Boko Haram and Imperative of a Working Class
Alternative
By
Kola
Ibrahim
kmarx4live@yahoo.com
A
government that has destroyed the foundation of a sane society will
find it comfortable to vent its frustration on the symptom of the
decay than redressing itself. This actually captured the recent mass
slaughter of members of the Boko Haram sect (western education is a
crime).
I am
much worried about the manner in which the media addresses the issue.
While reports were revealed that over 700 people were killed in Borno
State alone and several houses destroyed, public commentators
especially the media concentrated on the criminal murder of the head
of the sect, Muhammed Yussuf. There were attempt to obscure who
actually killed hundreds of people while there seems to be a sigh of
relief after the mass murder and in fact the murder of Muhammed. Aside
the over fifteen Christians reported to have been gruesomely murdered,
few policemen and scores of churches and public institutions, by the
senseless Boko Haram sect, there was no full report to indicate who
killed the remaining hundreds. But according to a conversation with
Yussuf before his murder, it is clear that it was the police and the
army that were behind the orgy of terror on Maiduguri and other cities
in the north, despite all attempt to put this on the Boko Haram (no
matter the wildness of the group).
As
far as I’m concerned, the killing in hundreds of ordinary members of
the sect is grievous than the death of Muhammed Yussuf. Several
members of the group may not completely understand the ideas of the
sect as media report even confirmed, many were coerced by the sect
leaders. There is possibility of factions within the sect, as Yussuf
himself hijacked the sect from some former leaders. This is aside
several innocent persons killed. Consequently, any genuinely minded
person should hold the police, the military and the government (both
state and federal) responsible for the crisis. This however does not
absolve the sect especially its leaders and their faceless backers,
who started the crisis with their wield
idea that western education/civilization is bad when in actual fact,
western education/civilization, no matter the limitation imposed on it
by profit-oriented capitalism is a continuation and improvement over
previous civilizations - Egypt, Greek, Chinese, Roman, Arabian,
Germanic, etc. But the point must be made that majority of the
dead in the crisis were murdered in cold blood. In fact, some
soldiers, policemen and indeed military officials, themselves awed by
the degree of brutality, were forced to reveal some classified
information, including footage and pictures of the killings, data on
number of people and houses destroyed and the involvement of political
officers.
To
add insult on injury, the dead were mass buried by the police
obviously to avoid a full investigation on the circumstances of their
death or even allow their family members to identify their corpses.
Some of the dead are breadwinners in their families, how will
government help their families to survive when the bodies of their
breadwinners have been covered up. The excuse of the police
authorities that the bodies are decomposing and could not be preserved
simply underlines the lack of basic health facilities in the country
which reinforces the failure of governance in Nigeria . Only a sick
society will feel relieved that a graveyard peace was achieved on the
carcasses of over seven hundred lives.
The
criminal manner of handling the Boko Haram issue should not be seen as
a crudeness of policemen and foot soldiers alone, but that of the
Nigerian state. Immediately the riot started, Yar’Adua was quick to
sanction the use of maximum force to quell the crisis. Immediately
after the murder of Yussuf, the information and communication
minister, Dora Akunyili, throwing caution to the wind, asked Nigerians
to be happy that at least the riots have been put down even if in the
most criminal manner. Therefore, the removal of Police Commissioner in
Borno State and the so-called probe panel set up by Yar’Adua is a
smokescreen to silence critics of the mass murder. How can a
government that ordered and justified the mass murder set up a panel
to probe the killing. Reports have shown that the government including
Yar’Adua and the police ignored several red signals sent by the State
Security Service (SSS) on the activities of this sect while the
judiciary and the highly powerful who protected this and other sects
are indictable. Will the probe panel expose Yar’Adua too?
But
why will a government preferred to kill its own citizens in order to
achieve “peace”? In the first instance, Yar’Adua government is in
serious crisis. The Niger Delta has refused all government ridiculous
solutions, workers’ organizations are in continual battle with it,
there is widespread public rejection of the government and all basic
facilities especially electricity have remained debacles.
