CHAPTER ONE:

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

 1.1. Background of the Study

In the discourse of security in Nigeria, Okorie, Jega, Salawu, Onyishi, Ezeoha, and Lewis have identified several causes of security crisis in Nigeria that pose grave consequences to national development. Chief among them is ethno-religious conflicts that have claimed many lives in Nigeria. By ethno-religious it means a situation in which the relationship between members of one ethnic or religious and another of such group in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society is characterized by lack of cordiality, mutual suspicion and fear, and a tendency towards violent confrontation.

Since independence, Nigeria appears to have been bedevilled with ethno-religious conflicts. Over the past decades of her Nationhood, Nigeria has experienced a palpable intensification of religious polarization, manifest in political mobilization, sectarian social movements, and increasing violence. Ethnic and religious affiliations determine who gets what in Nigeria; it is so central and seems to perpetuate discrimination. The return to civil rule in 1999 tends to have provided ample leverage for multiplicity of ethno-religious conflicts.

As part of the social contract which the state has the obligation to fulfil for exercising the power which belongs to the people, the government is expected to provide adequate security for the citizens. Consequently, the Nigerian government has set up various security agencies for both the internal and external protection of the citizens. The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria underscores this when it declares: that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. But the veracity is that security is a thing of partnership between the state and the citizens. A security system entails all that the state and citizens do from individual to institutional level to ensure the security of lives and property.10

The problem of the Nigerian polity is that there is no strong will to entrench law and order in the Nigerian polity. If there were only one man in a State in Nigeria, there would be no need for rules of law or regulationsbecause there would be no upsetting of existing equilibrium caused by the acts of another person; there would be no conflict of any type.

Perhaps all that would be necessary would be for one to avoid injuring oneself through one’s own act. No wonder, Farrar notes that a solitary individual is a hermit living in complete isolation from other human beings probably requires nothing more than habits. Since this scenario only exists at the utopic realm, law became necessary to help in the quest to actualise order. It became the tool for social engineering. Law is the pillar of social code; a society without laws is a living anachronism. In the absence of law and order organised life is impossible. Thus, law defines the extent to which it will give effect to the interests which it recognizes, in the light of other interests and of the possibilities of effectively securing them through law; it also devises means for securing those that are recognised and prescribes the limits within which those means are to be employed.

Rule of law is a key component of the social and political orders found in liberal democratic states. Aristotle insisted that it is preferable that law should rule other than a single one of the citizens. According to Aristotle:

He who ask law to rule is asking God’s intelligence and not others to rule while he who ask for the human being is bringing in a wild beast, for human passion is one like wild beast and strong feelings lead astray rules and the very best of men. In law, you have the intellect without passion.14 This means that man’s freedom is conditioned in a society where there is rule of law. Therefore, where the law rules, violation of its stipulations will attract penalty. Many people obey law in order to avoid the unpleasant consequences that may follow disobedience to law. Amadi explains that:

The rule of law is the infrangible cord that connects all wings of law, giving meaning to all laws in any political authority. The rule of law simply says that laws should be obeyed by everyone – the ruler and the ruled. It is this obedience that gives life a meaning. Life begets society, and if life is meaningless because of absence of the rule of law, then we may have an anarchic society.

Whenever there is absolute incapacity to impose sanctions where there is breach of law; disorderliness becomes prevalent. A clear illustration is the terroristic insurgence of Boko

Haram in the North-eastern part of Nigeria. In a deadly attack on 24th day of February 2014, the group massacred 29 students with scores seriously injured. The Islamic sect had killed hundreds of people in the orgy of violence unleashed on Gwoza, Izge and Bama in Borno State on February 2014 alone. The level of lawlessness and rascality prompted the Federal Government to declare State of Emergence in some North-Eastern States. The Governors in those states are no longer finding the heartrending lawlessness funny. Order has completely vanished in those States. The Governor Shettima of Borno State insisted that Boko Haram is better armed and better motivated than the Nigeria Military. This is even as the promise of the Chief of Defence Staff that Boko haram would be wiped out by April, 2014 is still subsisting. Why is it then, that every time the military boasts of winning the war or putting timeline to ending the war that the insurgents step up their attacks? Nwosu writes: “The strangest thing for me in all this is the issue of motivation. What motivation can be behind these seeming mindless attacks? Is it the motivation of hoisting an Islamic State and running it? If it is that, what then is the motivation to kill yourself to hoist such a regime”.

It must be pointed out that insecurity is a multi-headed monster that has exposed our security failings. Presently the incessant bombing by theBokoHaram sect which has plunged the Northern part of Nigeria into crises, intractable cases of kidnapping which has engulfed the South-East zone and the oil bunkering prevalent in the South-South zone are just a few to mention. These internecine acts of criminality and the fear of the unknown have prompted various communities to set up vigilante groups with the aim of mitigating some of these crimes. Vigilante groups thus forms the crux of community policing.