ENDING DESTRUCTION OF LIVES AND PROPERTY IN INTER-ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS CLASHES IN NIGERIA.

Most State Governments in Nigeria are unviable and depend on handouts from the Federal Government to survive. Additionally, State Governors are handed huge sums of money monthly as security votes in lieu of having a state police. These funds are discretionary, and most governors divert them into their personal bank accounts. Meanwhile there are almost daily reports of orchestrated and organized mobs destroying lives and property in different parts of Nigeria. What are the governors doing with their security votes? Since they are not providing security, the security votes should be used to pay compensation to victims of the heinous hate crimes happening under their watch until the victims are fully compensated.

If the victims are not fully compensated in one year, the Federal Government should deduct the balance from the monthly allocation due to the involved state from that State’s Federal Account in one swoop. Once the governors understand that promoting or condoning violence in their states will have a negative effect on their finances, they will use the same network they use to foster violence on a religious or ethnic basis to nip any nascent violence in the bud. The National Assembly should pass a bill to give legal backing to these measures.