S.O.S ALIEME

Nigerian gained independence in 1960 and since then things have really not worked out for a country that can boast of a rich land that flows with milk and honey. Nigerians ran around Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos with the independence flag to mark our independence. Nigeria has indeed come a long way. But it is not the Nigeria that we thought we were getting at independence. What we are seeing today in Nigeria nobody expected it. Nobody anticipated it in 1960. A situation where insecurity and corruption has taken over the country to the extent that we are almost a failed state. That is not what we expected, because the purpose of government basically is to protect lives and property of its people economically and physically. 

And in today’s Nigeria, we seem to have a government that is incapable or unwilling to protect lives and property. You see violence, especially in the North. In the North-West, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi; in the North-East, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa; in the North-Central, Benue, Taraba, Plateau, and Kwara. It’s a shame, and government seems to be incapable of addressing this problem. 

Let us look back at the last 20 years. Around 2011, we saw an increase in the tempo of Fulani herdsmen activities in this part of the world. They were invading areas, destroying property, burning houses, taking over villages and literally intimidating everybody. It is no longer news that there are Fulani militants in Nigeria. Some deadly Fulanis were not carrying cattle with them, but they were heavily armed. They were destroying villages and putting up some Islamic flags in white and green. They destroyed villages and took over villages till today. So the tempo of Fulani militia, Fulani militancy has increased almost exponentially over the years in the last two decades. So, today in Nigeria things have been taken over. And you begin to wonder, where were these people and what do they want? You don’t have your place in Nigeria, and you want to conquer people and take over their land and force them to come under your control. This is a big problem.

I dare say that Northern Nigeria has become the problem of Nigeria, because they have allowed this kind of situation to grow without any attempt to contain it or to reduce its impact. The Northern leadership has paid little attention to the impact of ethnicity and religious intolerance in Nigeria. They have kept quiet and just simply watched while this thing goes on. I feel that if the Federal Government really wants to control this country, they should pay more attention to this issue of ethnicity and religion in Northern Nigeria. You know, we did not see it early enough. The Jihadists have had this in their mind for a long time, since the advent of Usman Dan Fodio in 1804. But even when the Jihadists were defeated by Lord Lugard in March 1903, the structures were left intact, and they have continued to wage this war quietly. Nigerians didn’t pay enough attention. We probably would not have known the extent of this problem without the advent of social media, because now they come out openly and tell us that, “you are our slaves. This land belongs to us. We can kill you.” How do you build a country as diverse as Nigeria with over 300 tribes, many religions, and you say, ‘If you are not practicing my kind of religion, then I’m free to kill you. You are an infidel”? That cannot keep Nigeria one. That cannot build a strong Nigeria, and we cannot build a strong country by deceiving the people. 

We can only build a country when we are united, focused, and know that we have a stake in it, not when some people can wake up any time of the day and claim that it is their forefathers’ property. We didn’t know this at independence. Every day you see a group of people who wake up and say, “we want to control your life. We must control your life. If you don’t do what we want, we kill you.” That is not a country. The impression out there is that insecurity in the North is being fuelled by poverty and underdevelopment, if that is true, who do we blame?

The Nigerian political class appears to be insensitive to the profound moral collapse amid widespread suffering in the country. Nigerian politicians are fond of celebrating and focussing on electoral ambitions while ordinary citizens grapple with insecurity, hunger, unemployment and poverty. Nigeria resembles a nation at war with itself, not through declared conflict, but via routine deaths from banditry, kidnapping, terrorism and institutional neglect.

When you look at what is happening in the country literally and metaphorically, you will see that while citizens continue to bury their dead the political actors are dancing at rallies, celebrating and making defections. The contrast between elite comfort and popular misery reveals a deep moral fracture in the Nigerian polity. It is worth of note that the state has abdicated its core responsibility which is the protection of life and property but leading the entire nation to a breach of the social contract. Hunger is not a natural disaster but it is a policy outcome.  A political class that remains festive amid mass hunger demonstrates institutionalized insensitivity which is a condition where suffering no longer registers as a policy emergency.

Nigeria is in a state of ‘moral anomie’, a breakdown of shared values where tragedies like mass killings and kidnappings no longer shock society, risking reproduction of injustice across generations.  Though, Nigeria still has a choice; to restore compassion to governance, to re-enter life as the supreme value of the state, and to rebuild trust between rulers and the ruled. The political class should beware of dancing on graves which could collapse or give way to others to dance on your graves.

God Bless Nigeria!!!