It is my honor and privilege to be asked to speak to you at this awards ceremony, the fourth in the series of the Asset Newspaper Awards and Lectures. I must first tell the organizers that I don’t find it funny that your team of searchers did not find me worthy of one of your fabulous and much coveted awards, but brought me here to merely be put on the spot to give a speech. And you know, as the saying goes, talk is cheap. I congratulate the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustafa and other recipients. You all richly deserve the honors you are receiving here today.
On my part as lecturer of the day, I have chosen to focus on the topic: “Nation Building in time of Anomie”, under the broad theme of Conflict Management, Peace building and Development in a Democratic setting.
We live in unusual times in our country today which I refer to as time of anomie. I defer to the French Sociologist Emile Durkheim (1890) who first utilized the anomie theory to refer to a situation of widespread lack of commitment to shared values, standards and rules needed to regulate the behavior of citizens. He argued that anomie is caused by rapid social change and weakening of traditional institutions especially in the creation of social inequality. In contemporary times, anomie has been linked to how overemphasis on monetary success goals undermine law and order in the society. Robert Merton re-formulated the theory arguing how the high crime rate (anomie) situation in the United states was caused by the mal- integration of culture-structure constitution of modern society. This is exactly where the Nigeria anomie situations is now. Tribalism, pandemic corruption and flaunting of unearned wealth by the politicians and the Nigerian elite has sparked the envy and bile of the dispossessed, uneducated, unemployed, and the moneyless precariat, to a systemic breakdown of law and order. There is proliferation of dystopia as several theaters of breakdown of law and order in our country have created a criminal ecology making Nigeria one of the riskiest countries in the world to live in at the moment.
I argue that the culture of corruption and the structure of Nigeria as constituted in tribal enclaves recreate anomie, and undermine law and order. Corruption and Tribalism, the two angels of death, reinforce each other. You cannot get rid of one and retain the other. Nation building is meaningless without tackling these twin evils undermining democracy, and holding back peace and development of Nigeria, together.
Not many Nigerians are willing to link corruption with tribalism as the twin evils that have made our country an adolescent country when her age mates have advanced to maturity. When Nigeria’s promise in the seventies made other nations like China envious, tribalism and corruption became the disruptive forces that twisted our growth trajectory to the extent that we appear to be going round and round blindly, in a never-ending circular pit of poverty, lack and odium, while we ride on our tribal horses singing songs “Our tribe, is bigger and better than your tribe,” “Our tribe, made your tribes slaves, and so you are our slaves.” “Our superior tribe, did this and that while your inferior tribe did nothing worthwhile.” We go to enormous extent to quote from the play books of British imperialists and recreate profiles of hate that enable us to relive new forms of imperialistic violence on one another.
In this time, it seems as if the idea of a country called Nigeria does not fit into any discussion schema any longer. We are ready now to eat each other up or wipe off the other tribes from the face of Nigeria, so that our own tribes can be the sole occupants of the Nigerian space. These are the sights and sounds of the country Nigeria today. Tribalism is racism. It is a fallacy. It is unreasonable and foolish. It is not something we are born with. It is taught by bad leaders and families. Tribalism engenders corruption while corruption sustains and nourishes tribalism.
The time of anomie in today’s democracy, is a time when democracy has been steadily rotting. This decay is sadly consequential because it touches the fundamental purpose of democracy. Nothing matters in a democracy more than the protection of human life. Sadly, human life in Nigeria is cheap. Very cheap. We no longer feel any sense of outrage that five people were killed by bandits or ten killed by herdsmen or two hundred school children have been abducted by kidnappers and billions of naira are paid to them as ransom by the government from our treasuries. We feel normal when it is reported that underage girls with their mothers and grandmothers have been defiled sexually by bandits. Or even when our school-age daughter is kidnapped, raped and forcefully married to a monstrous bandit. Even when the mounting figures of horror and odium require disgust and opprobrium, we seem to lose the sense of empathy and outrage. We have become mummified and no longer men and women with hearts and brains for outrage and decisive action to end all this. This is the tragedy of the Nigerian situation. This loss of the sense of outrage is a fundamental stage of anomie when values are stood on their heads and wrong is right and no one knows what is right any more.
