My name is Prince Charles Dickson, I am an untribalized Nigerian, an unrepentant patriot, I believe in the inherent good of a Nigerian. I am also of the tribe that is fast evaporating, not accepted, labeled and branded by a people whose hate quotient is daily on the increase. Those that don’t really care about us—you and me!
I am a pacifist. I believe that war and violence are unjustifiable. I don’t not subscribe to those that fight for their ‘gods’, I hate the fighting in the North, I distaste the killings in the southeast, burnings of security posts, and electoral offices, all of which are well planned actions.
I practice Pacifism because I am opposed to war, militarism or violence. The word pacifism was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901
Pacifism, the principled opposition to war and violence as a means of settling disputes.Pacifism may entail the belief that the waging of war by a state and the participation in war by an individual are absolutely wrong, under any circumstances.
Gandhi was a pacifist, refusing to use any force, Gandhi achieved equality laws in India. Some of the ways he fought without violence against injustice include: reporting injustices to the press, to make people aware of what was going on. I have written and continue to write for the better part of two decades and counting. I thread parts we run from, I tell it like it is, I do not insult personality, I do not engage ethnic parapoists, and give no space to faith based fanatics. I engage leadership asking for good governance, I am no party sympathizer, but do they care?
Albert Einstein, one of the greatest physicists in history, was also a pacifist. During World War I he wrote the “Manifesto to the Europeans” to ask for peace in Europe by means of the political union of all the states of the continent. He then became an icon of the international pacifist movement. There are few of us, who believe irrevocably in a political union of the states cum region of this ‘could be’ great country. We fight for peace, and that’s why the hue and cry for us to negotiate this nation. But they really don’t care, do they?
So taking a breath…follow me and let’s reason together, with Micheal Jackson’s music playing in the background—
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us
Don’t worry what people say, we know the truth
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us
Enough is enough of this garbage
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us
Skinhead, dead head, everybody gone bad
Situation, aggravation, everybody, allegation
In the suit, on the news, everybody, dog food
Bang, bang, shot dead, everybody’s gone mad
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us
Beat me, hate me, you can never break me
Will me, thrill me, you can never kill me
***me, sue me, everybody do me
Kick me, kike me, don’t you black or white me
Tell me, what has become of my life?
I have a wife and two children who love me
I am the victim of police brutality, now
I’m tired of being the victim of hate
You’re ripping me of my pride, oh, for God’s sake
I look to heaven to fulfill this prophecy, set me free
Skinhead, dead head, everybody gone bad
Trepidation, speculation, everybody, allegation
In the suit, on the news, everybody, dog food
Black man, blackmail, throw the brother in jail
Tell me, what has become of my rights?
Am I invisible ’cause you ignore me?
Your proclamation promised me free liberty, now
I’m tired of being the victim of shame
They’re throwing me in a class with a bad name
I can’t believe this is the land from which I came
You know, I really do hate to say it
The government don’t want to see
But if Roosevelt was livin’
He wouldn’t let this be, no, no
Skinhead, dead head, everybody gone bad
Situation, speculation, everybody, litigation
Beat me, bash me, you can never trash me
Hit me, kick me, you can never get me
Some things in life, they just don’t want to see
But if Martin Luther was livin’
He wouldn’t let this be, no, no
Skinhead, dead head, everybody’s gone bad
Situation, segregation, everybody, allegation
In the suit, on the news, everybody, dog food
Kick me, kike me, don’t you wrong or right me
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us (we’re deep in fire)
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us (I’m here to remind you)
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us (that you said that “it sucks to be them”)
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about
All I want to say is that they don’t really care about us
This song’s lyrics raised allegations of antisemitism, and Michael Jackson had to apologise and re-record the song with altered lyrics. Because of the controversial nature of the lyrics, the US radio stations played this track unwillingly. Thus it reached only number 30 position on the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA, whereas it became a top-ten hit in almost all European countries and even climbed to number one in Germany. As Nigerians I am sure many of us can relate, with controversies surrounding hate speech, targeted persecution and prosecution and blatant refusal to dialogue.
Do you remember the Aburi agreements, they said it was meant to restore normalcy, then air traffic was suspended to the East. Force was not to be used but eventually millions lost their lives, like Gowon warned Ojukwu, now there are several warnings, in case many forgot or did not even know, Nigeria’s budget spending was going up then too, now it is going up. History is simply about to repeat itself because they don’t care.
How do we see Nigeria currently, who is responsible for the current insecurity, why is their a mute button, a directionless silence, why have they refused to address the agitations, if they call the Sundays and Kanus and dialogue what will happen?
What are our shared values, or are we just different that there is no hope, they are fixated on borrowings, depleting foreign reserves, scammers everywhere, fact is incontestable that the 1999 constitution is defective, there’s no fiscal federalism, we need community policing, council autonomy.
We cannot agree on the appointment of army chief but we agree there is insecurity in the land, and we cannot agree on who is responsible. There is distrust, we are all fuelling hate; left, right and centre because they don’t care about us, for a president who was supposed to be our president, he has largely remained ‘their president’, and has made no effort to be ‘the president’, as Nigeria gropes in the dark, they make plans for 2023, do they really care about us—only time will tell.