Now, it’s scorched earth politics

Industrial resources, communications, transportation, food, water sources, even disused armaments are all willfully destroyed. Joseph Stalin used the policy to great effect. Many other war strategists have since made recourse to it. But the Geneva Convention, since 1977, has outlawed it.We are now witnessing the political variant of the scorched earth policy in Nigeria. For […]

Industrial resources, communications, transportation, food, water sources, even disused armaments are all willfully destroyed. Joseph Stalin used the policy to great effect. Many other war strategists have since made recourse to it. But the Geneva Convention, since 1977, has outlawed it.
We are now witnessing the political variant of the scorched earth policy in Nigeria. For want of a better name, let’s call it scorched earth politics. It can briefly be described as a policy of using every means fair and foul to destroy the opposition and leave the coast clear for the incumbent president to sail to victory in the next general elections.
It appears that one of the key elements of this policy is the deployment of security agents to disrupt the activities of the opposition, intimidate its leading members and herd some of them into ‘protective custody’. This is not far-fetched, considering what is happening in Rivers State where a police commissioner has, to all intents and purposes, become the uniformed arm of the People’s Democratic Party.
The police have routinely disrupted rallies organised by the All Progressives Congress and made strenuous efforts to reduce Governor Chibuike Amaechi to a tenant in his own house. The kind of squint-eyed law-enforcement is scandalously on open display in Rivers State without a word from the federal authorities.
The designers of the farce playing out in Rivers don’t even bother to ascribe minimum intelligence to the astounded public. We are supposed to be so dumb as not to be able to connect the dots between what police officer Mbu is doing in Rivers and the political struggle between the governor and the president. All men and women of goodwill must fervently hope that this won’t eventually be a throw-back to such events that presaged calamitous events in our national history.
But it hasn’t been without comic relief. Some hirelings made history the other day when they blocked inter-state highways in Rivers State demonstrating in favour of the beleaguered police commissioner. “We want Mbu”, they said; Leave Mbu in Rivers or else…” they threatened. The pro-Mbu rally was not disrupted. Of course the organisers had the magical police permit. It was the first time such a demonstration in favour of a policeman in the eye of the storm would be happening in living memory. And the nation is supposed to believe that Mbu is an objective player?
Lawyer Femi Falana has issued a statement warning the Inspector-General of Police to stop pretending to exercise the power he does not have. The activist lawyer pointed out that there is no law empowering the police to issue permits for rallies. Nigerians have the constitutional right to assemble peacefully wherever and whenever they want. They may write to the police for security protection, but that must not be mistaken as a necessary condition for them to assemble peacefully as they may wish.
While Mbu was running riot in Port-Harcourt, the State Security Service was combing Abuja for Nasir El-Rufai on account of a statement he made in the course of an interview.
“The next election is likely to be violent and many people are likely going to die (in the process)”, El-Rufai reportedly said. “And the only alternative left to get power is to take it by force; this is the reality on ground…  I have no confidence in the level of preparedness of the INEC, security agencies and others to conduct elections based on the experience of the other elections they have conducted so far, but they have the time to clear their act. It’s left to them… This is what caused problems in the 2011 elections that we had post-elections violence… If people lose confidence in them, there will be violence; there will be riots and other related issues. But this can be prevented if those who are tasked with the job of security and impartial umpires discharge their responsibilities.”
The opposition has compared El-Rufai’s statement to that of Niger Delta warlord, Asari Dokubo who had also exercised his freedom of speech in an interview. Dokubo had said: “The way things are going, there is no sitting on the fence in the battle before us… When some people say they have a right to rule and others don’t have, then there is no sitting on the fence. All of us will have to be in the ring and fight. We cannot leave Goodluck (Jonathan) alone.
“My support for Jonathan will be biased, because charity begins at home. Monkey no fine; but im mama like am. Goodluck  na my person. 2015 is already a settled matter. Goodluck Jonathan would be President in 2015… Whether they contest or they don’t. If they say the blood of the dogs and the baboons will be soaked in the streets, or salt water in the streets, we will help them in blood in the streets.”
Dokubo went on to describe Governor Amaechi as “a traitor to the collective aspirations of the people of Rivers State,” saying the governor deserved whatever situation he found himself in as there was no better way a traitor could be treated by Rivers people.
I am all for temperate speech, but what is sauce for the goose ought to be sauce for the gander. Even as I affirm the right of every Nigerian to freedom of expression I wonder where the security agencies have been when some grandfathers who ought to know better have been drumming up ethnic and religious sentiments in recent times. The way they advertise hate as a political commodity is more injurious to our collective well being than what El-Rufai and people like him may have said. Those who destroyed our yesterdays are mixing their chauvinistic brew once again to render our unborn tomorrows stillborn.
The trend of going after the jugular of perceived opponents is already ‘old school’. It is like applying ointment to ring worm when leprosy is ravaging the feet. Only the people of Nigeria, not political thugs, will decide who wins in 2015.
We must always remember the admonition of our ancestors, “Let the hawk perch, let the eagle perch, and if one tells the other not to perch, may his wing break”.
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