Vicious Circle Of Criminality

There is an extant theory in criminology which states that to condone crimes and pamper criminals is to foster criminality in any society. Reacting to a previous publication, a reader sent the following text: “With reference to your article: Water of Mara, (The Tide, Friday 5/3/2021), you made reference to a northern politician accusing the Niger Delta militants as the originators of kidnapping and other menaces. If we can listen to our conscience, who and where did these menaces start and so-called Amnesty by Yar’ Adua helped to worsen the situation? When you collect one gun from a bandit and pay him money worth 5 guns, what do you expect? …”
The security situation in Nigeria as a developing nation, is not new in human history. Rather, what is vital in handling social menaces should be our primary concern. It would not be wrong to say that leadership is a key factor which determines how a nation fares, with regards to development and stability. Next to leadership is the issue of social justice; but unfortunately, leadership failures usually characterised by social injustices result in social anomie and acts of impunity. Leadership is not a task for everybody.
We are told in Shakespear’s Measure for Measure that “Thieves for their robbery have authority when judges steal themselves”. Similarly, “when law can do no right, let it be lawful that law bar no wrong”. When a foundation is faulty, all forms of padding and excuses would not prevent cracks from emerging here and there; neither would cosmetic palliatives help matters.
Those who lead should have the intelligence to recognize the fact that the masses are not usually as stupid as they may appear. In the case of Nigeria, there is a growing impression that governance is an exclusive elitist affair, characterised by hustling among power-blocs. A people –oriented governance would be characterised by empathy and social justice, whereby the interests of the masses, rather than their votes alone, would count. Nigerians are yet to see the social contract theory of governance!
Let us not pretend to be ignorant of sources and causes of the insecurity and other menaces being experienced in Nigeria currently. To continue to pretend would be to postpone the evil day, because, issues are not resolved by sweeping them under the carpet. Perhaps, without knowing it, the Nigerian Civil War succeeded in installing a class of predators of which the military played a leading role. Jean-Jacques Rousseau would tell us that “legislative power belongs, and can only belong, to the people” and that any law which the people have not ratified is void.
When wealth and power and strategies to have a monopoly of them become the focus of politics, then a cult of predators emerges whereby social justice would not be an issue of concern. Let us not forget, in the words of Soyinka, that “the 1999 elections were held, and a government sworn into office without public knowledge of the contents of the enabling constitution.” As a coercive institution, can we deny the fact that the military injected coercive temperament into political practices in Nigeria?
Apart from the fact that a former military macho man described politics as a do-or-die affair, Nigerian politics can hardly foster social justice. Neither would such political culture place any value on the social-contract principle of politics. Therefore, what we have currently is a buccaneer system in which acts of brigandage, abuse of power and other forms of injustices feature in politics. Decent persons would not want to participate in such activity.
Behind all the aberrations in Nigerian politics is the issue of mineral oil and gas, which obviously brings the Nigerian political economy into the network of international power play. There’s common idiom that when two elephants fight, the grass suffers most. In the case of Nigeria, this translates into the Nigerian masses becoming the victims that must bear the brunts of the power play in whose vortex lies the Nigerian political economy. So the issues of social stability, social justice, political and economic practices in Nigeria are more complex issues than many people would appreciate.
The concept of globalisation would demand that Nigeria as a nation should be able to march along with global tempo of activities, measure for measure. Unfortunately, where a disadvantaged partner must compete with champions, there is bound to be anomalies which would place the weak partner in greater disadvantage. Nigerians may not be aware of the fact corrupt practices are deliberately foisted and promoted in the global system as a strategy to place weak nations in continuous instability. We are the manufacturers and merchants of fire arms?
Therefore, to understand the vicious circle of criminality, it is necessary to look beyond Nigeria for the mechanism of global crimes. Yes, embittered youths in the Niger Delta zone which produces the oil and gas that fuel the Nigerian economy, took up arms as a means of pursuing social justice. Kidnapping of foreigners and locals for ransom featured in the agitation for justice. As the unpleasant effects of such acts of criminality undermined the nation’s oil-based economy, the administration of Yar’Adua gave Amnesty to the Niger Delta militants. A Greek gift!
It may be wrong to resort to crime in the search for justice, but in a situation where violent reactions can send out the right message, does crime not become a weapon of justice? For obtuse and recalcitrant leaders and individuals violent reactions do have salutary effects. Now, who is to blame for the spread of crime: those who are pushed into crime or, those whose obtuse and recalcitrant postures force embittered people to resort to crime? Politics comes in.
The argument that Niger Delta militants introduced violent crimes into Nigeria, and that the Amnesty granted to them should also be granted to other violent criminals and militants, would be a faulty argument. To take up arms for purpose of justice, is not the same thing as taking up arms to force an ideology on a heterogeneous populace. Niger Delta militants agitated for resource control and a fair share of the oil and gas coming from their zone. But other militants want to spread an ideology. Who says there is nothing to restructure in Nigeria? Equity operates with clean hands!

Dr. Amirize is a retired lecturer from the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.