So Many Questions

28 May 2011 3 Comments

by kimkennett in Uncategorized

It’s been more than five weeks since Ingrid and I returned from the Netherlands and I am still in Abuja.  With the swearing in of the President tomorrow (May 29) some VSOs in northern Nigeria have elected to evacuate and once again come here, just in case there is renewed violence.  With what happened in Kafanchan after it was announced that Goodluck Jonathan defeated Muhammadu Buhari in the presidential race, I was taking no chances on going back until the dust settles. Security forces have been swarming around the city over the past few days blockading streets and putting up barricades around Eagle Square where the inaugural ceremonies are to take place.

After consulting three GPs, two orthopaedic surgeons and a physiotherapist , taking muscle relaxants and various anti-inflammatories, and getting xrays, I am still none the wiser as to what I did to my back. I’ve received many conflicting opinions.  The diagnosis that made the most sense was that it was sprained.  Regardless, the past few days I’ve been feeling much better and would dearly love to get out of here.  I am tired of the menu at Dunes (one of my favourite haunts for western-style food) and looking for something different to eat in the grocery store across the street.  I’ve ploughed through five novels, written dozens of emails and had numerous conversations with myself in attempt to stay sane.  It’s been a long five and a half weeks.

Tomorrow should hopefully be the last of the election-related events – an election that have preoccupied this country and its inhabitants for many months.  This is
the fourth time Nigerians have gone to the polls since military rule ended here in 1999 – and it is being heralded as the most democratic of the four.  The international community has endorsed the proceedings as being fair and believe that corruption was minimal.  Representatives from many of the embassies in
Abuja were sent out far and wide to polling stations to observe the goings-on
and verify that people were able to cast their votes without fear of reprisals.

That being said, does the world know that this was also the bloodiest election in the last 12 years?  Seldom was it reported in Nigerian news that there had been rioting and violence in many communities.  I did not hear Kafanchan, one of the worst hit, mentioned even once.   A search on the Internet indicates that 500 people lost their lives during the election period – a figure that was later revised to 800.  I would contest both of those numbers.  An initial count of Fulani killed during the crisis was 576, not to mention at least 350 dead in Kafanchan, the 10 NYSC members in Bauchi, those murdered in Kano, Kaduna, Zaria, Maiduguri . . . .  A conservative estimate would be double that number – and probably hundreds, perhaps thousands, more.  No one will ever know for certain.

And what constitutes a “fair” electoral process?  A newspaper reported there were more than 870,000 duplicate voter registrations, i.e., 870,000 people could have voted more than once.  There were accounts of snatched ballot boxes, deserted polling stations because people were too afraid to vote, and rigged balloting.  Then there were all the underage voters who somehow managed to get ahold of voting cards . . . .

Another debatable argument is that the violence was “political”.  Why then does it always seem to divide along religious and ethnic lines?  It could be argued that the attacks were planned well in advance (the huge cache of arms accumulated by some groups would be proof) and the election was just an excuse to reignite the hatred and deepen the chasm between the different groups of people here.  And for what purpose?  Hundreds of lives were lost and many communities are now more divisive than ever.  In Kafanchan, for example, there used to be a single market that involved Muslims, Christians, Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa – a very diverse cross-section of people living in the area.  Now, however, following the violence of the week of April 18, there are two markets: one Christian and one Muslim.  How will that ever resolve tension and create any understanding between the two groups?  Organizations such as Fantsuam who have been working so hard to “develop” the community have now experienced major setbacks.  Years of work have been undone in the course of three days of mayhem and murder.

Oh, the violence.  As a westerner, I don’t understand it.  I don’t think I ever can.  Why is it so much a part of the culture here?  Domestic violence is common; in fact, by law a man is entitled to beat his wife as long as it doesn’t cause serious injury (and even that is open to interpretation).  Parents beat their children to “discipline” them.  And even though it is against the law in several states, many teachers beat their students, even for the most trivial of infractions.  I have been the recipient of so much kindness from people in Nigeria, but there’s also incredible cruelty just below the surface.  The dichotomy is very difficult to comprehend.

And, even more challenging in my mind, how can people here be so resilient after the horrors they’ve experienced?  I am constantly amazed, despite what life throws at people in Nigeria (and, believe me, it’s a lot of crap), they always manage to recover from the most devastating of circumstances and get on with it.  If you lose a child, you grieve for a short period of time, then you move on.  If your house is burned to the ground, you salvage what you can, make do and find another place to live.  Things that would drive most westerners to their knees and scar them forever do not have the same effect on people here.  The fortitude of most Nigerians is incredible.   But I guess you have to be that way to endure life in Nigeria.  Instead of crying you learn to laugh.  It’s a matter of survival.