By SamuelStephenWakdok
Growing up in the 80s, a game was common. We played this game of Police and Thief. The bad guy of course was the thief. After much chasing and hiding, it was normal for the police to catch the thief or for the police to shoot and kill the thief. That was based on simple logic, the triumph of good over evil. Dele Giwa once said that the triumph of evil over good is temporary, because in the long run good must triumph over evil. Even as kids it was very clear to us that evil must be quashed. Looking back into history, I can not really say how it went wrong, but definitely something went wrong.
The police and thief game shows the picture of how the larger society ought to be. The police in this piece are not limited to the men and women of the Nigerian Police force; rather it is the Nigerian State. It encompasses all the institutions of the state and their various agents. It does talk about the machinery of government with due reference to those saddled with the responsibility of governing the country. It is both the elected and public officials, both civil and military. It talks about the security and law enforcement agencies in the country. The dictionary defines a State as: a country's government and those government-controlled institutions that are responsible for its internal administration and its relationships with other countries. Or: a country or nation with its own sovereign independent government. It went further to define a government as a political authority: a group of people who have the power to make and enforce laws for a country or area. The state is therefore viewed as the ruler; the state and its administration are viewed as the ruling political power. A government thus assumes the mandate given by the people. Since every one can not be law unto him/herself, the citizens surrender their power to a government who then has the authority to rule on their behalf. The legitimacy of any government is derived from the people and that is why popular participation mostly through free and fair elections seems to be the best form of coming into power.
It is only justifiable that after giving up their power to the state to rule with their mandate, the people of any country or nation will expect certain duties and responsibilities on the part of the rulers in exchange for the rights and privileges the rulers gain from occupying public offices. These include but are not limited to the security of lives and property, provision of basic amenities and infrastructure, employment opportunities, social services, enabling atmosphere for businesses to thrive among other things. In fact I can summarize the responsibilities of any meaningful government to; developing, sustaining and even improving the human development of the people by utilizing the resources at the disposal of the government.
Like a day which gives way to the setting of the sun, the situation here has become blurred. It is no more Police and thief but has over the years become a case of the Police is the thief. And for me this is the crux of Nigeria's Identity Crisis. Identity is defined as what identifies somebody or something: the name or essential character that identifies somebody or something or essential self: the set of characteristics that somebody recognizes as belonging uniquely to himself or herself and constituting his or her individual personality for life. How ever Identity crisis is defined as anxiety about social role: a period during which somebody feels great anxiety and uncertainty about his or her identity and role in life and society. It can also be defined as anxiety of a group: a period of anxiety or confusion about the nature, aims, and role of a group, organization, or business and in this case a nation. Nigeria is a study in contrast. The country is both a giant and a dwarf. It is rich and yet one of the poorest nations on earth. Rich in resources both natural and human, but her people are poor. Nigerians are a very religious people, yet violence and crime rates are very high. Nigeria has enormous body of water but there is scarcity of water for human consumption and commercial use. We are the sixth largest exporter of crude oil (may be seventh now since Angola has overtaken us) but also one of the heaviest importers of refined petroleum products. The country has a vast array of arable land but majority of her people are starving. Nigeria has many educated people who have excelled in all endeavors of life but our basic problems at home have not been solved. We have many sources of generating and distributing electricity but we exist perpetually in semi darkness and are the largest importer of generators in Africa. We export very few (crude oil and prostitutes) but import almost everything (including tooth pick and cotton buds) . We spend huge funds and lives to ensure peace keeping and enforcement in warring countries but we can not keep simple law and order at home. Nigeria has an over centralized government but recent literatures and reports describe the country as a failed state. Nigeria is a juxtaposition of different things.
The state and her institutions, the government and her organs, the people, have all connived to ensure that Nigeria does not become the pride she was destined to be. Nigeria has been wandering between obscurity and oblivion. We have no meaningful identity to present to the world or even ourselves. The state has failed in its primary role of harnessing the resources of the country to the benefit of the generality of the citizenry. Rather corruption has become so endemic that it has been elevated to become the official language of governance. Corruption has become the fuel which burns the governed but cooks the food for the elite club who has hijacked power. Various governments have been hypocritical in fighting corruption. They only fight it with their lips but oil its wheel with deeds. We have school buildings but the standard of education has nose-dived. We have health professionals but our hospitals have become an ante-room to the grave. Air transportation has become a flying coffin, water ways are not available, rail system is out of service and our roads are death traps. We have more streets than homes in this country, more churches than Christians and more mosques than Moslems. We have more crises than solutions, more rogues than patriots and more contracts than projects. We destroy faster than we build and do not maintain at all. We have a government but we are been compared to Somalia which has been without a functional government since 1991. We talk so much about development but achieve nothing or at best so little. In the midst of all these, Nigerians won the survey of happiest people in the world some years ago. The contrast defers scientific rationality.
Nigeria is the only country where political parties campaign during elections without a manifesto. Obviously it means the government has no ideology. Any government with out an ideology is a car without a driver. It can stop at any time in transit. It may skid off the road; it may summersault and may even drive itself into an ocean. And that is exactly what is happening. Nigeria has been driving on the road of insecurity, driving into the ocean of dehumanization with reckless impunity. We have no safety valve to gauge the volume of air in our tube. Meaning we may burst at anytime due to excess pressure or may go flat due to inadequate air. Life expectancy in Nigeria is at a lowly 47 years in a millennium where technology, research and development have used science to demystify most health related problems. Given Nigeria’s resources, abundant talents and the size of this country both in terms of population and land mass, Nigeria ought to be what United State is to the American continent, or what India is to Asia or what Brazil has become for Latin America. Unfortunately we keep falling on the scales of development indices.
The police and thief of the days gone beyond has become the police is thief. The state has not stood on the side of justice, equity, peace and development. The act of governance has become the route to exploitation. The Nigeria's identity problem calls for serious concern. If the police is now the thief, who will the victims run to for help? If the state is the bandit who will the citizens run to for reprieve? The police is the thief. Yes, that is the crux of Nigeria's identity problem. The state is the terror. Political, social and economic terrorist.
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