Life in Nigeria solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short
The above headline drawn from Thomas Hobbes popular quote is where we are now as a nation. It is no more in doubt.
Why? Two recent events in the country led to that conclusion. The first was the barbaric killing of alleged 16 Fulani hunters in Uromi, Esan North LGA, Edo State, in March.
Those killed were said to be hunters travelling from Rivers State to Kano to celebrate Eid al Fitri with their families. What should have been a joyous festival that marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim Holy month of fasting turned out the journey of no return for the deceased. The unfortunate hunters were tied to used tyres, doused with petrol and then set on fire.
The second incident which is also reminiscent of the Hobbesian State happened just on Friday evening in Plateau State after a mob in Mangun District, Mangu LGA, killed 13 passengers traveling for a wedding.
The victims, who were reportedly heading from Zaria in Kaduna State to Quan’pan LGA in Plateau, were said to have lost their way and ended up in Mangun, where they were ambushed and lynched by a mob around 6 pm.
The two gory scenarios should be cause for concern to every rational Nigerian. The questions are: when and how did we get to this point in the country, and do people in this clime still see one another as belonging to the same human family?
The message the gory events sends to the rational mind is the total failure of leadership and absence of government. The signal is that people are gradually adopting self-help as an option for survival.
The famous quote attributed to Thomas Hobbes had described life without government, in what he called the “state of nature. Hobbes used this description to argue for the necessity of a strong sovereign power to maintain order and prevent society from descending into chaos.
Essentially, Hobbes believed that humans are naturally selfish and driven by a desire for power. In the absence of a governing authority, this would lead to a constant state of war, where individuals would be in competition with one another for resources and survival.
He believed a strong, centralized government was essential to protect people from one another and ensure a more peaceful and stable existence.
The prayer of every Nigerian should be to have a nation where there is law and order. AbeyaNews insist that the relevant Nigerian authorities must go beyond the usual rhetoric of condemning incidents like the one in Uromi and Jos. They must ensure that the suspected attackers and culprits are identified and promptly brought to justice for trial.
Many critical observers would agree that the consistent failure of the Nigerian government to punish mob violence has created an environment in which the perpetrators believe themselves entitled to take the law into their own hands.
