CHALLENGES AND LEADERSHIP:SOME THOUGHTS ON THE POST ELECTION VIOLENCE, AND A WAY FORWARD

It takes some courage for media people to attempt to make sense of a problem for which it is a major part. The Nigerian media failed to keep its head above the waters when everyone else was dooming in the senseless and destructive pandering to the lowest elements of our national character. When politicians went beyond all the safety zones in order to acquire advantages over opponents, the Nigerian media proved a perfect cheerleader. When leaders’ politicians acted in a manner that deprived them of the vestiges of all dignity, honor or respect, the Nigerian media dug deep into its considerable reserves of language and influence in an inglorious effort to rationalize and justify their actions. When the laws of the land were being cynically manipulated under the guise of amendments; when leaders quarreled violently over the rules they themselves made; when members of the national political elite put on tribal and religious toga(s); when  the game of politics was being played in a manner that suggested that even the nation can be wrecked in the course  of acquiring its leadership, the media took its place as an active player, a dangerous game that involved everyone else and took no prisoners.

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TEXT OF THE REMARKS OF DR. HAKEEM BABA-AHMED,oon,YARIMAN JAMAA, EXECUTIVE CHIARMAN, D.I.T.V/ALHERI RADIO, AT THE ROUNDTABLE ON POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE: THE WAY FORWARD, ORGANIZED BY THE NIGERIAN  UNION OF JOURNALISTS, KADUNA ON 4^TH OF JULY,2011. 

If this represents a harsh critique of the Nigerian media, it may be the case that its place and importance in determining or

influencing the Nigeria’s political process has always been exaggerated. Personally, I subscribe to this position, but one has to place on record the fact that in the history of Nigerian politics, the media has never wrecked more damage to the nation that it did in the period leading up to the 2011 elections, and beyond. If this audience is curious why I should start this contribution with a criticism of the Nigerian media, it is because I am hoping that in spite of its fundamental structural weaknesses, which include being hostage to increasingly-narrowing ownership and constituency, it will find its mission to shape a future in which peace and economic progress are guaranteed.

The most pronounced problem in finding the way through the post-election violence is the apparent failure or absence of a will to ask the most basic question: what just happened in April, 2011? We all know that there were riots, burnings, mass killings and now, in Kaduna State and possibly in one or two other areas of the north, there is total breakdown of community relations, trust and confidence. We also know that the Federal and Kaduna State Governments have set up Panels to investigate the post-election violence. It is also a fact, but perhaps less appreciated, that these Panels will provide the new battlegrounds for the parties in dispute; and the huge expectations which they will generate may end up creating more problems than they will solve. What is beyond doubt is that Panels will not provide the framework for lasting and sustained peace, and they can never meet the demands of all parties for establishing acceptable thresholds of justice and security.

The search for answers to the question, “what happened in April 2011?” will have to go deep into the run-up to the elections. It is vital that the background is understood, if any sensible step will be taken towards dealing with the huge problems which the 2011 elections have thrown up. It is also very important that the leadership and the nation do not behave as if the problems which created the environment for the violence and the consequences of the violence will just go away if the nation attempts to move away from them. I have provided what I see as some of the challenges before President Goodluck Jonathan in an article titled “A difficult past; a challenging future”, which was published in the Daily Trust of 28^th of May, 2011.

Anyone who had observed political developments around the north before the elections would have been hard put not to expect some form of explosion. Ordinary citizens and millions of young people living on the margins of existence had hoped that 2011 elections will make a real difference in their lives. The President’s public commitment to conduct free and fair elections, and the appointment of Professor Attahiru Jega as INEC Chairman were taken as welcome evidence that the nation will have credible elections. But the disputes over zoning in the PDP and the dangerous exploitation of primordial sentiments among Nigerians created huge integrity and credibility gaps around the actions of politicians. Violence was all around us: violence to laws of the land; violence to rules and traditions; violence to the hallowed standing of traditional and religious leaders who were all thrown into the fray, many of them kicking and screaming in protest, but many others as willing tools in a game which recognized no neutrality. In a commentary which we carried on our D.I.T.V and Alheri Radio news bulletin of 1^st of February 2011, titled “Descent to Anarchy”, we drew attention to the escalating levels of violence around political issues:

Slowly but surely, the circle of widespread violence with heavy political and religious undertones is spreading in many parts of the North. Old flashpoints such as Tafawa Balewa are merging with the dangerous fires which have burned in Jos for more than two years, as well as the creeping insurgency on two wheels which has made Maiduguri a most dangerous place to live in, especially for soldiers, policemen, and politicians from a particular Political Party Primaries or conflicts between political parties will provide additional fuel for these crises.

There is no doubt that politics has a major influence over the escalating violence in many parts of the north….. unless decisive steps are taken in the next few weeks to deal with the deteriorating security situation in Plateau and Borno States, places like Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna and Kano will live on dangerously high tension and it will only take a small trigger… to start major conflicts. Political competition will worsen the situation, and many politicians may seek to achieve their own goals under the cover of existing conflicts.