Our country is beset by a multiplicity of tragedies. Colossal on the one hand is the absence of any meaningful conversations by the ruling elite on the way out of the quagmire we have found ourselves bogged in. They trade insults on one another and then demand for apologies, and then the following day, as the death toll increases, there is the urge to move on without first addressing the reasons why these things are happening in the first place. Leadership is absent or toxic, when it does not see the need to immediately de-escalate the war situation, pull back from the looming disaster we are heading into, and seek for a common ground of agreement.
Nothing is more important to world affairs than the idea that human life is precious. The whole notion of bringing people together, whether in families or communities, or nations is to ensure safety of life and provide security and individual liberties to the people. This makes human security to predate the emergence of nations, where the people of the world, were organized into kingdoms and empires. These kingdoms engaged in endless wars and struggles to gain more subjects and more territories. The Magna Carta of 1215 in England is considered one of the most important documents in the history of democracy when the subjects of England successfully challenged the arbitrary rule of kings. Nation states emerged for the first time in Europe when Europe’s thirty-year religious wars ended with the signing of the treaty at Westphalia in 1648. From this modest beginning the development of nations, nationalism and the ideas of democracy were handed to us through the 17, 18 and 19th Centuries.
The ideas of individual liberties and popular participation in government, developed through the American Revolution of 1775-1783 and the French Revolution of 1789-1799 gave rise to the modern nation state. These nation states, propelled by nationalism in turn dominated other states.
Advances in science led to the discovery of gunpowder (in China) and the spirit of greed and exploration, led to European conquest of other nations. Slave trade flourished for three hundred years from 15 to 19 century and was succeeded by colonialism, which reached its climax at the Berlin conference of 1884-85 as Europeans sat at table and partitioned Africa. The main purpose of the scramble was to get raw materials for their industries and markets for their industrial products but also to show racial mastery over the conquered.
Nigeria suffered double jeopardy, from the combined effects of the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism. Nigeria sold out her critical manpower and received little in return, except guns and gunpowder, mirrors, alcoholic beverages and some clothing items. The slave trade impaired the Nigerian ability to reproduce itself economically, socially and culturally and created rifts, which have existed even today!
Colonialism plundered Nigerian resources and set structures for insecurity today. It was a bad experience for Nigeria that it happened at all. But much worse than that, it was too short to establish British traditions or infrastructure, after indigenous cultures were destabilized and destroyed.
Nigeria as a nation state came in existence through a royal proclamation in 1914 when the British amalgamated the protectorate of Northern Nigeria, the Crown Colony of Lagos, and the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria. Prior to the amalgamation, the territory of Nigeria as we know it was peopled by kingdoms, empires, emirates and republics. On 1 October 1960 Nigeria became an independent country. In 1963, it became a Republic. At amalgamation, Nigeria’s population then was about 45.2 million people. In just fifty years, our population has grown by over 268% to 200 million people and is projected to be 400 million in 2050. Pray Nigeria gets there in one peace.
Since 1914 to date, the single most important issue guiding state policy is the security of the land and people within Nigeria. It is the single most important challenge and duty of the nation state and the most important aim of governance. Right from the amalgamation, Nigeria has struggled with issues of peace and security. All the past and present agitations for constitutional reforms, restructuring and even the civil war we fought were to provide for Nigeria, the best frameworks for a more secure and peaceful country. But nobody can force peace with force of arms. We must court peace, wage peace and think peaceful thoughts to be at peace.
Whereas the idea that human life is precious, is more important than anything else in World Affairs today, and wars are on the decrease world-wide; In our country civil wars have been brewing and being fought in several theaters across the country.
Nigeria’s Road to Anomie.