Consequently, the Boko Haram crisis only helped the government to
divert attention from these central issues. This is not new. Whenever
government finds itself in a fix, it uses various means to engage the
attention of the people; and no thank to our pro-ruling class media,
government most times has its way. Secondly, for a seriously weakened
government which has failed in all ramifications, use of brute force
helps it to show fake strength and also send jitters to the spines of
its critics. Use of brute force against Boko Haram sect is meant to
send message to all dissidents of government that the status quo
cannot be challenged. One should not be surprised when police and army
are deployed against striking workers or protesting youth and
students. Thirdly, the heavy attack on Maiduguri helps the anti-poor
government to justify billions budgeted for military and defence, most
of which find their ways to the account of big business and their
acolytes in politics. In 2008 alone, the budget for defence of over
N440 billion was more than the budgets for education and health.
It
is an open secret that various crises in the country have been fueled
by sections of the ruling class who uses the agitation to further
their nests. For instance, in the early 1980’s, destitute were
mobilised to the streets by Kano feudal oligarchy to cause mayhem when
the Abubakar Rimi/PRP government issued a query to the emir which led
to the death of Bala Muhammed. In the south-south, several official
and unofficial reports confirmed the roles played politicians in
fueling oil bunkering, kidnapping and fake militancy. More than this,
it is pertinent to state that the rise and growth of wild religious
sects such as Boko Haram were engendered by northern ruling class and
Nigerian government. It will be recalled that some years back, many
northern governors, including Umar Yar’Adua, were the advocates of the
Sharia law thus setting the foundation for divisive religious
fundamentalism. While it is true that people have right to
self-determination, the reality is that the implementation of Sharia
is ill-conceived and fraudulent. Where was any referendum conducted to
determine whether the people in these states wanted Sharia law? The
reality is that the northern section of Nigerian ruling class, fearful
of losing power to their southern counterpart, needed to hold on to a
divisive stake which they can pull anytime in order to sustain their
share in the national loot.
With
pervasive poverty and misery in the north and the country as a whole,
religious bigotry engendered by the northern ruling class has
blossomed into full blown fundamentalism with various smaller sections
of the ruling class using it to fester their pecuniary interests while
younger disillusioned minds, who have been deprived of basic living
means have found solace in religious fundamentalism. The northern
oligarchy, having achieved their aim of controlling power, now sees
religious bigotry, as a fetter to their interests. Thus they have to
curb it even if it involves destroying a whole city. It is worth
stating that many of this northern ruling class who introduced the
Sharia are as corrupt as their southern colleagues. Most of the
governors and legislators in the north were rigged into office with
billions of looted behind this. This is bound to continue in 2011 if
there is no genuine working class platform with a socialist
orientation to defeat neo-colonial capitalism. The problem with
Nigeria is not implementation of one Sharia or another stricter law,
but with the ruling capitalist class and the neo-colonial, neo-liberal
capitalist system they represent, which has continued to ‘legally’
(through over-bloated salaries, allowances and contracts) and
illegally looting put the huge public wealth in the hands of the tiny
ruling clique while the poor continue rot in poverty, misery and
squalor.
The
Boko Haram sect riot will not be the last in the country, going by the
nature of ruling class in the country. It is worth stating that the
wanton destruction of lives and properties in the north in the name of
curtailing fundamentalism will further fueled anger amongst the
people, most of whom have seen nothing positive about Nigeria .
Critically examined, the idea of Boko Haram (western education is a
taboo) reflect the rotten state of the country. How will you tell a
young chap of 20 years, who have not seen the wonders of titration in
the chemistry laboratory or what mechanical advantage means, that
public education is good. For the past ten years of civilian rule,
nothing could be shown as gain of civilian rule in the country. Thus,
a young boy of 10, 15 or 20 years is a potential religious
fundamentalist, ethnic militant or social miscreant. You only need to
visit Nigerian cities to see army of potential social miscreants. For
the north, it is even worse: with education rates very low while
gainful jobs are hard to come by, Boko Haram and other religious
crises before it are natural expectations.
