Dele Farotimi, Nnamdi Kanu, and the cobra effect, By Osmund Agbo

These two tales — the Cobra Impact and the saga of Nnamdi Kanu — function cautionary examples of how actions, bereft of foresight and nuance, can spiral disastrously uncontrolled… On this context, Mr Babalola’s dealing with of Farotimi’s ebook is one more illustration of the identical precept. In his petition to the police, he lamented: “The ebook has been circulated everywhere in the nation, significantly in Ekiti State, the place many individuals who maintain me in excessive regard as an elder statesman have expressed their disdain as a result of defamatory statements made by Dele Farotimi.”

Dele Farotimi isn’t any stranger to the discerning observer of Nigerian public discourse. The dark-bearded lawyer, famend for his mix of sagacity and unflinching valour, is a determine who instructions respect. But, I need to confess that, like many others, I used to be oblivious to the existence of his ebook, Nigeria and Its Legal Justice System. That’s, till lately — because of none apart from one in every of Nigeria’s most illustrious Senior Advocates, Mr Afe Babalola.

It’s troublesome to think about that this venerable authorized titan meant to catapult Farotimi’s work into the general public limelight, not to mention elevate it to the coveted standing of an Amazon bestseller. Fairly the opposite. One suspects that if Babalola had his approach, each extant copy of the ebook can be seized, consigned to flames, and its writer incarcerated, with the important thing to his cell hurled irretrievably into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

Nevertheless, historical past is replete with situations the place even essentially the most meticulously laid plans unravel in spectacular vogue, significantly when delight and coercive pressure intersect. Reasonably than consigning Farotimi’s ebook to oblivion, Babalola’s actions have achieved the antithesis — propelling it into the epicentre of nationwide discourse and igniting widespread curiosity.

This debacle recollects two cautionary tales with sobering readability. Let me share.

Story one

This takes us again to British colonial India. Alarmed by the proliferation of venomous cobras in city areas, significantly New Delhi, British authorities devised a seemingly rational incentive: a money bounty for each useless cobra. Locals have been inspired to exterminate the snakes and current their skins to say the reward.

Initially, the scheme appeared to succeed, as quite a few cobras have been killed and their inhabitants seemingly diminished. Nevertheless, the ingenuity of human enterprise quickly upended the plan. Realising the profitability of the scheme, some people started breeding cobras solely to kill them and declare the bounties.

When the colonial administration uncovered this subterfuge, it promptly terminated the bounty programme. Bereft of economic incentive, the breeders launched their now-worthless cobras into the wild, exacerbating the very downside the coverage sought to resolve.

What started as a well-intentioned answer spiraled into a fair higher disaster. The time period “Cobra Impact” has since change into a cautionary metaphor for the perils of poorly conceived interventions that backfire spectacularly.

Story two

The second story is nearer to dwelling and equally instructive. It issues Nnamdi Kanu, the chief of the Biafran separatist group, IPOB.

Earlier than his arrest in 2015, Kanu was a marginal determine, identified primarily inside area of interest circles for his incendiary broadcasts on Radio Biafra. Whereas his rhetoric was provocative, it had not but garnered vital traction past a small, devoted viewers. Nevertheless, the federal government’s determination to detain him indefinitely with out trial reworked him in a single day into a logo of defiance.

In searching for to silence him, the state inadvertently sanctified him, elevating him to the standing of a martyr amongst many Igbos. His detention shone a obtrusive highlight on long-standing grievances in regards to the marginalisation of the Igbo folks, igniting protests and bringing problems with ethnic injustice to the forefront of each nationwide and worldwide discourse.

Reasonably than quelling dissent, the federal government’s actions galvanised Kanu’s motion, the Indigenous Individuals of Biafra (IPOB). Conversations in regards to the scars of the Biafran Battle, the systemic exclusion of the South-East from Nigeria’s political structure, and the financial neglect of Igbo areas gained unprecedented prominence. Kanu’s detention grew to become a rallying cry, sparking demonstrations throughout the South-East and among the many Nigerian diaspora.

What the federal government meant as a silencing act as a substitute amplified Kanu’s voice, remodeling a regional grievance right into a trigger célèbre. It was a basic occasion of how repression can inadvertently embolden resistance, with outcomes way more damaging than the issue initially perceived.

These two tales — the Cobra Impact and the saga of Nnamdi Kanu — function cautionary examples of how actions, bereft of foresight and nuance, can spiral disastrously uncontrolled.

On this context, Mr Babalola’s dealing with of Farotimi’s ebook is one more illustration of the identical precept. In his petition to the police, he lamented:

“The ebook has been circulated everywhere in the nation, significantly in Ekiti State, the place many individuals who maintain me in excessive regard as an elder statesman have expressed their disdain as a result of defamatory statements made by Dele Farotimi.”

If Babalola is so unsettled by the reactions of Ekiti’s populace, one wonders how he may reconcile himself to the information that his personal actions have now uncovered the alleged misconduct to the world at giant. By resorting to the devices of state to suppress dissent, relatively than searching for redress within the courts — the very establishment that outlined his illustrious profession — Babalola unwittingly magnified the allegations he sought to quash.

This episode underscores the enduring relevance of the legislation of unintended penalties: the precept that interventions can yield outcomes far past their meant scope — usually to catastrophic results. For a person of Babalola’s stature and authorized acumen, this could have been a foregone conclusion. As a substitute, his actions function a poignant reminder that even essentially the most influential people will not be proof against the perils of miscalculation.

Osmund Agbo is a US-based medical physician and writer. His works embrace Black Grit, White Knuckles: The Philosophy of Black Renaissance and a fiction work titled The Velvet Courtroom: Courtesan Chronicles. His newest works, Pray, Let the Shaman Die and Ma’am, I Do Not Come to You for Love, have simply been launched.