ON THE NEED FOR ORGANIZATION

by Okoye Chukwudi Charles Ezeamalukwuo

…Organized minority is a…majority.
—Jesse Jackson

On December 2nd, 1956; 82 men landed in Playas Las Colorados, Cuba on a yacht. Among the men were Fidel Castro, the leader of the group, Raul Castro (his brother) and Che Guevara; an Argentinian doctor. Their aim it was to overthrow the authoritarian regime of President Fugencio Batista using guerrilla armed struggle. Two years and 30 days later, and with a size of about 300 men, Castro and his men (with help from other rebel groups) defeated the Regime’s regular army of about 37,000 men. This may sound like a story from the Bible but it’s not.

In the first three years of World War 2, Nazi Germany with a population of 69.6 million people conquered and occupy most of Europe which had a population of about 600 million people. Japan, an ally of Germany with a population of 73 million people defeated and occupied most of China (with a population of 571 million people then), Asia and the Pacific regions.

Coming closer to home, in the southern part of the African continent…Apartheid once reigned supreme. For over four decades it ruled with iron fist, crushing coloured men beneath its feet as if they were the biblical serpents. Minority whites in South Africa ruled over the coloured majority, including Namibia (and a sizable part of Angola) for a long period of time.

It goes to show how vital organisation and determination are in achieving any set down goal.
Indeed, Organised Minority is the Majority.

It never ceases to amaze me how something very impossible under mathematical terms can be, and are very feasible in human terms and conditions…yes! Human beings are not numbers, they are neither exact nor static, they are dynamic and flexible.
Nevertheless, a small organised and determined force will surely defeat a very large unorganised force anytime any day.

left to right: Che Guevara, Raul Castro & Fidel Castro

South African Apartheid Police crushing a demonstration in Soweto 1986

I have often heard people say, “Politics is a Dangerous Game.” “The World is being governed by the Illuminati.” While some will go further and add, “Yes! the world is governed by the devil.” This line of thinking has made so many to become both superstitious and pessimistic (at least in the affairs of the world). When the physical world is being governed by a malicious spiritual being like the devil, what can mortal men do…Become the Devil’s minions and enjoy the earth or resign to their fate while suffering and praying for a better place in heaven?

However, the Truth is that the devil controls nothing. The world is being ruled by powerful and highly organised group of mortal men…powerful and organised but mortal all the same. Men with one head, two hands and two legs like you and me. The only thing they have that we don’t is a well organised network.

Organisation is the bedrock of power. Without organisation there will be no great men, talk of great nations or empires. With organisation anything is possible. Even God himself had to personally come down to confuse the tongues of mankind at the Tower of Babel, because he knows well what Man can achieve once organised. And since then the virtue of organisation has continued to elude most of Humanity, but to the few that acquire it, theirs is the keys to the kingdom of Earth.

The need for organisation can never be over-emphasised. There is never a time when mankind need to stand together than at this present time of global turmoil, economic disparity, racial inequality, religious intolerance, national injustice and many other ills. It is a fact that the world is being run by less than 0.1% of its population, the rest of us are reared like livestock, oblivious of our state in it.
My country; Nigeria since independence has been ran by men of treacherous intent…men whose number are less than a hundred thousand, in a country of 160 million. Yes, less than 0.6% of the population have 99.4% of the nation in bondage.

This reminds me of some lines from my poem, it goes like this–

The quest for Power is only for the Brave And the Violent.
The children of light sit in the moonlight telling tales,
While the children of night seek to redraw the outline of the moon.
—The Music of the Flute (Part IV)

Yes, the good people who can impact positive change are too busy telling moonlight tales…they are too afraid to act…they are too disorganised to be noticed. Yet, positive change can only come from good people, and never from bad people no matter which party they are in. The situation of the world, of Nigeria will continue like this, or even worsen until good men can no longer find solace in the cowardice of silence…until they speak up and act.

I remember in my university days, that my school was (and still is) backwards in its relation with students. Teaching was more like teasing, for our brains could only feel the light seductive caress of an ever elusive knowledge, and nothing more beyond that…not even a hug or handshake. The best way to tackle this academic genocide was through the Student Union Government (SUG), but none of us; the so called good students felt that SUG was for serious students…hence SUG became (and still is) a coalition of highly unserious and comical students…who had nothing to offer but empty coffer. That was back then, now I believe that good men owe it to themselves to rise up from their butts and start becoming part of the government. Now I believe that good men have it as a sense of duty to rise up from the shackles of their silence and inactions to the clarion call for human liberation.

Lecture Hall of a Nigerian University

Politics was never meant to be a dirty or dangerous game. Politics is about controlling people, organising them, promoting their interests. But when few good men indulge in it, it becomes whatsoever the many bad eggs say it is, and it’s about time this stopped. The bad people are organised, highly organised…

…the Shadows are part of us.
They are among the faces we meet in the evening.
They are organised and hungry for human flesh.
—The Music of the Flute (Part II)

But so can the good guys also. The good people should start organising themselves. In Nigeria for example, we need to tear our eyes off from both APC and PDP. Those two parties are filled with criminals. Good men need to start from the grass root to organise a movement of patriots. A cell, a group, an association with laid down code of conduct for its members. They need to arrange themselves and build up their base, then go out there and retake from the Bad men that which is rightfully theirs.

Martin Luther King Jnr did it with his NAACP group, Malcolm X did it through Nation of Islam, so did Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela In ANC, Amilcar Cabral, Agostinho Neto, Vladimir Lenin, Hugo Chavez and so many more.

In everywhere they are, good men need to become politically active. They need to aspire to be heard, to lead, to be in the forefront…because if they don’t, the vocal minority, the bad ones will continue to sweep them off. The time for staying neutral is gone…“I don’t like politics” is now an expired slogan…Good men need to start cultivating the love for politics…they need to start being proactive in whatever place or group they find ourselves…they need to match the bad men strength for strength. No position of power is insignificant, be it in the church, in village meeting, community gathering, schools, local government etc, a good man heading it, is a victory for humanity. Though good men may not go the length or do the things that the Bad ones are prepared to go or do…but if the good ones stay organised, surely they will figure a way around the bad ones.

The future belongs to those who fight for it today, said Malcolm X. But one can not win a fight unless he is organised. The past and the present are both for the evil men, but it doesn’t mean that the future should be theirs too. The future is bright only if we say so…you and I, the poor and the rich, the religious and atheist, christians and muslims, blacks and whites…the future belongs to us if you and I can start today to organise ourselves and to aspire to change ourselves and our society.
Indeed…

Yesterday and Today are for the shadows
But Tomorrow…Tomorrow begins Today

Tomorrow is for the Children of Light

Tomorrow is the awakening of the self
The new hallelujah
The remaking of the beds of a people
Who are already restless in there sleep.
—The Music of the Flute (Part X)

MLK delivering his speech to over 250,000 supporters at Lincoln Memorial, Washington (Aug 28, 1963)

Malcolm X delivering a speech

Mahatma Gandhi

Amilcar Cabral, the father of Cape Verde & Guinea Bissua, he pushed the portugesse empire to ruins

Lenin delivering a speech on top of a car in Petrograd, Russia (April 3, 1917).

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Lyriversity.

Lyriversity — Liberty of Creativity