Our State of Nature...
First published: 9 October 2012 at 11:03
Our collective hypocrisy is at play again as there is an ongoing national outrage over the gruesome murder of the four undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt: We are shocked but not to our foundations (We have become numb) not out of genuine concern but by the reality that ‘it could have been us’.
In another week or so we will forget and only the parents will struggle to keep it on the front burner fighting for the names of their children to be cleared and securing a conviction for the culprits…not to worry …even if they are condemned to death they will never pay the ultimate price even if found guilty.
If you doubt me, check the records from 1999 to date as there has been no execution except probably done in secret and Nigeria has not removed the death penalty from the last time I checked.
I put it to you that you will speedily forget because you have forgotten the following :
Ø The luxurious bus incident where passengers were made to lie on the road and were crushed by a tipper.
Ø The over 30 people illegally detained in a metal container that suffocated to death.
Ø The sale of babies and the baby factories
Ø The okija shrine saga
Ø The mubi massacre
Ø The lover doused in gas and set ablaze in a church
Ø The girl raped by 4 boys and video taped
Ø The Engineers killed because they went to repair damaged pipelines
Ø The witness before the legislature that was put in a sack and thrown from a storey building .
Ø The Cynthia Osokugo saga
Ø The Abuja 3 saga
Ø The lady murdered by her guard and others
Ø The Bola Ige matter
Ø The seven telecoms staff that were murdered in the line of duty.
Ø The Funsho Williams saga
Ø The A.K.Dikibo saga
Ø The Marshall Harry Saga
This is just to mention a few…
The fathers of government saw the beast in man and saw the need for an arbiter in society (Government) and ensured that an aspect of the arbiter ( Lady Justice ) was deliberately blindfolded before she was allowed to carry the weighing scale to ensure there was a balance in the administration of the rules that will govern society…
Why have we removed the blindfold on Lady Justice and express shock when the attributes of a state of nature become manifest ?
How did we get here ??
I copiously quote the Open University…
“…a nation-state, being different from a nation and a state, has to be distinguished from the other two. The nation-state is a modern political institution….
First, it is a state that both claims and exercises the monopoly of the legitimate use of force within a demarcated territory.
Second, it is a state that seeks to unite the people subjected to its rule by means of homogenisation, creating a common culture, symbols, values, reviving traditions and myths of origin, and sometimes inventing them.
In seeking to engender a sense of belonging among its citizens the nation-state demands their loyalty and fosters their national identity.
The nation-state has exercised control of institutions and laws, the national media and the national education system.
It has variously sought to nominate and promote a single official language, sometimes a single religion, and disseminated a specific version of the nation-state's history based on remembering, ignoring or forgetting certain key events, and recovering and inventing national symbols, ceremonies, rituals, heroes, sacred places and traditions.
Such strategies have been consistently employed in order to create and sustain a homogeneous national identity among its citizens. However, numerous examples prove that very few nation-states have managed to successfully homogenise their populations.
Differences have prevailed in spite of the nation-state's historical strategies to instil a common identity among its otherwise diverse citizenry.
I will leave the decision of whether our nation state Nigeria have been committed to the ‘attributes of a nation state or not.
The Land, the People and the State: who is responsible?
Why the brazenness and Impunity : On reception of power from the Crown , these traits began to manifest themselves but with the justification of ‘ethnicity /regionalism ‘ it was allowed to carry the day and this corruption translated into the coup, counter-coup and later a civil war.
And all the years of military rule came and ‘cemented’ this culture of impunity and brazenness in the abuse of the constitution and the rights of its citizens. All circles of Politicians have only ‘elevated this art’ every time they were opportuned to control the reins of government if you doubt me see the brazen looting of our common wealth.
Examples of impunity and brazenness abound : the murder of ken Sarowiwa & the Ogoni 7, Delta state $15m bribe funds, the bombing of Christians while worshipping, the looting of 5 banks acquired by AMCON, the Odi, Umuechem massacres,maitasine, the murders by cult groups in our schools and Port Harcourt, the Halliburton bribe saga, the $12billon imbroglio, perpetual injunction against the EFCC, the otokoto saga, Farouk Lawal & Cap Banking, the osisikankwo saga and now the Boko Haram saga and the inability of the state to successfully gain convictions on the culprits instead of ensuring they die ‘preferably’ in the line of action… just to mention a few.
The Murder of the Uniport Students in Aluu:
The Vigilante:
Why did the community have a vigilante group, despite the police presence at Aluu, Ozuoba and Tam David West Road?
Did the community not believe in the potency of the police presence around them?
Had there been happenings that had left sour taste in the mouth of the locals?
Had this vigilante group murdered before?
How come they had skills and courage to kill?
What gave them the ‘confidence’ to embark on this matter in broad daylight?
The Student Community:
The community is made up of a large student population:
The boys were beaten, stripped naked and paraded meaning they were not killed immediately;
Why did they not call the toll free emergency number 112 ?
Why did they not call the Police Control room ?
Why did they not call the SUG members ?
Why did nobody go to Delta park gate to report to the school’s security ?
Why did they prefer to be onlookers and video producers?
The Police :
Despite their physical presence in the community, how come for several hours they did not know that people were about to be murdered in their locality ?
The Vigilante group cannot operate without the permission of the Police: how come they refused to inform the police ?
Why did the police informants not alert them?
Where was the various accounting officers during the sad episode?
The Victim :
The rumor mill have it that some of their friends knew their ‘private ‘mission which had nothing to do with the crime they were accused of and I ask why did they not raise alarm when they had not seen their friends after 3 hours in a community and knowing on how fast news travel in a university campus and its environs ?
VERDICT :
The rulers and the governed (me inclusive) have all contributed to this rot that has resulted in the gruesome murder of these four undergraduates… because our measure of value, ethos and morals have become denominated by ‘MONEY, INFLUENCE & POWER’.
The way forward :
How can we ameliorate this ‘great loss” to the victims and their families ?
A process that will publicly absolve the victims of all accusations, reveal the truth and the actors and apply appropriate sanctions on those found guilty.
Can Self Help work ?
Murder the culprits and burn the village of Aluu down, this is legally incomprehensible and will become hydra headed as violence begets violence .
Another is to embark on ‘clandestine hits’ of all actors : I foresee ethnicity and sectional interest overriding ‘group interest’.
As the result to the occult becomes popular ; seek the gods to exterminate those involved but the potency of this form of punishment if possible is limited and contestable.
Legal Expectation:
Arrest, detain, interrogate and prosecute…
Will the lawyers not ensure that proper trial is delayed for years by throwing up technicalities?
Will the trial not become bogged down with adjournments?
Will the trial not exceed the tenure of the present administration?
And if the trial outlives this administration, will the next government be interested in seeing that justice is done?
Will political considerations not provide succor for the culprits by keeping them in a hospital instead of a prison?
After a couple of years, wont their case files get missing?
Will a future Chief Judge not come and set them free due to the absence of a case file?
If sentenced to death , I assure them that the Hangman is on compulsory leave in the Bahamas ‘ all expenses paid”.
I am saddened to say that ONLY the parents will bear this pain as the number of sympathizers will whittle down as days roll by
…Only GOD can help them…we pray for the miracle of healing IJN.
May God help us not to become victims in this country IJN.
Eugene Abels
October 9, 2012.