In my hometown, Ogidi in Anambara State, parlance, “akuku lue be onye ibilibi”- loosely translates to – “(when) a cliché gets to a crazy man’s house”. When a cliché gets to a crazy man’s house, it invariably takes a crazy twist. Like a cliché that got to a crazy man’s house, the talk about “restructuring”, has taken a wacky twist in Nigeria. Without an understanding of its meaning, or even, much thought to its significance, many Nigerians are singing its praises. They extol it, and tout it, as something of a panacea to Nigeria’s myriad of problems. An elderly politician recently summed up this sentiment when he said, “We are passionate about restructuring Nigeria, true federalism. By the time Nigeria is restructured, all the differences and all areas of conflicts that we are experiencing as a nation will disappear…”
Restructuring, in the Nigerian context, is so ambiguous that even those with an understanding of its meaning do not agree on its specifics. The earlier acidic debate on the essentials of restructuring between the Nigerian vice president, Yemi Osibanjo, and the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, dramatizes the word’s lack of a précised definition. I am all for restructuring. However, I have never been enthused by the endless tinkering with the Nigeria constitution because our problems are not constitutional, they are attitudinal.
The fundamental problem of the Nigerian society is lawlessness. Until we change our attitude towards the law, no constitutional arrangement will significantly improve the Nigerian situation; Nigeria will remain a disorderly country steep in corruption, social injustice, official brutality, mass poverty, etc. Apart from our ingrained propensity for breaking the law, a preponderant number of those feted by the Nigerian press and celebrated by the Nigerian society are law breakers: politicians and government officials that stole government money, wealthy criminals coronated as chiefs/kings and hailed as saviors of their people, pastors that pervert the Word of God and successfully fleece their congregation, etc.
Not surprisingly, many Nigerians take pride in breaking the law because they subliminally associate it with power and prestige. So, unlike in most societies of the world where a breach of the law is an aberration, and consequently, intolerable and deserving punishment, in Nigeria, it is normal. It is respect for the rule of law that is an aberration, a purview of the eccentric few. The constitution is the supreme law of the land. In a country with a culture of lawlessness, the constitution, irrespective of how exquisitely written and/or the ideals it encapsulates, will still be disobeyed and abused. Until there is an attitudinal shift: a drastic change in our attitude towards the law, no constitution can work efficiently in Nigeria.
Restructuring – the devolution of more powers to the states – will not automatically elevate our societal morals and ethics. “Characters are not so easily changed as laws”. So, no matter the changes made to the constitution to restructure Nigeria, Nigerian tendencies and habits will persist. Nigerians will still thrive in lawlessness and its doppelgangers of corruption, theft of public funds, political intolerance, abuse of power, etc. And the country and the states will still be ruled by the same political class unrivaled in its record of official brutality, arrogance of power, and the looting and tearing down of the country. Consequently, Nigeria will remain an anarchistic and unjust country still plagued by most of its present maladies.
With restructuring, police powers will be devolved to state governments. Have we not been appalled by the demonstrated political immaturity of many of the Nigerian state governors? Have many of them not demonstrated gross abuse of their presently limited police powers. The former governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim, routinely brutalized Nigerian citizens for the filmiest reasons. He flogged people, like Samuelson Iwuoha, for their critical views of his government. At his order, his security details beat up an elderly Catholic priest, and, at another instance, a woman that was taking her children to church. Their only offense was that they did not get out of the way fast enough for the governor’s convoy. Ohakim, even told the woman she was lucky that she was not shot by his security agents. Shoot a woman for not readily scampering off the road for the governor’s convoy? Na wa O! Abi the governor na God?
Despite a court order restraining him from demolishing the radio station, the Oyo State governor, Abiola Ajimobi, went ahead to demolish the Fresh FM because he was incensed by the radio station’s criticisms of his administration. The governor tolerates no media criticism, and therefore, harasses media establishments and punishes journalists for criticizing his administration. According to one Ibadan resident, “The demolition has more to do with political intolerance and a despicable attempt to gag the press than the enforcement of any building plan.”
It boggles the mind to image what some of these governors will do with a police force totally under their control. Experts of criminology postulate that policing should be local because the police tend to be most responsive and effective when they are drawn from the local population, and are therefore, conversant with the local terrain, language and culture. Ordinarily, the decentralization of the police should enhance the quality of policing across Nigeria. But, due to the Nigeria factor, hardly does any rule-of-thumb prevail in Nigeria.
In spite of the advantages of regional/local police, what kind of policing can be expected from a police force that is under the command of a governor that thinks it is justifiable to shoot a mother in front of her children because she did not get out of the way, fast enough, for the governor’s motorcade or a governor that defied a court order and demolished a radio station critical of his policies? That police force will inescapably be corrupt, anti-people and globally notorious for its trigger-happiness and extra judicial killings, just like the present Nigerian Police Force.
Until we restructure our collective attitude towards the rule of law, a restructured Nigeria will not significantly improve the Nigerian reality. Nigeria, for the most part, will remain what it is: a bastion of confusion, anarchy, social injustice and mass poverty.
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria