JUNE 1, 2015 : PUNCH EDITORIAL BOARD
DARING rival gangs are on the rampage on the streets of Lagos. This is, however, not particularly new. Seemingly uncontrollable, they are laying lives and property to waste. It is a real cause for concern. Last week in the Somolu area of Nigeria’s sprawling commercial capital, rival gangs hacked two people to death in a community market in broad daylight. Residents fled and locked up their shops. The police were, as usual, nowhere to be found, though they later appeared to evacuate the remains of the dead victims.
The lawlessness of these gangs taints the image of Lagos. Its lofty dream of becoming a megacity by 2030 is being gravely undermined. Achieving it depends on how focused the new government of Akinwunmi Ambode is. In the same week in Ojota, one of the new playgrounds of the hoodlums, criminal gangs vandalised 25 private vehicles overnight, injuring scores of people while carrying out attacks and reprisals.
Many people and businesses are relocating in the face of the uncontrolled brigandage, with the state looking on helplessly. Regrettably, the administration of Babatunde Fashola, which won wide acclaim for its success in several areas in the past eight years, curiously failed to rein in the gangsters.
Fashola’s long-term vision to convert the army of miscreants through sports, as he explained in his valedictory interview, is too feeble an effort to resolve this quagmire. A governor who subdued the market and transport conundrum at Mushin, Oshodi and Ojuelegba, had no excuse for not taming the street gangs. Ambode is left with no choice but to decisively exert himself in the task of curbing this menace as soon as he takes office. No serious government cedes its power of coercion to gangsters.
Ambode’s mandate includes making Lagos safe for residents and businesses. Fortunately, he can build on the Lagos State Road Traffic Law 2012, which prohibits touting and collection of fees at motor parks and bus stops. In spite of the law, touting, carried out by miscreants who double as gangsters, is still rife. This practice is abnormal. It should be eradicated. Having been a part of the establishment since 1999, he should make it his priority to get to the root of the misdemeanour.
Often wrongly referred to as cultists, the criminal gangs – mostly unemployed youths and motor park touts – portray themselves as political actors or thugs. This is only a false mask for their nefarious activities. They collect illegal fees from hardworking commercial bus drivers, as well as tricycle and motorcycle operators in a pervasive protection racket.
Because the state looks on seemingly helplessly, especially when election periods come around, these deviants transform into hardened criminals, who terrorise neighbourhoods, maim and kill the innocents. But crime thrives when perpetrators are not promptly apprehended and punished. Many Lagos residents and businesses are counting their losses as the violence rages.
Just before the last elections, these gangs wreaked havoc in several parts of the state and the victims are yet to recover. In Oshodi, the gangs not only threatened to wipe out those who would not vote for a particular party, they unleashed violence for several days. When the dust settled, many people had lost limbs and arms, while five people died. Mushin, the epicentre of gangland turf wars, is off-limits for many, a fact acknowledged by political, business and community leaders.
In Ojota, the military had to be drafted to the streets as gangs conducted large-scale violence after the results of the March 28 governorship and state assembly polls were declared. Three people reportedly died there, five vehicles vandalised and property savaged. Elections are held in other climes, as was the case in the United Kingdom on May 7, without any report of violence. We might have had only 16 years of unbroken democracy, but we must start to tame these felons at some point in order not to jeopardise our collective democratic investment.
Different countries deploy various means of solving gangland wars. Even in the United States, with its permissive gun culture, a city like Chicago, in Illinois, is making headway. By deploying new tactics, infiltration and profiling, a city once notorious for gangland wars has been able to correct itself. These are measures that can be imbibed by the government and security agencies.
Likewise, the United Kingdom is dealing seriously with criminal gangs in London to a great effect. Early in 2014, the Metropolitan Police, after identifying 250 criminal gangs in the English capital, conducted “sting” operations against the most notorious ones. Through these aggressive, intelligence-driven schemes, street-level crime was reduced by 20 per cent.
Violence is a strong disincentive to socioeconomic and political progress. And, the new governor cannot hide from its overwhelming spectre. If he doesn’t deal with it, the state will go to the dogs under him. In concert with the police, Ambode should crush these gangs.
But that might not be enough, as the gangs are firmly entrenched. He needs to go further by targeting their sponsors, who operate through the transport unions. He has to muster the courage to do so, bearing in mind that Lagos cannot attain its megacity status when gangs subvert the law with impunity and threaten the peace of their neighbourhoods.
Copyright PUNCH.
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