Tyranny of terror and dollarised party conventions

Horrific killings have become a common feature across Nigeria’s geo-political space to the extent that criminals have widened their tentacles, competing over who could inflict the greatest harm. On the other side is the government, elected to protect lives and properties but seems to be either bereft of what to do to tame them or complicit in the evil. Nigeria is fast becoming a state of normlessness or a state of nature where life is not only short but uncertain. While the presidential flagbearer of All Progressive Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is singing Emilokan (it is my turn to be president), Nigerians are afraid of Ta lo kan (who will be the next victim of insecurity) as they have become helpless. I watched the viral video of the torture-killing of a Nigerian army couple in the southeast, I viewed the emotionally disturbing ‘blasphemous burning’ of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto, and the tyranny of terror killings in a Catholic Church in Owo, the homeland of the sitting Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) which exterminated no fewer than 40 parishioners in cold blood with over 70 persons injured. The òwò terror attack on the church was a throwback to the early period of terrorism in northeast Nigeria when religious institutions were targeted, attacked, and victimized. The òwò massacre if poorly managed will induce fear, nurture perceived ethnic agenda of domination in the southwest, and may dangerously encourage ethnicized conflict.

But as terrorists were intimidated by deaths in òwò, money bags in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressive Congress (APC) Bùgá (intimidate and dominate) other aspirants through the purchase of delegates. The high cost of nomination forms was designed to exclude others. They also ensured their cronies became delegates. The role of dollars in a naira economy underscores why there is insecurity and why Nigeria remains the pauperized people capital in the globe. Across Nigeria, the broom and umbrella parties are in the political trading market where delegates have become traders of their conscience following the economics of voting the highest bidder as preferred by the leadership of their respective parties. Manifestoes of aspirants meant nothing as it was a waste of saliva to be addressing people whose ears have been blocked with dollars. After the emergence of Atiku Abubakar in the PDP and Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the APC (not leaving out Peter Obi), the journey is completed and we should be reflecting on our positions in the emerging order of things. At least, we will agree objectively that not only those in Internationally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps are IDPs, many of us are displaced and inside such displacements is our vulnerability to negotiate our survival with extorters and beg for stipends.

Kizz Daniel’s 2022 song, Buga, presents a useful analytical frame to situate current happenings in Nigeria and why terrorists see themselves as ‘working’, and delegates see the opportunity to dollarize loyalty. Kizz Daniel stresses the importance of being alert to shoot at an opportunity while it flies because it is a bird that never perches. Hence, being dull in the face of opportunity is considered unwise. He believes that those who work deserve to get paid but incidentally, Daniel refers to the dollar, the popular currency reportedly used at the 2022 party conventions of the two mega political parties that have not improved the life chances of Nigerians significantly but have produced more poverty, insecurity, decrepit education, health and road infrastructures. These two parties (APC and PDP) have jointly produced powerful individuals who consistently weaken institutions to allow them to have unfettered access to collective patrimony. If not, how does one explain a government with a cashless policy and digital naira policy aimed at driving financial inclusion and checking fraud participating actively in activities at variance with their publicized policies all in the name of politics? Politics is certainly an intimidating and burglarised phenomenon that renders the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) helpless in this instance.   

“Wake up Don’t sleep, no sleep. Wake up, Collect your money (collect your money) Wake up, eh Collect your money (collect your money), Wake up (giddem), Gbe’ra (gbe’ra o) Gbe’ra, go get that mullah (wake up), Oh, ah, mo ni ko kala (kala gb’owo yẹn o) Kala gb’owo yẹn l’ọwọ dealer” says Kiss Daniel implying that delegates, a rare status every four years need to grab that opportunity and collect money from the ‘dealer’ as against leader. A dealer is a merchant, a trader investing in a return for himself and his household while a leader breaks the ground of opportunities beyond his inner caucus. For the dealer, by the time return comes, it will be at the expense of the majority on whose behalf the delegates have collected dollars. Sadly, the structure of leadership emplacement across sectors has been erected by monetized loyalty. Politicians are just the macro representation of what happens in micro-institutions such as alumni associations, church/mosques, campus politics, and religious elections during which those capable of making positive impacts are edged out through the weaponization of cash.   

The terrorists who massacred innocent worshippers in Owo are also funded by someone who may be benefitting from the war economy. Dealers in people’s lives don’t bother about the negative consequences of their actions. They are like drug dealers who don’t care how illicit drug consumption is killing Nigerian Youths and inflaming insecurity. To Kiss Daniel, however, those who ‘work’ deserve their pay irrespective of what happens to others. “You don work, you don try-try, You suppose to dey j’aiye, j’aiye, Kilo kan mi kan person matter o? Person wey don mad, o, When I land, I land softly on a sofa floor, So far, so good, koni baje o. The use of the proceeds of ‘work’ is also to intimidate/dominate. The fight is tough, the stakes are high and the cost is high and at the end, those with big pockets, not necessarily those with what it takes to engineer positive change for the ultimate happiness of the majority get to the position, and the society suffer for it. From local to national, how many of those flagbearers want the best living wages for workers? Who among them will be treated in Nigerian hospitals? Who among the aspirants will allow their children to attend public schools? Who among them will their children enter the civil service and earn minimum wage?

The consequences of what is happening to us through politics which, unfortunately, determines what happens in other sectors are contained in the chorus of Buga where Kiss Daniel expects the favoured person to Buga won (show off or intimidate them). He says, Let me see you, go low-low-low. Let me see you, go low-low-low, buga wọn, Lemme buga wọn. I see this as a representation of happenings during the electioneering period. A typical politician comes down to the level of the marginalized (goes low), and pretends to be at the mercy of the delegates and the electorate while they trade with cash and make humanitarian interventions to gain support. After elections and when in control, the ‘dealer’ who purchased loyalty is now in a position to intimidate and dominate those who traded with him. At this time, the electorates are now “low-low-low” because they are faced with insecurity, poverty, poor education, and health facilities, and need the attention of the Buga executive. The dealer, as constituted authority, raises his shoulders and intimidates them to silence. Was that not the strategy used by the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari as a candidate and flagbearer? After getting to the office, Bulgarian becomes the trait, and the masses who complained are labeled ‘corruption is fighting back. Today we have landed in the land of the tyranny of terror, bugarised leadership, and dollarized patriotism. Unfortunately, the commodification of voters is almost impossible with the nosediving economic fortunes of Nigeria. But, if we can remain resolute and are determined to have a positive change to a peaceful, secure, and prosperous country, we would need to move against dollarized/commodified loyalty. The politicians are less numerically among the voting public. If the public mobilizes to be active in the coming polls and look for a more credible candidate from other parties, it may be our way to get real leaders into government and show dealers the exit door.

 

Dr. Tade, a sociologist writes via dotad2003@yahoo.com