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The Hisbah Threat is Real By Barr. Etete Nyiang
In every human society, the maintenance of law and order constitutes one of the major pillars of development. Therefore, whatever the resource endowments of any country, it cannot achieve meaningful progress without minimum guarantees for peace and security.
As a pluralistic society, Nigeria has experienced a rather chequered development history. For some four decades, the nation tottered through barely ten years of civil rule and thirty years of military dictatorship. In May 1999, a glimmer of hope blinked in the horizon as democratic governance was instituted in the country. Aware of the depth to which the nation and its people had been sunk, the administration introduced a comprehensive package of reforms designed to sanitise the economy, polity and society at large.
The road has not been easy, especially with regard to micro economic reforms. Even as positive results are evident to majority of Nigerians, those who do not wish the country well have continued to lay trip-wires along the path to sustainability and meaningful development. These threats have come in various shades and are unmistakeably devious schemes to both discredit the present dispensation and destabilise the country. From the lessons of history, the greatest threat today is posed by the ethno-religious security outfit known as Hisbah.
In the wake of the introduction of Sharia Law by the Kano State Government, the Hisbah Corps was set up supposedly to enforce the provisions of the legislation. Recently, however, the State has been planning to upgrade the corps into a full-fledged security outfit. More worrisome is that the State Government is reported to be seeking foreign assistance to train selected Jihadists on intelligence and the practice of jihad’. These are clearly illegal and provocative acts against the Federal Government of Nigeria, which is the constituted authority on security in the land.
It is very interesting that this and similar threats are emerging in this critical period of our development. In barely a month’s time, Nigeria would have the opportunity of conducting its first credible National population Census since its attainment of independence. With the tremendous support of our development partners and the political will of the Obasanjo administration, this Census will lay the real foundation for effective planning for meaningful development. Yet the spoilers are at work, trying to cause disaffection across the land.
This year will also witness major political alignments and realignments for the next dispensation. Here again, the predators who know that they stand no credible chance to foist their predatory inclinations on the country’s resources, are selfishly working towards destabilising the polity and society.
Like Play, Like Play [as we say in local parlance], we are, through acts of omission and commission, breeding and nurturing human instruments of mass destruction.
Criminal behaviour supposedly aimed at promoting one’s religious faith, is unacceptable to all decent societies. Using suspect platforms, war lords are steadily emerging in our country. Their sponsors certainly do not wish Nigeria well, because they are aware that their purposes are not people-oriented. They are deceiving segments of the citizenry by whipping up ethnic and religious sentiments against the present dispensation. All people of goodwill must expose and stop them now!
When we watch the experiences of some other countries on television, they look like movie scripts being played out on location. But they are not. It is the likes of what we are witnessing today in Kano and elsewhere that mushroomed into terrorist bands in Iraq, Somalia, Palestine, Bosnia, Serbia, Ivory Coast, among others.
There are constituted authorities for the maintenance of law and order in every society. And the principal agency in our country is the Nigerian Police Force. Support civilian outfits must be approved and supervised by the Police. If ever State Government, Local Government, Community, Institution or Corporate Body should establish and run their own security outfit, the outcome is better imagined than witnessed. Setting up a parallel agency [supposedly for specialised enforcement] is clearly taking the laws in our own hands and indulging in the practice of jungle justice. Clerics across the land assert that all religions are for peace. So, what should be our responses to those who unleash insecurity and mayhem on the populace in the name of religion? Let us ponder these things!
The threat of the Hisbah and their likes to our nation and people is real, and cannot be wished away. The authorities in Kano State should as a matter of urgency, disband and DEMOBILISE the corps before the situation gets out of hand.
On its part, the Federal Government should not condone these threats in the interest of the larger society. Doing so will lay a dangerous precedent, which would explode sooner than later.
In the final analysis, the pursuit and maintenance of peace and security in the land form part of our collective responsibilities. At the levels of Governments, political leadership, traditional rulers & community leaders, security agencies and the generality of the Nigerian citizenry, the onus is on well-meaning Nigerians to rise to the challenges posed by threats to our stability, peace, progress and future.
Those who believe or think that the current trends are a passing phase are mistaken. The dogs of war we may be tolerating today will inevitably become rabid and dangerous to everybody, including their owners.
Barr. Etete Nyiang
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