Tearing at the seams: Nigeria loses belief in the common good

In these strange times, the story of the Nigerian State is daily written in the crime pages of our newspapers and broadcasts. One set of stories that is emerging repeatedly is the dismantling and theft of the country’s infrastructure. This week, it was reported that thieves have removed and stolen the recently installed airfield ground […]

In these strange times, the story of the Nigerian State is daily written in the crime pages of our newspapers and broadcasts. One set of stories that is emerging repeatedly is the dismantling and theft of the country’s infrastructure. This week, it was reported that thieves have removed and stolen the recently installed airfield ground lighting systems at the domestic runway (18L/36R) of Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos. 

The runway lights are critical because they help pilots to do landing and take off safely at night, or in low visibility conditions. As these are highly specialised lights with a specific use on runways, the thieves must have access to security zones and have knowledge of where they can sell them. It was only in November 2022 that the runway was reopened for 24-hour flight services after the successful installation of the ground lights. 

Last week, some of the road fittings installed on the newly inaugurated Second Niger Bridge were vandalised by robbers. Specifically, the metal expansion joints were removed and sold as scrap metal by the robbers. This problem has been ongoing in Lagos for years where similar joints and metal reinforcement for bridge safety are regularly removed and sold compromising the integrity and safety of the bridges. Railings and crash barriers from manholes meant to reinforce bridges from vibrating, as well as protect vehicles from falling from the bridge are also removed and sold. 

In Lagos and Abuja, it is very dangerous to walk at night or while it is raining because manhole covers are systematically removed and sold off by thieves. One has to be eternally careful not to fall into such dangerous pits all over the roads.

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These manholes protect sewer or maintenance holes; cable access or inspection chambers, and are the top opening to an underground utility vault, which is used to house an access point for connections, inspection, valve adjustments or performing maintenance on underground and buried public utility and other services including water, sewers, telephone, electricity, storm drains, and even gas. By removing the covers, such vital municipal services are often compromised. The government, therefore, finds itself in an unwinnable race in which the covers are continuously stolen as soon as they are replaced.

Also last week, the Borno State government banned the collection and sale of scrap metal upon discovering that most of the so-called scrap is government property stripped from classrooms, offices and stores. The same week, two trailer loads of rail track and metal plates were arrested in Nasarawa as robbers were simply dismantling and selling off the rails. 

Another dimension is the theft of electricity cables from the network. Regularly, electricity supply is disrupted because cables have been removed and sold. Copper cables are apparently in high demand because they feed a significant jewellery industry all over the country. The removal of such cables makes the already catastrophic electricity supply in the country much worse. 

Over the past few years, a number of metal smelting industries have developed in Nigeria and it seems that to maximise profits, they work with metal thieves stripping the country’s infrastructure to make their products. The real tragedy of such actions is the threat they pose to public safety as bridges might collapse due to the removal of metal reinforcements and the railways are forced to close due to the stripping of the rail tracks. 

A lot of these thefts are in broad daylight and people sit and watch as infrastructure meant for their welfare are dismantled and sold at great risk to their lives. Those dismantling metals from bridges may one day be victims of fallen bridges themselves and yet they remain in the business and their neighbours simply watch them.

Of course, people are conscious that law enforcement agencies, which have policing responsibilities, are not doing their work and are sometimes paid off by robbers to facilitate the theft. The real problem is the collapse of civic space and consciousness that the common good has to be protected not just by law enforcement agencies but also by the entire society.

Nigerians have lost the sense of the protection of community and society. Nigerian society has also become very amoral and notions of ethics, good behaviour and respect for others have disappeared. 

The core of the problem is the general rise of criminality in the country. Experts indicate that there are over six million small arms and light weapons in Nigeria in the hands of bandits, militants, jihadists, secessionists and kidnappers. They are all engaged in criminal activities against both state and society. Security agencies are completely overwhelmed and have become either onlookers or co-conspirators in these criminal activities. The constitutional injunction that the State shall provide for the security and welfare of Nigerians has become meaningless. People, therefore, arm themselves for self-protection but also to deprive their neighbours of their belongings and often of their lives. In such a context, who will bother about a few metal parts removed from a bridge and sold off? The idea of enlightened self-interest has no meaning. 

The real poison that has disappeared the notion of the public good from the country is the vision Nigerians have of their successive leadership, characterised by massive and senseless corruption. To many Nigerians, our leaders are for the most part thieves and criminals who have stripped the nation of its assets and made the country poor in spite of its vast human and natural resources. Nigeria’s main revenue source is petroleum and now it is public knowledge that a significant part of the production is stolen by criminal cabals who can only work if they have protection from people in government and security agencies.  

This week, a ship with 800,000 litres of stolen crude was arrested and the government announced that a particular ship has been stealing our crude oil for 12 years. If most of our leaders are bandits covered up in fine agbada and flying around the world with our stolen money, there is no surprise that there is no anger or rage against the petty thieves stealing a manhole cover or a copper cable to sell and feed their family.

When there is no confidence that those who occupy public office have a commitment to defending the common good, then amoral behaviour becomes the standard. The path to political repair must therefore involve a gradual improvement in the competence and integrity of the country’s political leadership.