It is no longer news that Nigerian democracy has been facing a lot of cataclysm and political hullabaloo especially since the inception of the Fourth Republic on 29th May, 1999. Though, it is believed by many political pundits that crisis is part of the maturing processes of every maturing democracy, including our over fifteen year’s old democracy which appears to have remained at the embryonic transition of democratic journey.
It is an observable fact, that thuggery and other self induced vicious activities are part of plethora of quandaries combating Nigerian democracy. This has indeed spelled doom on the sanctity of democratic rule and conjectures colossal dent on the prospect of our democracy. Political thuggery seems to have differed in many ways from the contents of the songs of joy which our people sang when the news of the return of democracy spread across Nigerian cities, towns and villages in 1998.
Since the Military truncated democratic rule after the civil war in the country, Nigerians across all ethnic groups and regions were subjected to copious number of human right infringements. Freedom of speech was thrown to the thin air as freedom was not certain after speeches were made. Scholarly and creative writers were unlawfully arrested and innocently incarcerated without recourse to their innocence. Scores of artists and singers who escaped such a scandalous, appalling and outrageous imprisonment decided to exile themselves from their own country and took asylum in other more ordered and secure climes since a once known safe haven had suddenly turned to be an oven to them. Trepidation, anxieties and apprehension flooded every nook and cranny of the country. Nigerians who were in the uniform were the ones perpetuating these heinous acts either on the civilians or on the perceived co-military officers who may not have danced to the tune of their catastrophic massacre, hence the need for the clamors for the return of democracy.
As a High School student then, being a member of the Press Club of my great Alma mater, the school I will ever love (Biraidu Community Secondary School, Abocho) afforded me the privilege of early access to the media as concern Current Affairs, News Writing and News Editing. Despite our juvenile assessments of the then political events, I could still summon up the memory of the euphoria that followed the return of democracy especially after the abrupt demise of the then Head of State, a Military General, Sanni Abacha, who was described in a speech by a globally renowned Literary Giant, Wole Soyinka, as a “Sadistic Imbecile.” Nigerians were happy as many of them rejoiced for the return of democracy to the country which seemed to have almost been hampered, should Abacha still lives today. Why did Nigerians express such joy? What ushered Nigerian into such hilarious mood? It was because they were going to live under a government that would be people-made and not self-made and have elected leaders through sound democratic and electoral processes. They saw democracy as a system of government that will not allow unnecessary killing of its citizens through any possible means. They felt they were going to sit under a government that would show them the way and lead them to the palace of freedom and not the prison of distress where they would wear mourning regalia depicting a widow who lost her husband a day after the consummation of their conjugal union. They did not envisage seeing themselves in a democracy that would allow thuggery and other violence in the name of political activities.
Just as ‘Stomach Infrastructure and Stomach Honorarium’ appear to be the novel political jargons in the Nigerian political lexicon whose invention is believed by most experts who are followers of political events in the country to be predicated on ham-fisted, bungling, inept, weak and heavy-handed kind of leadership in the country; in the same vein, political thuggery became more palpably associated with the political activities in the country during 2003 edition of electoral outing during which some Nigerian youths were seen carrying arms without formal military training, doing the best they were trained to do pursuant to the directive of their political pay-masters. In most states in the nation, reports in some sections of the media had it that, some of those political thugs were allowed to have close proximity to their principal executive elected officials than the well trained security men attached to the said men. While some of the politicians who are fond of recruiting these innocent young men have their children schooling or schooled abroad, they appear careless of what will become of these political thugs, majority of whom are believed to be children of the less privileged in the society. Nigerian youths should know that, a man who cannot give you a decent job, should not enroll you to kill your fellow human being for exchange of money. If they so wish, they should recruit their children since what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
The strife of political thuggery has further aggravated the future of our democracy considering the myriad of problems facing the democratic journey of our country since most Nigerian politicians see politics and political career as do or die affairs. They can possibly go to any length to achieving their political ambitions even if those ambitions are not sufficient enough to ameliorate the politically induced plights in which the people of Nigeria found themselves. It is only in an immature democracy that thugs are allowed to ventilate their war-induced missions through unlawful annihilation of the perceived political foes. Political thuggery could be seen as a militarized politics. It is a politics of war and an unnecessary political battle. In such politics, young men and women are trained on war strategies to fight and defend the ambitions of their pay-masters but not to defend the territorial integrity of the fatherland. In my candid view, political thuggery could be seen from two dimensions; it could be thuggery by carrying arms or thuggery by carrying pen. Political Military Thuggery (PML) is a situation where young men or women are trained to carry sophisticated arms to demolish and annihilate those people that might not agree with the political ideologies of their pay-masters. Political Pen Thuggery (PPT) involves hiring hungry writers and journalists to assail and attack perceived political opponents through debris and junk write-ups towards tarnishing the image of the said opponents. It is believed in some quarters that, a Writer’s pen is mightier than the gun of an armed individual. Nigerian politicians explore these two forms of thuggery to assault their political enemies. These political thugs are trained to kill. They have the mandate to steal ballot boxes as instructed by their pay-masters. The thugs used for this under-the-weather kind of activity do not even care of what will become of their future. Some of them do end up being killed. Others amputated, while others imprisoned. In most cases, their pay-masters would deny of ever knowing them, should they found themselves in a tight but implicating corner.
