Political violence is uncivilised

Our democracy is a gift of joy to Nigerians after decades of military burglary on our common patrimony. Nigeria suffe-red serious abuse and mismanagement under military rule. Today, retired military men, their friends and family are the richest Nigerians. And they are the reason why our post military era is in turmoil.How difficult is it […]

Our democracy is a gift of joy to Nigerians after decades of military burglary on our common patrimony. Nigeria suffe-red serious abuse and mismanagement under military rule. Today, retired military men, their friends and family are the richest Nigerians. And they are the reason why our post military era is in turmoil.
How difficult is it for a populace to queue up to select a group of leaders to run their affairs for the only four years? In some far away countries it is routine but in Nigeria it has become impossible to express ones franchise without the backlash of injury and at other times even death.
Happenstance has made it such that we have a two horse race for the presidency and perhaps for most of the governorship races in up to thirty states of the federation. But our public pronouncements are threatening the very fabrics of our society because selfish public officials are not allowing room for our democracy to take root due to their greed, which is larger than the biggest runways on earth.
The governor of Katsina state, Barrister Ibrahim Shehu Shema recently ignited passions in his state when he was reported to have urged his party’s supporters to crush the opposition like cockroaches. It was a most irresponsible statement coming from one who should be father of all. He was roundly criticized, and he himself said his statement was quoted out of context. Nevertheless, more politicians have resorted to the same violent streak where they find a popularity blind alley.
It is as if politicians are immune to the advertisement by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which urges the people to set the agenda for the election and avoid violence. It says just vote. A week ago in Yola, when the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate General Muhammadu Buhari was on his campaign tour, the Master of Ceremony incited the party’s adherents to violence when he announced that there was going to be the stoning of the devil in Gombe when the president goes there for his campaigns.
It was not only unbecoming of the MC but it was utterly reprehensible for people who happen by a public address system to use such heinous and uncivilized words in the presence of national leaders without being called to order. As always, the argument by most Nigerians is that most leaders of this country do not have their friends and family in Nigeria. Their loved ones reside abroad because they do not believe in the fraudulent
systems that they preside over in Nigeria.
Last week while driving in Kaduna from Kakuri towards stadium, my driver begged to do a detour because the two governorship candidates and their supporters were about to cross paths on the highway. He explained that it was impossible for their backers to meet without violence erupting. I agreed with him and we veered off the road to use a different route. Luckily, they didn’t come face to face because some circumstance had led one of the aspirants to divert his convoy to another part of town.
Two days earlier, the governor of the state Alhaji Ramallan Yero had urged his supporters to retaliate in the same coin if the supporters of Malam Nasiru el Rufai, the governorship candidate of the APC in the state, attacked them. Such call to arms has led to the evacuation of the north by Nigerians from the southern divide of the country. Southerners, mostly Igbo and Yoruba have been selling their property, moving their families and relocating their prized possessions from the north to their homelands and have been preparing to travel home not just to go and cast their votes but in fear of the violence that is likely to erupt as a result of the Valentine’s Day election and the one for governorship which comes a fortnight later.
It is disheartening that all this is happening in one part of the country, the part which is dogged by the activities of insurgents. This gives comprehensive backing to the fact that the insurgency is politically motivated because by definition, political violence is terrorism. Its perpetrators are thugs, murderers and criminals and in most cases even thieves. So it is utterly culpable and not just wrong but ungodly to have people resort to violence, as in wanton killing, looting, and arson just because their individual political choices are not captured in the affirmative by the majority.
Today Nigerians have become murderous in many ways. Most gatherings in the north comprise of several dangerous characters including people who have killed or seen others kill. Such experiences have diminished the value of human life and returned Nigerians, including under-aged children to subhuman existence. This is replicated in the language we use on the social circuit and the social media. Nigerians are quick to invoke holy-ghost fire, death, sickness and other barbaric plagues on their political opponents.
This is absurd. It is uncivilized and if the nation’s political elite does not desist from this desperation for power, it will throw the country into a catastrophe worse than Somalia. The prediction that Nigeria will disintegrate this year will turn out to be a prophecy fulfilled. And that would be sad indeed.