Nigerians keep dying as one group of non-state actors after another continue to challenge the government’s monopoly over the legitimate use of violence. The successful claim to absolute monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory is the key feature and distinguishing characteristic of a state, according to Max Weber, a social theorist.
From the south to the north, the list of criminal gangs is getting long, the number of lives lost even longer. From Niger Delta militants to the more recent Boko Haram and the so-called Fulani herdsmen, the country has lacked the capacity to police its territory or rein in groups that continue to challenge its legitimacy. So successful have these groups been in exposing the deterioration and powerlessness of the country’s security forces that even hitherto peaceful groups agitating for one thing or the other now resort to violence. Unrest, it seems, is the only means to get the government’s attention or force it to negotiate.
For four years now, criminal groups have visited violence on the people of Zamfara State, killing, maiming and destroying lives and property. In 2015 and 2016, the killers were said to be cattle rustlers and the president even ordered an operation – Harbin Kunama – to tackle the menace. Apparently nothing was achieved and, as usual, no one was held accountable for its failure.
Since then, the violence has intensified. Entire villages and settlements have been wiped-out, communities displaced, women and children mindlessly raped and abused. So bad and widespread are the killings that it is reported that in some communities, men flee to the bush at night leaving their wives and children at the mercy of criminals. It’s so despicable that rape and abuse are considered better options than certain death. The situation in Zamfara is akin to Hobbes state of nature, where there is no law, no authority and where life is nasty, brutish and short.
The government has remained aloof, pretending all is well, until the recent agitations by Nigerians on social and traditional media as well as demonstrations in Abuja. Now that it can no longer ignore the issue, government has now found a convenient scapegoat, miners in the state. Accused of orchestrating the killings, miners have been asked to suspend their work so as to end the killings.
Besides, the personal response of the president on his Twitter handle doesn’t offer much hope.
“I am constantly in touch with the security chiefs, and receive regular briefings on the situation in Zamfara and across the country. Let me assure that we will continue to do everything to motivate and equip them to respond effectively to all our security challenges”, he tweeted.
We’re left to wonder what new plans the government and the security chiefs, who have in the past four years utterly failed to stop the killings, have to put an end to these brutalities.
What about the state governor, Abdulazeez Yari, who, despite the daily killings in his state, virtually lives in Abuja and governs the state from there? Besides blaming the sins of the people for epidemics like meningitis, his efforts at tackling the killings include resigning as the Chief Security Officer of the state (even though provision of security is the first and primary responsibility of every government and he still collects the state’s security votes), and the hiring of local charmers to fight the criminals.
Like many analysts have suggested in the past, there is a need for the government to replace the service chiefs, to freshen up the security architecture of the country and allow new ideas and strategies of ending the rampant killings in the country. Security of lives and property is the first and primary responsibility of every government – and any government that fails to guarantee that has lost its right to govern the people.
Ultimately, there is no substitute for good governance that will engender growth, provide jobs for the jobless and allow people to live meaningful lives. This is the only sustainable way to ensure order and security in the society.
