Traditional authorities and crime fighting in Nigeria

Aliyu Musa

During the recently resuscitated debate on state police one of the contributions in the media I found exceedingly plausible was Malam Mahmud Jega’s “Bulging Biceps on Dan Baki,” published in the Daily Trust of August 20, 2012. What I found most striking was how he linked the effectiveness of the ‘Yan Doka to collective crime fighting, where the Alkali and Yari’s no-nonsense posture was deterrent enough to would-be felons and the village/district heads status’ was almost revered and significantly contributed in maintaining social order.

In conclusion, Malam Jega argued that replacing the Nigeria Police Force or ‘Yan Sanda with state police would not automatically transform the situation as many of the proponents of state police would argue. But, as much as I thought the suggestion was agreeable, I would argue that if certain changes were introduced, too, the situation could significantly be altered.

In order to make my position clearer, I shall cite two recent cruel acts as examples. First is the massacre of some students of the Federal Polytechnic Mubi by gunmen nearly a fortnight ago. From the accounts of some survivors or eyewitnesses it appears the killers knew their targets and selectively hunted them. But what I found very shocking was the way the mass murder was executed over a long period of time (about two hours) unhindered.

The second is the murder of four students of University of Port Harcourt allegedly by members of the Aluu community, their host community. Again, the saga lasted quite a few hours without any attempt from anyone to stop the killing.

In both cases the murderers did not, presumably, expect any form of interruption. So they took their time to debase their victims before killing them. In the end they walked away feeling satisfied and happy, unchallenged.

Using the ‘Yan Doka or, to be specific, the Dan Baki scenario painted by Malam Jega, one would wonder if any of these two or similar crimes would go unchallenged. One would also wonder if people would so passionately inflict such pain on fellow humans as the video clip of the Aluu killing shows without any alteration to the process.

In his book The Lucifer Effect, Professor Philip Zimbardo, the renowned American social psychologist explains that human beings could undergo certain changes that would make them lose human sympathy and derive pleasure in mistreating others. But the situation could be reversed if there was an annulment of the condition that warranted that change in the first place.

Against this backdrop, I would argue that some major problems with policing in the country could be traced to the various local government reforms introduced since 1950. While the reforms were introduced to weaken traditional rulers and strengthen democracy some of the direct consequences are what we see today.

In many situations one would expect community leaders/traditional rulers to act as the chief security officers of their domains. But because they lack the constitutional recognition to do so and risk not being taken seriously, they would rather not act. In some cases they might even incur the wrath of the people for intervening and, to prevent that, they become complicit in serious crimes.

In the case of Aluu, for example, there was plenty of time for someone to stop the crime from happening. With easy and ready access to technology, it would be very difficult for the community leader to claim not being aware of the crime the whole time it took place. But he, perhaps, chose not to act responsibly because he either thought it was none of his business or approved of it.

In Mubi, even if tens of hundreds of people troop in and out each day and stay as long as they wish and do whatever they want, the movement recounted by eyewitnesses the night of the massacre was extraordinary. The accompanying sounds of gunshots and screams were equally bizarre enough to attract a swift reaction.

But, again, because the leaders at the grassroots feel emasculated they do nothing while these acts occur. There’s no denying that our population has astronomically shot up. But it does not mean we cannot devise crime fighting strategies that would take into consideration such changes.

If in spite of some of the lapses of the Native Authority system it was effective in combating crimes with fewer men and other resources, the technological advantage we have today should make it much easier.

Although I am not a fan of state police I think there’s a need to reconsider seriously the involvement of traditional authorities in combating crime. Perhaps, this would make people realise that rather than resorting to jungle justice they could hand over suspected felons to their community or traditional leaders and expect justice to be done.
This piece also appears in Blueprint newspaper of Friday 12 Oct 2012.