- The amalgamation laid the foundation of the architecture of insecurity. The deep distrust between Northern and Southern Nigeria, and that between the Muslim “core north” and the non-Muslim “other north” the so called “abode of war,” constituting non-hausa/Fulani tribes of the north, and that between the Yorubas and the Igbos, and the Igbos and Fulani and now Yoruba and Fulani, have remained a permanent slur on our nationhood and a major contributor to our collective failure to build unity and peace. Sir Frederick Lugard, the celebrated founder of Nigeria, was a racist bigot who pitted one tribe against the other through his infamous Indirect Rule policy. He categorized Nigerian tribes into superior and inferior tribes and those who were born to rule and those born to be perpetually subjects. Coming from great Britain itself which had freed itself from arbitrary rule of the Kings through the Magna Carta, his wicked policies were often so cruel and reprehensible even to the colonial office. But he laid the basis for Nigeria’s corruption and tribalism.
- At independence our politicians were already pre-cast in the mould of tribal warriors and even though some of them were highly educated and were motivated to join politics through high ideals of Pan Africanism, socialism, nationalism, etc. they soon suffered from fatigue, lost traction and joined their tribal bandwagons to exploit the big center; the Federal Government, to chop. Throughout the First Republic, there were no attempts apart from the National Anthem, to build unity in diversity. Tribes and politics were synonymous, as if political parties were no more than platforms of continuing with inter-tribal wars in another way; to parody Carl Von Clausewitz. Minor bruises and scrapes in tribal interactions often led to inter tribal violence and bloodshed.
But the development plans set the tone for rapid growth even though we did not have oil, because we had hope and hope drove our aspirations for greatness.
- When the Military took over in 1966, tribalism was an underlying motive. Corruption quickly set in as they perceived power as their turn to chop, and they deftly created a roster of which graduating class at the academy , it was their turn to chop power. They quarreled over spoils and booty, while tenaciously running promotions as they clung to political offices. They scrapped the development plans which had carefully laid the trajectory of national development and growth. In 1970 Nigeria had a GDP per Capita of $219 dollars and our economy ranked globally as number 88, while China had a GDP of $112 dollars and ranked 114 in the world!! The military armed with petrodollars became retrograde. They jettisoned the development plans that put us on the path of faster growth and sunk their teeth into the juicy national cake of corruption. We began our slow descent into anomie.
The military unjustly created Federating States for themselves and awarded Local Governments for their communities and distributed oil blocks too, as favors, to themselves and their friends. This became a permanent dysfunctional restructuring of the economy and political space. Their intervention was hasty and uncalled for since Nigeria was trying to grapple with nascent democracy. Democracy is messy, it is laborious, and it requires nation builders whose conduct, speeches and character is public spirited and can stand the test of time. The Military years were very challenging. Even though the military got us into a civil war, they also preserved a tenuous, national unity.
The Military era produced some of our most notable Generlas, like ; T.Y.Danjuma, Olusegun Obasanjo, Mohammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, and Aliyu Gusau. These living legendary generals have transcended the military era and have galvanized themselves into a national oligarchy and hegemony of the Military Political-Complex that rules our country up to this moment. Nothing happens without their imprimatur stamp of approval. These very rich, highly endowed and influential generals can, if they choose; cohere a national elite consensus and end our dystopia and anomie or plunge us into more chaos. Our problem today is that these generals appear to have lost their espirit de corps and are singing a discordantly. The one who is president doesn’t speak when he should speak and give hope. He watches on as anomie and dystopia takes over. He is not to be blamed, we are all involved. We are all guilty. Now it is up to us alone, to rescue this country. Tribalism and material pursuits have robbed us predominant influence as nation builders and hence the drift to anomie. The time to re-build the nation is now!