As 2015 general elections draw closer, political activities seem to have once again been heightened with thugs displaying what they might eventually do when the electoral period finally unfolds. The thug that fights for his pay-masters to have a ticket to vie for a political position in the country could also kill and maim people for the ticket to be translated to electoral victory at the polls, regardless of whose horse is gored. Just a few days ago, media reports had it that, some political thugs believed to fight in favour of an aspirant, stormed the national office of their political party and attacked those they perceived to be political road-blocks to the realization of the ambitions of their pay-master. It was a free for all moment for those within the same political fold with a self acclaimed impervious umbrella, during which many journalists were also attacked with their digital recording machines and other journalistic paraphernalia damaged and destroyed. It is also a pity that, when thugs fight, in most cases, the security operatives, instead of roaring against the criminal acts would rather watch and give a nominal response to the acts.
During his recent visit to Edo State for the foundation laying ceremony of a one Dollar billion that is, about 165 Billion Naira Azura Gas-powered Independent Power Project in the city, the Nigerian President, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, was almost humiliated when his visit almost turned to acrimonious encounter between some political thugs believed to belong to the two major political parties in the country. As we strictly watch the harsh political activities in the country, one wonders, how such rancorous moment could be allowed by those ruthless thugs especially in the presence of the number one citizen of Nigeria, who is believed to have been accompanied by the best security team in the country. It is just a clear indication that, hired thugs can perform their duties anywhere without recourse to its attendant repercussion (s).
Space and time will fail me to talk about the recent happenings in Ekiti State, a land formerly known as the ‘Fountain of Knowledge’ and now known as the ‘Land of Honour.’ The particular event under review did not in any way describe Ekiti people as custodians of knowledge with a treasured honour. Being honourable is not only in expressions or tittles, it should also reflect in one’s actions. This does not in any way suggesting that, all the inhabitants of Ekiti State are guilt of this. Far be it. However, it was reported that, at two different days, some arms carrying men believed to be political thugs stormed a competent court of law and stopped court proceedings. Judicial staff were attacked alongside Journalists. The reports also added that, a Judge who is seen in a decent society as a Minster of the Temple of Justice was beaten with his vehicle damaged. The temple of justice that has been seen as the hope of the common man was desecrated by in-decedent men thereby allowing the men of the bench to watch themselves being benched in a hopeless security situation as the safety of their lives could not be ascertained. It was also reported that, some of the men of the Nigeria Police force who were present at the spot of this monstrous act, stood watching while this crimes were being carried out with little or nothing to avert such a transgression of high gravity.
There is no political party in Nigeria that can claim of being thuggery free. Recent events have proven that, having thugs and allowing outright display of thuggery is one of the core values of most political parties in the country, where politicians only believed in developing and financing their political parties than the people that elected them into offices. With political gladiators bending their minds while committing electoral malpractices and their eyes closed to its consequences on the maturity of the nation’s democracy, the need for our national legislative body to take a legislative step into nipping thuggery in the bud cannot be over-emphasized. Thuggery should be seen by the law of the land as a misdemeanor, a felony and a crime that should be served with weighty punishment.
Nigerian politicians should be told that, there will be no need of going into thuggery if there had played their political games in accordance to the rules of the game. Politics is a game of antecedent. People will not vote for you because you have political godfathers and money but they will rather vote for you because the history of your personality profile suggests so. Politics provide a forum for a pay back of what some individuals have done for or against their people in the past. There will be no need to kill and amputate your fellow men before ascending a throne if truly you are sure of your competence and integrity.
Political thuggery allows power to be hijacked from competent hands and allow those with less competence to rule. Political thuggery gives room to a heated polity where only those who are brave as lions dare the race. It is one of the reasons why some of our competent women in the country are politically sidelined. Naturally speaking, women do not have the latitude to allow violence when struggling for an adventure. This could also adduce the reason why we have not been able to see the emergence of female governors since the inception of the Fourth Republic. Thuggery is of one the factors mainstreaming women out of politics. But the question is, if you kill, mutilate, maim, injure, and wound people just to rule, whose life will you superintend when you eventually emerge as the winner of the political contest?
Do our politicians who are aspiring to rule over us really have passion for the growth, development, prosperity and security of the fatherland? Do they have the wealth and health of the people at heart? Indications abound that, most thugs end up metamorphosing into one or two violent and cult groups after at the expiration of a given electoral period especially if abandoned by their political pay-masters thereby posing titanic threats to the already perforated security architecture of the land. As the country is presently waterlogged and submerged by insurgency and chronic terrorism which were hitherto not known in the land, it is advisable that political aspirants across the various political parties in the country should not further exacerbate the security situation of the country by arming young men into hunting after their political foes. The ever ambitious Nigerian politicians should be told that, it is ruthless for anyone to goad this sacred nation on the trajectory of perfidy that is full of killing and murdering of innocent ones and other electoral malpractices.
Politicians should be informed that, in any contest, there is always a victor and vanquished and if you do not win today, tomorrow may likely be your turn because, if you kill to ascend a throne, you will also kill to preserve the throne. Allowing political thuggery to prolong in our land is tantamount to accepting red-card to the growth and the maturity of our democracy.
– Oyigu OnucheOjo Elijah,
Writes from Abuja. He could be reached on: 08079808776, prophoyigu@yahoo.com and @OyiguE