The
ruling classes who have held sway in the country at least for the past
ten years should be held responsible for the various crises in the
country. While the reactionary ruling class in the north was quick to
introduce Sharia law, in order to retain their privileges, provision
of free and quality education, healthcare and gainful employment for
the youth are elusive. It should be recalled that tens of thousand of
jobs were lost in the past ten years as a result of collapse of
hundreds of medium-sized industries in the north. Today, the remaining
big firm, Peugeot Automobile Nigeria is already in doldrums. Yet, a
few moneybags have emerged from the north through corrupt politics.
Despite over N20 trillion that had accrued to the nation’s purse,
nothing could be shown in terms of social infrastructures, but the
ruling class was content with officially looting of over N5 trillion
naira from the coffer: for salaries alone. Rather than put under the
democratic public ownership, the collapsed firms especially the over
820 industries, banks and corruptly run big companies, the Nigerian
ruling class have continued to loot more. In the past two years of
Yar’Adua’s rule, over N6 trillion had accrued to the purse of the
country. This amount coupled with massive exploitation of the various
resources in the country, reduction of salaries of political officers
to workers’ level and retrieval of trillions stolen by public
officials, could to improve the social infrastructures of the country
– provide free and quality public education and health at all levels;
massive industrialization (through public ownership) and provision of
public infrastructures – sustainable energy and power sector (solar,
wind, hydro, biomass, etc), integrated transport system (rail, water,
expanded road), environmentally-sustainable, poor peasant-based,
mechanized agricultural and agro-industrial system, massive but cheap
public housing, etc. But do you expect a government instituted by
corruption and based on neo-liberal capitalism to do this. Those who
have continued to loot the country are strutting round the country,
yet another $2 billion (about N300 billion) is to be shared by the
tiers of government.
It
should however be raised that the Boko Haram crisis is not a special
case but like every reactionary and far-right group, is a product of
pervasive disillusionment. In the absence of genuine revolutionary
mass organization that will galvanize the anger of the working and
poor people together for radical changes, far-right and backward
groups in the form religious, ethnic or racial colouration are bound
to grow. In Nigeria , while we have Boko Haram in the north, we have
Niger Delta militants in the creeks, many Yoruba jingoist groups in
the south west and Igbo secessionists in the south-east. Of course,
there should be right of self-determination, the reality is that
without a genuine revolutionary, socialist mass organization of the
working people, even secession can bring more miseries than under a
repressive state. For instance, while Niger Delta militants complains
about the use of oil resources, the monies realized by the militants
from oil bunkering do not go to the poor people of the region but only
in the service of few clique of gun-wielding thugs, their godfathers
and multinational collaborators.
For
a On the other hand, experience have shown that when the masses
through their organizations like NLC and LASCO embark on national
struggles, ethnic cum religious jingoist tendencies are subsumed.
Experiences outside the country give credence to this. For instance,
in Europe and America, there are far-right tendencies which tend to
divert the agitation of the people for better living to racial lines
without providing a genuine way for the European poor; with a strong
working class movement, many of these groups are unpopular. However,
in the last European elections, as a result of growing misery of
millions of European working class coupled with treachery of labour
leadership, some far-rights are gained vote. Notwithstanding this,
where there were strong socialist forces like in Dublin , Ireland
where socialist Joe Higgins contested and won, far-right tendencies
hardly surfaced. Racial and far-right tendencies show their strength
at a period of social and economic crises which require a radical
intervention of the working class organizations. It should also be
recalled that the failure of socialist forces to lead the masses to a
revolutionary change led to the triumph of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi
forces.
All
this point to one thing: working and poor people need a fighting
organization that will raise the demands of the working people for a
genuine government in Nigeria . This is the time for labour and pro-labour
organizations to build a working class political party with a
socialist orientation which will demand public ownership of commanding
height of the economy under the democratic control of the working
people themselves which will provide adequate resources to make lives
better for the poor people. The current protest marches of the labour
and civil society across the country should naturally lead to this.
There is also urgent need to restructure the labour movement across
the country (especially the state chapters and affiliates) so as to
serve as a fighting platform of the working people which will link the
anger of the poor people across the country rather than being diverted
to reactionary ethnic lines. This is the central challenge now!
Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU),
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