A Traumatized Nation By Malcolm Fabiyi

Since the turn of the 4th
republic in 1999, over 50,000
Nigerians have been killed in
the seemingly endless cycles
of ethnic, sectarian and
political crises that have
ravaged the nation. About
14,000 of these deaths have
been due to sectarian and
religious conflicts. These gory
statistics imply that the
fourth republic has surpassed
all others in the peacetime
killings of Nigerians.
Most of these deaths have
come about as a result of
mob action. The anatomy of
sectarian mob killings is
simple. A group of people
motivated by their hatred for
those who do not share their
faith or zealotry swoop down
on innocents and murder
them in cold blood.
The paradox of mob action is
that while each member of
the mob is as responsible as
any other for the murders
they cooperatively
perpetrate, the anonymity
offered by the crowd, allows
for a phenomenon that social
psychologists call de-
individuation to occur. The
consequence is a feeling of
guiltlessness, by the
perpetrators of even the
most heinous crimes.
If we assume that the
rampaging mobs that wreak
death and havoc during
sectarian crises are made up
of 10 to 50 persons, the
14,000 deaths caused by
sectarian crises since 1999
have therefore involved
about 140,000 to 0.7 million
perpetrators. Because the
crises have tended to occur
in a limited number of cities
across Nigeria – Bauchi,
Kaduna, Kano, Jos – some of
the perpetrators are likely to
be repeat offenders.
Each of these crisis prone
cities has endured at least
five incidents of sectarian
conflicts since 1999.
Assuming that these
perpetrators have
participated in at least one
attack leading to the death of
innocents during each of
those crises, we arrive at the
troubling proposition that
there might be anywhere
from about 30,000 to
140,000 Nigerians who might
have participated in murder
and mayhem, who are
walking our streets and
prancing around as if nothing
has happened.
None of these tens of
thousands of murderers have
paid any price for their
crimes. Their misdemeanors
have gone unpunished, as if
those whose lives they have
taken were stray animals,
and not fathers, mothers,
brothers, sisters, sons and
daughters who were violently
taken away from amongst us.
Every single review of
conflicts that have occurred
in Nigeria since 1999, has
noted the involvement of
prominent citizens in the
instigation and the funding of
sectarian and ethnic conflicts.
Despite the damning
evidence, there hasn’t been a
single conviction of any of
the perpetrators, or of their
masterminds and
paymasters.
And so, even as the bodies of
the dead continue to pile, the
sponsors of these heinous
crimes have gone
unpunished. The clerics
whose words fuel the fires of
discord, the political
opportunists who stoke the
embers of hate, and the
ethnic irredentists who fuel
the inferno of intolerance are
left untouched, and
unscathed. If anything, they
are rewarded for their
crimes. The more rabidly
hateful their utterances, the
more unyielding their
demands, the more invested
they are in the marketing of
hate; the more they are
rewarded with positions,
influence and contracts.
There are only two ways to
change behavior. Any action
that is not punished is either
tacitly or expressly
encouraged. The Nigerian
state, by electing to ignore
murderers and the purveyors
of violence has invariably
created an environment that
nurtures and provides
incentives for sociopathic
behavior.
For those who have ever
wondered why carnage
seems to swoop down upon
Nigeria without warning; for
those who are amazed at
how cities like Kaduna, Jos,
Bauchi and Kano can appear
to be normal in one minute,
and turn into a burning hell
in the next instant, they need
not wonder any longer. There
are murderers amongst us,
and with each massacre that
is swept under the carpet,
with each killing that goes
unpunished, with each
sponsor and instigator of
violence that is allowed to
taunt justice, we tighten our
embrace of impunity and
stand the risk of elevating
sociopathic tendencies to the
new social normal.
How many more must die,
before justice is done?
Sources:
1. http://www.unhcr.org/
refworld/
docid/4f71a675a.html
2. http://
nigeriamasterweb.com/blog/
index.php/2011/12/11/
nigeria-in-state-of-war

#CONSENSUS 2015