Efio-Ita Nyok|2 September 2015|6:52am
“Stop criticising Ayade, commend him…if you sit down there blaming the governor, you are an underling, the fault is yours. Whatever the hands finds to do should be done with or without oil. Appreciate your powers and those of others while making greater efforts to succeed”.
The above clausal expression is credited to Kanu Godwin Agabi, a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He is alleged to have made the above statement on Thursday 27 August 2015, exactly one week today, during the occasion of the Third Anniversary Lecture of CrossRiverWatch, a leading online media platform, at Transcorp Hotel, Calabar. In the said lecture he presented a paper, being the guest lecturer, on the topic: Cross River Economy Without Oil: Prospects & Challenges.
While I have tried my best to swallow the above submission by the learned gentleman, I must confess that the statement has stubbornly refused to proceed peacefully through my 'intellectual processing canal' in the bid to find soft landing in my psyche. It is in view of this that I decided to contemplate the reason for this incongruous experience, why has this proposition just refused to find peace within me despite the fact it is exactly a week it was made?
What is wrong with the above expression credited to Agabi – 'Stop criticising Ayade, commend him'? To my mind, everything is wrong with it! It is the perceived erroneous character of the statement that is compelling me to differ with Agabi: I am positing that we should rather 'criticise Ayade, not commend him'. Why!? This is the million dollars question. Firstly, Agabi's 'criticism'(that is, his use of the concept, 'criticise') is ambiguous. Albeit, if he means by it, the act of censuring public policies that are perceived to be not pro the welfare of the citizenry, whether in the long or short term, then there are more problems with the opinion.
Secondly, it is unconstitutional, in that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic as Amended allows for freedom of speech, press and the right to hold opinion. That is to say, to advice that I refrain from criticising Ayade, is to say that I should not exercise my constitutional right as a citizen. Okoi Obono-Obla has articulated this sentiment. And this does not speak well of the status of Agabi as a barrister at law. He should not be advocating such.
Thirdly, the phrase runs counter to the popular definition of the concept of democracy, credited to Abraham Lincoln as contained in the latter's famous Gettysburg Speech, which is 'government of the people, by the people and for the people'. The present administration is ours. It is that of the masses. Ayade as governor is only a servant sitting there to do our bidding. He is not the boss. He is the 'boy' if you wish. If the government is 'by, of and for' the people then the people reserve the right to determine policy direction billed on their behalf. And the way by which this is done is criticism.
Fourthly, Agabi seem to demonstrate a misunderstanding of the concept, 'criticism'. He is perceived to be saying that all criticism is an expression of ill will. But, this orientation is not correct. On the contrary, not all criticism is an expression of ill will. It is at this juncture that I shall call to remembrance that criticism has been distinguished into -constructive and deconstructive types. In the former, that is 'constructive criticism', the weakness(ses) of a policy, system, theory, proposal, etc is highlighted and alternatives may be suggested immediately or not. In this type of criticism there is an honest intention, so to speak, by the critic as well as an expression of goodwill. However, in the latter, that is 'destructive criticism', it is perceived that the shortcomings of a said system, theory, policy, etc are not highlighted, and thus alternatives are not suggested. That is to say in this type of criticism, there is a dishonest intention and an expression of ill will on the part of the critic. From my above delineation of the semantics of criticism it is readily gleaned that criticism of the constructive type is rational; whereas, criticism of the destructive form is irrational or emotional better still.
Agabi has not told us which type of criticism he is shunning. Sympathisers of Agabi may say he is referring to the destructive type of criticism. Albeit, I beg to differ with these sympathisers, because Agabi's body language in the phrase: 'if you sit down there blaming the governor, you are an underling, the fault is yours. Whatever the hands finds to do should be done with or without oil. Appreciate your powers and those of others while making greater efforts to succeed”, suggest that he is not distinguishing between any forms of criticism. For Agabi, there should not be any type of criticism. All criticism, being destructive, is bad! This absolutisation is further reinforced by the no mean a categorical submission: 'Stop criticising Ayade'! Instead, '…commend him'.
From my puncture of Agabi's, it is obvious that Agabi, as a foremost outspoken apologist of/for the present state administration has not done Cross River/Cross Riverians service especially going by his now infamous statement. If Agabi insist on his no-criticism proposal, then what is the essence of democracy? There may be no need for our republican type of democracy. Agabi should rather be advocating for constructive criticism and not the total absence of one. Even at that, it has been demonstrated by a school of thought that there is nothing like destructive criticism as we are wont to believe. That is to say in other words, all criticism is constructive. This latter position hinges itself on the argument that all criticism to a certain degree is 'deconstructive' (note: not destructive). If both constructive and destructive criticisms are deconstructive, it stand to reason then that in the final analysis all criticism is a prelude to further construction. That is, one deconstruct to construct. So, all criticism is constructive.
For instance, what would we say concerning the protest (an expression of criticism) by the taxi drivers in the Calabar metropolis, when government increased their tax, a tax system that would have caused the ordinary citizen nothing less than an extra N17,400 burden? How would one react to Ifere Paul's criticism of Ayade's media aide, Inok Solomon, when the latter went to town against one Joseph Odok for sharing the former's article criticising Ayade's Signature Projects all over social media? These episodes of criticisms where viable enough to infused sanity into the administration. Even Prince Jeddy Agba admits elsewhere that criticism against Ayade are welcome and thus encouraged Ifere Paul on this during the 2015 Leboku Festival.
If my arguments are anything to go by, I therefore declare that owing to the obvious failings of a pro-Ayade proposal of no-Criticism, Agabi should not be taken seriously. The elder should be disregarded in this context. His submission should be shown the way through the back door of C' River. I therefore use this medium to encourage all critics and critiques of Ayade, whether of the constructive or deconstructive(if there be any such thing) bents that their critical wares are most welcome in Cross River especially now. We need you now more than ever before.
