All
that changed with the advent of democracy in 1999. In place of a once vibrant
press, which was sometimes forced to publish on the hoof in order to evade the
security forces on their trail, we now appear to be saddled with little more
than mouthpieces for power-drunk politicians waving brown envelopes - when
indeed they don’t own these same newspapers. In a ‘normal’ country, which is to
say one that is at relative peace with itself and with a more-or-less coherent
road map of where it is going, this would be alarming; in a country which is very
much at war with itself and without any sort of map, road or otherwise, this is
tragic.
Consider
the following from The New York Times (5 June 2013): ‘The military just opens
fire and kills people, and throws bombs and kills people, for no reason... That
is why you see these people here... That is what is happening now in Nigeria.’
The ‘here’ referred to by the speaker, a shoe salesman, is a border town in
neighbouring Niger, where up to 10,000 people have fled the fighter jets and
helicopter gunships of the avenging military in full flow against Boko Haram
insurgents. But you wouldn’t know any of this from the Nigerian press, for
instance the ‘flagship’ Guardian (6 June 2013), which simply quotes the Chief of
Army Staff - ‘It would... interest you to note that the communities in places
where these operations are being conducted are very happy and they have been
expressing their joy to the officers’ – in the course of his visit to Ebonyi
State to sort out some obscure community clash that got out of hand. Coincidentally
– but perhaps there is no such thing as chance – the military has also flooded
Onitsha in order to ensure that the MASSOB-directed stay-at-home this Saturday
is averted, the better ‘to ensure that lives and property of the people are
protected’ given the people’s propensity to loot their own homes. But that’s Nigeria for you, wahala
everywhere.
More
worrying still is the seeming indifference of a populace which believes itself
immune to the incipient civil war in its midst on account of the fact that
President Jonathan, in declaring the current state of emergency in three
north-eastern states, has at last shown the resolve it feared he lacked – if
only! - even as his peace and reconciliation committee continues to trundle
around the country looking ever more foolish. No doubt everybody is heartily
sick of Islamic fundamentalists who think nothing of blowing up churches and
generally terrorising innocent people going about their business in what is
already a harsh economic environment, but giving the military carte blanche
merely results in the same terrorism which is otherwise deplored. Moreover, as many have already observed, a
previous emergency in selected local government areas only resulted in greater
hardship for ‘the people’ who had to stay at home whether they would or no. As
for the terrorists, they simply relocated elsewhere, as indeed they appear to
be doing now.
The
problem isn’t only a Nigerian one. The War on Terror has justified any number
of human rights abuses against natives and foreigners alike by supposedly more
enlightened countries, including, above all, the US, which is now anxious to
assist us to get rid of this scourge in our midst. Again, according to The New
York Times article quoted above: ‘They
are killing people without asking who they are,’ said Laminou Lawan, a student
who said he had fled here 10 days before. ‘When they see young men in
traditional robes, they shoot them on the spot. They catch many of the others
and take them away, and we don’t hear from them again.’ As many have also
pointed out, nothing is more calculated to drive the insulted and injured into
the arms of the terrorist group they are supposed to be fighting.
The
apparent quiescence of the populace in what is being done in its name, aided
and abetted as it is by what appears to be a supine media, can hardly bode well
for the civil liberties of all Nigerians as we approach the 2015 elections that
some have seen as the tipping point in what is already a fragile polity.
Jonathan has not hidden his second-term ambition, hence his current struggle to
unseat the chair of the duly elected governor’s forum, and now the way is left
open for him to use the military to achieve his ends almost a decade-and-a-half
after we thought we had jettisoned this ‘denigration of the popular will’.
Seen
from this perspective, the activities of the terrorists provide the perfect cover
for him to achieve his ends. Indeed, there is nothing to stop him from deliberately
fomenting trouble in any part of the federation and then imposing a state of
emergency in the interests of ‘peace and stability’. To that end, he will also be
able to count on the support of an international community which has proved
itself inimical to the values it claims to hold most dear when confronted by
anyone deemed to be a terrorist on mere suspicion alone. One might even go as
far as to say that the real threat to our corporate existence – always assuming
this to be a desirable thing given our experience so far – is not the
terrorists but our own complacency.
© Adewale Maja-Pearce
Adewale Maja-Pearce is the author of several books, including Loyalties
and Other Stories, In My Father's Country, How many miles to Babylon?, A
Mask Dancing, Who's Afraid of Wole Soyinka?, From Khaki to Agbada,
Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa and Other Essays, A Peculiar Tragedy, and
Counting the Cost, as well as the 1998 and 1999 annual reports on human
rights violations in Nigeria. He also edited The Heinemann Book of African
Poetry in English, Wole Soyinka: An Appraisal, Christopher Okigbo:
Collected Poems, The New Gong Book of New Nigerian Short Stories,
and Dream Chasers.
Click here to see Maja-Pearce's amazon.com page: http://www.amazon.com/Adewale-Maja-Pearce/e/B001HPKIOU
see: Luke 4:24.
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