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Jungle justice and culpability of the state

The recent increased frenzy in media reports of “jungle justice” on the streets of Nigeria gives serious cause for concern.

Jungle Justice is common in Nigeria

Please note that I said “increased frenzy in media reports” and NOT the jungle justice itself; for that has always been with us like the saying goes, “from time immemorial”! Though the media is now merely giving the despicable practice of “jungle justice” more front-page treatment’ it is commendable because that is part of the expectations or even obligations of developmental journalism.

As the late revolutionary reggae maestro, Robert Nesta Marley, popularly known as Bob Marley, sang: “if you know your history, then you know where you are coming from”. Needless to add that if you know where you are coming from, you will probably be better prepared to arrive at your destination quickly and almost effortlessly.

I put the responsibility for the growing incidences of “jungle justice” squarely and unapologetically at the doorstep of the Nigerian government.

You cannot sow wind and not expect to reap whirlwind. The multiplier effects of State sponsored violence over the decades have not only manifested in “jungle justice” reminiscent of what obtains in banana republics, but also in violent agitations from different segments of the society; such as students’ movement, ethnic militias, religious extremists, hiding under one genuine (or spurious) cause or the other  to unfurl destruction, confusion, and in many cases.

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These beastly acts on society lead to fear and uncertainty, while the government hopelessly and helplessly looks elsewhere in unjustifiable abandonment of the people.

In my Yoruba ethnic group, there is a saying that one who takes along his junior brother to bury his senior brother naked, is only telling/teaching his accompanying junior one how he should also bury him. The Nigeria State has demonstrated bewildering tolerance, encouragement and actual involvement and execution of violence in some instances; so much so that it is widely held, though erroneously, among the populace that the ONLY language “our” government understands is VIOLENCE!

It is pertinent, therefore, that we take a brief excursion into our chequered catalogue of State-perpetrated violence against usually armless, defenseless, helpless, powerless citizens and communities in Nigeria.

Before I go into details let me quote from Tejumola Olaniyan’s  Arrest the Music: Fela and His Rebel Art and Politics (Bookcraft, 2014):  “… on February18, 1977, resulted in the invasion and sacking of his residence (Fela) by nearly 1000 soldiers. Residents – including Fela- and guests were brutally beaten and bayonetted and scores ended up with broken heads, legs, backs, shoulders, arms, ribs; women were sexually assaulted; Fela’s ailing mother, Nigeria’s  foremost anti-colonial nationalist and feminist, was tossed from a second-floor window; and the house itself was razed – all in broad daylight, with thousands of citizens in the mostly lower-class neighbourhood  watching in disbelief.

The government’s commission of enquiry into the cruelty by its agents acquitted it of responsibility because, it said, “unknown soldiers” committed the acts.”

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Nigeria’s history, for long, has been dotted by the ugly specter of unmitigated violence by “unknown soldiers”! Ironically, or appropriately (?); Fela sang in one of his albums on the invasion of his house, “we have unknown soldiers, we have unknown civilians, all equal to unknown government”; a larger percentage of the populace has therefore, turned into “unknown civilians”, executing instant “jungle justice” based entirely and regrettably on the spur of the moment and  desperate resort to self help.

Another pertinent example is Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian dramatist, playwright, author, poet and environmental activist who had to pay the supreme price with his life.

In the strides of activists like Martin Luther King Jr., Indira Ghandi and so on, Ken, as he was popularly called, embarked on non-violent agitation  to draw attention to the environmental degradation of his immediate community and the danger of the Ogoni people, using the instrumentality of arts, including  his peculiar writing prowess, to draw global attention and demand for justice, equity, fairness and other fundamental human rights for his people as enshrined in the UNDHR of 1948, and to which Nigeria was and still, a signatory!

Ken produced weekly episodes of comedy on popular television stations, he also wrote and published many books including Soza Boy (written in “Rotten English”). In many instances, he even laughed at himself as he masterly pushed  his messages across; peacefully, and like a fire in harmattan, his ideas rapidly earned national and international support to the chagrin the of the state!

What happened to Ken? He was murdered by the state via a fait accompli military tribunal without an option of appeal. It must not be lost on us that this same military government seized the reigns of governance in the first place, by violence. In Fela-speak, they will qualify as a sort of “unknown government”

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Alas! Ken and Co were hanged, executed by the state; not even the visitation to the short-tempered General Abacha, by three renowned Nigerian playwrights, including Africa’s Nobel Laureate in literature, could deter the General. Ken and others not long after the plea-of-mercy; were hurriedly hanged, probably to forestall similar visits to the seat of government.

Another instance of State-sponsored violence is what happened in Lagos and in fact, all over the country, around July 4-7, 1983. There was a nationwide protest organized by the Campaign for Democracy (CD) over the inexplicable annulment of the June 12, 1983 president elections won by Bashorun M.K.O Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), an election which was adjudged as the fairest and freest presidential elections in the annals of Nigeria till date? To quell the protest the then (mis)ruling military despot, Sanni Abacha, called out the soldiers to repress ‘armless’ protesters.

