Anarchy looms!

By Dr. Kenneth Okonkwo

Anarchy is a state of disorder due to absence or non-recognition of authority or other controlling systems. It is the organization of society on the basis of voluntary cooperation, without political institutions or hierarchical government. Anarchy is the absence of rule of law and the presence of state of nature which is characterized, according to Thomas Hobbes, by the “war of every man against every man”. In Hobbes world, it is a constant and violent condition of competition in which each individual has a natural right to everything, regardless of the interests of others, and in which the existence in the state of nature is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

It’s actually charitable to say that anarchy is looming because available data shows that we are already in a state of anarchy. Last Thursday, 7th of March, 2024, armed bandits on motorbikes invaded schools in the village of Kuriga in Kaduna state and abducted 287 pupils and students, the highest single abduction of students in years.

Days later, in a separate attack, bandits kidnapped 61 people from Kajuru district, about 150 kilometers miles away. Early March 2024, the media reported on non-state armed groups abducting hundreds of people, mostly women and girls, from IDP camps in Gamboru Ngala, Borno State, Nigeria.

On Tuesday, 5th March, 2024, in the Ukum Local Government Area of Benue State, no fewer than 40 people were feared dead during a clash between rival militia groups. Although most of the casualties were said to be members of the militia groups, a family of seven and some farmers were feared killed during the crossfire. Some gunmen believed to be kidnappers were reported to have invaded the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku Ozalla, on Tuesday, 12th March, 2024 and abducted a deputy director and a security man. Gunmen killed two traditional rulers in Ekiti recently and one traditional ruler in Kwara State.

The story of Nabeeha and her family who were abducted in Abuja and in which episode Nabeeha died is still fresh in our minds.

These acts of murder, kidnap, rape, ransom payment, robbery, assassinations, etc as described above, spread across the six Geo-Political Zones of North-West, North-East, North-Central, South-East, South-South, and South-West, including the FCT.

Nowhere is safe, nowhere to hide. In March alone, and we have not attained half of the month as at the time of writing this article, more than 400 persons have been kidnapped or killed. To rub salt to injury, the abductors of the 287 school pupils and students are asking for N40 trillion (amount more than the budget of Nigeria), 11 Hilux jeeps and 150 motorbikes, apparently to fortify their thieving industry. The payment of ransom unfortunately is actually what is financing and sustaining the industry of kidnapping.

In all these events, the only visible action of the government is for the President to summon an emergency security meeting and direct the security operatives to fish out the perpetrators of the dastardly act. The President will add that his government will not pay ransom but will not give a time line to rescue the victims of abduction.

Nobody will be held responsible for the lapse in the security arrangement that permitted such large number of students to be abducted and herded into the forests like cattle for hours without resistance or confrontation from any security agency.

Ordinary citizens are now offering to become negotiators between the government and the terrorists in what has become the most lucrative business in Nigeria – buying and selling of Nigerians like slaves with a view to collecting their own commission for the ignoble and criminal job of extorting money from the government or family members of the victims on behalf of the bandits in the name of ransom payment. The truth is that the negotiators are part of the criminal gang of kidnappers.

Throughout the 12th March, 2024, the only thing these Senators discussed was whether to suspend Senator Abdul Ningi or not. Nothing was mentioned about the raging insecurity and hunger of the people.

Examining the above scenario, is anyone in doubt that life in Nigeria has become poor, nasty, brutish, and short; that there is total absence of government in the security and welfare of the people, and that there’s non-recognition of authority or other controlling systems of government by these bandits and terrorists with no consequences on the outlaws. Ordinary citizens are now offering to become negotiators between the government and the terrorists in what has become the most lucrative business in Nigeria – buying and selling of Nigerians like slaves with a view to collecting their own commission for the ignoble and criminal job of extorting money from the government or family members of the victims on behalf of the bandits in the name of ransom payment. The truth is that the negotiators are part of the criminal gang of kidnappers.

As these things are going on, the Senators, the arm of government trusted by the Constitution to make laws for the peace, order and good governance are bickering on which Senator collected more money from the budget than the other for himself and his constituency. Throughout the 12th March, 2024, the only thing these Senators discussed was whether to suspend Senator Abdul Ningi or not. Nothing was mentioned about the raging insecurity and hunger of the people.

