MONSTERS THEY MAKE

I wrote some pieces, musings on country, that were published as opinion on 774ngr.com. As the year 2020 wraps up, I am bringing those pieces home, among my other musings, especially because the issues are still unsolved. This piece was started on October 28rd, and finished on November 8th 2020, in the aftermath of Nigeria's government's violent response to the #EndSARS protest. Sadly, even as 2020 ends, the Nigerian government is still in the business of making monsters.

Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash

Calling them monsters, calling them fake

Calling them monsters, make no mistake

They are the monsters you made!

Above is supposed to be a slight paraphrase of Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu or Burna Boy’s song from his 2020 album, Twice as Tall. The Nigerian government, Nigerian rulers and top tycoons are notorious for their monster making prowess.

Nigerian government consistently empowers criminal elements to fight their evil wars, and when their wars are won, they are unable to retrieve the arms they gave their foot soldiers. These foot soldiers use those weapons to inflict terror on the people, and the government turns on the people, holding them responsible for the violence that continues. We brand these as thugs, hoodlums, militants, bandits, or terrorists. Beneath their violent and monstrous acts are humans who underwent a conversion process through weaponization by the powerful and mighty!

Examine the militancy in the Niger-Delta, terrorism by extremist Islamic groups in the North-East, and the banditry by militant herders. What do they have in common? They sprung up in deprived regions of the country and have all created an ideology based on hunger- or poverty-induced legitimate grievances. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, an estimated 80 million Nigerians live below the poverty line of 137,430 naira ($361.66) per year. Another estimated 30 million Nigerians are on the poverty line, barely surviving. Even though, according to OXFAM, the combined wealth of the five richest men in Nigeria, $29.9 billion or 11.36 trillion naira, could end extreme poverty! And for many of those Nigerian billionaires, their wealth is from lopsided government policies, compromised government programmes, and shady deals backed by corrupt governments. Our senators are comfortable earning 14.25 million naira monthly, almost three times more than the earnings of US senators, yet minimum wage in Nigeria is 0.002 percent of their income at thirty thousand naira monthly, and the lowest minimum wage in the US, where their senators earn less than Nigerian senators, is 15 times more than Nigeria’s. Our government and their cronies have stolen and misused Nigeria’s wealth, and still do. They continue to weaponize poverty and have created an environment where for the slightest stipend, people are willing to commit violent crimes. Militancy thrives on anger and poverty to create converts, and hungry people are angry people. Militancy also gives a form of employment. They offer an economic advantage to marginalized people, where the government has failed to provide enabling environments.

Photo from Premium Times. Humans thronged warehouse to reclaim palliatives donated by CACOVID, which the government failed to distribute.

Photo from Sahara Reporters. Meanwhile State Legislator Alli-Macaulay was exposed as having used palliatives donated by CACOVID as souvenirs for her birthday. Such despicable benevolence

The Nigerian government does not stop at weaponizing poverty. The government systems fail at basic data management and record-keeping, even for critical items like weapons, especially when technology presents a myriad of options. The failure of
these, and the failure to apprehend money sources of criminal groups, even when it has been so easy to block funding for the EndSARS protests, as well as private accounts linked to the protests, point to a deliberate intention to sustain porous systems. As such, the government is responsible when poorly paid Nigerian soldiers returned home from peacekeeping missions and sold their weapons. If someone tells you that those weapons are acquired when the criminal groups attack Nigerian security officials, ask them which weapons were used for those attacks, and where they were acquired!

State actors have also directly armed civilians to fight their illegal wars. The government has used divide and rule methods to weaken any struggle targeted at government irresponsibility and failings. Who gave automatic weapons to supposed Andoni militants to attack their Ogoni neighbours in the 1990s? Andoni and Ogoni people had no major disagreements with each other before the attacks. Who instigated the conflict between the Okrikas and the Ogonis too? There have been anecdotal reports that the gang responsible for killing some police officers, the crime that was consummated in the Odi Massacre of 1999, was first recruited by a political aspirant to help win an election. The Boko Haram insurgency first started as a mutually beneficial relationship between them and politicians who needed their services to win their election.

This method of state-sponsored violence was repeated during the EndSARS protests. The protesters were attacked repeatedly in Lagos and Abuja. Their attackers were conveyed in buses and official and were not stopped by the Police. The government and security operatives stood by as thugs attacked peaceful protesters. They vandalized vehicles and injured protesters. They killed Andrew Unuode. When the protesters apprehended the attackers and handed them over to the Police, the Police rejected them, even though they had been arresting peaceful protesters across the country.

The Nigerian government creates violence, and when their hired hands act out of the script and destroy public properties and police stations, the government attempts to distract from their culpability by diverting the focus to blame social media for inciting violence. The one-sided anger should make their culpability obvious. Anger at peaceful protesters for refusing to halt protests, not anger at sponsors of thugs to frustrate the protests, not anger at security operatives extorting, torturing, and killing Nigerian citizens. Anger at fake news on social media, not anger at those responsible for the Lekki massacre, not anger at the death and disappearances of peaceful protesters. Anger at people who looted malls and warehouses, not anger at government and security operatives who failed to protect the lives and properties of citizens, not anger at the people who hoarded Indomie noodles and who continually loot the national treasury!

The government is posturing social media as the monster destroying Nigeria. Maybe social media responsible for the boko haram insurgency and the kidnappings on the highways. Maybe social media is responsible for extrajudicial killings, brutality, extortion and bullying by Nigeria’s security operatives. Maybe social media is the reason legislators hoarded donated palliative items to distribute on their birthdays.

One common threat peddled about social media is that if it is not restricted, it will mean the destruction of Nigeria. That is a big fat lie peddled by the main people that are destroying Nigeria. Yes! Nigeria is already on a path to destruction, and our rulers, the three arms of government – executive, legislative and the handicapped morally and ethically compromised judiciary – will complete the destruction patapata, if they continue the way they have been going. If we call their products thugs, hoodlums, militants, bandits, or terrorists, what should we call the government that manufactures them?