A Season For Thugs

THUGS understand the business of violence. The boldness that has grown from not punishing them is evident in the havoc they are causing. They are appropriating space, the law watches.
From humble beginnings that saw thugs on the fringes of elections, they have assumed commanding positions in our politics. The growth and importance of thugs are sustained by willingness of most candidates to use them.
Thugs are in business because violence is profitable. Thugs are growing in numbers and in the intensity of their actions. They adorn an air of invincibility because society permits them, dreads them, and sometimes adores them.
Elections used to be the season of thugs. However, profits from the enterprise have seen ambitious thugs extending their business to pre-election matters. Last week’s outing of thugs at the Peoples Democratic Party’s meeting at its national headquarters in Abuja, underscores how bold thugs have become. In the full glare of the nation, they attacked their master’s opponents, journalists, or whosoever caught their fancy.
These are preludes to the bigger ones, the 2015 elections. The choice of PDP’s national headquarters as an early practising pitch, at the level of an intra-party feud, says a lot. All seems to be fair in the war called politics.
Ironically, the PDP event was a reconciliation meeting of its South South members. It could not hold in Port Harcourt because thugs control party affairs in the city. Members confessed that lives would have been lost if the meeting was in Port Harcourt.
A consistent attribute of the imposition of thugs is that the police concede space to them. They watched as thugs took over the PDP secretariat in Abuja.
In Benin City, where claims and counter-claims compete for acceptance in the brutality visited on a legislator, the law watches askance. Thugs have seized authority. Nobody would be punished for these infractions as was the case with the 2011 election riots that swept through many States.
Thugs act for people. Someone controls, equips, feeds, pays and owns them. They are drunk on their principals’ violent utterances, and most importantly, they are assured the law would not inconvenience them. The law should not excuse murderers and arsonists because they act for politicians. Duplicity in punishing electoral offenders belittles the law.
Every Nigerian has a right to lawful contention for power. We must avoid being so consumed about winning elections that we set the country on fire.
Those who aspire to lead Nigerians should not use violence to achieve their ambitions. They should tell Nigerians how their leadership would improve Nigeria, instead of promoting violence.
Immunity for thugs and their sponsors approves unprecedented violence. Thugs are overdue for punishment.