Civilized people, all over the world, should detest violence and crime. Crimes and violence have the effect of setting mankind back to the “state of nature, where life will be nasty, brutish and short.” Because man decided to stay in society, certain etiquettes were adopted on interpersonal and group relations in the society.
The concept of statehood and governance emerged to prevent descent to the state of nature. The man was, therefore, expected to live within the bucket of civilized society, by observing societal norms and mores.
However, there are social deviants who find it hard to live inside that bucket of civilized society. Therefore, the state uses the law and other instruments to deal with such deviance and to reward compliance. It is a truism that
the state exists to protect and promote the welfare of the people, and to protect life and property. Where these are violated by citizens, there are appropriate sanctions to be taken by the state and society. For instance, one should not kill; one should not interfere negatively with the welfare of others; one should not destroy other people’s property. etc. More so, government institutions should be safeguarded and not destroyed.
However, in the past years, this country has experienced massive killings on a scale never experienced before, ( apart from the civil war of the sixties, which end in January 1970), maiming, raping, burning, and destruction of property, kidnappings for ransom, herders/farmers clashes, etc. Also, banditry abounds, all over the country. Boko Haram and the Islamic State In West Africa, are ravaging the northeast geopolitical region.
It is unfortunate and an unwanted state of affairs. It is also antisocial. The raison d’etre of the state is to prevent all these social vices, and promote the good life for all.
We condemn what Nnamdi Kanu and his group is doing, or have done. We condemn as well, the banditry, kidnappings, and other vices going on in different parts of Nigeria.
However, it is to be emphasized that a point of concern is how the government, which is the agent of the state, is going about tackling these problems. Nigeria is a diverse country of people of different tribes, cultures, and religious persuasion. It is the way of managing these diversities in fair, equitable, just, and equal treatment of likes with likes that seem to show that the government is not observing these principles of equality, fairness, justice and equity. It tends to give the impression that it is one-sided and discriminatory. This is dangerous for the corporate existence of the country. Where we attach tribe or religion to crime and treat people differently and unequally, this would bring to the fore the issue of justice and equality, which will be analyzed and questioned by the people.
I am more worried about the way government goes about establishing causal relationship of happenings, in order to solve problems. Most often the government does not, or is unwilling, to distinguish “cause” from “effect.” In other words, establishing the causes as distinct from the symptoms. The symptoms arise out of the cause and not vice-versa. Once you mistake the symptom for the cause, then you were bound to give a wrong prescription. A proper diagnosis requires that you establish the cause, from which the symptom arises. For instance, if you are suffering from stomach indigestion and headache appears as a symptom, it would be misdiagnosis to conclude that headache is the cause and go on to prescribe medicine for headache, instead of medicine for the stomach indigestion. If you prescribe and administer medicine for stomach indigestion, the headache will invariably disappear, mutatis mutandis.
Having explained this, as much as Nnamdi Kanu’s actions are reprehensible, we have to strive to solve the problem by finding out the cause. If he has embarked on killing government personnel and burning down government institutions, we have to find out why. Luckily enough their demand is secession. Then you find out why they want to secede. If you find out, then the solution has been found, because you now know the cause. This process is very elementary. However, there seems to be an unwillingness to either go through this process or the government would have gone through the process, but it is unwilling (as distinct from unable), to provide a solution. This brings to the fore the afore-mentioned raison-d’etre of state. The Government exists to protect and promote the welfare of the people, protect life and property, without discrimination. Once it sharks in this or it is unwilling, then the unwanted symptoms would likely persist.
J.D.EPHRAIM.