When outsiders look at the mass kidnappings and suicide bombings caused by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram, they might be quick to ask what the hell is going on in Nigeria? The answer to that is very complex. Many Westerners might not understand this, but Nigeria has a barely functioning government. As Nigerian Nobel prize-winning writer Wole Soyinka once said, Nigeria is essentially a failed state.
The world’s attention turned to Nigeria, when about 300 girls were kidnapped from their school by Boko Haram terrorists, who are fighting for an Islamic state in Nigeria. Boko Haram means Western education is forbidden in Hausa, and the group believes that only boys should go to Islamic schools. Girls should literally stay barefoot and pregnant. Boko Haram has been fighting a bloody campaign against the secular Nigerian government for several years, but the daring raid on the high school in Chibok, caught the world’s attention. A Twitter campaign called Bring Back Our Girls was started which even drew the support of American first lady Michelle Obama. The campaign raised awareness and forced Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan to address the issue, but several months later nothing has changed.
When the girls were snatched, I knew they were as a good as dead. To be brutally honest, those parents might as well stage funerals for their children, because there is little chance they will ever see them again. You see Nigeria does not have a representative government. Although there is a president, senators, and representatives, they don’t speak for the people. Nigerian elections are often decided by buying votes and election rigging, so the people have little say in who gets elected. And after they are elected, the politicians, who have spent millions campaigning, want to recoup their investment by literally looting the treasury. There have been several incidents of Nigerian politicians busted in Britain on money laundering charges. Nuhu Ribadu, a famous Nigerian corruption investigator, discovered that his boss Tafa Balogun, head of the Nigerian police force, was dirty. Balogun was indicted and forced to return about $300M. In an interview with the BBC, Ribadu estimates about $380 billion had been stolen by Nigerian politicians since 1960.
Nigerian politicians have no political agenda, their only agenda is to look out for themselves. So when Nigerians call and email their elected officials, the politicians don’t pay attention because they really don’t care about the people. They weren’t elected to take care of the people, they were elected to take care of themselves first.
When the girls were first abducted, the Nigerian government was silent for several weeks, hoping the problem would go away. Nigerian first lady Patience Jonathan even went as far as denying the abduction even took place and suggested it was a lie made up to discredit her husband. I watched a report where a BBC reporter was trying to get a Nigerian cabinet official to address the issue, and the minister acted annoyed and said she was tired of talking about the subject.
When the girls were first abducted, the Nigerian government was silent for several weeks, hoping the problem would go away. Nigerian first lady Patience Jonathan even went as far as denying the abduction even took place and suggested it was a lie made up to discredit her husband. I watched a report where a BBC reporter was trying to get a Nigerian cabinet official to address the issue, and the minister acted annoyed and said she was tired of talking about the subject.
These are the kind of blatant lies and double speak you can expect from the Nigerian government. On several occasions, the Nigerian military has said they have recovered the girls, then recanted. Just recently the Nigerian government announced they had negotiated a truce with Boko Haram, only for the terrorist group to snatch more hostages and put out a video denying any truce. Nigerian leaders are forever begging Nigerians in the Diaspora to come back and rebuild their country, but the first thing Nigerian politicians do after they get elected is fly abroad for medical treatment. Nigeria’s leaders have so little faith in the country’s medical system, they won’t even use it. When former president Olusegun Obasanjo was first elected, he spent more time traveling outside Nigeria, than in it.
You might ask why Nigeria, which is the largest country in Africa and has used its military as a regional peacekeeping force, can’t crush a rag-tag bunch of Islamic militants. Reuters states the Nigerian military budget is $5.8 billion, but unfortunately most of that money doesn’t go to the right places. Soldiers complain about not being paid and having their salaries stolen by their superior officers. There have been several incidences of mutinies from unpaid soldiers. Actually, the issue of unpaid salaries is quite common and teachers and civil servants also complain about going months without being paid. This isn’t surprising. After all this is a country where some police officers rent their weapons out to armed bandits and there have been rumors of politicians and army officers collaborating with Boko Haram.
I don’t know the solutions to Nigeria’s political problems because the government doesn’t seem to work. The country has tried military governments, but they have turned out to be more corrupt and inefficient than civilian administrations. The solution may be beyond the ballot box, and need the Nigerian people to stage a popular uprising. The problem with that, is most Nigerians are unarmed and I doubt if they would be willing to go up against machine guns and tanks. Also, most Nigerians tend to complain about government until they get their turn in power and perform the same corrupt deeds. If Ribadu, who has survived several assassination attempts, can stay alive and win election in 2015, he might try to stem the monumental corruption and inefficiency in the Nigerian government.
So it seems Nigeria will continue to stumble along in a dysfunctional haze. Meanwhile, Boko Haram will continue to abduct and slaughter innocent children. If you have any solutions, I’m sure Goodluck Jonathan is open to suggestions.
