POLITICAL violence has become one of Nigeria’s most shameful democratic traditions. The youths, who should be the principal beneficiaries and custodians of the country’s future, are repeatedly recruited as cannon fodder in political battles they did not create. They are armed, paid to intimidate opponents, disrupt elections and unleash violence, only to end up dead, maimed, imprisoned or abandoned when the political contest is over.
The irony is almost obscene. The politicians who recruit and arm these young people do not send their own children to the streets with guns, machetes and other weapons. Their children are safely tucked away in reputable schools and universities in London, Europe, America and elsewhere. They remain protected from the violence they sponsor while the children of the poor pay the ultimate price.
The Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Henry Ndukuba, therefore struck a powerful chord with Nigerians when he condemned the recruitment of youths for election violence by politicians.
“None of these politicians sends their own children to carry out violence. Their children are in London, Europe and America. What they will not send their own children to do, they are sending our young people to do,” Ndukuba said at the opening of the 15th Anglican Chancellors, Registrars and Legal Officers Conference in Abuja.
