How much does a Nigerian’s life worth?
Are we here by accident? does our existence even mean a thing? are we protected? are we covered by the government? what is our worth really?
This is a question we all need to ask ourselves at this point! We might want to run away from the facts and figures and keep saying “As long as it's not my family, I am still safe”. How do you imagine this scenario, You slept with your family safe and sound at night, 1 am, a group of bandits started hitting your door, for the fear of getting harmed, you refused to open the door, then having a sigh of relief, you started praying and speaking in tongues, bam!!! a fire was thrown into the house, everyone has to rush out, rushing out, every member of the family was dismembered! I hear you shout “God forbid”!!! Well, that's the picture of what some people in this country are facing on a daily basis. Well, you live in Lagos and feel you are not concerned with the state of the country, that’s a great illusion, one question, why did you think the okada’s were banned from Lagos over and over again? Well, your guess is as good as mine. You will also agree with me that the menace of “Banditry and Herdsmenship” are already touching all parts of the country, even your so “protected” southwestern states! The reason why AMOTEKUN was given birth to. We must protect ourselves by any means possible if the center is refusing to protect us.
follow me as we look into numbers, from the inception of this year, over 15,000 persons have lost their lives to one form of insurgency or the other. The stories are so gory and it’s really better imagined than experienced. I will not want to put you through the agony of remembering all over again. However, as Nigerians, we suffer from COLLECTIVE AMNESIA. So I will be telling you some stories irrespective to rejig your memories. Let me show you again the various realities that are presented to an average Nigerian on a daily basis.
A very painful one is when 22-year old Daciya Dalep left Jos and bade his family goodbye on the 9th of January, 2020, to resume a new semester in his university, the University of Maiduguri, little did he know that would be his last goodbye to them. It remained a few hours for Dalep to reach his destination when he went missing. The news that followed his sudden disappearance was his murder by the notorious Boko Haram terrorist group, as shown in a video that circulated online where he was shot in the head by a teenager that belongs to the sect. And just like many before him, Dalep became another unfortunate victim of the Nigerian society. In another but a similar scenario, Reverend Andimi and his family were still basking in the festive mood when tragedy struck his village on the night of January 3, as members of the terrorist group raided the village and wreaked horrible havoc leaving tales of sorrow and tears behind for the survivors. Meanwhile, Reverend Andimi was, unfortunately, one of the villagers captured by the terrorists and the next that would be heard of him was the demand of an N50 million ransom by his captors, and shortly after, the news of his murder, while efforts were still being made to get him released.
Retrospectively, the ugly trend of these attacks would remind one of the similar ways that 276 girls were abducted in Chibok in 2014 and how 110 girls were abducted in Dapchi four years after. What stands out as the most excruciating fact is not only that the release of all abducted victims has not been secured several years after abduction but the seemingly calm of the government as the situation gets worsened.
Concerns about the worsening situation and increasingly deadly attacks of the notorious terrorist group have always been met with denial and a mischievous blame game from the Nigerian authorities. Very recently, after the killing spree in some locations of the north, there was a massive outcry from different groups and concerned citizens. Undoubtedly, this outcry drew the attention of a spokesman to the Federal Government, Femi Adeshina, who responded by saying Nigerians should be thankful to the Nigerian government because bombings have reduced compared to the previous administration when about 5 to 10 bombs go off every day. Although he reportedly said some days before then that Boko Haram no longer uses bombs, available facts clearly show that there was never a time in Nigeria when bombs went off according to the figures claimed by Femi Adeshina. That said, it cannot be wrong to say the comparison of death rates for political reasons is a clear sign of moral bankruptcy and lack of human empathy. It is even more disappointing when such a comparison is coming from the same persons that were elected because of their promise to end the security crisis.
As a matter of fact, the security crisis in Nigeria is visible to the blind and audible to the deaf so it beats one hollow when the Nigerian authorities are claiming otherwise of feigning ignorance at the scale of the attack, as President Buhari recently did when he expressed surprise at Boko Haram activities.
While Nigeria was still grieving the unfortunate loss of fellow citizens to horrible killings by the notorious terrorist group, the news of 18-year old Leah Shuaribu getting pregnant for a top Boko Haram commander came in. Apparently, the dreams of the teenage secondary school girl to live a normal life like every girl of her age had been quashed, just for committing no other crime than being a Nigerian and subsequently a Christian by faith. Unlike Dalep and Andimi, Shuaribu was not captured during a trip either in her family’s abode- but right at her school, a federal-government owned secondary school, alongside 109 girls in the middle of the night. Some days from now would make it two years that Leah has been in captivity and the government’s rhetoric has not changed from regular promises to secure her release. Although some of the abducted girls have been released in 2019, the psychological effect of ever been abducted would take more than a lifetime to be erased, not to talk of being abducted by a terrorist group that has zero respect for human dignity, as it can be seen in the way they were coerced to convert their religions with the likelihood that they were possibly exposed to non-consensual acts that are considered unfit for their age.
