August 11, 2002
"I cannot replace my son. The grief they caused me, I will carry for the rest of my life. His father died in 1993, and he had been taking care of me since then. Now they have killed him, Who did this to me?"
That was the supplication of a grieving mother in Kwara State, Nigeria. Her 29-year-old son, Gobir, a fashion designer and a supporter of "one of the front-line political heavyweights in Kwara state"[Guardian, July 12, 2002], was killed.
Trouble started earlier that day on June 29; it was the day for the creation of new councils in Kwara State and of course, the political atmosphere was charged up. According to the Guardian, Gobir was at a wedding party that night when 12 members of the Gbosa gang arrived in the hotel where the party was being held, armed with guns and machetes. They alighted from two unmarked buses and one of them lured Gobir outside where they read him his supposed offences. The sum total of his offence was "his support for a political chieftain." He was then shot at point blank range! And so Gobir died, another victim of Nigeria's rising politically motivated violence.
Cases of political violence are now springing up in many nooks and crannies of all 6 geopolitical zones of Nigeria; this is all happening as Nigeria prepares for local government and general elections.
Several weeks ago, after the Delta state PDP party secretariat made public the results of the 16 out of 23 council primaries they allegedly conducted, armed thugs drove around the town, precluding residents from going about their businesses, those who dared, had their vehicles snatched from them while the thugs released gun shots into the air.[Guardian July 03] In Rivers state, "violence occasioned by bitter jostling for party tickets disrupted local council primaries in Okrika" [Guardian, July 02]. During the violence, 5 people were abducted and scores maimed. At Azuzu, Ward four, Mbaise road, Owerri, election was suddenly halted by people, mostly youths, suspected to be thugs hired by some defeated aspirants. The list goes on and on and the most troubling part is that because it has not become politically expedient, the Obasanjo administration has not pragmatically addressed this issue which by right, should be high on his priority list.
Tired of and frightened by increasing cases of political violence, in a Guardian opinion poll in 24 states, Nigerians overwhelmingly called for tough punitive measures against people who embark on political thuggery. Nigerians know that if left unchecked, this singular problem has the propensity, to once again derail a peaceful transition from one civilian administration to another, a perpetual monkey that Nigeria has been unable to get off her back.
This writer believes that the hallmark of a civilized society is the freedom to support any political entity and candidate(s) one chooses and in the final analysis, vote for the candidate of one's choice. In an atmosphere replete with fear, where individuals are intimidated, harassed, maimed and even killed for holding political beliefs or for supporting candidates of their choice, democracy is not bound to go too far. The ultimate corollary of this uncivilized behaviour is that law-abiding citizens are disenfranchised; they would find it difficult to go out and vote for candidates of their choice for fear of getting caught in politically motivated violence. If thugs could effectively preclude citizens from going about their businesses in Asaba, during the council primaries, what is to stop them from precluding citizens from going out to vote during the 2003 elections?
It is frightening that the thugs had a field day on that day in Asaba, shooting sporadically into the air to frighten citizens; my question is: since when did Nigeria permit her citizens to bear arms openly and use them to intimidate others? Should it not be of serious concern to the police and the Obasanjo administration that this is happening? Should the police not be frantically scurrying around, impounding these weapons and charging culprits with appropriate offences? How do we know that these thugs are simply not conducting dress rehearsals in readiness for 2003 elections? Also, is it not conceivable that these so-called political thugs are also armed robbers? Suffice it to say that it was in the same Asaba area that not too long ago, 20 innocent passengers were killed when a bus in which they were travelling from Onitsha to Lagos, went into a filling station to refuel. The robbers shot indiscriminately at the bus and riddled it with bullets, at the end of it all, 20 people lay dead. As usual, police arrived later
On July 17, in London, General Obasanjo told the world at a Business Summit on Nigeria, that his administration "will use everything within its executive to ensure that the outcome of the elections will not only meet international standards, but also satisfy Nigerians for stable, good and purposeful government."[Vanguard, July 18] Sounds good right? What the president however failed to tell the international community is that political violence has already started engulfing the nation and he has so far had no answer for it. And by the way, why would anyone believe Obasanjo when he is busy putting all types of machines in motion, both legal and illegal, to ensure that he is re-elected instead of conducting the affairs of the nation? When would he find time from his busy globetrotting schedule to attend to political violence in the nation? This writer feels that from Obasanjo's track record, he would only do something about the violence, if it becomes politically expedient for him or if it threatens his re-election bid. Barring that, he would once again look the other way just like he has in many affairs of the nation.