- Politics and Politicians
Nigeria’s post military politicians from 1999 to date are a curious blend of the most educated politicians, experienced technocrats, retired military top brass and a small number of the criminal class. Politics throws up strange bedfellows. So much was expected of them. Yet it is during their time at the helms of democratic governance of Nigeria that all hell has broken loose. These politicians and top civil servants with the business elite contrived a marriage of convenience. They feel so entitled and are oblivious to the
pathetic fate of the hapless masses that have waited all these years to enter the promise that Nigeria offered at Independence. Armed with gun totting military guards they blow loud sirens around the impoverished and harassed rural people in their dingy hovels, trumpeting their importance, as they guzzle every naira that the center collects in the treasuries through: fat salaries, allowances, contracts and outright theft. The People are left without hope in poverty, ill-health and little to no access to good education. This has created a perfect criminal ecology for festering wars, criminality and brigandage ongoing in Nigeria.
- Non-ideological Political Party Platforms.
Lack of differentiating ideologies among the parties makes each party more of the same other party. Party politics has created permanent enmities purely on the basis of who gets or who is denied a finger in the till of corruption. Political parties have assumed tribal identities. They are the new tribes. People are goaded to assume these political identities and massively hate any others who are not in the same party. They belong to a different tribe. They are the other to be hated. Most of the politicians stand for nothing, and believe in no cause other than the filling of gargantuan appetites for positions, to be shared and other forms of material wealth to be distributed. Their call to service is not borne of making a difference in nation building but rather their call to the feeding trough of corruption and tribalism. Many are on ego trips and are ready to maim, kill or die when their political egos are ruffled. This is a mistake. Politics is merely a time bound game. Play your part simply and allow others to play theirs for soon enough age and time will send you out to sit on the cold bench as spectator. This is mortality. Nothing is permanent.
- Poverty
Poverty is a major underlying cause of banditry, kidnapping and even tribal wars. The gap between our rich and poor is widening. The rich are taunting the poor with unearned riches and flaunting on our streets, toys acquired from unearned riches that are easily traceable to public coffers. Our rich and our entitled elite have driven the poor to destitution and hopelessness and into chaos, crime and wars. The envy driven rage has no respite. The poor are envious and angry feel justified to kidnap. According to the late Benue assassinated bandit, Gana, “ We saw how the politicians were stealing and enjoying life, as if we were not human beings and as if what they were doing stealing was what we elected them to do?”
- Globalization
Globalization has foisted on us since 1999, a full embrace of the neo- liberal economic model. This has escalated structural problems and anomie. The continuous devaluation of the naira and endless increases in pump prices of fuel gas and stiff electricity tariffs have widened the gap between the rich and poor and created unbearable hardship to the citizens. This has affected health and social security and even education. In addition, globalization has inundated our landscape with military grade assault weapons with which conflicts are more readily addressed with blood bath than with discussion.
- Weak institutions.
Our descent to anomie is also caused by weak institutions. The weak judiciary and legislative arms of government have made democracy untenable as the judiciary and legislative arms of government have become merely the two extra arms of executive power. They may contend this as loudly and as forcefully as their power permits, but then we are yet to see any credible spine in asserting their independence from an all too powerful presidency. Our military once the toast of the world has whittled down its reputation and has failed to rout out a rag tag Book Haram insurgency which grows stronger every day in the last 12 years. Have they also succumbed to corruption and or tribalism to get by? Can we rely on the military to defend us when they have shown many instances of colluding with criminals who are ravaging the countryside and terrorizing the citizens in remote rural settings where governance is in short supply?
We did have a Civil Service on whose shoulders the country could fight a civil war and remain united. They were sung heroes. But where have all the top civil servants gone?
Our educational institutions are weak, underfunded and underperforming. My colleagues in the academia have not yet found an innovative way to raise their welfare without holding down generations of young Nigerians stuck in the production pipeline to make a contribution to growth, to peace and unity.
In order to build a peaceful nations the idea of freedom of expression is sacrosanct! Let us freely express where it hurts. Let nobody’s pain be diminished as hate speech. For every hate speech, there are thousands of love speeches lurking under masks to speak out and drown the haters. The Press, Churches, Mosques and Civil Organizations must provide leadership in thought words and actions that unify and roll back tribalism and corruption.
