The Prevalence of Violence in Nigeria: What are we doing wrong?

In Nigeria, young people have been killed for helping to conduct elections. Others are murdered just for vying for a political office, while several others are killed because they belong to another ethnic group or religion. Bombs are going off sporadically, even at the Police Headquarters!

Nigeria has continued a steady decline into an abyss of insecurity because of the escalation of violence. Where are we getting it all wrong?

In Nigeria it is common to see mothers spank little babies or toddlers for even very minor offences they know anything about. Fathers (and mothers too) do same to young children and adolescents – some, even to much older children! Grown up housekeepers, “gatemen” and even drivers also suffer the same fate.

In Nigeria, we make it a non-issue and accept it as normal when a woman drags her husbands by the collar and screams the house down whenever they have a misunderstanding. This sometimes degenerates to fights….with the children as witnesses…

Prefects and ‘senior students’ beat other students up in schools as punishment, like their teachers do.

We read about a house help being bathed with hot water or even acid for the least misdeed, after which people try to play it down with, “…the girl is a witch….”, “…if not for me she would have rotted in the village, I’m even helping her…” etc. A guy had his private part bathed with acid by his partner who accused him of infidelity and the womenfolk remarked that he deserved it.

We justify mob action on suspected criminals (guilty or not), just as we applaud public fighting, cheering on some one when he beats up the other person that “deserves it”.

Every Friday and Sunday, we converge at Mosques and Churches respectively, but during the week, we are an unforgiving hostile and aggressive lot who perpetrate violence at the least provocation. Consequently, even our churches have now become “vengeance centres” where we are constantly at war to kill our enemies, just as wrong teachings or wrong interpretations at mosques have inspired murder.

Inflicting pain on anyone because they did something wrong is the genesis of violence in our society. Innumerable actions such as those mentioned have been the umbilical cord feeding the seed of violence growing in the womb of humanity in our part of the world.

It is quite unfortunate that violence has eaten so deep into the fabric of our social consciousness. But instead of a reversal, we continue to promote violence in a variety of forms, oblivious of and even unperturbed by their short and long-term consequences. The only time we unanimously condemn violence is when it’s fatal and deaths are recorded.

It has become increasingly necessary that we take stock of our attitudes and make conscious efforts to talk more and use our hands and fists less.