Soon after the October bombs were detonated and lives lost, the president of Nigeria became the chief public relations officer of his kinsmen’s terrorist organization, the MEND which earlier on and even after claimed responsibility for the blasts and instead, the president chose to identify another enemy in those who see his incapacity and are willing to democratically remove him from office during the 2011 elections.
The presidential view in relation to the October bombs has since been seen as utterly incorrect; and in short unpresidential because those who are being charged for the offence are incidentally linked to the terrorist group that initially claimed responsibility.
The Jos bombs were taken in different dimensions. Immediately they blew, the arch ethnicists in and around the Plateau tagged it a deliberate provocation by the Hausa to deny the Christian Beroms a good Christmas. At least that was the view of a lady expressed freely while conversing with a relation on phone in my presence that very night of the 24th at NDA camp at the outskirts of Bukuru on the way to Vom in Jos.
The speech of the merchant of death on the Plateau however was slightly different from the views of the foot soldiers that he created over the last three and a half years. The reason may not be different. Some say it was because the times of elections are on and a politician would not do anything at this material time to erode even a vote from his box even if such vote is a settler vote and not that of an indigene.
My interpretation of the sudden change of tune from the governor on the plateau was not necessarily due to elections coming but primarily the beginning of the realization of what several other people both in the state and outside of it have told him of the futility of encouraging separatism in complex societies like Jos where those who claim indignity are less in population than those they call settlers.
Under the western liberal model of one man one vote, in every such societies, those more in number will always win representative elections unless if they are disenfranchised and reduced to the level of only voters and cannot be voted for. This cannot happen in Nigeria because the constitution forbids it. If the Beroms of the Plateau would migrate in large numbers and settle in the heart of Kano city, and be more populous than the indigenes, they will be at liberty to change the pattern of electoral representation in the city, build their churches and live side by side with those who may call themselves indigenes.
Of course in Kaduna where I hail from, the representative in the State Assembly from 1999 -2003 from one of the metropolitan constituencies was an Ibo man. In Lagos today, Ibos have elected representatives in councils and are appointed into plump government offices by the state government. That is the power of population matched with tolerance not this circle of violence that was clearly supported by people in high places in the name of self determination where they kill innocent people including those passing by.
When this big people collaborate in the plunder of our national resources, they hardly know they are either majority or minority but when their specific personal selfish objectives are threatened, they retreat to different cocoons and unleash mayhem and terror on the societies.
It is necessary for the Governor on the Plateau to begin to see the futility of his earlier stand on the Jos crisis and the resultant indemnity that is on ground vis a vis the seeming total inability to achieve the objective of either cowing down the settler into submission or even forcing him relocate to his or her place of origin. Modern societies don’t just operate like that.
I am not surprise that the governor for the first time since the crisis began in the Jos area could come out and apportion blame elsewhere than in the settlers who are in Jos and on a mission to deal with the peace loving people of the plateau. This is as incredible as it is ridiculous.
The December 31st bombs in Abacha Barracks also came at a time when the nation is facing the challenges of elections at time of governmental failures. The presidency is jittery and ready to attribute any issue to the opposition or those around it. President Jonathan’s immediate response to the Jos bombs for instance was whether it was a good time for revenge. Revenge by who? Against who? This president would not just learn his onions. He talks as if he is a councilor in some remote area of Bayelsa State.
Arising from the Abacha Barracks bomb, the National Security Council has approved that a presidential advisor on terrorism be appointed. To serve what purpose, I don’t know. Again another unnecessary creation of bureaucracy and clienteles. That Abuja should be enveloped with CCTV cameras. So life of Nigerians in Abuja is more precious than those in Jos. In any case what purpose would such cameras serve in a nation where social justice is at the lowest of low?
In a nation where the economic component of democracy is virtually absent and where threat to political exclusion is on the rise, where social policy is weak. I am of the view that the cameras cannot reasonably cover any distance unless it is yet another deceit by a government that desires to commit huge expenditure on items that are unnecessary.
What the government needs to do is to look at the right direction from where these bombs are coming from and not over romanticizing the politics in the crime. I want to believe that the government is either deceiving the public or completely lacking idea on who are responsible for this crime. The nation’s security apparatuses are not immune from the trend in the society. They continue to get things wrong either because the condition in which they operate limits their capacity or they may just be responding to stimulus on the basis of what the authorities may be feeling and believing.
I think what the government needs to do is to try to decipher the miracle behind the bombs with necessary objectivity and devoid of pecuniary politics and attempt to lay the blame on the footsteps of the opposition politicians or even a specific section or category in the country. This will do the government no good and will further widen the gap of hatred and instability within the nation.
My advice to those in power and authority is that the huge sums that will go into the procurement, installation and management of this hi tech devises if properly deployed to the relevant areas will rid the nation of such crimes as the taking of the lives of innocent citizens. This CCTV politics is definitely more for economic and political considerations than it is a mechanism of resolving social crisis.
