1/ I’m currently at a bar, and some young people close-by are talking about the uselessness of Nigeria, and how voting is a waste of time.
2/ Could they be right? In many ways, they are. We have seen so many people line up to vote, and in the end, get sorely disappointed.
3/ So many people place their hopes in our current messiah, and he let them down, bigly.
4/ These little things such as consistent under-performance, undermine the state, and it is important to keep that in view.
5/ I am trying to tie this to stuff I have seen in other parts of the country in my many trips, and, again,
6/ I’m left with not many conclusions but that the Nigerian state has already disintegrated.
7/ It is important, at this point, to differentiate the Nigerian state as opposed to Nigeria.
8/ This is necessary, as there are so many out there who make a living out of twisting people’s words.
9/ Why, do I say that the Nigerian state has disintegrated? The unfiltered thoughts are here - goo.gl/6EciYu
10/ Outside of Abuja and Lagos, in most parts of Nigeria, your existence is between you and God.
11/ The instruments of the Nigerian state have for the most part gone rogue, and do things on their own clock.
12/ Policemen mount roadblocks despite a subsisting order by the IGP, to dismantle all checkpoints.
13/ Living proof that the man is not in control of his own men…
14/ I daresay we got here because we were given a state, and something given, has no value.
15/ For us to value our state, we will have to fight for it. We will have to claim the authority back. But how do we do that?
16/ First, a story from something I saw a few months back during a similar survey in one of the South-South states…
17/ A woman had a dispute with her neighbour, and the neighbour took her to court.
18/ Except that the court here was not the state high court or a federal high court, it was an arbitration system run by militants.
19/ She refused to go, so the militants came to her house, and hauled her off to court.
20/ She was lucky. After both sides presented their cases, the militants ruled in her favour. Sounds like a happy ending no?
21/ I assure you, it is not.
22/ What this incident, and similar dispute resolution events I have seen in various geopolitical zones, shows a loss of authority.
23/ The most uncomfortable question that comes from this is — how do these people, after they have given judgement, enforce the judgement?
24/ The answer to that, shows a decline in the state.
25/ The Nigerian state is now detached from its people, and its people no longer even attempt to exercise force on it.
26/ Which brings us back to the rising apathy to political process.
27/ The rising apathy towards the political process, delegitimises the state.
28/ That is why in Kenya, Odinga was very quick to ask people to boycott the elections.
29/ It is why Uwazuruike and Kanu have tried to attack the voting process.
30/ But there is a flip side to it. The less you vote, the more you give up your authority over the state.
31/ When you vote, you are exercising political authority. This means that you are using force.
32/ Force is violence. Violence, is the supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived.
33/ This is why it is important that those who can exercise this authority, understand what it means.
34/ Tying it back to ‘alternative’ forms of dispute resolution, the Nigerian state has lost the monopoly of violence within its borders.
35/ This means an increasing number of, actors, some in uniform, who are the legitimate source of authority within their fiefdoms.
