Still on the post-election violence

Indeed, a lot has been written about the unnecessary post- election violence that greeted the results of the April 16 presidential election. Unfortunately, rather than proffer solutions to this regrettable episode of our national life, people have been adding fuel to the raging fire, perhaps to score cheap political goals. But even more unfortunate is […]

Indeed, a lot has been written about the unnecessary post- election violence that greeted the results of the April 16 presidential election. Unfortunately, rather than proffer solutions to this regrettable episode of our national life, people have been adding fuel to the raging fire, perhaps to score cheap political goals.

But even more unfortunate is the attempt to rope the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Gen Muhammadu Buhari, even though he has openly condemned the violence and dissociated himself and his party from the act.

Buhari’s message, which was widely reported in both the print and broadcast media, was loud and clear in his message to the perpetrators of the violence when he described the burning of places of worship as “worse than election rigging,” which is what the youth purportedly fought.

Attempting to drag Buhari’s name into the post-election violence will not do anybody any good because Nigeria has had a history of election related violence in the past, long before Buhari declared interest in running for president in the country.

Yet the government decided to mislead the people. In fact, Information Minister Labaran Maku took it upon himself to play the blame game. Instead of reassuring the many people that have been affected by the unfortunate turn of events, by telling them the steps government is taking to find a lasting solution to the problem, he ended up showing the whole world that the government lacks any explanation to it.

But in attempting to paint Buhari black over the unfortunate issue, the government is, by implication, making a mockery of itself. It is telling the world that the security of the citizenry is not its responsibility. What a shame!

What the government should do, and urgently too, is to address the high rate of unemployment in the country. It is unfortunate that the government has completely overlooked this problem probably because it has gotten its mind made up to settle scores with people it has branded as political foes.

The talk about setting up a judicial commission of enquiry remains what it is: mere talk. Similar talks have been made in the past, especially with regards to Plateau State. But nothing has been heard ever since. However the business of governance means much more than making the right noise at the right time but then failing to do the right things, which is what matters most.

One fact the government is not telling itself or is not being told by people close to it is that serious people have since found a link between violence (post-election or whatever name we may want to call it) and the youth unemployment in not only Nigeria, but most developing countries as a whole (what they have tended to overlook however is the tendency of leaders, especially in Africa, to always rig elections and manipulate the choice of the people just to come to power or remain in it).

The Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Johnnie Carson, who deplored the violence in unmistakable term, said that there has been a history of violence associated with Nigerian elections in the past.  EU Ambassador to Nigeria, David MacRae in a recent briefing over the 2011 general elections linked the post- presidential election violence to the high rate of unemployment. But even before MacRae’s submission, the African Union (AU), which Nigeria is an active member of, has since recognised the correlation between unemployment and youth uprising in the continent and made a passionate plea to member countries to invest in employment generation policies to provide jobs and incomes for Africans to curtail this trend.

The African Union said the continent is witnessing an increase in election-related and governance-linked crises and warned that the trend must be arrested before it reaches ‘unmanageable proportions.’

Indeed, if successive governments in Nigerian had not failed to provide jobs and better incomes for the population, especially the youth, and make their lives meaningful to them, the country, which prides itself as the Giant of Africa, would not have been where it is today.

The Nigerian government therefore has a choice: whether to be true to itself and the people whose mandate it claims to have by confronting the challenges facing the country or continue to live in fantasy, believing that the people will remain perpetually enslaved.

In conclusion, I wish to say that the government can end the trend of violence in the country by getting the youth engaged in meaningful ventures. Youth unemployment is always a disaster waiting to happen unless the government makes real its promise of providing employment opportunities to the youths.

For now, what is most important is for the government to avoid doing things that could make the youths to take the street, and one of such things is the wont by so-called leaders to force themselves on the people through election rigging.

These are some of the challenges before the Sheikh Ahmed Lemu-led panel on election riots. The whole nation looks up to them for a thorough job. They must never allow their reputation to be dragged in the mud by being used to witch-hunt members of the opposition.

Mailantarki is a member-elect of the Federal House of Representatives from Gombe