Lest another “Boko Haram” is created in Sankera in Benue

Having observed, without meaningful positive conclusion, the burning of motorcycles following ban on same in Ukum, Katsina Ala axis, let me make a public policy submission in addition to my earlier warning that the decision on Okada be rethink with a view to preventing negative outcome or result. Specifically, I queried the fate of tourists and researchers, geographers and scientists on expedition from within and across the globe who most often, use motorcycles and could be coming in from the Cameroon or heading there. The response I got from one of the government sources was that the area is a war zone. I don’t know specifically what that means but I know there is no war except the term is for literature purpose but in policy parlance, war zone has same meaning as in military parlance. Despite above warning, we have been inundated with photos of alleged burning of motorcycles in the area ostensibly on the instructions of the governor.

Okada has been banned in many cities in Nigeria including but not limited to Lagos, Abuja; how were the policies on Okada implemented in Lagos and Abuja, did they also arrest the motorcycles and set them ablaze to create economic and environmental hazards? Why is everything in Benue done upside down as it is put succinctly in local parlance, “ier nan ve hanma kwagh u gomenti ka une hir yo, atume mi toho (Why is it that anything embarked upon by the government of Ortom is carried out primitively)?

Potency of Crime

Okada is one of the viable aspect of transportation industry, giving employment to thousands of graduates from both tertiary and secondary education. An Okada operator earns atleast N3k daily which places him higher and above a minimum wager. What is the economic implication of seizing Okada from a graduate and setting same ablaze? Instant unemployment and destruction of livelihood of an entire family. What is the multiplier effect of such on the economy? Left without a legitimate means of survival, won’t these young men become radicalized by vicissitudes of unemployment and take to crime? What of mobility to other parts of the country with the option of a fine? What is security where there is no peace and what is peace without Justice? Government does not operate on the prism of jungle justice. In fact, the fundamental reasons why government came into existence was to prevent anarchy. John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau in “The State of Nature” posited that this sort of brutality as in the alleged burning of Okada by the Governor was the reason why men came together to form Government.

Conclusion

In summary submission, let me for the umpteenth time state without equivocation or contradiction that government, if it wants to achieve anything, must avoid taking hasty decisions without due diligence and due process. Yes, government has the power to ban Okada. But the ban should be subjected to strategic thinking and planning so that the outcome does not make people regret or question the essence of government, which was fundamentally to prevent anarchy and not to create same. Good Policies, wrong application just like the First and Second Amnesty programme.

If the burning of Okada was part of the State Security Policy on Sankera, then it is counterproductive and the very antithesis to peace.

Peace is not merely the absence of crisis but the presence of Justice – Martin Luther King Jnr

GURGUR JAPHETH is a Public Policy Analyst