The prospects that the April 2011 elections will be conducted under a secure atmosphere are very poor. President Jonathan must go beyond routine condemnation of bombings, killings, riots and a creeping sense of national insecurity, and act with courage and firmness to deal with this dangerous decline into anarchy. If Governors are the problem, either directly because they cannot handle the security situation in their States; or because they represent major targets of the conflicts and cannot therefore isolate their offices from the conflicts, there are legally prescribed procedures for dealing with them. Major breaches of security that go unpunished merely encourage others to cause more breaches. Prolonged assault on the capacity of governments to protect lives and property erodes their legitimacy in the minds of citizens and encourage people to assume responsibilities for their own security and safety. This is the perfect recipe for chaos and anarchy.

The vast majority of Nigerians want to live in peace. They are looking forward to the April elections when they believe they will make a difference. They are terrified that the creeping violence in some parts of the country may reach and affect them. They need firm and decisive assurances that the Federal and State Governments will protect them from death in the hands of rampaging mobs or assassins. Those with responsibility for peace and security in our nation need to sit up and do their jobs before the whole nation is engulfed in an irreversible conflagration (posted on www. baba-ahmed.blogspot.com).

        Nigerians watched leaders and aspiring leaders take our nation to the brink. People who had no respect for the laws of the land, who were willing to subvert every decent standard of civilized existence, who used frightening amounts of money to buy off opposition, or hire  thugs to fight it off if it cannot be bought, or buy their own positions in their Parties, were asking Nigerians to trust them. When Politicians lost the high moral ground, they resorted to peddling their religious beliefs. This was the most dangerous pitch, but one guaranteed to touch the most sensitive and largely uncritical nerve. Again, as far back as January 25^th, this year, we commented on the dangerous incursion of religion into the political campaigns, carried principally through inciting text messages:

Since the PDP Convention, and even long before it, campaigns on religious grounds have assumed frightening dimensions. Before the PDP Convention, the campaigns were low-keyed, and they centered basically around creating the impression that President Goodluck Jonathan represented Christian interests, and Atiku Abubakar represented Muslims. After Atiku Abubakar lost the nomination to President Jonathan, [the messages] became bitter and more abusive, and inciting. Muslim Governors from States which overwhelmingly voted for Jonathan were abused with titles for Christian clergy, and Christian [messages] celebrated Jonathan’s victory as the victory of Christianity over Islam.

The battles moved from Eagle Square to Churches and Mosques; and our telephones. More and more people were seeing the forthcoming elections in purely religious terms. Political Parties other than PDP were fuelling this dangerous trend by appealing to Muslims to vote for their own candidates, because the PDP is fielding a Christian candidate. The cumulative effects of these messages will be to sow the seeds of deep hatred and future conflicts in our hearts and our actions. Nigerians will be completely polarized along two religious lines before, during and after the elections, Muslims, particularly those from the North, will be made to believe that their faith is under attack, and the elections will be like a war they have to win to defend Islam. Christians are being made to believe that they are on the verge of destroying the dominance of Hausa-Fulani Muslims, and Northern Christian minorities are about to achieve a historic victory for freedom.

Tensions will rise, and the inevitability of conflicts and widespread violence around campaigns and the elections and post-election issues will put the nation’s unity and security to a severe test….. some people are sowing dangerous seeds of hatred and conflict in our nation, and all of us will pay the price for it. No election in this country has exposed our weaknesses as a nation as much as this one, and no election has used religion and other dangerous propaganda as much as is being used.

The point of the lengthy quote from our commentaries on the issues relating to the build-up to the elections is not to say we told you so. The point is to warn against complacency, and an attitude which will inform a strategy of ignoring a problem and hoping that it will go away. The issues which may have precipitated the post-election violence are very much with us. They are, basically, an irresponsible leadership and a section of the citizenry which was largely primed to expect radical change in their lives from a past which made them paupers in the midst of plenty; and who are powerless in a political system which is supposed to give them powers to choose and change leaders.

       When we commented on the globalization of the values that citizens elect and remove their leaders, or rise up against them as in the Arab world; and the globalized media opportunities for every part of the world to see this, we warned the nation over ignoring the impact of events in North Africa. An the 18^th of March, 2011, our Commentary titled” How we see the world” said:

Our young people see and hear and admire what happens in Tunisia, in Algeria, in Libya and Egypt, and while many Nigerians think events there cannot be replicated here, Nigerians need to pay attention to the lessons which our young people are drawing from them. Culturally and politically Nigeria differs substantially from North Africa; yet a major dispute around elections or disputed results will have a devastating effect on our country’s peace and unity. Our young people may be tempted to think that a massive protest against disputed results will result in a just and fair settlement, the way they see leaders flee or resign in some parts of Africa. They may even think that sustained violence may redress electoral grievances. They may be tragically wrong, but the nation will have to pay a huge price to prove them wrong.

