Andrew Efemini
Three decades ago few would have predicted that Nigeria would deteriorate to a country of Savage killings and unrestrained deep into religious and political incoherence.
The idea of ‘few’ does not mean that nothing prepared our minds for what by a contemporary description of human society is a ‘state of war’ or mildly a ‘state of nature’.
As at today, thousands of lives have been lost to:
1. Boko Haram killings
2. Herdsmen and farmers clashes
3. Cult and gang clashes
4. Militancy and kidnapping crimes.
5. Armed robbery
6. Poverty and diseases caused by poorly managed Nigerian state.
The reality today is that we can rightly claim that Nigeria is an “insecure” country as defined by the international standard; it is not a country where the right to life in its true essence is respected and guaranteed.
Maybe we need to recap some of the worst troubling cases in the last few months:
1. The disheartening killing of over 70 people in Benue state.
2. Ozobulu Church massacre.
3. Omuku human carnage.
4. Killings in Taraba, Plateau, Zamfara, Bornu etc. states.
In the midst of these killings, there appears to be a growing reticence from the upholding of the sacrosanctness of life of man. To hear that life is lost now means little to most of us. We now expect to hear about the next carnage with great expectations.
I have struggled to identify some hypotheses that will help us explain these relentless killings in this country:
1. State building failure hypothesis.
There is a strong view that the state building project in Nigeria never really started. The thinking is that what we have at best is the state making project.
Claude Ake in one of his seminal works entitled “Why Humanitarian Emergencies Occur” argued that in Africa, colonialism failed in state building projects in Africa. At the end of colonialism in Nigeria, for example, the peoples of present-day Nigeria remained deeply entrenched in their primordial sentiments”
Even today, ethnic and religious sentiments dominate the greater number of our people. These sentiments as we have noticed sometimes degenerate to extremism and violence. This is best typified in Boko Haram activities.
Successful state building projects weld heterogeneous pluralistic societies into a people conscious of the value of their common citizenship status and rights. Failure of state building projects promotes competition for resources among self-seeking egoists who take advantage of their ethnic and religious identity.
2. Faulty political structure and foundation:
One manifestation of the failure of the state-building project in Nigeria is the absence of a people’s constitution; a constitution that expresses the General Will of Nigerians.
Most pundits argue that restructuring is crucial if we are to get our politics right. The details of the restructuring required will attract more discussions than space here will allow.
The point of this write up is that we have sadly found ourselves in a Savage carnage generation. Removing the beastly instincts in us will require that we struggle to rebuild the Nigerian state and to genuinely democratize.
Can we end the carnage going on in Nigeria? The answer is yes!