In an apparent response to the rise in politically motivated violence in Nigeria, on June 24, the police high command announced that it had set up an "elite unit of well-armed and better motivated men of the Police Mobile Force" to combat political thuggery.[Guardian, June 2002] Police spokesman, Mr. Haz Iwendi explained that it was part of the eight-point program embarked upon by Inspector General of police, Mr. Tafa Balogun. It sounds great on the surface until one remembers that it was the same eight-point program that gave birth to operation "Fire for Fire", which many, including this writer, hailed at its inception because of some immediate results realized. Since then, operation Fire for Fire seems to have fallen by the way side. Robbery seems to have increased; bank robberies, in Lagos, now come at about an average of 5 a month and passengers in luxury buses are routinely killed. Infact, in areas around Anambra State, which had hitherto been relatively crime free, armed robbery, seems to have returned. With this type of record for operation Fire for Fire, why would any sane person believe that the so-called elite police group would do any better at checkmating political thuggery? I might sound pessimistic here, but here is why: if the elite police men raised to combat armed robbery have thus far been unsuccessful, I would not hold my breadth on the elite group for combating political thuggery.
It is not to say that political violence has not always been present in Nigeria, infact it has remained the most potent force in derailing peaceful democratic transition since Independence. It has also been the reason, which the military cite for intervening. Be that as it may, in this day and age, political violence has become more deadly than it has ever been. Where thugs used batons and machetes to harass people in the past, now they wield Uzi guns and AK 47s. Where they simply slapped opponents around in the past, now they shoot at point-blank range gangster style, like they shot Gobir. Where their activities used to be somewhat uncoordinated in the past, these days, they have emails and cell phones to coordinate their activities and carry them out with military precision and dispatch. Where the members of the gangs were matured men in the past, now we are dealing with angry youths of between ages 16 and about 25, who carry out orders without minding whose ox is gored. This has therefore made this problem a national emergency and must be approached as such. Simply raising elite policemen, who are also susceptible to corruption, is just tackling the symptom of the ailment rather than the root cause.
So how do we curb political violence in Nigeria to ensure a free and fair election and peaceful transition from administration to administration? Let us first take a critical look at those who foment the violence. Some statistics, no matter how suspect, suggest that they are youths of ages 16 to about 25, often without any visible means of income and sometimes work in gangs. This is the same age group of kids who commit cult-related crimes in our schools of higher learning; it is the same breed of kids that kill and dispossess people of their belongings. There is therefore, a common thread that binds perpetrators of political violence, armed robbery and cultism together, it is their age. These young men seem to have lost hope in Nigeria and are now drifting towards any direction that would give them a sense of belonging and purpose, no matter how deadly. I agree completely with a writer who stated, "feelings of hopelessness, despair and anger turn into rage and lead the youth of Nigeria into doing bad things"
The feeling that the nation holds no hope for them is overwhelming them and most who would under normal conditions make something out of their lives, are now engaged in lives of crime. If a youth is unemployed and has no immediate hope of finding gainful employment, when a powerful politician approaches the youth with promise of money and other accoutrements, the youth is most likely to do the politicians' bidding and become a thug. If an undergraduate youth is sent on forced vacation as a result of teachers’ strike, he finds himself in idle isolation and as they say, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. Hence, if armed robbers approach the kid to join them, there is some chance that he would at least contemplate it. The same goes for cultism. Let us reason together a little further: what is the probability that a young man with gainful employment would become an armed robber, a political thug, a cultist or an area boy? How much chance is there that a young man in the University, who looks forward to a fruitful life after graduation, would join a cult and throw it all away? What is the chance that a gainfully employed youth or one, who has hope of finding employment, would become a henchman or thug for a politician? The chance is very slim.
As an undergraduate at the University of Nigeria in the late 70s and early eighties, we had fraternities, but because we had hope of settling into productive and fruitful lives, the fraternities were just social gatherings for planning parties and being merry. I never witnessed violence or heard about one throughout my academic sojourn in that school. Sure we engaged in "Ali must go"protest in my first year in 1977, but that was it for the rest of my stay. There were no student on student crimes or political thuggery. I wish I could say the same about today.
It is probably too late now to get things in order before elections commence, but it is better now than never. Obasanjo must first relinquish his appetite for globetrotting since the foreign businesses he is gunning for are not coming. He must end these flurry of activities aimed at perpetuating himself, because, they leave him with little time to attend to the business of the nation. He must hunker down in Aso Rock and start truly attending to the business of the nation – ECONOMIC REVIVAL. He must start sorting out the current economic mess we are in and encourage enterprise that would provide jobs for our youth and give them lasting hope. This writer has completely lost hope that Obasanjo is the one who would deliver us from the current economic quagmire, because if he has failed to do it for the past three years, he cannot do it in one year. But since he still draws pay check that is generated by the sweat of Nigerians, we would hold him accountable, if this nation once again fails to complete a peaceful transition from one civilian administration to another as a result of violence engendered by disenchantment.
Finally, as elections come around, Nigerians should realize that one of the answers to stemming the tide of political violence, is the development of a viable economy where our youth would feel like they have a future. In other words, as president Clinton would say, "it’s the economy stupid"
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