THERE IS A PRICE OF PATRIOTISM
Many are Anglophones who expect so much from others but little from themselves. Many more who, with vanity in a net like the publican, declare themselves holy without a blemish and are gratuitous with satanic verses for others! They unwittingly miss the point that victory is the aggregates of individual victories.
We are told that football has nothing to do with the Anglophone question. Some have argued that there is or should be a dichotomy between sports and politics. But they are quick to turn round and proclaim that the politically elected president is the first sportsman. No contradiction here apparent! But a huge contradiction there is! When the entire Russian team is suspended for alleged doping, politics is wholly extraneous, isn’t it? No contention there is in the circumstance that doping is an individual crime isn’t it? When Issa Hayatou prays for the Camerounese football female to win all its matches against his political election it is not politics, isn’t it? … Need we say more?
But the Anglophone sacrifices his survival on the altar of hollow fine distinctions. His right it may be so to hold. But he becomes hysterical when his neighbor does likewise. And that is the rub!
The call to boycott the Africa Women Cup of Nations as a story to the world about our subjugation is the best step in the struggle. First, it is an individual decision with an intangible individual price. This contrasts with the lawyers, the teachers, and civil society organizations that are a group, taking group decisions. Again, nothing can justify any official action against an individual decision to stay away. And no-one suffers any official pecuniary loss. Above all, repression is woefully absent!
If we abstain from running the risk of being battered, and we abstain from making a point from omission, where do we make our mark? If we care about the image of the oppressor, and we get lost in bountiful rhapsodies of mistreatment by the same oppressor, where do we belong? If our patriotism wavers before every challenge, what sort of patriotism is that?
We beg to hold just again that our patriotism shall be measured by our heeding the call for boycott as our shouting expression of discontent. We should otherwise keep quiet henceforth in voluntary submission to subjugation! Above all, we should stop paying lip service to the cause, and live peacefully in eternal apprehension!
ICHAN AYEH!
