Living in brutish and nasty era

By Fassy Yusuf

NO doubt we are living in an era that has made life to be brutish and nasty for the average Nigerian. It was Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), an English philosopher who in 1651 in his famous book ‘Leviathan’ expounded an influential formulation of social contract theory.

The main political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes is chiefly concerned with the way in which government must be organised in order to avoid war, unrest, and insurrection.

The philosophy encompasses a view of the typical causes of war, something akin to what the country is going through now. We are fighting wars against banditry, terrorism, etc. But are we winning?

For a nation that fought a brutish and bitter civil war from May 1967 to January 1970, the road to another war should be avoided like the plague. According to Hobbes, in a time of war, ‘life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’.

He argues further that in war, ‘notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have no place’. As many have argued, ‘all is fair and well in a war.’

Despite the existence of War Crimes tribunal and the United Nations guidelines on the treatment of refugees and war prisoners, no war is worth the efforts as jaw-jaw is always known to end all wars.

By engaging in social contract, people are able to live together within the society in accordance with an agreement that establishes moral and political rules of behaviour. Do we operate this in the country?

Social contract, according to political philosophers, is an actual or hypothetical compact or agreement between the ruled and their leaders that define the rights and duties of each, and they abide by the provisions in the contract.

Some of the best ways to develop a social contract include: the need to connect to values and principles of the contract; parties to ensure that desirable rules needed to run a just and egalitarian society are identified by way of a written but unambiguous constitution that should be the ground norm;

that the constitution and other laws are clear and specific; ensuring that consequences relate as directly to the law as possible; that there is equality, transparency, justice and good conscience in the polity; and that all stakeholders must believe in the engagement.

But what have we been saddled with shortly after the commencement of the current republic? After contending with the Niger Delta militancy, we encountered the Boko Haram (Western education is evil) insurgency that has transmuted to terrorism with its splinter groups; and now banditry, which has taken over the land and appearing intractable.

As we do know, banditry is a type of organised crime committed by outlaws involving the use of violence, threat and taking of hostages mainly for economic purpose. Bandits commits their crimes such as extortion, robbery, murder, and kidnapping largely in groups.

Why is banditry assuming a monumental proportion in the country? Some conspiracy theories, and some well-known reasons are, to my mind, responsible for this heinous crime.

These include political thuggery, proliferation of arms and ammunitions, our porous borders, inefficiency and irresponsibility of our security and border officials, collapse of our security architecture, the deplorable standard of education, corruption in high and low places, unemployment, drug abuse and cultism, inequity, and injustice.

From the North-west to North-central, from North-east to South-east, and from South-west to South-south, no part of the country is immune from banditry. Indeed, the Hobbesian era we are experiencing in the country appears unrestrained, brutal, ungodly, and a time bomb if not arrested and tamed.

The consequences of the present era are too dire. The economy is affected. Education is a causality. The social system is in a state of disequilibrium. And sooner than later, the country may become a failed State if the situation is not halted.

As a matter of desperation and exasperation, the country must rise in unison and ensure that something drastic is done to curb banditry. We cannot pretend all is well.

The Nigerian society has lived with too many issues stunting its growth and development. Banditry has become a major one. If care is not taken, foreign direct investments will continue to elude us as foreign countries that cherish their citizens would do anything to dissuade them from coming to invest in our country no matter how clement the incentives offered them are.

I empathise with PMB. He knows and says his team’s best in tackling banditry and terrorism is not good enough! So, what can be done? Military Service Chiefs have been changed. The Police hierarchy remains. The State Security apparatus remains.

The Nigerian Immigration high command remains. The Customs’ top echelon remains. Even if they are changed, what is the guarantee that the country would secure urgent and much needed victory in our fight against banditry and terrorism?

We need attitudinal change; we need patriotism; we need a new lease of life; and we need a new strategic direction that can ensure immediate turnaround of our security architecture. Our politicians largely need a complete detoxification of their mentality and DNA.

Without patronising military regime, most of the current issues- banditry, terrorism and what have you did not raise their ugly heads much whilst the military held sway in the country.

Where they did, they swiftly tamed and rooted out. The current administration in the country is headed by a retired two-star general and so much was placed on him hoping that he would take us to the Promised Land.

We pray PMB is able to handle the situation as it is unlikely that any retired military man would be allowed to administer the country again.

As a Nigerian living in our present Hobbesian era, life has not been palatable. I do not want to recount what we have been going through especially since the beginning of this year despite the oft-repeated promise that ‘we were seeing the last of banditry’, only to wake up to another news of more vicious banditry.

Our country may decide to be governable, which is the rational thing to do. However, we need a complete orientation and direction on security and management of issues within the polity.

We cannot afford to harbour banditry and other associated crimes. Enough of all these. Let the government organise the country in such a way that life would no longer be brutish and nasty.

Presently, nobody is safe, and no part of the country is safe. The only issue is that of relativity of safety.