Like in insurance brokerage, indemnifying provisions are promises made to pay persons whose insured possessions get damaged, lost or stolen, some money covering the value of such property. There is also life insurance, especially for persons whose activities or occupations involve some risks. These are common practices meant to foster confidence and reduce security risks in the affairs of life.
There are situations where people who take such insurance policies abuse the provisions, with intent to cheat the insurance companies. People have been known to fake their own death or deliberately destroy insured possessions, with the intention to defraud and abuse provisions of the insurance policy. There is hardly any possession of value that cannot be insured neither are abuses of indemnifying provisions limited to insurance brokerage alone.
We have heard quite a lot about repentant and de-radicalised “bandits” surrendering to military authorities in some parts of the country. There have been several questions and mixed feelings among Nigerians concerning such turnaround gambits, especially in view of the harms already done to the nation. When and how such bandits took up arms against the society have remained controversial, neither are many Nigerians aware of their demands and causes of the brawl. More importantly are the questions of sponsorship and procurement of arms with which the bandits have pursued their aggression against the society.
Apart from the issue of nomenclature, activities of bandits in Nigeria have been quite terrifying and traumatic to many people and communities. Also, to compare activities of the bandits with those of the Niger Delta militants would be a faulty reasoning. The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) from unfair economic policies, with regards to the oil and gas politics, had definite and clear demands. That the Niger Delta militants were granted amnesty was because the Nigerian economy would collapse if such step was not taken.
The bandits and their various allies did not engage in banditry to protect the gold deposits in the soil of Zamfara State from unfair exploitation. Neither did activities of the bandits stop with hooliganism and brigandage, common with banditry. There are records about farming communities being terrorised and farmlands being destroyed by unknown bandits, as well as women being raped in their farms. Worshippers had been murdered in places of worship by marauding herdsmen that no one would identify or arrest.
The clamour for Sharia law across Nigeria took a clever guise which thinking Nigerians would not fail to recognise, of which cattle is playing the pioneering role. When a former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, gave an alert about Fulanisation and Islamisation agenda, not many Nigerians took him seriously. Similarly, Dr Obediah Mailafia raised same concern. Now add these concerns to the Federal Government’s preoccupation with current agenda of farm estates across Nigeria, then any one can see the shape of things to come. Is it not obvious that some groups have some hidden agenda?
The concept of indemnity includes the fact that individual human beings, groups as well as nations are usually given several opportunities to correct deficiencies, negligences and imbalances. This derives from the fact that life on Earth is a learning process, whereby imperfect humans strive continuously to learn and improve for the better. We find in the upbringing of children that parents do not destroy or maim children because of childish infractions. Rather, parents reprimand, penalise and spur erring children to do better, which also includes exemplary leadership.
Even when children, like any other individuals, become recalcitrant and obdurate, there is always the expectation that bitter experiences provide some opportunities for remedial outcomes. This is why it is said that experience is the best teacher. Individuals and nations have been known to be recalcitrant and obdurate, wanting to push issues beyond safe limits of tolerance. Unfortunately, humans not only abuse the opportunities available, but also make unreasonable demands, where they can intimidate others without facing serious challenges. If No to Ruga, then take farm estate!
Thus, there is this human peculiarity of giving in to personal weaknesses, whereby evil continues to grow because of continuous toleration of weaknesses. Personal weaknesses, both in the average individual and in leaders, constitute vital points through which any individual or leader can be destroyed. Not quite the weakness itself, but having to indulge in it without a determined effort to stop it, counts as the danger. Weakness is indeed a present danger.
From whatever perspectives that abuses can be defined, they include indulgence or tolerance of personal weaknesses, to the extent that they become present danger to others. Smoking of cigarettes, for example, is not only dangerous to the smoker, but also to other people who inhale the smoke. So, a problem posed by personal weakness goes beyond the victim whose indulgent lifestyle spreads a peculiar virus.
One of the challenges which we must contend with in Nigeria is the culture or habit of indulgence, or continuous toleration of what we consider minor wrongs. Great harms usually grow from minor beginnings, when they are not checked early or nipped on the bud. What accounts for current acts of banditry can be traced to the attitude taken towards previous acts of brigandage and lawlessness. Political officer seekers explored and also exploited existing weaknesses to enthrone a culture of tolerating and ignoring minor wrongs, through throwing their political weight to protect wrong doers, for self interest.
The message for Nigeria is that we are currently reaping the sad harvests of previous sowings. More so, we grossly abused indemnifying opportunities we had in the past. What we call Nemesis provides several indemnifying opportunities before it strikes. When a petty thief takes too much for the owner to know, what happens is that the long-suffering owner sets secret snares to catch the thief when he does not expect. There is always a day for the thief who abuses several indemnifying provisions. Dr Mailafia is right to warn that Nigeria may soon become ungovernable! Watch out!

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