Again, the thoughts of what Leah might be presently going through in the hands of her captors cannot but cross one’s mind and it makes one wonder if the case would have been different if Leah was the daughter of the president? Could Leah have still remained in detention and her father would occasionally reiterate his promise to secure her release? Could Leah have been impregnated by a terrorist and her father would still find it rational to release arrested terrorists back into the society while recruiting some into the army? Could Leah have been Buhari’s daughter and her fate would still remain uncertain as it is? If Buhari’s record of family relations is anything to go by, then it is crystal clear that the answer to the posers is NO. At least, we all knew the prompt reaction of the presidency, top government officials, to the motorbike crash of the president’s son in 2017 when he sustained a head injury and broken limb. Not only was Yusuf, immediately treated at a top-notch facility that is only accessible by the rich elites, Yusuf was also flown out of the country for foreign medical care, all in a bid to ensure that he gets the best recovery and in less than two months, Yusuf returned back to Nigeria hale and hearty that it was almost impossible to tell if he was the same person who had had the accident a few months before. Yes! It is not wrong for the president-as a father-to-be protective of his children’s well-being, but it becomes worrisome when the president becomes indifferent to the plights of other people he was constitutionally empowered to protect.
There is no better evidence than the rescue of Yusuf to show that the president can take drastic actions to secure the release of Leah and other yet-to-be-released girls if he is really concerned about their plights, even if it means deploying all military intelligence to get her released. Thus, it becomes imperative to ask if the president is really concerned about the plight of Leah Shuaribu? Or probably, the government is only concerned when it is one of their own that is involved, what then is the worth of a Nigerian life? In this context, the life of an average Nigerian that does not have access to the presidential treatment Yusuf has access to; a Nigerian that lacks access to the security details and privileges Yusuf has access to; a Nigerian that has no entitlement to state resources and protection? More importantly, what is the worth of a Nigerian whose survival depends solely on the governance of the state; whether good or bad.
A deep reflection on these issues would leave one with more questions than answers. In 2015, the Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed, affirmed that Boko Haram has been “technically” defeated even when it was obvious that Boko Haram killings and attacks continued. The intention of making such statements is unknown but one is left to think whether the minister is either truly ignorant of the happenings or it is a deliberate attempt to hide the failings of the administration in combating Boko Haram. Furthermore, the hurry in making such sensitive and bogus statements makes one want to question the fact that the government is serious in combatting terrorism or it is just interested in scoring cheap political scores through media sensation.
Since 2015, when Lai Mohammed made the infamous statement, several attacks and killings have been carried out by the terrorist group, but the government has always done much in trivializing the reportage of the attacks, sometimes, it even compares the statistics with that of the previous administration, thereby, giving itself a satisfactory rating. Buhari has also reinforced this notion created by his spokesmen with some of his infamous statements; when the attacks reached a disturbing peak some weeks ago, Buhari subtly feigned ignorance about the developments by claiming he was surprised about the rise in insecurity. Just shortly after then, he was reported to have said that Nigeria’s defeat of Boko Haram has earned it respect in the international community.
Going by the contradictory statements of top government officials on insecurity, it is safe to conclude that the Nigerian government has only defeated Boko Haram on paper and not in reality.
Recently, the murder of one out of four kidnapped seminarians in Kaduna was reported, an event that sparked both national and international outrage particularly from notable Christian leaders, but the response of the president to the development wasn’t also any encouraging. Rather, it was more demoralizing and divisive: 90% of Boko Haram victims are Muslims, not Christians. Once again, it is necessary to ask when religion became a determinant for the worth of Nigerian life?
Little wonder that a few days after the infamous statement was made, an event that can be considered as one of the most horrible Boko Haram attacks in recent period occurred in a neighboring town of Maiduguri, Auno, when over 30 persons were burnt to death while passing the night and at a stop-over location. The death tolls keep increasing and the scale of attacks keeps expanding at an exponential rate but what is more disturbing in all of these developments is not necessarily the political statements that have followed but the continued recruitment of rehabilitated Boko Haram terrorists into the army and society despite the ongoing warfare. To think that releasing rehabilitated Boko Haram members back to the society or recruiting them into the army would aid the war against terrorism is a proof of foolhardy and a betrayal of commonsense; such move would only do more in strengthening the terrorist group with the advantaged positioning of their rehabilitated members whose allegiance is still in doubt.