For the avoidance of doubt, what transpired in the Senate was another exhibition of anarchy in the National Assembly. It has become an institution where nothing is done according to law. We have always alerted Nigerians that the people are not ethnic and religious bigots, but their leaders, ignominiously resort to these primordial sentiments to whip up ethnic and religious sentiments in order to protect and sustain their incompetent and corrupt leadership. The leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele, stood up in the hallowed chambers of the Senate to tell Senator Akpabio, the Senate President, that Ningi’s action was a civilian coup by the North and the people he defeated to unseat him before 7th of June, 2024. He alluded to the fact that Saraki and Lawan were allowed to finish their tenure peacefully while every other Southerner who was Senate President was disgraced out of office. Obviously referring to the removal from office of the Senate Presidents from the South-East from 1999 – 2007, which saw the South-East producing about 5 Senate Presidents within 8 years.

These submissions are full of manipulations and half truths. What baffled me was how the leader of the Senate will be accusing a Senator of ethnicity while himself committing same crime of whipping up ethnic sentiments. Maybe he has forgotten that it was his brother, President Olusegun Obasanjo, that was the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and who largely and unpretentiously changed the Senate Presidents as he wished. Wabara was even handcuffed and prosecuted. No Northerner can be held liable for the changing of the Senate Presidents of South Eastern origin. Chuba Okadigbo was impeached for daring to allow the Senate Chamber to be used to mouth the impeachment of President Obasanjo. Majority of the Senators from the South-West signed up to his impeachment after allegations of corruption, for which he wasn’t charged to court till date, were levelled against him. Bringing those sentiments to support his assertion that North is against Akpabio is false and faulty, and an intentional invocation of ethnic sentiments for the self preservation of a failed leadership class of the Senate. The mere fact that the Senate will be discussing about a Ningi who obviously suffered from mouth diarrhea in his interview with the BBC Hausa service, rather than discussing the serious issues of security and welfare of the impoverished populace, is enough indictment of the incompetence of the senate under Senator Akpabio.

Let us zero in on the issues against Ningi which exposed a can of worms. Firstly, Ningi is a Nigerian citizen, before becoming a Nigerian Senator. As a Nigerian citizen, he is entitled to his freedom of thought, conscience, opinion, and expression. He is entitled to receive and impart knowledge and ideas the way he deems fit (Sections 38 and 39 of the 1999 Constitution as amended). His being a Senator doesn’t affect his rights of free speech as a Nigerian citizen. Secondly, he is an opposition Senator, whose duties include criticising the ruling party as and when he so chooses. Thirdly, he is the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum, who obviously, by virtue of his position, must ensure his section of the country was not shortchanged. Fourthly, his allegations were based on lack of transparency, accountability and corruption of the government, which he is entitled to do by virtue of Section 88 of the Constitution, which mandates the Senate to expose corruption, inefficiency and waste in any organ of government. In enjoying these rights, he is not compelled to be accurate in his submissions. This is the reason for investigations to verify the allegations made against anyone or any institution. To suspend Ningi, without first of all, investigating in details his allegations, smacks of an orchestrated, syndicated action to shut him up, and shut the opposition down.

On the issue of constituency projects, Nigeria as a country can do without constituency projects. They are corrupt and lack visible impact on the society and largely unconstitutional. It is illegal for the President to execute any project or law in matters outside the legislative competence of the National Assembly (Section 5(1)(a)(b) of the Constitution). Every constituency project that is added in a federal government budget concerning matters that should be the duties of the state or local government amounts to padding of the budget and there are billions of naira worth of such projects in this budget which make them unconstitutional. The executive has the sole duty to initiate heads of expenditure. (Section 81(1)(2)). The job of the legislature is to approve or disaapprove not to initiate heads of expenditure. This offends the constitutional principle of checks and balance if the legislature initiates expenditure and approves them. The fact that some items concerning the judiciary, INEC, National Assembly and others are on first line charge does not grant them the exemption from detailing their expenditure transparently for the National Assembly to approve and for Nigerians to be informed. All in all, Ningi’s observations are largely true and worthy of transparent investigation. Ningi should expose everything he knows about this budget and his suspension should be terminated immediately as no court has ever supported such suspension in the past. Suspending legislators and denying their constituencies their right to be represented on an excuse as flimsy as the exercise of free speech is an invitation to dictatorship and anarchy.

*Dr. Okonkwo is a lawyer, actor and public affairs commentator and can be contacted via okonkwokenn68@gmail.com.