The cry on the lips of Nigerian today is security, security, security. Because we can no longer sleep with our two eyes closed, we have made ourselves to believe that we have intractable security problem. So, year in, year out, huge sums of our national wealth are appropriated towards ensuring a safer society, but the more we invest in this sector, the more vulnerable we seem to rampaging human vultures that apparently multiply geometrically amidst us on a daily basis. As the year 2013 replaces the better-forgotten 2012 of more woes and less cheers, I feel inspired to hearken to the admonition of President Goodluck Jonathan, and that of his official voices and party’s publicists, to sheathe the sword of mere criticisms and offer concrete alternative solutions to our myriad of problems.
To begin with, the most important thing for President Jonathan is to desist from the age-long habit of mistaking effects for problems. It is unfortunate that successive administrations in the country, since independence, have not successfully identified the real problems with this 1914 contraption, judging by their common tendency of focusing on mere appearances, to the detriment of its foundational problems.
Indeed, the obvious consensus of the various groups which make up Nigeria is that the 1914 amalgamation was wrongly done. But, rather than assume a spirit of empathy that would enable them to get the real drift of the masses as well as that of various groups calling for a revisit of the 1914 exercise through a sovereign national conference, the ruling class has always viewed this call with preconception. They have always seen it as a call for the disintegration of the country. Thus, they have denied themselves the opportunity of discovering that all that the citizens have always lamented is that the actual error of 1914 was not the deed in itself, that is, the amalgamation, but the manner in which it was done. Simply put, a procedural error.
However, I am not denying the fact that some Nigerians have, over time, called for the actual disintegration of Nigeria. Still, all we need is to accurately understand such a development for what it really is. It has been produced by the deeply-felt frustration of some, created by prolonged scornful reactions of the ruling class towards the most cherished desire of Nigerians.
Even our rulers have failed to realise that they have, so far, been victims of zero patriotism, as much as those they rule. Please note my deliberate use of ‘rulers’ instead of ‘leaders’. My drift is that the spirit of collectivity that naturally creates and binds leadership and followership, as well as the spirit of oneness among multiple ethno-religious groups in any context, would have been created by the power in the word. Words, freely spoken, to express differing wishes and aspirations, annoyance and frustrations typically lead to nothing but mutual understanding, love and sacrifice, as each group would ultimately depart from natural self-centredness to embrace a common cause. Subsequent governmental policies and actions as well as the behavioural reactions of the citizens would thus aim at just one end – making the common cause succeed.
It is against this background that I perceive the looming failure of the Nigerian state as an effect of governance and citizenship failure due to the lack of patriotism on both sides. I am convinced, just like many of my compatriots, that the real solutions to Nigerian development challenges would continue to elude us as long as we deliberately avoid a jaw-jaw amongst the constituents. To be sure, good roads, stable electricity, safe skies, abundant jobs, plenty food and even safer environment cannot collectively bring the much desired end to the spirit of hate that now appears to unite us. I am afraid that the absence of the spirit of oneness amongst us has already deprived us of the capability to manage any success, in advance. The current ill fate of the GSM providers in the hands of Boko Haram is a sour reference point.
The government has yet to tell us how many people it intends to employ to secure the entire length of our newly-rehabilitated national railway network, at least, to extinguish the wild fire of fear currently burning the minds of Nigerians about their safety while in north-bound trains. Or, is Jonathan planning to secure the various installations and equipment of incoming private investors in the power sector in a manner reminiscent of the Niger Delta oil pipelines, awarding multi-billion naira contracts to potential vandals?
My inference from the Nigerian reality in juxtaposition with such a working state as the United States of America is that no government has the capacity to create patriotism in the citizenry, it only occupies the office to manage and boost already existing sense of belonging together in the citizenry. Infrastructural provision is, therefore, nothing but one of those benefits peoples of different cultures, religions, languages and colours enjoy due to their voluntary togetherness under a single sovereignty.
Yes! The concept of sovereignty has always been given a monolithic status by the Nigerian ruling class in their opposition to the constitution of the widely-demanded sovereign national conference. It is high time that this unfounded claim was discarded for those in government to realise that the power they exercise, at any point in time, is wielded in trust, on behalf of the people in whom the ultimate sovereignty resides. Therefore, isn’t it irrational to deny the rightful owners of a piece of land the use of their property for a short while, simply because the tenant is around?
Simply put, the first step to addressing the real problem with Nigeria is for Jonathan’s government to urgently overcome the selfish fear of the unknown to take a patriotic and selfless pro-national conference decision.
Even if it would take a while for that to be, it would profit the nation at large if the President morphs into the pragmatic leader that our current precarious situation truly demands. Drastic problems require drastic solutions. To think that the tide of daily-increasing suicide bombings, kidnappings, assassinations, of the sort that plague our country at the moment, can be stemmed by the ingenuity of our security outfits would, in my humble opinion, amount to vanity. The truth is that the seeming collapse of physical security is only an effect of the persistent total lack of social security amidst a 160 million population.
Drawing an inspiration from Akinwumi Isola’s Yoruba play, Olu Omo: Itan Iyalode Tinubu (Jewel of inestimable value: The story of Madam Tinubu), I can’t but urge the President to watch his back. Fifth columnists are ubiquitous, and the Nigerian security outfits are not immune to conscience corruption. Perhaps, those who supposedly watch over us now enjoy more prominence through consistently high budgetary and extra-budgetary allocations, with an unrestricted access to impunity, courtesy of this prolonged Boko Haram mess. A continued reliance on the security outfits, in such a situation, through boosted funding and equipment, may simply mean an indirect empowerment of our common enemies.
Rather than tying our security to an apparently insecure security outfits, I think the New Year should herald a new approach. The focus on social welfare should be specifically tailored towards the need to manage an already created problem. I mean the large army of socio-economically disoriented youths who are available for criminal ‘businesses’ as a means of making ends meet.
Rather than allow his government to be pushed to the wall as to make the discretely crime-inducing option of the Niger Delta-type amnesty programme unavoidable in connection with the Boko Haram insurgency, the President, I believe, would get it right, at least in the immediate, if he could institute a nationwide unemployment benefit scheme.
Happy New Year!