By Tochukwu Ezukanma<\/p>\n
The crime rate in Nigeria is inconceivable; it literally blows the mind.
\nFactoring in corruption, armed banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery,
\nritual killing, Fulani herdsmen unhinged murderousness, etc, Nigeria
\nmust have the highest incidence of crime in the world. Routinely, our
\nrulers bewail the spiraling crime rate; and attempt to address it. The
\nproblem with their attempts at solving the crime problem is that they
\ntrain their focus on the symptoms, not on the causes, of the problem.<\/p>\n
Not too long, the Kwara State Police Commissioner, Kayode Egbetokun,
\nevidently, expressing the sentiments of the police hierarchy, and, of
\ncourse, the Buhari administration, said, \u201cCrime has become a huge
\nindustry, attracting the greedy and absorbing the get-rich-quick, while
\nconstantly tempting and \u2026 employing the unemployed in our
\npopulation\u201d. To him, the solution is in augmenting the Nigeria police
\nwith Community Police. This seemingly impressive approach to fighting
\ncrime is, for all practical purposes, an exercise in futility. It is
\nanother charade that ignores the causes of the crime, and targets the
\nsymptoms. The problem of the Nigerian society is the criminality of the
\nNigerian power elite. As such, no crime fighting strategy or policy can
\nsucceed in Nigeria, until the criminality of the ruling elite is
\nsuccessfully dealt with.<\/p>\n
It is brazen hypocrisy for a ruling class steep in corruption, theft of
\npublic funds, disregard for human lives, and contempt for the rule of
\nlaw to fight crime. In his condemnation of hypocrisy, Jesus Christ urged
\nthe hypocrite to: first cast out the beam out from his eyes before
\noffering to pull out the mote out of his brother\u2019s eye. The problem
\nwith the hypocrite was that the beam in his own eyes was obstructing his
\nvision, and thus, distorting his perception. Consequently, he thought
\nthere was a mote in his brother\u2019s eye. If he removes the beam in his
\nown eyes, he will see clearly, and realize that there was really nothing
\nin his brother\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n
Once, the Nigerian power elite can deal with their own greed, thievery,
\nlawlessness, scorn for human life, etc, it will come to a consternating
\nrealization that there is really no crime to fight in the Nigerian
\nsociety. That what they, all along, perceived as the crime of the
\nNigerian society was only a reflection of their own crime. Thus, that
\nthe evils they, all along, attributed to the people were only mirror
\nimages of the evils of the ruling class.<\/p>\n
In ancient China, a scandalously corrupt, extravagant and hedonistic
\nking, Chi K\u2019ang Tzu, sought the advice of the Chinese philosopher,
\nConfucius, on how to deal with thieves in his kingdom. The philosopher
\nreplied, \u201cIf you, sir, did not covet things that don\u2019t belong to
\nyou, they wouldn\u2019t steal (even) if you paid them to\u201d. He lucidly
\nexpressed the nexus between the ways of the ruler(s) and the followers.
\nRulers are role models; by their conduct and attitudes, they shape the
\nconduct of the masses, and their mindset towards money, work, honesty,
\npatriotism, and virtually everything. Their influence on us is profound;
\nit infuses our homes, work places, schools, even churches. Inescapably,
\nwe behave like our leaders.<\/p>\n
What can be expected of Nigerians, a people, whose rulers steal the
\npeople\u2019s money with the ruthless and avidity that will amaze even the
\nmost hardened and conscienceless armed robber? Did the power elite not
\nsteal and divert to private bank accounts billions of dollars budgeted
\nfor the resuscitation of the power industry; and left an entire country
\ntrapped in utter darkness? Although schools were closed down throughout
\nthe country and no pupil attended school during the COVID-19 lockdown,
\nthe federal government \u201ccontinued\u201d with its school feeding programs.
\nIn its abracadabra, pupils that were at home were being fed at school at
\nthe cost of hundreds of billions of naira. It was later alleged that at
\nleast 267 billion naira \u201cspent\u201d in the school feeding program was
\ntraced to a private account.<\/p>\n
What can be expected from those whose role models – a former state
\ngovernor turned senator and his politically powerful son – stole 535
\nbillion naira from the state coffers? And what can be expected of
\ncitizens of a country where each state governor, in his inconceivable
\navarice and condescending indifference to the economic misery of the
\nmasses, in addition to his bloated salary and allowances, still,
\nappropriate for personal use, at least, 500 million naira every month
\nfrom state coffers? To give this brazen monthly theft a veneer of
\nlegitimacy, it is called \u201csecurity vote\u201d. Still, some governors
\nrefuse to pay the monthly salaries of state employees. States, like Imo,
\nAbia, and Kogi owe state employees many months of unpaid salary.<\/p>\n
Inescapably, like the horde of brigands and insatiably greedy that we
\nlook up to as rulers and role models, Nigerians are liars, thieves,
\nfraudsters, kidnappers, bandits, etc. Any genuine war against crime in
\nNigeria must first be waged and won within the ranks of the power elite.
\nOnce the war is won, the victory will immediately resound within the
\nranks of the Nigerian masses. The new elevated moral and ethical
\nstandards of our rulers will readily cascade to the masses and pervade
\nthe entire society, and the crime rate will dwindle to the point of
\nalmost insignificance.<\/p>\n
But until there is this successful assault on elite criminality, no
\ncrime-fighting theory, policy, and strategy can resolve the Nigerian
\ncrime problem.<\/p>\n
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tochukwu Ezukanma The crime rate in Nigeria is inconceivable; it literally blows the mind. Factoring in corruption, armed banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, ritual killing, Fulani herdsmen unhinged murderousness, etc,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n