Going by the parade of political luminaries to the home of slain Lagos gubernatorial candidate, Anthony Olufunso Williams, an observer might think that the employment of violence as a political tool was the exception in Nigeria. The truth is rather gorier. Violence is the rule.

Too many Nigerian politicians detest the idea of civilly arbitrated electoral contests. If they can get their way, they want to be “selected” unopposed. If that option proves out of reach, then they seek to intimidate their opponents with words and swords. Rather than engage an opponent in a spirited debate, many a Nigerian politician would reach for a cudgel and pummel the other candidate to submission, withdrawal or death.

Williams’ tragic death points up the depravity of the political terrain. It reveals how deeply woe-be-gone is the nation’s politics. The late Williams’ home in Dolphin Estate, Lagos, has seen a parade of the nation’s political leadership, from President Olusegun Obasanjo through legislative officers to state governors. It’s as if each top political figure not currently detained as a suspect in the dastardly act has made a condolence pilgrimage to the address of bereaved Williams. Each visitor has tried to out-wax the others in indignation. Each has called on the police to get to the bottom of this one. Some have seen fit to play politics, viewing the slaying of the governorship candidate as another proof that the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is, in Wole Soyinka’s words, “a nest of killers.” In comforting the deceased man’s survivors, some have appealed to the inscrutable will of God. “We love him,” one caller said, “but God loves him more.” The president, adroit at lending colour to a somber moment, pronounced a curse on the heads of the perpetrators.

In short, we have witnessed paroxysms of outrage by politicians on a scale that has not been seen since the murder of former Attorney-General Bola Ige. What are we to make of such effusions?

What strikes me, fundamentally, is the underlying hypocrisy and hollowness of it all. Violence has been refined into the currency of discourse in Nigerian politics. Many Nigerian politicians (I dare say, most) are quicker to recruit thugs than to define the vision animating their ambitions. Their rhetoric is all-too often incendiary. Favouring martial language, they speak of conquering their opponents and capturing offices and votes. They may never have a manifesto, but they won’t be caught outside without a busload of well-armed thugs.

Why, you ask, is Nigerian politics steeped in such distemper? The answer lies in the spoils system. To hold public office in Nigeria is to be possessed of plenary, unquestionable powers. It is to have the freedom to dip your hands in the public treasury without anybody to raise queries, much less sound alarms. It is to ascend to the heights of a demigod. It is to be able to compel lesser mortals to address you as Your Excellency even when you excel only in thievery, or Distinguished Senator when your only distinction is in somnolent idleness, or to be called a political chieftain when thieftain is far more apt. To hold public office in Nigeria often translates into being able to transfer the nation’s funds into private bank accounts in foreign nations, or to buy swanky homes in Europe, England or North America.

The responsibility for Mr. Williams’ death is borne, to a large degree, by the same tribe of politicians trooping to Dolphin Estate to mourn him. It is they, by the treacherous terms they have consecrated for political engagement, who made it possible to dispatch him. We can safely wager that those who plotted the man’s death were not actuated by a desire to serve the people of Lagos state. The coldly calculated decision to subtract him from next year’s field of gubernatorial aspirants must have been informed by evil and highly personal objectives.

Nigeria’s ill-luck with its “leaders” is nowhere more evident than in the government’s decision to invite British police officers to participate in investigating Mr. Williams’ assassination. Think about it: almost fifty years after Nigeria’s attainment of independence, we still have to turn to the British to show us the way out of the labyrinths of a high profile murder case. The collective resources of the Nigerian Police are, we have admitted, incapable of conducting a forensics investigation. What manner of nation, then? Is this not a moment for profound national shame? What next? Should we abide the prescription of that late charming politician, Sam Mbakwe, who in a moment of despair had wondered aloud if Nigerians were not better off inviting the British back to run their affairs?

That sense of national shame might have been attenuated were the odds reasonable that the British imports would help solve the riddle of this blatant homicide. Sadly, the invitation of Scotland Yard may turn out a merely cosmetic, even cynical, move. Nobody should forget in a hurry that foreign experts, from the United States no less, were summoned to assist in untangling the even more shocking assassination of Bola Ige. Nothing came of it. Instead, the Ige case became a metaphor for prosecutorial futility. Despite assurances, the most vociferous from the president, that Ige’s killers would be unmasked, every single suspect was able to walk, and one of them all the way to the hallowed grounds of Nigeria’s Senate.

