“As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest” – Nelson Mandela
The quantum of human blood being spilt daily in the South East region in supposed peacetime is startling and perturbing. The Igbo teenagers who collected N100 million ransom on the head of a kidnapped member of the Anambra state House of Assembly, Hon. Justice Azuta, and still killed him, and the gunmen who invaded the Nkalaha community in Ebonyi State and massacred people are just the latest of gory killings that have engulfed the South East region.
The grisly stories of killing in the South East, particularly in Anambra and Imo States, plus multiple deaths from needless accidents in the region, have combined to make the South East zone bloody and an area where human lives are becoming valueless. The question on everybody’s lips now is: Why are Igbos killing themselves in such a callous manner, and at what point did this extreme bad blood develop among Ndigbo?
Accusing fingers may be pointing at IPOB, ESN or unknown gunmen, herdsmen, Nnamdi Kanu’s men or Simon Ekpa’s troops, but what is evident is that there are clear failures of governance in that region. Irrespective of who or what is responsible for the endless bloodletting in the South East, the buck stops on someone’s table, meaning that ultimately somebody should take responsibility for the situation in the geopolitical zone. And who are they? The State Governors, of course.
All of us, the citizens resident in this area, politicians, the clergy, the traditional rulers, and the businessmen, are all collaterally liable because of the brazen worship of riches in all corners of Igboland, even inside churches. What the rich are doing with their wealth in Igboland, most of which is ill-gotten, leaves much to be desired. The carnival that burials and wedding ceremonies have become cannot be explained.
These supposedly solemn ceremonies have become an avenue for the brazen displays of wealth. In the past, before the advent of social media, these lavish shows of affluence were isolated and limited to a few areas, but with social media, flaunting is before all, including the hungry and those dying in penury. This blatant show of affluence amid unprecedented hardship in the land does nothing but increase the hatred of the poor against the wealthy, whose attitude is seen as the height of insensitivity. Tinubu’s economic policy has wiped off the middle class; the society is now vertically divided between the haves and the have-nots. Therefore, why should we be surprised at the glaring hatred on display from the struggling and often hopeless youths?
In the 80s, one of the most skilful but notorious criminals to emerge in Nigeria was one Lawrence Anini, supported by his sidekick Monday Osunbor. In one of his interviews before his execution on why he became an armed robber, Anini disclosed that he was angry at the wealth discrimination he suffered in secondary school by children of the rich alongside other poor students. This led him to always rob the rich and throw the money in markets and public places and along the roads for the poor to pick. We can never tell how far these wealth extravaganzas going on in Igboland can negatively impact the suffering youths.
The bigger culprit, in all these, remains the government as represented by the State Governors in the region. Why because according to Section 14(2) (b) of the operating Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. Legal minds even argue that this section connectively sees the security and welfare of the people as a sole purpose.
For any government, the security and welfare of the people sum up what citizens look up to from a responsible government. The use of the word primary to qualify it says it all that security and welfare are the principal, the beginning and the end of the citizen’s expectations from any government.
Any government that is failing to provide primary requirements to the populace cannot be expected to do well in secondary requirements of government. It’s when you are alive and secure that you can appreciate other human needs.
Regrettably, governments in South East Nigeria have faltered in the provision of these primary purposes expected from them. The wave of violent crimes, bloodletting, kidnapping, and ritual killing, among others, in the region leaves no conclusion than that various governments in the region, especially in Anambra and Imo States, have woefully failed in their primary duty.
It’s difficult to understand what is going on in the South East security-wise without pointing fingers at the various governments at both State and Local Government levels. The five States in the South East combined have not been able to generate up to 250,000 jobs in the last decade, but tertiary institutions alone, not to talk of Primary and Secondary Schools, have been pulling out hundreds of thousands of youths into the saturated Labour market. Amid such a situation, what we see every weekend is the rich flaunting their wealth in such a provocative manner, carrying armoured cars and convoys of soldiers to protect themselves and their families. In reaction, what we see is the unprecedented bloodletting going on, the callousness being exhibited, and the wickedness being displayed by brothers to brothers.
The growing valuelessness of human lives in the region beats the imagination of every watcher of happenings in the Southeast geopolitical zone.
How did we get here? What is responsible for this level of insensitive and cruel disregard for others’ lives? What has happened to the Onye Ayana Nwanne ya spirit? Who do we blame for this deteriorating situation where human life has become valueless? The government, the church, the rulers, the politicians and the elders. Who is free of the guilt?
Nobody is keeping records, but the number of human lives of both innocent and criminal elements, all Igbo sons, that have been wasted in the Southeast East in the last decade should worry every discerning mind. The corpse of the other man may seem to you just like a cog of wood but who knows the next target.
The church in the area, by statistics, is growing, but strangely, so is the growth of wickedness and all kinds of crimes. So what is the church teaching?
The church is supposed to teach morals, but they are concerned about riches that come not necessarily through hard work but by miracles. Churches, in embracing social media, have reduced evangelism to showmanship, and youths are imbibing it, disregarding the moral messages in the scripture. Criminals during interrogation, instead of crying, are seen frowning and smiling before telephone cameras as if they are just creating content. Why has everything, including human lives, become a social media joke?
The youths, after besieging the churches and numerous crusade grounds for quick breakthroughs and miracles that are not forthcoming, as the various pastors made them believe, turn to the native doctors who prepare Odeshi for them to help them collect from the rich violently.
The primary duty of government to its citizens is to ensure their safety, security, and well-being. This can be broken down into several key responsibilities. Protection of Life and Property means that the government must protect its citizens from harm, whether from internal or external threats. It’s a government that should maintain law and order and ensure that its citizens can live their lives without fear of violence or crime.
They are supposed to do this by making available the basic needs of the populace, like the provision of necessary utilities, Healthcare, Education and infrastructure. It’s a government that should go further to take necessary steps that will promote economic growth and development and create jobs for productive hands. Most of these gunmen and kidnappers are supposed to be dutifully engaged as factory workers, but they find themselves idle and hopeless, hence the resort to yahooing and other crimes.
The failure of governance is breeding angry hopeless youths who turn their anger on the people. All the Governors are filing out winning awards for increasing their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) amid the hardships in the country. Small-scale businesses are folding up, and people are chased out of business with high taxation, and we pretend that we don’t know why the youths are angry against the land. It’s duplicitous for any government that has not been able to create jobs in the last two years but tripled its IGR to wonder why youths are restive.
If the funds that have entered the South East States in the last decade had been judiciously deployed for development, a lot of these youths operating as whatever name – IPOB, ESN or Unknown Gunmen terrorizing their people would have been dutifully engaged and out of crime.
How do we get out of this ugly situation? The various governments in the zone, whether at State or Local Government levels, should promote economic growth and development. They should create an environment that fosters economic growth, job creation, and poverty reduction. They should also protect the human rights of its citizens, including their rights to freedom, equality, and justice. The season we are into demands that they provide economic support to citizens and reduce excessive taxations that kill small businesses.
The State governments should be transparent in their decision-making processes and accountable to their citizens for all their actions.
Political leaders from the zone should also take deliberate steps to address the underlying factors like the grievances arising from prolonged marginalization of the zone leading to feelings of resentment and frustration like the continued incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu. Also to be addressed is the poor governance delivery due to corruption and mismanagement of resources. Finally, there should be a deliberate effort to close the inequality gap between the rich and some areas experiencing poverty and underdevelopment. God help us.