Professor Tamunoemi David-West, the world acclaimed Nigeria-born virologist, once picked on a scenario and christened it “sane insanity”.

It was an absurdity in which an insane man, by societal standard, turned himself into a traffic policeman at no other point but the busy Waterlines Junction of the Port Harcourt/Aba Express Way.

He did the job so well that even the traffic policeman assigned to do the job stood and watched as he efficiently and effectively controlled sane men and women, some of who were in their posh cars, and they even obeyed him more than they obeyed the policeman.

Call it irony of fate, if you like, but the truth is, at some level of reasoning, insanity or madness is relative, it depends on the side of the divide you are.

There is also the reasoning that every human being has some level of madness in him. All it requires to manifest is the right temptation, good or bad.

Take the scenario in the Niger Delta, for instance. No matter how you look at it, from whatever perspective, the bottom line is that Niger Deltans, from whose land oil is got in Nigeria, as a result of which they suffer numerous problems associated with oil exploration and exploitation, demanded that their benefit, as of right, from the activities of oil exploration and exploitation is given to them.

Sanely and peacefully they had stated their demands for decades, but nothing reasonable came of it, not until recently when a few of them allowed some level of insanity to infiltrate the means of making their demands by way of carrying arms.

Following the availability of firearms it became natural that another level of madness came into play amidst genuine demand, in the form of criminality.

Experience has shown that the best thing to do is to avoid anything that would require inviting the Police. This is so because, if you let your matter get out of hand and you invite the Police, they are likely to see more than the reason for their invitation. A case of carrying home an ant-infested tree, what else do you expect but the visit if lizards?

However, following the more aggressive demands by the Niger Deltans, society (Government) tagged them “militants”, which condemned them to a level of madness or insanity. As the late reggae legend, Peter Tosh, puts it, “every body wants peace, but no one wants to talk about justice”.

Meanwhile, people in the Niger Delta region, by implication, had, prior to the use of aggression in fighting for their rights tagged the authorities as insane for allowing them suffer for the natural resources that God has blessed them with.

The question from the fore going, therefore, is which, of the two groups, is sane or insane, and vice-versa, and at which point?

The same scenario played itself again last week, when the Edo State government decided to take what many may be quick to describe as unorthodox means of checking criminality in the state.

Having tried orthodox or legal means without success, the government decided to put the fate of the state in the hands of traditionalists or (voodooists in modem parlance), various curses on those who choose to continue in criminality in the state.

A colleague of mine called it “arrant madness,” when he read about the development.

“In this modern age?” he asked rhetorically.

Nevertheless, the truth is that from all indications, orthodoxy has failed to check the level of criminality in Edo State. It has rather allowed the phenomenon to thrive. So, what is wrong with trying unorthodoxy for once?

After all, in the days of our fathers, when traditional belief was in vogue, but for minor theft such as pilfering, there was relative peace. Even then, a threat to invoke a deity or god against such pilferer was enough to make the person own up.

In fact, there is growing belief, albeit unofficial, that public office holders in Nigeria be made to swear to a deity or god rather than the constitution, or both on assumption of office.

The belief is that unlike the Western societies where the constitution is more frequently allowed to take its course, irrespective of who is affected, in Nigeria, it is easier for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle than a public official to be made to face the law, unless he has been seen to “bite the finger that fed him”.

Currently, there are growing feelings that what society may regard as insanity in Edo State could be what the State needs to bring about sanity in the State.

Hopefully, if the proposed succeeds, it will be no surprise that other state(s) may opt for such insanity.