One can only imagine how cruelly unnerving it must be for members of Mr. Williams’ family if their high hopes are dashed by an inept investigation. It is true that Scotland Yard evokes images of competence and forensic adeptness, but one must not downplay the frustrating effect of the Nigerian (police) factor. As far as homicide investigations are concerned, Nigerian police officers, truth be told, are in the Dark Ages. In bringing together British and Nigerian officers to handle one case, what we get is a conflation of two unbridgeable cultures. Far more likely than achieving a break in the case is the staging of a veritable clash of cultures. Long before British cops reach the crime scene, their Nigerian counterparts are likely to have irremediably compromised the scene, rendering the crime intractable.

It is no secret that the cadre of Nigeria’s law enforcement lags terribly in professional know-how. Weaned on ways of bullying Nigerians and beating bribes out of law-abiding citizens, many a Nigerian police officer doesn’t have the vaguest notion of the true nature of his task. The basic impoverishment of his training is compounded by the fact that he operates in a milieu where the rich, famous and powerful are understood to be above the law. Such an officer is ill-equipped to solve homicides. And when the victim is a highly visible politician, the index of impossibility rises exponentially. When the shock of Williams’ slaying has died down, the politicians who affected public displays of outrage should take a hard look at themselves. They ought to recognize their culpability in enthroning a political culture in which violence is bound to germinate and fester. And also their responsibility in saddling Nigeria with a police force that dials London or New York each time a major homicide riles the nation.

Robot  Villager

# 1 Going by the parade of political luminaries to the home of slain ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 02.08.2006 22:49

E.BEN  JJC

# 2 The williams guy even had police officers as security guards and yet he was killed. The nigerian police and the nigerian government cannot guarantee the security of the average citizen,however they can be able to hunt down opponents of the government and even pre-empt oppositon rallies and meetings. What a shame. E.BEN. Posted by E.BEN| 02.08.2006 23:07

Mutti  Villager

# 3 It is beginning to appear that the man was killed not for partisan politics but politics of another kind. The word on the street is that he (Williams) uncovered a fraud in the NMA and threatened to bring in the EFCC. Whether or he would have made good his threat we will now never know but the people involved, the papers say, have been picked up and investigations are underway. In the end it was pure police grunt work required and not the gizmo gadgets of foreign forensic experts. Their presence may have precipitated confessions from other criminals though, including the one that killed Rimi's wife Posted by Mutti| 03.08.2006 03:47

salstep  Villager

# 4 i laugh when i heard british officers were going over to help. I thought what a waste of money. They would have been better of consulting an oracle. At least it would have cause less and still lead to the same outcome. NOTHING. Why on the subject, does nigeria law allow the indiscriminate arrest of suspects. It look to me people just get arrested for the sake of it. Posted by salstep| 03.08.2006 08:36

e.w  Villager

# 5 The quote below was from the Punch. Are we that gulliable? It was learnt that one of the requests of the Canadian detectives was for an analysis of the eyes of Williams. Despite the fact that the identities of the Canadian detectives could not be established as at press time on Wednesday, it was learnt that they said the analysis of Williams‘s eyes would reveal those he came in close contact with 48 hours before his death. Posted by e.w| 03.08.2006 08:44

e.w  Villager

# 6 I thought crime sences are meant to be sealed off? what's with the stream of visitors to the house, including BABA Iyabo himself Posted by e.w| 03.08.2006 08:47

Kabikala  Villager

# 7 I pray I am wrong, but something keeps telling me that in some few more weeks, the news about Funsho Williams assassination will cease to occupy front page in our dailies. And life will have to continue. And we may never hear anything about it again, until another assassination takes place. And do I need to tell you that all these rhetorics and poetic eloquence exhibited by politicians trying to outdo each other in speaking good of Williams and condemning his killers are all too familiar. Even the killer may be among them. Based on what we know of the Nigerian Police, the same way assurances were given after Bola Ige was killed, the killers of Williams will most likely never be found. Even persons previously accused of being involved in murder came to pay their condolences to the Williams family (erosimO and hinenA)). I have a suggestion to make to the Police. Get the phone records of all the suspects for the period preceding and immediately after the murder and let's analyse who they chatted with and what they discussed. Posted by Kabikala| 03.08.2006 08:56

VOR  Villager

# 8 Despite the fact that the identities of the Canadian detectives could not be established as at press time on Wednesday, it was learnt that they said the analysis of Williams‘s eyes would reveal those he came in close contact with 48 hours before his death. na wah ooooo. abi oyinbo wan do us 419 because dey think say Nigerians are so daft ? Canadian detectives? I thought it was the Met investigating? abi na UN investigation dey wan conduct now? make we siddon dey look now..... Posted by VOR| 03.08.2006 09:16

