentecostalism pantheon and power make those who challenge their authority perform as a way that they solidify their power and reinforce their authority for those who may want to reject or challenge them. Ceremonies of degradation are warning systems for would-be challengers. 

You see, in a society of discipline and punishment, the goal is not justice but to tame those who will challenge the power of the sovereign. When I read this morning from the media that Mr. Dele Farotimi has been arraigned in court and remanded, I wondered how it was so quick to arraign him while many people are awaiting trial in prison for years with no trial day in mind. Yet I am not surprised at all because, as Foucault writes, the goal of disciplinary institutions like prison, law, and court is to discipline the subject into the vision of the sovereign and maintain obedience. 

When they started with Nollywood Actress and Producer Iyabo Ojo on supposed tax-related issues, they knew what they were doing. When the same people who cannot provide the video of the Lekki toll gate at the time of that incident can splash the footage of that journalist breaking traffic law, they know what they are doing.  I thought I understood state terrorism and the dynamics of modern governance because I have read Foucault, but when I read Girgio Agambe in a class some semester ago, as well as some other critical scholars about modernity in the creation of state, exemption, and power, I realized how much I am yet to comprehend or fully realize.

So, Dear Nigerians, bear in mind that they are coming for you and us. You, as an individual, but us along all the demographics and identity markers that we self-describe and are grouped. When they targeted the Igbos in the last election, they relied on your prejudice, and you did not know.  When they came for Bobrisky and manufactured your rage and homophobic tendencies, you are quick to join them. Very soon, they will manufacture rage for you or us. Either way, they are coming, you and us.

I pray that, one day, we will be aware of how systems of oppression and sovereign power operate and that we will have the courage and strength to resist them and restore truth, empathy, and progress that generations will be proud of.

NB: I have no copyright to the image. Kindly email for credit:oyin2010@gmail.com