In fact, re-indoctrination of ex-terrorists has a huge psychological impact on the families of the slain soldiers and their surviving colleagues; knowing that the killers of the dead soldiers are freely roaming the society they once terrorized and might as well replace them when they die. A reality that cannot be denied is that the government cannot feel the pain and pulse of the soldiers because they are not the ones are the war-front, this is why it finds it convenient to make certain policies that keep exposing the soldiers to harm’s way with very little remuneration to survive and crude ammunition to fight, hence, reducing the soldiers to just zombies whose only mission is to die- without significance.
As a matter of fact, one should be curious to know why the government suddenly becomes soft-pedaled when it comes to dealing with the terrorists, but won’t hesitate to break its own laws when it comes to dealing with journalists and activists. And as much as one might hate to admit this, the action of the government has created enabling conditions for terrorists, thereby, making terrorism look more lucrative than being a responsible and active citizen.
IS TERRORISM THE ONLY MAJOR SECURITY CRISIS IN NIGERIA?
If one should go on and on in highlighting the defaults of the government in the fight against terrorism, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that terrorism is not the only existent security concern in Nigeria. In actual fact, terrorism is one of many. Police brutality, Kidnapping almost on all highways, Herdsmen attack to mention but a few are part of the bigger crisis that poses risk to the existence of Nigerians on a daily basis. Reports have it that major highways are now deserted as travelers now find it cheaper to travel by air than to travel by road, since traveling by road may come with an unforeseen additional cost of paying kidnappers a huge ransom.
There is no gainsaying that the rate of kidnapping is quite alarming though it appears to be underreported. The only difference between the Boko Haram insurgency and kidnapping is that the former is more felt in the north while the latter is more felt in the south. In another desperate bid to undervalue the kidnap menace, the Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, said last year that the kidnapping reports are exaggerated. It was after then that the daughter of a popular Afenifere chieftain was abducted and murdered, also, some high-profile personalities like Judges, Professors, politicians, and their relatives have all tasted from the dose. The only advantage such personalities have is that they are always able to quickly raise the negotiated ransom with the abductors while the commoners amongst them would go the extra mile before they can be released by luck.
Just two weeks ago, Motunrayo, a graduate student of Onabisi Onabanjo university was en route Kogi/Abuja expressway to resume Law school posting in Kano Camp, when she was kidnapped. It took a flash of luck to get her released because throughout the week she used in captivity, both Ogun state police command and Kogi police command refused to take responsibility for her abduction; the former made the excuse that the kidnap wasn’t within their jurisdiction while the latter made the excuse that they are yet to be informed. Whereas, the same would not have been the case if the child of a high profile politician were to be in the net of the kidnappers. Once again, one must ask, what is the worth of a Nigerian life?
Sad to admit, police brutality, on the other hand, has clearly proven that the life of an average Nigerian has little or no importance to the authorities as the Nigerian social media space is being regularly filled with news of innocent youths murdered by trigger-happy officers for no just cause. If one were to mention the names of innocent lives that have been lost to the menace, the list might become endless, but certain examples are still worthy of note. Very recently, Chima, a mechanic in Port-Harcourt was discovered to have been tortured to death by the Nigerian police force for no other reason than being a Nigeria. Further revelations after his death showed his genital was damaged before his death. This clearly shows the little or zero regard with which the life of an average Nigerian is held by the authorities. But, in the case that it is an influential person who is involved with the police and has a little cash to give out, the preferential treatment such a person would receive would be magnificent. In one word, the worth of a Nigerian life according to the Nigerian police is the worth of one’s pocket.
By extension, and finally, it might not be wrong to conclude that the worth of Nigerian life is the worth of his or her pocket. But, one must still ask the relevant authorities, stakeholders, and Nigerians, what is really the worth of a Nigerian life?
In the end, what I really crave is that the life of a Nigerian worth the same as that of an American Citizen. However, there is a lot of work to be done if we ever want to see this fantasy come to reality.
I will like to read your recommendations and proposed solutions to secure lives and properties in Nigeria. I will also not forget Samuel Olowolafe Dunnex who also contributed immensely to this body of work. God bless you.
God bless Nigeria.
