By Jibrin Ibrahim
The Nigerian state is undergoing a three-dimensional crisis. The first one affects the political economy and it is generated mainly by public corruption, which over the past four decades has created a run on the treasury at the national and state levels, threatening to consume the goose that lays the golden egg… The second one is the crisis of citizenship symbolised by ethno-regionalism… The third element relates to the frustration of the country’s democratic aspirations…
I spent the week in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, making two presentations and engaging the academic community in broad debates on the crises facing Nigeria and West Africa. My first presentation was on setting eleven benchmarks for enhancing security and national unity. The Nigerian state is undergoing a three-dimensional crisis. The first one affects the political economy and it is generated mainly by public corruption, which over the past four decades has created a run on the treasury at the national and state levels, threatening to consume the goose that lays the golden egg.
The second one is the crisis of citizenship symbolised by ethno-regionalism, the Boko Haram insurgency, farmer-herder killings, agitations for Biafra, militancy in the Niger Delta, and indigene/settler conflicts. The third element relates to the frustration of the country’s democratic aspirations, in a context in which the citizenry believes in “true democracy” but is confronted with a reckless political class that is corrupt, self-serving and manipulative. These issues have largely broken the social pact between citizens and the state. That is why today, Nigerians find themselves in a moment of doubt about their nationhood.
The first benchmark is a concerted state and society effort to stop the current drift towards anarchy. As a people, we love living near the precipice and the risk is that our dangerous behaviour could one day push us over. It has been said that in Zamfara State alone, there are no fewer than 30,000 gunmen spread across more than 100 camps within and around the state, killing, kidnapping, raping people and burning their food and housing. General Abdulsalam Abubakar, the chairman of the National Peace Committee, told Nigeria that there are about six million weapons circulating in private hands in the country.
We are at a point in our national trajectory where young Nigerians feel sufficiently marginalised from the STATE and SOCIETY to procure arms and engage in self-help, which they define variously as banditry, scotched earth attacks on innocent village communities, accompanied by mass rape and other forms of sexual violence, in addition to the killing of security agents, and even declaration of an Islamic Caliphate in Nigeria. There are too many groups that have discovered that obtaining an AK47 can be their pathway to wealth because they are not in government, where you can be wealthy by stealing without arms.
Yahaya Bello vs EFCC
The second benchmark is the urgency of moving away from state-centric security provisioning. The Nigerian citizen has for too long endured a culture of intimidation by the country’s security forces. Law enforcement agents have, since colonial times, developed a culture of reckless disregard for the rights of the people. The legal framework has not helped matters, given our colonial heritage of laws against vagrancy, illegal assembly, wandering, and illegal procession. The state is constructed as an edifice against citizens who are assumed to have a natural tendency to break laws and must therefore be controlled, patrolled and constantly surveyed. Not surprisingly, citizens learn to fear and avoid law enforcement agents. The ordinary Nigerian sees security agents as potential violators of their security, rather than providers of their security.
The fifth benchmark is the deeply felt need for true federalism, which must be addressed. The 1951 Macpherson’s Constitution was adopted on the basis of an elite consensus. The regional elites were suspicious of each other, had no trust in the other and therefore decided that federalism was the best collective protection for all of them.
Thirdly, we need to edify the rule of law, which is the affirmation of the principle that the governance of human society should be based on law rather than the whims and caprices of human beings. Nigerians fear the police and increasingly fear the justice system, where money or favour towards those in power overrides justice. Both the law and precedents now sway in favour of injustice.
The fourth benchmark proposed is to educate the people that virtually all Nigerians are marginalised ,so we should have a collective rather than sectional approach to contesting the ruling class marginalisation of the people. A united band of criminal elements is ruling this country using divide-and-rule tactics that hide the reality that most of us are marginalised.
The fifth benchmark is the deeply felt need for true federalism, which must be addressed. The 1951 Macpherson’s Constitution was adopted on the basis of an elite consensus. The regional elites were suspicious of each other, had no trust in the other and therefore decided that federalism was the best collective protection for all of them. As it has been explained by Professor Ade Ajayi:
“True Federalism implies power sharing, abandoning the notion of any one group dominating all the others, not secession but building interdependence. But we need to work hard on it and not merely pay lip service to unity in diversity.”
A new policy framework on the farmers-pastoralists crisis should be developed that is both comprehensive and mutually beneficial to both groups. Pastoralism is not sustainable in Nigeria over the long term due to a high population growth rate, expansion of farming, and loss of pasture and cattle routes. At the same time, pastoralism cannot end or be prohibited in the short term, as there are strong cultural and political economy reasons for its existence.
