Return of Hobbes

Boko Haram

It is the era of self-help: against violence by terrorists; and impunity by the government

Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi II, told the people to defend themselves from terror attacks, even if that is the fundamental and legal duty of the state.

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, told the people to defend themselves against brazen rights’ violation by the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency, even if the Constitution compels the government to rule by law, not by arbitrary power.

Welcome, the society of self-help: Boko Haram slays the people; the government slays their rights, even as the government fights Boko Haram.  The Nigerian citizen appears trapped between the devil (terrorists) and the deep blue sea (government)!

Thomas Hobbes’s state of nature beckons, where life is nasty, brutish and short!  Transplanted to a modern setting, Boko Haram marks an era of acute insecurity that makes nonsense of the concept of the modern state.  Brazen abuse of citizens’ rights, in a supposed democracy, hallmarks creeping fascism.

It is a dash into the past, on the wings of anomie, with disastrous consequences.  In any case, that appears the grave submission of the combined opinions of these two eminent Nigerian citizens.

On November 15, Emir Sanusi, speaking at a prayer meeting, told his Kano subjects to defend themselves.  “These people, when they attack towns, they kill boys and enslave girls … People must stand resolute.  People,” he warned, apparently targeting Nigerians beyond the reach of Boko Haram violence for now, “must not assume that the crisis will not reach their area.”

In an apparent thumbs-down for Nigerian security agencies, the Emir declared: “People must not wait for soldiers to protect them.  There are even instances where soldiers on ground ran away in the face of attack.”

The Emir’s comment was after the November 14 terrorist bombing at the Magarsiku Filling Station at Hotoro, Kano, with casualties: six dead, five injured.

But on November 28 Boko Haram, perhaps provoked by the Emir’s virtual call to arms, returned with a blistering attack on Friday worshippers at the Kano Central Mosque’s Jumat, where the Emir himself usually leads prayers.  The Economist, the London weekly, headlined the attack, in its story: “Banker Vs Boko: From inflation targeter [reference to Sanusi’s tenure as CBN governor] to insurgent target.”

The casualties: no less than 130 worshippers dead; killed by suicide bombers and gunmen; and scores of others injured.  Though the Police had earlier reacted to the Emir’s earlier call for citizen self-defence as a “call to anarchy”, according to The Economist’s report, the attack on the Kano Central Mosque, perhaps targeting Sanusi himself, had justified such a call.  The state appears unable to guarantee security, as clearly compelled by Section 14(2)(B) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

On December 3, Prof. Soyinka dismissed President Jonathan as “worse than Nebuchadnezzar”, for the fascist inclination of his presidency; and called Nigerian citizens to defend themselves against the present government’s penchant to assault citizens’ rights and subvert state institutions.

He named two specific examples: the police invasion of the National Assembly; and shameful tear-gassing of House of Representatives members, to prevent Speaker Aminu Tambuwal from gaining access; and the destruction of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), simply because the president’s man lost its chairmanship, 16-19 votes.

He particularly came down hard on the empty conceit of Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba: his hasty withdrawal of the Speaker’s security details; his arrogant misinterpretation of the law to justify his illegality, and his obduracy, before a parliamentary panel, of defending his rash actions — particularly the desecration of the National Assembly grounds — which not a few feel is not only lawless but brazen.

“Let’s not beat about the bush: the line has been drawn,” the Nobelist and social critic thundered.  “The people must decide — whether to submit or resist.  We may be no-count plebeians in the sight of the new-born patricians of Aso Rock and their apologists,” he added with biting sarcasm, “but must we revert to the Abachanian status of glorified slaves?”

Evoking the iconic Ladi as powerful symbol of people’s resistance  — Ladi, the female hunter among men who mauled Boko Haram at Mubi, Adamawa State, even after the army had melted before the Islamists — he called on Nigerians to resist the creeping fascism of President Jonathan, insisting that Nigerians would not vanquish the Abacha military dictatorship only to  succumb to Jonathan’s civilian fascism.

“Defend yourself!” Soyinka again thundered.  “That is what the perceptive have preached and groups like the so-called [Civilian] Joint Task Force translated into action, the real heroes of the defence of the tattered Nigeria sovereignty.”

Still, aside from Nigerians’ right to security and legal rights, the self-defence on which Sanusi and Soyinka have harped, not a few Nigerians have since made their peace with self-help  in key areas like water-supplies (public mains are rare and far-between, leaving citizens to dig own wells and make boreholes) and electricity (electricity generating sets and inverters have taken over from scandalously inefficient public power supply, despite the ballyhooed privatisation of the power sector).

In the field of education and health, it is at best a split scorecard: citizens who have the financial muscles take charge of their own education and health needs, while only the poor tend to leave their fate to government schools and hospitals.

How does the government justify its existence when it fails in these very basic chores?

These are the sober posers the Sanusi-Soyinka intervention have brought to the fore.  They bring out, in bold relief, the stark failure of governance; and the gradual collapse of the state — which must bother every rational Nigerian.

So, rather than resort to vulgar abuse on the social media as many government supporters and other misguided citizens have done, the two eminent citizens deserve praise for hitting the problem right on the head; and challenging the Jonathan government to correct its glaring lapses.

Nigeria and Nigerians would be better for it, if it did.

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