UncleTisha  Villager

# 9 =Mutti>It is beginning to appear that the man was killed not for partisan politics but politics of another kind. The word on the street is that he (Williams) uncovered a fraud in the NMA and threatened to bring in the EFCC. Whether or he would have made good his threat we will now never know but the people involved, the papers say, have been picked up and investigations are underway.... For as long as Public Office in Nigeria remans the surest way to fabulous wealth, for so long will we have killings. For as long as Nigerians continue to admire and actually worship those with primitive acquisitory tendencies, for so long will we have killings For as long as we do not change our attitide to power, wealth and the acuisition of those things, for so long will we have killings For as long as citizens of our country can remain completely anonymous to the system from their cradle to their grave, for so long will we have killings. Posted by UncleTisha| 03.08.2006 09:33

emj  Villager

# 10 Apo killings suspects, Danjuma, Acheneje, get bail From Lemmy Ughegbe, Abuja ON account of ill-health, an Abuja High Court yesterday granted bail to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr Danjuma Ibrahim, who is standing trial over an alleged complicity in the June 8, last year gruesome killing of six traders in Abuja. The court also granted bail to Police Constable Emmanuel Acheneje, who is infected with the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV). Ruling on the bail application, the trial judge, Justice Ishaq Bello, held that although the provisions of Section 341 and 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) does not allow for the admittance to bail of any accused person who is being tried for capital offence punishable with death, the Supreme Court had made special and exceptional condition for bail. He, however, said the right to personal liberty and presumption of innocence provided for in Sections 35 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution were not the factors for granting Danjuma's bail application. The judge held: "I have no difficulty agreeing with the prosecution counsel that the provisions of Sections 35 and 36 of the 1999 Constitution cited by counsel to the 1st accused are inapplicable. "Rights to personal liberty are not absolute and can be derogated upon special circumstance such as trial for capital offence punishable with death upon conviction as is the instant case." According to Justice Bello, the only right that cannot be derogated is the right of an individual to life. He noted that it was the right the applicant was seeking through constitutional means to enjoy. He said that Danjuma could not enjoy that right by a mere allegation that he has ill health, unless it is proven beyond doubt. The judge observed that both the counsel for Danjuma -Rickey Tarfa (SAN) and the prosecution counsel, Chief Chris Uche (SAN), agreed that Danjuma was ill, with a heart condition, diabetes and ulcer. He said such a condition ought to be properly managed and noted that the deplorable nature of the prisons and the lack of facilities made it impossible to manage his ill-health there. Jusstice Bello made reference to the case of Jamal Vs State (1996) 1NWLR, part 472, in which the court took judicial notice of the state of facilities in prisons. "In the said case, a Justice of the Court of Appeal held: "I take judicial notice of the notoriety of the inadequacy of not only our hospitals in terms of drugs and equipment, not to talk of the inadequacies of our prison conditions and their facilities. It is a notorious fact that no such conducive facilities exist in our prisons today. I reject the submission of learned counsel to the respondents that such conducive facilities are provided and / or exist in our prisons today. The submission is far fetched and far from reality"."The law is an agent of civilisation. It is not primitive. It is on account of its civilised posture that the Supreme Court takes seriously the issue of ill health as constituting a special and exceptional circumstance for the grant of bail to a person being tried for capital offence punishable with death." At this point, the trial judge warned thus: "I will not allow sentiment to serve as a control tower in this judicial exercise or any one at that." Justice Bello said he was convinced that Danjuma's ill-health amounted to the exceptional and special circumstance, which should entitle him to bail. He recounted how Danjuma collapsed in court twice and was supported several times into court. "When this happened on those occasions, I thought he was acting a script and I decided to ignore it. But I am convinced by the medical report which confirms his ill-health," he ruled. Justice Bello ruled: "Bail is hereby granted the 1st accused person in the sum of N2 million, with two sureties in like sum, one of whom must be a former Inspector General. "Police Constable Ezekiel Acheneje also enjoyed bail with same condition. The only difference between Danjuma's and his, being that one of his sureties should be a director in the Civil Service." He said he was inclined to granting Acheneje bail because the suspect could afflict other inmates with other ailments, which come with HIV/AIDS. 2003 - 2006 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited ( Here we go again, the Apo killings were gruesome, and now this people are playing yutze with the case. Posted by emj| 03.08.2006 09:37

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