As we try to consolidate our democracy, the emergence of the Boko Haram phenomenon provides us an important occasion to reflect on the process that can produce such a threatening reaction to the peace and security of our society. The development of a democratic culture is dependent on the existence of a modern state that can protect the rights of its citizens and extract duties from them.
Modern states are characterised by the practice of the rule of law and the construction of legitimacy. The legitimacy of the state is linked to its capacity to present itself as a provider of necessary public good and more important, a neutral arbiter that guarantees the security of all sections of society. When the state is generally perceived as serving the particularistic interests of one group, or threatening the existence of a group, it loses its legitimacy, authority and capacity.
As state capacity declines, groups that feel threatened resort to other levels of solidarity – religious, ethnic, regional, etc, in search of security. Religious insecurity is particularly insidious and dangerous because it makes people feel threatened not just in their present lives but also in the hereafter. Religious insecurity can provoke interminable conflicts that can make democratic practice impossible. In an open letter to the President, Mamman Kashim, Kalli Gazali, Usman Ladan and Abba Kyari (Trust, June 30, 2011) remind us as follows:
“Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of Boko Haram, was a preacher engaged in liberation theology preaching on the “ills, injustices and inequalities in his society.” His followers “were young, able-bodied, unemployed with no prospect or hope on the horizon. They had Western education and were therefore aware of the prevailing social conditions.”
The trigger that started the crisis was pulled by the police. Mohammed Yusuf’s followers were on a funeral procession on motorbikes when the police shot 19 of them for not wearing crash helmets. Subsequently, Mohammed Yusuf was arrested and summarily executed in a dramatic extra-judicial killing that the whole world saw on Al Jazeera television and YouTube. Meanwhile, Mohammed Yusuf’s 70-year-old father-in-law, Baba Fugu, who was not a member of the movement, was also killed when he went to the police to enquire about his son-in-law. As the police are the most direct agents of state power, their existence for Boko Haram had only one meaning – death and destruction.
The Boko Haram phenomenon is an invitation to us to reflect on the nature of our state and what we need to do to salvage it. The Nigerian state has moved away from the position it occupied at the point of independence as an organ with primary responsibility for producing the fruit of independence in the form of infrastructure, education, health, potable water and so on. Not only has it abdicated its responsibility for social provisioning, the state has also largely withdrawn its commitment to promoting equitable social and economic development in the country.
Given that nature abhors a vacuum, religious organisations were quick to seize the opportunity of occupying the terrain and using their nexus for social provisioning as an instrument for the control of theological, social and increasingly, political space. The role of the state in addressing social and economic development cannot be abdicated and left to religious actors without serious consequences.
The youth have been the major actors in religious activism and in the various conflicts generated by various forms of religious sentiments. They have energy and they have time due to the high rate of unemployment and non-attendance or dropping out from school. There is no possibility of effectively addressing the problems of religious activism without a serious youth policy that puts the nation’s young people in school and in jobs.
Too many Nigerians have lost confidence in the system of the administration of justice in the country. As long as people believe that the police cannot protect them and their property and the courts cannot guarantee justice, then their belief in the state and its agencies reduce and they search for alternative methods of protecting themselves and seeking redress. The state must therefore significantly improve its competence in the performance of basic functions.
The point must also be made that while the intensity of the performance of religious rituals in Nigeria has increased significantly over the past few years, the level of ignorance people have of the basic tenets of their own religion and the religions of others remains high. The promotion of religious education aimed at eliminating religious bigotry rooted in ignorance is imperative. The younger generation should be educated in such a way that they can question religious interpretations that encourage hate speech and action against others.
Religious education must however be accompanied by civic education. Nigerians have to learn or relearn the duties and responsibilities of citizens and the necessity of respect for others, tolerance and the importance of the promotion of human rights and the rule of law.