Beware the monster slayer becomes the monster

In order to successfully fight something, sometimes we have to embody it – to understand it and then decide how to dismantle it. Sometimes all we have to do is study it to understand its habits and manifestations. But other times, like a vaccine, we have to imbibe or take a little bit of the evil we are trying to get rid of before we can successfully overcome it. But what happens when we take too much of what we are trying to fight and we loose ourselves? The lack of social and formal justice in Nigeria is so deeply engrained in our system that it is extremely hard for us to fight the evils around us legally. This problem is especially disturbing in the battles to halt the cyclone of religious and ethnic bigotry which is engulfing the north and middle belt and to give women a firmer safer place to participate in governance. As a result, many monster slayers are becoming monsters themselves. A lot has been written and said, snarled out and spat up about the violence which followed the presidential elections and a lot of it has been reactionary as opposed to reflective. Without intent at justifying any type of violence, those who took to the streets to burn and loot and kill did so because they were allegedly upset at the results of the presidential elections. Why were they upset about the elections? Because after 12 years of PDP governance in particular and 50 years of independence, they are not satisfied with the state of affairs and their plans for a peaceful change – using the weapon of the ballot was taken from them. Arguably, the results of the presidential elections indicated the way the rest of the elections would go – with hated governors and state legislators remaining in office even when their antecedents have been woeful. The reaction may or may not have been the spontaneous rage of growing frustration with their powerlessness to be noticed, to be heard and to do anything meaningful about their lives. We are no strangers to election violence and neither are we distant cousins of religious and ethnic based rampage; but what seems to elude us is a sense of balance in looking at both sides of the equations. The newspapers are filled with statistics about how many people were killed in April (800 according to Thisday of May 17 2011) and how many churches were burnt (150) and rightly so a lot of coverage has been given to the members of the NYSC who died in the service of their country…and then silence. Muslims were killed too – there is a mother who was forced to watch her husband her 12 year old son killed before their bodies were burnt to a crisp along with their house and everything they owned. Many mosques were allegedly razed in Kafanchan and Zankowa and there are thousands on both sides displaced and living in camps in Kaduna but the media is oddly quiet about sharing these stories – so on both sides of the divide there is pain. But what hurts and keeps hurting like shards of glass imbedded in the soles of feet is the sense of abiding injustice and this is where the sense of frustration and hatred for each other grows.
Many Nigerians, both Christians and Muslims from different ethnicities– seem to agree that the Muslims in the north are the ones who always start ‘it’ and so it is only right, just, fair that the Christians give as good as they get. Fair enough – but when do you know when you are no longer defending and are now the attacker? Is fighting fire with fire the best way to handle a fireball or do you use water and/or sand? In this case the advocates for violence on both sides are thinking passionately but not logically and spurred on by angry words in the media and the anonymity of the Internet, the divisions grow. To successfully fight an evil – you have to empathise with the evil; not become the evil. You have to find the cause of the evil not just treat the symptoms. If it is generally accepted that the North has the worst and the lowest indices of development, poverty and education, then surely the frustration is understandable even when the violence is condemnable. However little public analysis has been done accepting the dismal state of affairs and what the solutions are. It is not clear what yet another investigative panel report will achieve. Like a never ending Animal Farm, the other ‘fight’ where the oppressed are taking on the characteristics of the wrong doers is in the crusade to get equitable participation of women in the public sphere. The benefits of having half of the population actively participating in governance and contributing to social policies are no longer in dispute. However, as women continue to be marginalised and kept out mainly due to custom and the unfortunately human inability to share power fairly, the injustice of this situation is spurring women to act like men in order to play and win in politics. Totally understandable especially if you think about issues practically – you can’t get into a bare knuckles kickboxing ring and expect to use gloves. But maybe there is another way. A way which does not include women joining a game where the rules are already rigged and stacked against them – by either using laws, enforcement and incentives to change the rules of the game or by starting other games which will attract other people. This way, women can get to showcase the best of their strengths and skills by using what they know about the effects of consistent marginalisation and under-representation to pull all the many divisions in our society together and campaign for a more equitable formula (than ‘zoning’) for ensuring representation. While the dynamics of power at every level from the basic social unit, the family to the most complex social unit, governance in the public sphere is complicated, women need a deliberate strategy which differentiates them from the men. It is not enough that women constantly react to the environment created by men; oppressing because they are oppressed, cheating because they are cheated and conniving and manipulating because they feel hard done by.
Until those caught up in religious and ethnic wars - either by swords or by words and until those caught up in the battles for gender representation – either by embodying the worst attributes of men or by attacking what is special about themselves, we will not resolve the issues. On the former, the Sheik Lemu led panel on election violence must culminate in at least three things in order for us to begin to close the divide – a published list of those who should be prosecuted for hate crimes; compensation for the loss of life and property suffered by all who were caught in the violence (not just families of the members of the NYSC who were killed) and a truth and reconciliation process so everyone gets to share their stories, look their tormentors in the eye and hopefully heal. On the latter issue, female politicians need to stop justifying the neglect of their duties and the cheating of their constituents and women activists need to be harder on the female politicians in holding them accountable to their office – no free passes for the women just to encourage them – let’s be hard on the men and women equitably and the support of the people will come. Women can play politics without descending to the lowest common denomination. If we all keep embodying the very same things we claim we are fighting against, we will keep paddling in one place – burning energy and going nowhere until we sink from exhaustion. As the government class of 2011-2015 prepare to take over on May 29, let us help them make a conscious effort to positively transform the way we push for change in Nigeria.