The paper tiger: Nigeria’s rising presidential condemnation count

When in 1946, American journalist, Anna Louise Armstrong, interviewed Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, he deployed an ancient Chinese expression, zhilaohu, to dismiss the threat of the Atomic bomb. Ten years later, in another interview with the same reporter, Mao would use that phrase again to describe American imperialism. “In appearance, it is very powerful […]

When in 1946, American journalist, Anna Louise Armstrong, interviewed Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, he deployed an ancient Chinese expression, zhilaohu, to dismiss the threat of the Atomic bomb.

Ten years later, in another interview with the same reporter, Mao would use that phrase again to describe American imperialism.

“In appearance, it is very powerful but in reality, it is nothing to be afraid of; it is a paper tiger.

Outwardly a tiger, it is made of paper, unable to withstand the wind and the rain,” he said.

That is how the phrase “paper tiger” became a common expression in English.

When Mao gifted that expression to the English language, what he did not  know at the time was that he could have been addressing the penchant of Nigerian presidents, who would come decades later, to issue strongly worded statements of condemnations in reaction to major attacks, acts of criminality or disasters that cause the deaths of Nigerian citizens: disasters that are often caused by neglect or failure of government and its agencies.

These statements of condemnation have become so rampant that a quick Google search for “Buhari condemns” instantly throws up 3, 070, 000 results.

It would seem that while a lot is dwindling in Nigeria in these difficult times, our presidential condemnation count is steadily climbing, and is in no danger of declining anytime soon.

Of course, President Buhari borrowed a leaf from his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, who kicked the trend a notch higher after Boko Haram attacks became rampant.

While many Nigerians expected the condemnation count to drop with Buhari’s tough posturing during his campaigns and his repeated promise to tackle insecurity, that, sadly, has not been the case.

No one can say precisely when Nigeria became a country at war because this thing, whatever is going on in Nigeria, has been going on for a while and nearly every Nigerian in nearly every part of the country has witnessed, survived or been traumatized by a violent life-threatening occurrence.

Hundreds of civil attacks, hundreds of attacks by armed groups on civilian populations or on security personnel or installations, and in some cases, like Odi and Zaki Biam, attacks by the armed forces on civilian populations they should be protecting.

In the last five years of Buhari’s presidency, Nigeria’s unacknowledged war frontier has expanded with the rise of communal violence, herdsmen raids, banditry, kidnappings and other criminalities that pile on our daily casualty figures at the same rate as any conventional war.

This means that presidential spokesmen Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu have had their jobs cut out, continuously issuing statement after statement, condemning one attack here, a gruesome murder there or a massacre here and there.

There have been many attacks. There have been many, many condemnations.

When these attacks happen, except those that are often state-sanctioned, it has become tradition for the president to issue a statement “condemning the attacks” often in strong terms and pledging to “leave no stone unturned” in a bid to “crush, decimate, apprehend, or rout” the “criminal elements” responsible for “such dastardly acts.”

On paper, these words look strong, chivalrous and resolute, like tigers roaring off the pages, threatening to devour the perpetrators.

However, after years and years of practice, the language for these statements has become standard and it is easy to imagine that Shehu and Adesina have a standard template where they often only need to change dates and names of the places where these incidents occur.

It is easy also to imagine that newspapers too should, if they don’t already, have a template of news stories derived from such statements.

Only last weakened, following the massacre in Sokoto, the president issued another condemnation, one of those backed with some promise.

“We will not abandon you to your fate because we are determined to bring these mass murderers to their knees and crush them totally,’’ the statement read.

On the January killing of an Adamawa cleric by Boko Haram, the president said, “We will ensure that these terrorists pay a heavy price for their evil actions.”

And on the April massacre of 47 villagers in Katsina: “This administration is ever determined to defeat and crush these criminal elements taking advantage of the lockdown to attack their victims.”

Ordinarily, these are words that should encourage victims and reassure potential victims, but the reality is that more often than not, there never is any concerted hunt for the perpetrators, no state machinery is unleashed to run them down and bring them to face the law of the land.

Even in the instance that the government, heckled by persistent reports of attacks on citizens, sends in the military to open fire, sometimes randomly, on the suspected hideouts of the perpetrators, rarely is there any attempt to investigate the crime, apprehend the culprits and put them through a trial, where victims could get closure.

The consistency with which these mechanical condemnations are issued means no one takes them seriously anymore-not the victims, not the journalists who have to publish them and definitely not the “perpetrators of the dastardly acts.”

They have become routine, like the oft-quoted bark of the toothless bulldog.

Like the paper tigers blown away by the softest breeze or washed away by the mildest rain.

If this is ever going to change, then the government and the presidency especially needs to take serious actions and actually follow up on their pledges and show that justice will be done.

Until then, Shehu and Adesina will continue to issue this inane statements, newspapers will publish stories based on them and terrorists and bandits would read them and laugh.

In the end, Nigerians will continue dying.