The First Republic failed because the ruling elite failed to respect the principles of power sharing. They still do.
Benchmark six is to negotiate an approach and timeframe for resolving the farmer-herder crisis. Pastoralists-farmers’ conflicts in Nigeria have grown, spread and intensified over the past decade and today poses the greatest threat to our national integrity. The activities of herders have often been recast in conspiracy theories of attacking people to take over their land. Government policy under the Buhari administration, such as the cattle colony and ruga policies, were perceived by many communities as tacit, if not direct alignment with the alleged herders’ agenda of killing people and taking over their land. President Buhari failed to undergo a Mea culpa stating clearly that it was not sectional in its approach to tackling the crisis of pastoralism.
A new policy framework on the farmers-pastoralists crisis should be developed that is both comprehensive and mutually beneficial to both groups. Pastoralism is not sustainable in Nigeria over the long term due to a high population growth rate, expansion of farming, and loss of pasture and cattle routes. At the same time, pastoralism cannot end or be prohibited in the short term, as there are strong cultural and political economy reasons for its existence. The new policy should develop a plan for a transitional period during which new systems would be put in place.
Benchmark seven is on recovering our ungoverned spaces. Rural Nigeria is characterised by the absence of the state and its security agencies and it is therefore not surprising that the blight of armed banditry has spread and impacted negatively on lives and livelihoods. The massive proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the Nigerian hinterland has provided the means for agency in the spread of violence. The phenomenon has dramatised the expansion of ungoverned spaces in the country. There are many factors that contribute to the growth of the phenomenon of rural banditry. One of the most important is poor governance and the virtual collapse of institutions of governance. Deep seated corruption has eroded the capacity of institutions to perform their functions.
The final benchmark, eleven, is the need for collective consciousness that the state of the Nigerian state is serious and each day we appear to be sinking deeper into the abyss. Our Constitution defines the purpose of the state as the protection of the security of Nigerians and the pursuit of their welfare. That is not happening and Nigerians know it. The pathway we are on could lead us to anarchy. The task before us is the reconstruction of the Nigerian state.
Benchmark eight is the imperative of teaching our children that we ALL worship the same God. In 1958, the Northern Nigerian Government published A Book of Prayers and Readings for use in mixed assemblies of Muslim and Christian students. In his Forward to the book, Minister Aliyu Makama made the important point that:
“Both Muslims and Christians are and it is my earnest prayer and hope that from this book of Prayers and Readings the younger generation in particular may learn the vital truth that the things which unite us are far more important than the things that divide us.”
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The chapters in the book cover themes such as the unity of God, creation, God’s love, courtesy and kindness, the value of knowledge, humility and penitence, and spiritual combat, with very similar quotations from Islam, Christianity and other religions. We have lost the approach to building ecumenical unity based on understanding which we need to regain.
Benchmark nine is the imperative of fulfilling our national pledge on education for ALL. The greatest challenge facing Nigeria today is that of rebuilding a high-quality educational system that could build knowledge, skills, civic education and critical thinking in our young ones. That would be the basis on which they can have confidence in a future that could provide jobs, opportunities and progress for the majority. It was the late elder statesman, Ahmed Joda, who drew our attention to the National Pledge made by Nigeria in 1973, when the Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon called a Government Retreat and asked for one policy recommendation that would ensure Nigeria would never again run the risk of another civil war.
Yahaya Bello vs EFCC
The decision was a National Pledge that every Nigerian child born from the end of the civil war – January 1970, would be guaranteed free, qualitative and compulsory primary education. Subsequently, we extended the promise from primary to basic education – nine years of free and qualitative education for all Nigerian children. All governments were to ensure that each year, sufficient resources are made available to ensure that every child is in school. Currently, at least 11 million Nigerian children between the ages of five and 14 are out of school. This is the largest number of out-of-school children in the world today and a collective shame to all of us Nigerians.
The second lecture I gave was on the “ECOWAS Crisis, French Neo-colonialism and the Return of Coups to West Africa.” There, I argued that the decline of governance observed in Nigeria has been replicated throughout the West African region, which has been in deep existential crisis since the draught of 1973. The authoritarianism of the region’s regimes in the 1970s and 1980s precipitated political instability, coups, civil wars and the season of anomie that made life “nasty, brutish and short.”
Benchmark ten is to remind ourselves that we told our children to go forth and inter-marry. Our Constitution is one of the few in the world that advices citizens to inter-marry between cultures. Article 15,3(C) states:
“Encourage inter-marriage among persons from different places of origin, or of different religions, ethnic or linguistic association or ties.”