Nearly 200 civilians were killed on the streets of Lagos and hundreds of others across the country! At Ikotun, a Lagos suburb, where I coordinated the protest along with others, I went out after about two hours siege of the town by mobile policemen, and I counted seven dead bodies killed by the police!

Perhaps as a sadistic icing of the cake, Abiola himself was eventually murdered just like his outspoken wife, Alhaja Kudirat Olayinka Abiola, who was shot in broad daylight on a the street of Lagos by a certified sniper who later became an “Unknown” sniper as part of the ploy by the State to cover up the killing!

As can be deduced from the fore-going, our history is littered with open and clandestine killings, violence and incivility by the state and its agents known for what Fela called “sorrows, tears and blood, dem (their) regular trade mark”.

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Come to think of it, have we forgotten that a military President, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, once openly and brazenly boasted and touted himself as an “expert in the management and execution of violence”?

So, jungle justice has been planted, continuously nurtured, and has been subconsciously engrained in our national psyche by the State!

The State has promoted the neglect of due process, arbitration and alternative conflict resolution such that centres for alternative dispute resolution, (few ones created by the government), should have been touted as great achievements but alas this is not yet the case! The mushrooming of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have also seen the establishment of the ADR, mostly on paper, as a source of juicy grant-hunting.

So much so that it leaves the public to only exhibit reprehensible attitude towards  the unbelievable and trite “police-is-your-friend” mantra of the Nigeria Police Force. They also see the police as possessing lesser capacity (but more decency?) than the military men, in wrecking violence in the settlement of minor disputes involving civilians!

It is not uncommon to hear an associate say: “You are at fault! Police? No! You should have gone to the barracks to get soldiers to pick him and lock him up, then his head would be straightened!” The language civilians now speak is of violence begetting more violence.

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Worse still, justice is only easily accessible to the rich. In courts. The corruption in the judicial system is such that Lawyers who have to pay official levies are unofficially requested to rub the palms of the court clerks for the files to “move”.

If this happened to the well-heeled in the society what do you expect of the economically marginal folks? Civilians who manage to report cases to the police (who they are told is “your friend”), would be lucky if they do not end up as accused! They will also need to “pay” for seeking police intervention, or they stand to be frustrated by what is commonly described as “come-today-come-tomorrow” method of the police. In fact, on their own, they stop going to the station or seek self-help elsewhere.

One more example will draw home my point; a worker in a textile factory located in Isolo was unlawfully shot and killed by trigger-happy policemen at a checkpoint, some time, in the early nineties on his way to work. The police authority duly arrested the officer and locked him up.

The victim, I found out had eight children. I, as the then coordinator  of Ikotun/Idimu Unit of CDHR contacted Barrister Femi Falana, and we visited the family house of the deceased. We held discussions with his elder brother, “Authority Falana”, as we called him then, explained our mission and readiness to prosecute the case free of charge. You know what? The senior brother of the deceased told us not to worry that he will use Psalms (in the Bible) to finish the man! This is to illustrate the lack of trust citizens have in the judicial system.

But as the Psalm and Quran finishing-up options got somewhat delayed, people are now resorting to immediate self-help via “jungle justice”. Students would rather destroy school properties before seeking audience with the management. Ethnic militias, for example, will rather blow up petroleum pipelines in order to get government attention. Political office holders would rather use armed youths and organizations to settle scores with opponents than to engage in any intellectual debate based on people-oriented manifestos.

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Undoubtedly, we need a total overhaul of the judicial system, massive reorientation of the populace, opening up the democratic space for accelerated and easy access to justice, popular and evidently efficient and effective alternative dispute resolution mechanism, and a government with demonstrated zero tolerance for violence at all levels.

Until then, the bestial, base and horrific issue of “jungle justice” will not abate. The populist, flash-in-a-pan scapegoating of erring officers has turned out to be what it is: abysmal failure!

A community, state, region, or nation engulfed by violence is a leveling respecter of nobody! No one is spared by the consequences of violence, either directly or indirectly in its ugly, negative multipliers.

In conclusion let me bring back the words of the Afrobeat king who put it most succinctly in one of his evergreens:

“Even Head of State no be citizen at any time, at anytime, Anytime anytime at all; that is why bazooka must dey for front at anytime, at anytime all the time, short-range thank must dey for back at anytime, at anytime all the time at all; because him no qualify for citizen at anytime, at anytime all the time at all”!

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With the recent bewildering reports of “jungle justice”, cultism, ritualistic practices, and violence across the nation, the time to seek for alternative ways of social re-engineering is now or NOW!

Tunde Oladunjoye, an itinerant journalist and consulting publicist, sent this from Ijebu-Itele, Ogun State. Email: oladunjoyelo@gmail.com

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