William ABORISADE, oosha53@gmail.com

The recent death for terror law, no doubt, was received with mixed feelings by Nigerians.  Since unusual problems desire unusual solutions, I have never been in doubt that we would require unconventional tactics to bail Nigeria out of the huge rot in which it finds itself. This belief is predicated on my conviction that indiscipline, nothing more, brought us where we find ourselves, as a people.

Prior to now, we had a very functional multi-layered law enforcement arrangement, up to and beyond our independence. The Local Authority police worked, aside from the Nigerian Police. Similarly, we had a multi-layered judicial system, with the Customary courts, closest to the people. People kept to the rules and society enjoyed an appreciable level of peace. We had burglars in the communities but all they needed to take to their heels was an awareness that somebody was around! It never occurred to anyone that someday, people would be forcefully dispossessed of their belongings!

The Nigerian civil war started in 1967 and ended in 1970. The Nigerian civil war-driven mass-recruitment and hasty training of military personnel, brought a new generation of military personnel who rarely saw themselves as servants of the nation and its citizens. Rather, they saw themselves through the prism of hubris syndrome! The entirety of happenings, which included disregard for society rules and norms, a legacy of military governance, negatively shaped the mentality of the citizenry who started to see the uniform, beyond being another cloth! Those who wore the military uniform started to be feared and their guns considered more powerful than the laws-a scenario symptomatic of a degeneration into incivility! For complex sociological reasons, the citizenry became unduly gullible and intimidated into docility. Rather than resist, they celebrated the new animalist culture, which, till date, dictate our sociological interactions as a people.

In my discussions with friends, I never stopped to express my thought that unless we ruthlessly combated the thriving kidnapping business, in the riverine areas, we might find ourselves in a complex security problem. My opinion was predicated on the lucrative nature of the business, then, in the riverine areas. Today, I feel vindicated. Any serious government sees an unruly act as an affront to everything which defines the entirety of governance and sovereignty. Government, therefore, confronts it, headlong, and timely, thus deterring future occurrences. The stains of sentiments, greed and self centredness have polluted and decolorized our laws and, thus, our identity. Not just that, our norms and virtues of “good” and “bad” have been reverse-defined. 

Though, late in coming, the death penalty for terrorism law is a most patriotic document which should be welcomed by all patriots. However, little or nothing will change until/unless the financiers of terrorism are dealt with, first before the foot soldiers. As long as the financiers live, foot soldiers are always available for hire, noting that kidnapping is already one of the most lucrative business enterprises, today! The financiers must not just be named, but also be treated as terrorists, unworthy of living and be eliminated, after being dispossessed of their ill-gotten wealth.

We, as a people, must accept that our failure to tackle indiscipline, on time, has made a jungle of our country, in which anything goes. Jovanto Aleu said “when a leader does not address a problem, the problem becomes a leader and the leader becomes the problem”. Sentiments, largely, drive our law enforcement as a criminal has his name changed to “son/daughter of somebody”, “Christian/Muslim brother/sister”, etc, only soon after committing a crime! Today, we even have political partisan defections, by criminals, as a way of evading justice! Obviously, a complete overhaul of the system, that runs wholly on sentiments, with a view to re-defining our values to conform with world standards is necessary.

We need to re-define work, honour, ethics, politics, and many other life events, which define personality. To be specific, we must define the perimeter of deterrence, in a way to make our citizens conform to civility, as obtains elsewhere. We have what it takes to lead the world, in terms of intellect and natural resources, barring indiscipline and our country has no business being among the worst human habitats on earth! A ruthless war on corruption and indiscipline, (WAIC) may be necessary if our country is not to go under.