Believe me, Nigerians have been doing just that. There is massive inter-marriage, especially among young Nigerians who have grown up in urban centres, who have been getting hitched to neighbours they grew up with. Even if for the sake of these rising numbers of cosmopolitan Nigerians, to keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done.
The final benchmark, eleven, is the need for collective consciousness that the state of the Nigerian state is serious and each day we appear to be sinking deeper into the abyss. Our Constitution defines the purpose of the state as the protection of the security of Nigerians and the pursuit of their welfare. That is not happening and Nigerians know it. The pathway we are on could lead us to anarchy. The task before us is the reconstruction of the Nigerian state. We cannot allow our political community to continue to crumble and suffer the outcome of state collapse, which Thomas Hobbes had assured us will make our lives “nasty, brutish and short.” We now know what that means and rebuilding the state must take the form of a new approach based on good governance, in which there is effective, transparent and accountable use of public resources to provide public goods to citizens. If those who exercise state power cannot use it to improve the lives and livelihoods of citizens, then they would have to be replaced.
In the debate that followed, one key point that emerged as maybe the most important benchmark, number 12, was missing. Who would provide the leadership for the comprehensive reforms suggested and how would agency for institutional reform be activated and sustained? As many scholars pointed out during the discussions, most of our leaders are in positions of power to extract from the nation, rather than to contribute to its development. The way forward, therefore, is to develop a strategy that could produce a new form of leadership that will change the paradigm and effectively mobilises the country’s potentials for its development.
The second lecture I gave was on the “ECOWAS Crisis, French Neo-colonialism and the Return of Coups to West Africa.” There, I argued that the decline of governance observed in Nigeria has been replicated throughout the West African region, which has been in deep existential crisis since the draught of 1973. The authoritarianism of the region’s regimes in the 1970s and 1980s precipitated political instability, coups, civil wars and the season of anomie that made life “nasty, brutish and short.” That was the context of the return of multiparty democracy from the early 1990s that opened a new lease of life for the region. Over the past decade, however, democratic erosion has been deep and widespread, as authoritarianism and disregard for the rule of law grew. That was the context for the return of coups d’état in West Africa.
The coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger have placed two issues, one negative and the other positive, on the agenda. The negative element is the deepening of democratic erosion, as they seek to create justifications for the prolongation of military rule. The positive one is in placing the dismantling of French neo-colonialism on the agenda of Francophone countries.
The coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Niger have placed two issues, one negative and the other positive, on the agenda. The negative element is the deepening of democratic erosion, as they seek to create justifications for the prolongation of military rule. The positive one is in placing the dismantling of French neo-colonialism on the agenda of Francophone countries.
Both the Vice Chancellor and his deputy, Professors Kabiru Bala and Raymond Bako, were at the lectures, signalling their commitment to bringing back the culture of academic debates to the university. Physically, one is struck by three perspectives in the university. The main campus has become congested with too many students and buildings. The second is that the Phase Two Campus that is coming up is vast, open, beautiful and developing rapidly, so more programmes should be transferred to that section. Thirdly, the opening of the new phase has brought into light the massive afforestation programme initiated by the late Professor Abdullahi Mahdi, who planted tens of thousands of trees that have now grown into a forest deserving the funnelling of carbon credits to the university. The crowning glory is the lakeside gulf course that has been developed.
Ahmadu Belo University is a massive establishment composed of 18 faculties, 110 departments, 98 undergraduate (43,319 students) and 453 post graduate (7,714 students) programmes. The faculty is huge, comprising 2,939 lecturers, 641 of whom are full professors. There is hope for the university, as illustrated by my good friend Professor Ken Okoli, a sculptor who has designed and is constructing a two-seater three-wheel car, so that he and his wife can drive down ABU boulevard to celebrate after his inaugural lecture next month. Even more so, for my “happening” buddy, Raymond Bako, whose African Centre of Excellence on New Pedagogies in Engineering Education has raised millions of dollars for state-of-the-art training and scholarship support for engineering students. The programme is also recruiting foreign students.
The African Centre of Excellence on Neglected Tropical Diseases and Forensic Biotechnology is, of course, the most outstanding symbol of the university. The will of the founder of the university, Sir Ahmadu Bello must triumph: “Ahmadu Bello University shall be a world-class university comparable to any other, engaged in imparting contemporary knowledge, using high quality facilities and multi-disciplinary approaches, to men and women of all races, as well as generating new ideas and intellectual practices relevant to the needs of its immediate community, Nigeria and the world at large.” Concluded.
A professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, Jibrin Ibrahim is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development, and Chair of the Editorial Board of PREMIUM TIMES.
