Avoidable social explosion –

The murder and arson that took place in Kaduna, Bauchi and Kano among several other states and cities in Northern Nigeria simply reflected the mood of the people and their nation. The perception of those in positions of authority or the beneficiaries of the fraud that resulted in the untimely and often premeditated murder of […]

The murder and arson that took place in Kaduna, Bauchi and Kano among several other states and cities in Northern Nigeria simply reflected the mood of the people and their nation. The perception of those in positions of authority or the beneficiaries of the fraud that resulted in the untimely and often premeditated murder of hundreds of innocent people who have since been under the difficulties of the Nigerian state is that all is well.
At the risk of sounding pessimistic, I am of the view that from the way things are going on in this country, it is not likely that we are going to see or witness minimum national peace for some time to come. The post election crises only reveal this fact further. It does not appear like those in positions of responsibility are themselves responsible.
I say this with all sense of humility in view of the abject lack of the basics of life which more than anything is responsible for the proliferation of several crises such as the one the nation has just witnessed.
It is not just enough to rig the elections. Election rigging has been part and parcel of the national political landscape since the colonial period. I like the idea which suggests that what happened on April 16th was not necessarily any national consensus but more of collaboration and conspiracy between different groups in the country against a particular section that is fortunately the largest in population and landmass.
Previous elections have taken similar dimension but the irregularities recorded were mostly in collusion with the dominant North. This time around, they were edged out by what seem to be a new alliance of convenience which I do know may not necessarily stand the test of time. In any case, the focus of this piece is certainly not on how the elections were conducted but the insurrection that followed the polls and that are likely to come in the future.
Before this post-election violence in some selected states of the North, in Kaduna especially, the incidences of ethno-religious tension was almost under control until it was let loose by the merchants of death in both Kaduna township and southern part of the state where life has since lost its essence and is now short, nasty and brutish .
From 2007 onward, life in several parts of Kaduna State has been most traumatizing as it has been difficult. What baffles me most is the degree of inhumanity that has sunk into the fibers of young people who instead of going to school have become butchers on the highway and in our cities and villages. This problem definitely is on the rise and there does not seem to be light at the end of the tunnel.
My argument here is that it is just not enough for people to turn to butchers simply because they either win or lose elections. The severity and intensity of mass murder is alarming and I am sure those in positions of authority are very well aware of what the causes are. They are not just because people have the urge to kill or maim but largely due to uncertainty of life itself.
You see, this is one of the problems of mis-governance. This is what follows poor leadership, which is interpreted in terms of the inability to provide basic infrastructure to support life. I want to posit that in Nigeria today, there is a total dearth of educational infrastructure. This is the most critical want that drives young people into murder and other forms of criminalities. I have argued at every occasion that I am chanced to, that a good example of failure is not necessarily in the quality of tertiary institutions that we have in this country.
Forget it, the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education are a caricature of what they ought to be. Even at that, less than 20% of eligible young boys and girls are accommodated into this rotten system. There is a serious problem of access. It is a different thing if a young man or woman fails to pass prescribed examinations, but a tragedy of heavy proportion occurs when they pass but fail to secure space in the already dilapidated institutions.
The result is that they retire back to the community with untold anger that can be exploited for negativities at the slightest opportunity. That may be one reason why teenagers and those in their twenties have turned butchers of humanity in our Northern Nigerian society especially.
Apart from the tertiary level, the post-primary institutions especially those within the public realm are virtually nonexistent. What they have since turned into across the country are avenues of brewing juvenile criminality while those in positions of authority look on helplessly.
Governments have failed to provide infrastructure that sustains modern life. There is acute shortage of power across the nation. Without power, modern societies cannot thrive. It is extremely difficult to be a vulcanizer, a hair dresser or operate a barbing salon because the power to drive these less intensive machines is not available. Anyone that runs any of such small but very critical businesses in our society does so under intense cost and difficulty. Why would the vulnerable minds not be easily exploited by those who desire to cheat at all cost?
The Nigerian scenario is a very difficult terrain. Things happen any how and in a manner that attracts exceptional responses to situations. When in 2003 General Obasanjo was reelected for a second term, the conditions in the country were anything but convenient; but aside from the massive electoral fraud, the direction of the country tilted towards the PDP government.
Life in some parts of the country especially in the North has since the middle of the 1980s turned truly brutish. The issue of war torn areas is readily seen in many parts of Northern Nigeria especially. In Kasuwan Magani in 1980, Kafanchan in 1987 and few more times , Kaduna, severally , Zangon Kataf in 1992, Zaria a couple of times, Zonkwa in 2011 and now several small settlements of Hausa and Fulanis have become centres of massacre by an irate youth population.
The elders and leaders have lost grip of the youth because they have probably failed to provide appropriate leadership that would have removed them from inherent difficulties and place them on the pedestals of good life.
I don’t need to go to any war to know what battle fronts are like. I have seen war in its crudest form, having hailed from Kaduna State and especially Southern part of the state where since the mid-1980s the community I was born into and the ones in my neighborhood have been reduced to sites of cold blooded murder for offences not necessarily committed by me or my creed.
It is not an over statement if one argues that the life of the Muslim in Christian Northern Nigeria has been turned short, nasty and brutish as well. The responsibility is on governments at all levels to turn the tide by ensuring that education and other critical infrastructure that will support and sustain good life are effectively put in place and are made efficient.
The way things are going, if concerted serious efforts are not made, the increasing tendencies of social explosion across the nation may as well set Nigeria on the path of those we watch on television, God forbid.