Social Media
Another major factor in our descent to anomie and dystopia is through the World’s most disruptive technology: the social media. The social media has provided major theaters of war using its various platforms and messaging applications such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. Popular Nigerian Blogs are veritable theaters of war. This doesn’t need to be so. Responsible use of social media should aim at using the cyberspace to provide justice for all as deterrent to the war drums they are beating. We must find common ground to treat one another with respect and dignity. We must not ignore or belittle each other’s grievances but seek to address and redress them.
In this time of anomie, our world has been turned upside down. This state of war predated the Buhari government that came only in 2015. Let politicians and the entitled elite, hold the mirror to themselves and stop blaming the president for the ills and festering civil wars in Nigeria. We are all guilty. Nigeria has never lived up to its potential as they say. It has never attempted to be a country of a united people with a befitting national infrastructure. It never tried to achieve greatness by modernizing while maintaining its cultural underpinnings like China, India and Japan. It simply gave up and went back in time to tribal wars and slave trade, while its elite buried their heads in ostentation and conspicuous consumption. Rather than consider life sacrosanct, money, positions and lands titles and even name titles are more sacrosanct, and worth killing massively for.
At the beginning of post- military democracy in 2006, I read, The Ice Man by Philip Carlo, a New York best seller: actual confessions of a Mafia contract killer Richard Kuklinsky, who was on death row. Richard Kuklinsky was contracted to import into Nigeria tons of money some people in government had amassed abroad and wanted it laundered back into the nation’s top banks. He did the job successfully and was paid handsomely in millions of dollars. This criminal’s chilling description of Nigeria as “ One of the poorest, most violent countries in the world, where people were still bought and sold , where human sacrifice is still practiced,” and that he didn’t like anything about Nigeria, “ its disorder, its overwhelming poverty, its dusty roads, its withered trees and harried street dogs that seemed concerned they could be somebody’s dinner at any moment”, made me very angry. Because then, it was true, and today, twenty years later, this description is even more true.
So what is my recommendation?
- Nigeria is in a state of war. It is in a state of anomie and this state is not sustainable. Simply put, Nigeria as is presently constituted is not sustainable. We need to create a society of honor and justice and a home of diversity where all our ethnic coloration and our religions can co-exist for sake of peace and development. We need a people driven restructuring of our political, fiscal, and security infrastructure. The center must be decentralized and downsized . It must devolve more power and responsibility to states. This should take place in 2022 ahead of the 2023 general elections.
- We need to strengthen the Judiciary, the Military, the Civil Service, the Police and entire security architecture. These Institutions of State should be sanitized from corruption and tribal control, so that professionalism will direct their operations to serve the interest of the nation rather than their pockets, ethnic agenda or a president assuming autocratic power.
- We need new political parties that have ideological content. These parties should exist to solve Nigeria’s problems. The present parties have expired in content and substance and no longer give confidence that there is a belief system that drives their operations. They are more of the same. Self-seeking platforms of wars to disposes and to command and control others without respite. We need parties with nationalist ideologies that can identify with the pains of “ We” the people, rather than their families and tribes.
But we need even more; we need new politicians who understand the significance of empathy and love as we hope to leave behind tribalism and corruption. We need politicians who are public spirited, rather than self-seeking egomaniacs and tribal bigots.
- D. Nigeria has failed to educate and attract the educated to stay. Large swaths of the country have not tasted any classroom teaching. Apart from the herdsmen and nomads, the farmers are the largest illiterate communities. In many places these farmers live on remote lands without feeder roads nor infrastructure that includes schools, clean water, electricity and housing. Nigeria can decide the type of country it wants to become and then design an educational system where the next great generation will come from.
- E. Democracy cannot be sustained without good policing. The operational capabilities of the nation’s security agencies need to be enhanced through training and retraining and through the use of modern intelligence gathering technologies and intelligence sharing. Ultimately, we need to establish State and Local Government Police to bring government closer to the rural citizens who are now looking up to the bandits for their law and order.
Being the Asset Newspapers Fourth Annual Lecture, delivered by Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher, President, African leadership Institute USA, in Abuja – Nigeria, on February 25, 202