POST ELECTION VIOLENCE? ENOUGH OF THIS SCAPEGOATISM!!! by John Oke on Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Problem solving is a scientific process which basic components include but are not limited to a rigorous study of the problem, understanding and situating its influences and causative factors. The next step in the process would be to synthesize and simulate solutions based on the knowledge acquired in stage one of the process; and finally implementing the solution which provides the greatest quantum of relief, to the greatest number of people, at the most optimal cost.

An empirical approach adapted from the above hypothesis would set out the blueprint for us to understand and tackle issues and situations of national importance such as the recent orgy of violent murders that rocked some northern cities of our country, which we simply chose to label "Post Election Violence".

These dastardly act predates the 2011 Elections but as is traditional with us when faced with daunting challenges, we, as a nation are ever content to take the path of least resistance and either mis-classify, simplify or just sweep the matter under the carpet of political expediency. There is a clear and identifiable pattern to these murderous spasms but we lazily and conveniently choose to see it only through the prism of its periodic triggers.

This murderous indiscretion was invented with the killings precipitated by the Military Coup and Counter-Coup" of 1966. In 1982 it surfaced in Yola, now in Adamawa State as "The Maitasine riots", in 1987 it surfaced in Zango-Kataff as a religious riot, in 1993 the entire South West region was engulfed in violence after the annulment of the June 12 1993 Presidential election, and this culminated in the mass displacement and exodus of “non-indigene” from that geopolitical zone. In 2001 we gave it the same toga of a religious riot when it happened simultaneously in Jos, Kaduna and Kano. Before then, it was the Jukun and their erstwhile neighbours, in Zaki Biam, Taraba State. The reprisal killings in the South East of Nigeria after the Jos killings in 2002 are worthy for mention at this point.

Very recently, Jos was again enveloped in senseless killings, at which over 1000 Nigerian lives were lost; this was shortly before the 2011 elections. One would have reasoned that the government and security agencies would have taken precautionary measures to avert a repeat but this was not to be. At various times, these killings have been triggered by different stimulus but the outcome has always been sorrows, tears and blood.

It remains incontrovertible that violence of any kind is reprehensible and must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Hence, the efforts of government in terms of setting up panels of inquiry to investigate the immediate and remote causes of these upheavals and make appropriate recommendations for a solution are commendable but have become routine, ritualistic and are grossly inadequate given the scope and complexity of the problem at hand. The provable test of government’s commitment to resolving these crises would be when it commences implementation of the many panel reports that are gathering dust on government shelves.

Our national memory seems to be incurably afflicted with selective amnesia. If not, how could it escape our notice that no single individual have been successfully, conclusively prosecuted since the foundation for this carnage was laid in 1966. In fact, the perpetrators of the 1966 killings became the crown prince’s of the Nigerian Army. Down the line through Yola, Zango-Kataff, Lagos, Zaki-Biam, Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Onitsha, Owerri, etc, etc, arrests are reportedly made after each bout of blood-letting but the apprehended culprits as sure as sunrise, always vanishes into thin air.

Our penal code is very much clear as to what constitutes murder in the various degrees; arson, grand larceny and all other such crimes collateral with civil disobedience and mob action; And made ample provisions for punishment for individuals or groups found guilty of murder and associated crimes. The failure of successive governments and its law enforcement agencies to see the need, talk more of finding the political will to apprehend, prosecute and enforce appropriate punishment to the perpetrators of these heinous mass murders has been an incentive for its continued recurrence. Out statute books provide for individual responsibility for crimes and acts of misdemeanour; going by that premise, it is legal, logical and proper to apprehend and prosecute those found culpable for the commission of these heinous crimes on the basis of their involvement, first foremost. Those established to have sponsored them or aided and abated the commission of the crimes in any way will be made to also face the full wrath of the law, but, also on the bases of their level of complicity.

All these rigmarole and misapplication of justice has made life for an average Nigerian brutish, short and of no consequence.

These orgies of violence and senseless murders have over the years been fuelled by injustice as exemplified by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential elections. In the case of the 2011 elections, the denial of political opponents access to public spaces for campaigns by State Governors, the lopsided access granted to political opponents to state media during campaigns, the sundry use of state powers to harass and intimidate political opponents and the failure of government to apprehend and prosecute some highly placed individuals caught in electoral malpractices are all cases in point. In the final analysis, these mass murders have been sustained by the ineptitude of a very vicious and insensitive status quo; This ineptitude is akin to a system failure and for so long as we continue to view the episodic murder spasms as the killing of Igbo's by Hausa's or Christians by Moslems and vice versa, or continue to look for scapegoats to crucify, the vicious circle would continue.

In recognition of these historical antecedents, one can deduce, and not be controverted that the attempt by various vested interests to crucify some prominent politicians for the recent orgy of violence and senseless murders in Kaduna, Kano and other parts of the north is foolhardy, mischievous and at best misplaced. This is a social malaise that must be rigorously assessed and defined in the proper sociological context if a permanent solution must be devised to check its further occurrence. It's not about 2011 Elections, Muhammadu Buhari, President Goodluck Jonathan, IBB, Northern Elders' Forum, or any other individual or group for that matter. This is a national emergency!!!

Above all, government must become alive to its primal responsibility in our social contract, which is to uphold the sanctity of the lives and property of its citizens. We must look beyond ethnic and religious lines for solution to this malaise. In addition to creating employment opportunities for the teeming, idle youth, conscious efforts must be made at building centripetal forces among Nigerian ethnic nationalities. Above all, no prospective solution can be as effective and efficient as apprehending, prosecuting and punishing both identified sponsors and perpetrators of these heinous acts. Enough is enough!!! Is just not enough. It is time to walk the talk with positive, proactive, empirical action.

Enough of this Scapegoatism!!! Enough of this ineptitude!!!

John Oke