By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
Editor’s note: Dr. Ebuka Onyekwelu, in this piece, contends that the recent violent killing of Christians in Jos, a Northern Nigerian City, is a case of the preponderance of politics over governance. He argued that this abnormality has been reinforced by politicians who think of the next election and a population that gives criminals some form of legitimacy.
Politics has seriously weakened governance in Nigeria on an industrial scale. Wherever things are not working, there are people who do not want to take the necessary action because they see the big picture. What is the big picture? Politics! Whether it is the insecurity in Plateau by Fulani militia, or in Borno by ISWAP, or in the Southeast by IPOB elements, the issues at stake are constant. Politicians do not want to hurt people whose support they need to win the next election. This is why it is so easy for people to get lost in public service so that they are no longer recognizable by their previous values, principles, and commitment to the public good.
In truth, governance has suffered deeply in Nigeria because politicians pander to different absurd posturing, which does not allow them to deliver strong governance. They don’t want to stick to “unpopular” but “correct” decisions that have political consequences. We witnessed Northern leaders calling Boko Haram members their brothers and sons. We witnessed Southeast leaders calling for the release of Nnamdi Kanu. It is politically convenient to advocate for Boko Haram, just as it is politically convenient to advocate for the release of Nnamdi Kanu. What about the victims of their senseless violence?
Look again at the issue of insecurity. The major problem is not that Nigeria is battling non-state actors. No. The problem is that these criminal non-state actors derive some form of legitimacy from a large number of citizens, who correctly qualify as terrorist sympathizers, but are more fancifully referred to as “innocent citizens.” The criminal gangs now leverage this legitimacy of sorts to weaken the government’s authority to the consternation of rational minds.
Yet, politicians are not alarmed because they are looking at the numbers and thinking of the impact of a real war against these enemies of the state and the potential in terms of votes for the opposition during the next election. To avoid doing the right thing and getting rejected because the people are more comfortable with the wrong thing, they simply pull back, and then governance suffers. Governance is then not only undermined, but also practically sacrificed on the altar of politics.
This is not just a Nigerian thing, even as it is also not limited to insecurity. Most Nigerian leaders do not want to “hurt people” as long as it does not hurt their political ambition. But, no organized society can make progress by its leaders playing around safely, just occupying space and passing time.
It is the duty of a leader to challenge and destroy “popular” but dangerous ideas and rescue the people from themselves. If Anambra State Governor, Professor Charles Soludo, did not challenge the popular, yet dangerous idea of anarchy perpetuated by IPOB and their sympathizers, what is happening in Jos might be small to what Anambra might be faced with in the hands of criminals pretending to be freedom fighters.
Nigerian leaders must shun all these tricks and playing around. They must face the problem and boldly address it, because you must have a nation first before you think of the next election. Nigerian leaders must be deliberate and fierce about the legacy they wish to leave in their names.
At the very far end is what the people themselves must do. The people must also reject non-state actors. The best good-intentioned non-state actor is worse than the most irresponsible government. Non-state actors have never become better than the government they undermine anywhere in the world, and it will never happen. Reason? They are only interested in competing for power with the state. Therefore, the people must always repose their confidence and support in a duly constituted government in their own best interests. Otherwise, the people must leverage all necessary instruments provided by the state to cause a change of government. But they must shun non-state actors at all and every cost.
