Politicians and Violence in the Delta

The so-called "militants" in the Niger-Delta have spent the last 12 years alternating between working as violent enforcers for politicians, and stealing crude oil from our sprawling system of pipelines.

Now that we are in an election year, it seems they have gone back to working for politicians. The offices of the Labour Party in Yenegoa, capital of President Jonathan's home state Bayelsa, were blown up by persons unknown. It is not the only incident of violence related to the upcoming elections (there have been outbreaks all over the Federal Republic), but this one has all the markings of a "militant" attack. Heaven knows how much explosives the "militants" have stockpiled for blowing up pipelines and creating vast environmental damage via oil spills as a corollary to to their stealing.

Elsewhere in the Niger-Delta, the slavish mentality of the security services resulted in the avoidable deaths of 16 citizens (and in injuries to dozens more) at a campaign rally for President Goodluck Jonathan's in Port Harcourt.

For some reason our public security agencies have always acted as though they were the personal political servants of whoever occupied the position of maximal leadership. It has been this way since 1960. It was this way during the colonial era. It was the same in the pre-colonial era too.

Reform isn't just a thing we do on the outside to institutions, systems and structures. It is also something we must all do on the inside, in our hearts and souls. We must change the way we think. Those tasked with providing security to the public need to start acting like they understand their job description. They are supposed to protect we the people against illegal leadership and unconstitutional behaviour, yet they have always done the opposite, all the way to pre-colonial times, helping bad leaders impose themselves on us and compelling us to suffer for the vanity of these leaders.

In a way I don't blame the security men. If they hadn't acted the way they had, they would have been subject to disciplinary action (ironic, isn't that?), and we the people would not have stood up to protect them for the unjust treatment. But that is our collective faults. We are supposed to be working together, civilians and soldiers alike, so we can all live without having to distort our behaviour in negative ways just to survive in a system that rewards negative behaviour and punishes positive behaviour. But instead of working together ....