Politics of conspiracy mongering

Also published in Daily Trust

It is very unfortunate that, in Nigeria’s peculiar political context where politics and trickeries are literally indistinguishable, all it takes to gain, regain or retain political power, influence and relevance is the ability to manipulate the reasoning of the average Nigerian voter, with prejudiced ethno-religious or regional notions, empty and unrealistic promises and/or buy his vote, or rather his right, to put it more appropriately, with peanuts or some meagre hand-outs of foodstuff, “which will neither nourish nor avail against hunger”, to borrow the eloquently descriptive Qur’anic phrase.

Nigerian politicians, both the incumbents (most of whom are clearly clueless and incompetent) and the opposition (most of whom are mere political opportunists awaiting their turn to perpetuate the status quo) would always cling to such irrelevant stuffs in their desperate struggle for power and influence.

Nevertheless, despite the resultant and unfortunate prevalence of the culture of mediocrity in public service delivery, endemic corruption and persistent leadership failure, which has in turn resulted in widespread poverty, socio-economic and political instability, the situation has been somehow bearable and, to a large extent, manageable anyway.

However, the recent emergence and gradual growth of the phenomenon of politicking by means of conspiracy mongering especially over the ongoing armed insurgency in the northern part of the country, undermines the already diminishing prospects of tackling this alarmingly deteriorating security crisis and other socio-economic problems in the country also.

Besides, the consequent phenomenon of mutual conspiratorial suspicions, communal distrust and blame trade among the country’s various ethno-religious and regional components, over the questions of who are allegedly behind the insurgency, whose interests they purportedly serve and what they eventually want to achieve would continue to create unnecessary distraction from the actual causes of the crisis and its possible solution.

Also, not many people seem to realize its implications, even though as the situation gets worse, it may eventually degenerate into an overwhelming chaos where even the few privileged enjoying some relative sense of security would have to equally struggle in order to survive in the country.

By the way, though rivals, competitors and sometimes even allies involved in competitive endeavours e.g. business or politics, do indeed conspire against one another, yet the largely kleptomaniac and corrupt Nigerian public officials and their apologists among the public opinion leaders simply seek to cover up their failures, incompetence and shortcomings with some largely unfounded allegations of false conspiracies allegedly plotted against them.

It has become quite common among the country’s elected public office holders at all levels of government, to insinuate or even expressly claim that they are being sabotaged or conspired against by their political detractors, simply in order to cover up their failure to deliver or justify their purported inability to deliver. Similarly, having had no realistic alternative development policy programs and cogent campaigning methods to raise public awareness and mobilize adequate public support to defeat the incumbents in elections, the opposition have equally adopted this method in order to attract undue public sympathy, mislead their audiences hence score cheap political goals.

Moreover, it is not uncommon nowadays to read or hear a supposedly responsible public figure, public office holder or someone who at least commands some public respect and recognition, claiming or insinuatingly making some baseless and ridiculous allegations of conspiracies the sorts of which are only circulated in beer lounges, mai shayi  joints and roadside hangouts.

For instance, in order to cover up its blatant failure to end the ongoing bloody Boko Haram insurgency in the northern part of the country where thousands of innocent people are being massacred and many more are being maimed, displaced and subjected to perpetual misery, the federal government as represented by its various officials including President Jonathan, have repeatedly insinuated that, the whole crisis is a grand conspiracy hatched by the so-called power-hungry northern Nigerian elite in order to undermine his presidency. Besides, many government’s apologists among the public commentators make even much more ridiculous allegations in this regard.

Consequently, the average southern Nigerian is convinced that Boko Haram is indeed a northern Nigeria conspiracy, which according to him has to be opposed and resisted by all means including rejecting any presidential candidate from particularly the North-East and North-West sub-regions, even if he is the best presidential candidate among the other contending candidates.

On the other hand, in their efforts to equally avoid taking any responsibility for what has befallen the northern part of the country, the region’s top political office holders especially among the opposition, including some states’ governors, legislators and other influential individuals among the traditional rulers, religious clerics, academics, public commentators and opinion leaders often insinuate that, even if there were Boko Haram fighters in the past, the current insurgency is no longer Boko Haram insurgency, it is instead, according to them, a  smokescreen used by the President and his co-conspirators from the southern part of the country, to destabilize the North and subject it to perpetual crisis, socio-economic frustration and general backwardness.

This is the general opinion across the region especially in the North-East and North-West sub-regions, where, surprisingly, an increasing number among even the supposedly educated and enlightened fellows out there are increasingly buying into such unsubstantiated narratives of conspiracy theories and in turn turning into conspiracy mongers, in reality.

Since it is obvious that Nigerian politicians are not likely to refrain from politically motivated conspiracy mongering, anytime soon, having apparently realized how divisive hence beneficial it is to their respective selfish political agendas, it is the duty of the public intellectuals, social commentators, opinion leaders and other stakeholders to do much more in raising public awareness to enable people challenge their leaders to rise up to their responsibilities and tackle the crisis bedevilling the country at large, instead of hiding behind such ridiculous excuses to justify their failures and lack of political will to deliver.