By Jide Ajani

Prejudice! Wicked prejudice! The consequence of the wickedness of prejudice is the present spate of criminal activities passed off as terrorism in some parts of the north of Nigeria.

To fully understand the sometimes deadly effect of prejudice,  please follow this near-death real-life situation (as detailed in World’s Weirdest (newspaper stories):

THE NEW SERVICE CHIEFS, NSA

“According to the Charlotte Observer of 1926, the Reverend Mr Taylor and the Reverend Mr Dick conducted a learned public debate at Edenton on the question: ‘Will the Negro retain his present colour in heaven?’ Mr. Taylor contended that the Negro’s colour will change.

It is not clear what scientific evidence Mr. Taylor marshaled to support his argument; the report merely illustrates how weirdly racial prejudice may affect otherwise intelligent people. But cases of individuals’ skin changing colour have occurred; and in places where facial law operate, the results can be disquieting.

“In January 1970, Mr. Alphons du Toit, for example, a South African White, was stung from head to toe when he walked into a swarm of bees in the middle of Johannesburg. He turned black. A housewife was shopping nearby when the incident occurred, and declared: ‘He was unrecognisable.’ Another passer-by telephoned for an ambulance. The official at the other end of the line asked: ‘European or non-European?’ The passer-by replied; ‘Non-European – I think.’

“Accordingly, Mr. du Toit was put into an ambulance for non-Whites and driven to the non-White section of Johannesburg General Hospital for treatment.

“While the patient was being given emergency treatment, however, the nurses discovered that he was white. Should they carry on regardless, or interrupt treatment to have Mr. du Toit moved to the White section? Prejudice won; and in a desperate state, the unfortunate patient was wheeled out of the non-White area and into the White. His condition was critical.

“The vagaries of apartheid were further exposed by the case of Mrs. Rita Hoefling, a white South African woman who had an operation to remove her adrenal glands in 1969. After the operation, her skin turned progressively darker and darker, discoloured by pituitary secretions. A Cape Town hospital worker, Mrs. Hoefling found herself being treated as a black maid, ordered off Whites Only buses, subjected to countless slights and humiliations. In January 1978, she wrote a formal letter to protest to the South African Premier, John Vorster, to tell him ‘what apartheid is doing to my life and those of others’.

“Skin changes may, of course, work in reverse through a pigmentation disorder, Eddie Mae Kearney of New York changed from black to white in 1959. In 1981, she turned black again – spot by spot”.

In today’s Nigeria, prejudice plays a major part in virtually every aspect of its daily existence. And it is nowhere more pronounced than in the attitude of some leaders of Nigeria’s majority tribes – Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba; and recently the Ijaws – towards other minority tribes.

The trajectory between the apartheid story, the attitude of some leaders of Nigeria’s majority tribes to the minorities, and the present state of war in Nigeria can be located in the staccato and tongue-in-cheek pronouncements from the early days of Muhammed Yusuf’s ragtag evangelical group, to the infancy of members of Jama’atu Ahliss-Sunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad (Western education is evil), otherwise known as Boko Haram, and to today’s band of criminals terrorizing the nation. Going through the indifference and reckless statements made in those very bad, sad early days of Boko Haram – and even as lately as the campaigns for the 2015 elections – would not bestow any scintilla of decency on this piece, especially the statements that seemed to send the wrong signal that except persons from a particular section of the country is elected as President, Nigeria would know no peace. Prejudice.

Worse still, the Ijaw man, who became President and Commander-in-Chief, elevated prejudice to another level. And whereas it did not as much manifest in government appointments, it bore its destructive fangs more in the nature of extra-governmental leaders who reduce Nigeria to not even the entirety of the Ijaw nation but a tiny sector.

Therefore, as the naivety about proprietary control of the Nigerian state begot another form of naivety, the fundamental directive principle of state policy, which should be the enthronement of peace and stability and the well-being of the citizenry, was laid bare on the slaughter slab.

The prejudice, which sank deeply, befuddling a visage of the clear and present danger that, in 2009/2010 and early 2011, could have been crushed had Nigerians been united and the government of the day decisive, was allowed to become a monster.

Now, northern leaders are asking Nigerians to support Buhari against Boko Haram.

The opposition at that time even rejoiced and, in some more bizarre instances, tagged the war against terror as genocide against the North.

Beyond the tokenistic ritual of changing Service Chiefs, tons of letters of condolences by The Presidency expressing grief, preachments vowing to crush the insurgency, the Jonathan administration conducted the campaign against the terrorists like a shell. To be fair, however, the needed intelligence, which would have been provided by Nigeria’s neighbours, never came; just as the military hardware that was promised by the West was never supplied – even with Nigeria’s cash.

Add to this litany, a bumbling President.

Whereas Jonathan told CNN mid-2013 that in six months he would re-appear on the cable channel to tell them that BOKO HARAM had been defeated, the reality, by May 2014, was that stories of Nigeria and Boko Haram on CNN were stories determined by and predicated on the exploits of the terror group.

It is this over-simplification of the state of war that Nigeria is in that should be a lesson to as well as serve as guide for both President Buhari and leaders of the All Progressives Congress  of Nigeria, APC, who still make statements that Boko Haram would disappear in a couple of months.

For instance, having dislodged the terrorists from their known bases, what counter measures  are in place in terms of IED-detection strategies, mass mobilization, public enlightenment, support for and protection of Islamic clerics who have been speaking openly against the terrorists with a view to changing the evil narrative?

Yes, President Buhari has performed his first ritual of changing Service Chiefs. This should be matched with good sense and strategy to defeat the bad guys – and not to continue an encore ritual of musical chairs.