         The nation is now paying a huge price for the tragic reaction of some of its citizens following the elections. What will be more tragic, however, will be to ignore the fact that all the key factors and actors who combined to act out that tragedy are very much around us; and there is no guarantee that the violence we saw in April 2011 has worked itself out. In brief some of these factors are:

A).    The desperate clamor for elective offices in Nigeria, and the dangerous linkages between public /elective offices and personal wealth and political influence. The linkage between political power and widespread corruption has made politicians more desperate to acquire or retain power; and their opponents equally desperate to remove them by all means necessary. Citizens have neither faith nor expectation that elected leaders will lead with integrity and competence, or use public resources to make differences in their lives;

B) An electoral process which progressively delivers less than it promises, and which has been stubbornly vulnerable to the cynical manipulation of corrupt politicians. Most Nigerians do not believe that the democratic process will change their lives, so long as the electoral process continues to produce widely- disputed or questionable results. One of the worst legacies of the 2011 election-related violence is that millions of Nigerians now live in fear over what will happen in 2015 if fundamental flaws in our political and electoral processes are not fixed. Millions more worry over the question “who will fix it”?

C) Unacceptable levels of poverty in a country which should do much better in this area. In the minds of most young Nigerians, they owe this nation nothing, because it gave them nothing. Those who go to school are not educated. Those who don’t, or have no skills either, have no encouraging future to look to. The economy produces more for the few rich, while our towns and cities are bursting with restive populations who have no respect for laws, leaders or legions of security personnel. Politics represents only an avenue for raising expectations which will not be met; and with no faith in any process, many choose to take their pound of flesh when told that their candidates have lost elections;

D)  Leaders who have very little clues on how to respond to the manifest anger and frustrations of many of their citizens who are disappointed with them. The post-election violence was limited almost entirely to the far north. There ought to be a lesson in this for any discerning leadership. Northerners do not love free and fair elections more than other Nigerians. And rigged elections are a national past time. So why did the far north react in the way it did? The phenomenon of the April 2011 must be understood in its political, economic and social context.

E)  A widening leadership vacuum in the north particularly, and in the nation in general. Anyone familiar with the relatively rigid social structure of the far north, and in particular, with the assured places of the clergy, traditional rulers and sundry persons who embody authority will recognize the fundamental shift in the perceptions and actions of many people regarding this layer in the structure during the violence. The April 2011 violence did not expose or humiliate the traditional layers of authority in the far north: it merely exposed how badly it has been eroded. Students of power, who see leadership as a major element in social cohesion and economic progress, will observe a palpable absence of another layer which may appear to have supplanted the traditional layer. Which forces the very worrying question: who calls the shots in northern Nigerian politics?

F.) In a way, the issues I have raised above represent both the questions and the answers to the theme of this Roundtable. Fundamentally it is very important that the leadership of the country and in the north understands exactly the genesis, dimensions and implication of the violence. Scapegoating and the search for easy targets will not do. They will only create new enemies, while the old ones wait to strike again.

      It will also be very dangerous to think that the April 2011 elections were flash-in-the-pan events. Serious efforts need to be undertaken to understand their root causes and deal with them. All our leaders should share the blame for stoking the fires that burned in April 2011. Now they have to, each in his own way, find a way to prevent a situation where our elections are worse than wars for our people.

      Even though the electoral battles have now moved to the judiciary, we need to undertake a serious review of the elections and the electoral process. In simple terms, the violence was linked in some ways to the elections.  INEC needs to do some serious soul-searching, if only to establish why an election which it and some Nigerians say was free and fair could also generate so much bitterness and violence. The judiciary has the added responsibility of being even more of the guardian of the public interest than it has ever been. Every disputed election must be heard fairly, and judges and the judiciary as a whole must avoid a situation where millions of Nigerians lose complete faith in the democratic and electoral process, which includes the role of judiciary in settling election disputes.

      The rest of Nigeria is moving further and further away from the north in economic terms. The region risks being seen as a major liability for the rest of Nigeria. New thinking and an honest management of its resources to rebuild its economy around its people is needed. In real terms, only Governors of the Northern States represent any tangible value as leaders. This group has either pocketed all others, or has severely compromised them. New initiatives to engineer the growth of northern political leaders are needed, but it is doubtful if the current political dispensation will do this. A combination of the reduction of the visibility and influence of the old guard, a commitment from many professionals and technocrats to move into the political sphere, and a major effort to build bridges and reclaim a substantial part of the north’s old unity must be adopted. The north without political power is completely irrelevant in Nigeria, and its strength lies not just in numbers but in the successful management of its heterogeneity.

CONCLUSION

      The April 2011 election-related violence was a major breach in the history of Nigeria. Attitudes which dismiss its outward manifestations as reactions from an ignorant and spoilt people who lost out politically, and who should be contained will seriously damage the possibilities that it can be put behind us permanently. So will be attitudes which suggest that the violence represents a permanent threat around our neck, and all political activities in future must be tailored around it. We will need an enlightened, forward-looking and pro-active leadership, particularly in the north, to come to terms with it. A useful starting point is for all States in the North and the Federal Government to rally around the people and government of Kaduna State to help us deal with the huge refugee problem; to rebuild trust and confidence among ethnic and religious communities; to reclaim the peace and security we all worked so hard to build for many years; and to move beyond April 2011. Because if you do not fix Kaduna’s problems, you will not fix the problems which the post-election violence has thrown up for Nigeria.  

                                                                                                 

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