Heartless killings; senseless perceptions

There are possibly four things that motivate people towards criminality; being ignorant of the consequences of their actions, knowing but not caring about the consequences, knowing but thinking they can avoid the consequences and not even believing there will be consequences at all. People who are engaged in senseless killings in Nigeria and by extension, many parts of Africa are apparently motivated by all four factors; something the government and its justice system have largely failed to address virtually since independence.

If we analyse the nature and magnitude of senseless killings that have bedevilled Nigeria between let’s say 2008 to 2018, a period overseen by three presidents, one will be forced to reconsider relying on government exclusively as responsible for safety of citizens. Let’s take government not to mean Buhari, Jonathan or any state governor; let’s just see government as an authority and or an institution, and then we ask, does any government has the capacity to tackle the complex Nigerian security situation?

Let’s bear in mind the peculiarities, uniqueness and even absurd complexity of the Nigerian security challenges which makes it almost the most single one-of-a-kind isolated case in the world. Consider the fact that it is probably only in Nigeria that citizens comfortably see their presidents as direct sponsors of killings even without a shred of any tangible evidence. Many may attribute this to the permanent mistrust and suspicion that exists within Nigerian ethno-religious groups.

In the height of the Boko Haram crisis in 2014, a substantial amount of Nigerian Muslims believed whole heartedly that then President Goodluck Jonathan was directly responsible for instigating it, just to weaken Islam and the North. This is a view held by even by some of the most educated people you can think of despite it being as absurd as hell. Jonathan’s pathetic display of poor understanding and negligence of the crisis as well as corruptibly capitalizing on it as the Muslims aided, abetted and benefitted Dasukigate later proved notwithstanding, it was still completely senseless to accuse him of sponsoring Boko Haram for any benefit whatsoever; a conspiracy theory which was very popular before he left office.

We have many Christians that believe President Buhari is sponsoring killer herdsmen including their alleged recent massacres on the Plateau for Jihadist reasons. How this makes sense is unimaginable. One is forced to ask, is Buhari also sponsoring the banditry in Zamfara, Killings in Birnin Gwari and some other attacks in which the Fulani, his so-called kinsmen are the victims and for what motive? If he isn’t, who is? His inability to grasp the gravity of the herds-killers crisis, apparent disdain for grazing-regulatory laws and the indifference of his security agents towards the Miyetti Allah Group antics notwithstanding, it is not enough to accuse him of sponsoring the killings of the same citizen he is ruling? If we insist he does, how then does it actually constitutes Jihad, expands Islam, help the president’s kinsmen or adding to his political capital in an election year in which he is standing for re-election?

Despite all these perceptions being senseless, there is perhaps a more scientific reason than the sentimental ones we advance as to why they exist in the first place. First, the government have never failed at abusing the rights of its own citizens, which includes killing them extra-judicially whenever the opportunity presents itself. Furthermore, it never significantly and decisively care to investigate and serve justice whenever the security agents it controls commit atrocities. Simply put, the Nigerian state constitutes one of the biggest security threats to its own citizens. When things like these are rampant, people have permanent disdain over the leaders who preside these governments and at the end; they attach different narratives to events to suit their long established sentiments and prejudices.

About this time last year when socio-ethnic groups were busy issuing quit notices to members of other tribes living in their domain, the then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo held various consultative meetings with different groups. In one of the meetings, Osinbajo blamed the killing of some Biafran protesters on the dilapidated law and order structure of the Nigerian State which had degraded over time. For instance, from the killing of Chief Bola Ige in 2001, Harry Marshal in 2003 and so many high profile murders, how many culprits were brought to justice? Will those killers ever be uncovered? Do Nigerian security men kill base on tribe or do they just do that to the ordinary masses extra-judicially?

Constitutionally, the government is tasked with protecting and securing lives and properties. The Nigerian government has obviously failed woefully in that regard over the years. While no one expects the government to completely police and secure every house, street or domain, it is expected to at least overhaul the system and put in place a rejuvenated security architecture befitting of contemporary challenges. It is expected to constantly recruit, train and adequately remunerate security personnel, motivate them well with incentives, stop politicizing them and pay timely benefits to the injured and to the families of the dead.

The government is expected to constantly engage in reliable intelligence gathering in both periods of peace and conflict and use same to prevent crises rather than wait for it to happen. Where crisis inevitably occurs, governments humanitarian response to victims must be swift, comprehensive, adequate and convincing. Efforts towards preventing future occurrences must be seen to be genuine, serious and result-oriented.

The government is expected to deliver good governance, give youths education and employment so that many of them will find violence and killings unattractive. Government, which is populated by politicians must put national interest above selfish political ones thereby stop empowering thugs who perpetrate violence after elections. Government must be sincere and seen to be genuinely concerned instead of ignoring calls to dispassionately exhaust all complains and dialogue avenues or be seen to be concerned more with politics than governance.

All arms of government must work to reform and redeem the justice system to be able deliver trusted and timely justice. This will prevent jungle justice. Without mincing words, the Nigerian justice system has failed almost completely to the extent that ordinary people seek to find justice through their own ways, and in a society where majority of the people are hungry, angry, idle and ignorant, jungle justice can just be one out of different barbaric methods people can resort to in stamping their authority. For almost every problem in Nigeria, disadvantaged people have developed an equivalent of jungle justice to get solutions. For unemployment, some are into prostitution, stealing, begging and cheating; for a collapsed protective security system, some have resorted to attacks, counter attacks and retaliatory attacks.

But before we task it all on government, we must ask, have Nigerians been helping matters themselves? There is a limit to which government can enforce security. Peace can be imposed but not understanding and without understanding, peace is just illusionary and temporary. As a country with over 180 million people and a geographical area of 923,768.64km², the generality of citizens must want peace before government can be able to provide it. Government cannot man all the countless villages to prevent mid-night massacres or the entire over 32,000 km highway to curtail reprisal attacks which can happen anywhere and any second.

Senseless killings of innocent Nigerians have usually received less than unanimous condemnation from Nigerians. People condemn primarily base on their ethnic or religious and sometimes political affiliations to the victims and or perpetrators. What makes one confused is how Nigerians behave sharply differently on issues that require the same treatment with strict consistency; issues that revolve around humanity. One cannot say Nigerians are generally inhuman to behave as such, but it is more than obvious that our demographic differences and the determination to remain divided appear to have irrationally superseded our humanity.

We have all suffered so much from bloodshed and the choice before the ordinary Nigerian is between continuing like this or bringing an end to it. Do we want an end to senseless killings of all Nigerians or the killings of only our tribesmen? Are we ready to battle and defeat evil or are we willing to continue using our sentimental criteria to define it? Do we want our ethnic groups to live in harmony or are we striving to have our tribe dominate others? Shall we continue worshiping political affiliations at the expense of understanding each other? Do we want to continue as human or do we wish to be seen as animals? We must all make a choice and act, not the type of action proposed by General T.Y Danjuma but the type of action that will make the number of evil loving Nigerians drown in the ocean of peace loving ones.

Twitter: @AmirAbdulazeez