Society consists of individuals whose co-existence depends absolutely on interacting with one another. Man, as a being is a gregarious animal. Put in another way, no man is an island. Societal values are determined by members of a particular society. Society therefore decides what is right or wrong. (This of course is determined to a large extent by religion), the haves and have nots; who is a social hero and who is a social deviant. etc.
Basically, in every society, there is this “social stratification” classifying individuals into different groups either based on wealth or academic qualification. The class of the wealthy often dominates the society. They are the rulers, the decision-makers, and they control or determine the economic stand of that society. On the other hand, the class of the poor is only to be seen and not heard. They are the ruled, they must obey or comply with any decision made by the wealthy whether good or bad. They often do menial jobs with very poor remuneration. As a result of this while the wealthy class remain in affluence all their lives, the poor class remains in poverty and the vicious cycle continues -–little or no income; little or no savings; little or no investments. This gives rise to the Doctrine Of Social Inevitability.
It is important to note here that despite the above factors, peace is the essential element of any given society. A society in which violence is taken as the decider of decency is one which human values are in serious danger of extinction and one in which anarchy is bound to reign supreme. It is impossible to see any meaningful future for such a society. Mankind more than any other species needs peace within which to grow.
The Doctrine of Social Inevitability.
The concept of the Doctrine of Social Inevitability stems out from the fact that society of earlier observed is classified into groups; Viz: the strikingly rich and the wretched poor. The society’s structure is therefore socially imbalanced. A situation then arises where these wretched poor would have to do certain things (things considered wrong by the same society) just to remain relevant and save themselves from complete extinction. These so called wrongs are inevitable, “After all, the view of criminology is that society prepares the crime and the individual (criminal) merely commits it”.
A hypothetical example from Indonesian will better explain the Doctrine of Social Inevitability. It is titled: “The Cleaner and The Presidents Pen.”
Former Indonesian President General Suharto and his family members were reported to have fraudulently amassed a fortune, none of them had been charged (Sic) yet in the same country, Mulyadibin Umar Khan, a cleaner at Freedom Palace – Indonesia’s Presidential Palace was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for stealing pens. Mulyadi was reported to have stolen some Mont Blanc fountain pens used by the president as gifts for newly appointed Indonesian ambassadors. Mulyadi sold of the pens for 2.8 million Rupiah (250 pounds). In a judgement which was delivered in April, presiding Justice Purwanto said “The defendant has stolen the pens which belong to the state, in stealing the pens on different occasions, he committed the crime with deliberation “ But Mulyadi did not go down without a fight. His assertions illustrated the gulf between the Indonesian elites and poor citizens. Before his sentence, Mulyadi claimed that as presidential cleaner, he was paid 82,500 rupiah (7.37 pounds) a month. The retail cost of a Mont Blanc was for him equivalent to 3 years salary. But his monthly rent alone cost 120,000 rupiah (#10.7) excluding living expenses. He further accused other presidential palace officials of bringing home shirts and wall clock from the Palace. He told the Jakarta post “ I thought it will be okay to bring home some pens” the above example can aptly be described as a perfect example of Social Inevitability. Really, Mulyadi’s crime was inevitable. He had to meet up with the ever increasing cost of living (Without corresponding increase in wages). Moreover, when did stealing become a crime committed only by the poor? In many cases while the biggins escape with their loot the “small fries” are often caught and made to face the wrath of the law.
THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE
Nigeria consists of 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja). These states have capitals which are fully developed and “civilized”. Some of these states apart from the capitals have other major towns, which can also be described as being developed. However over 50% of these states are basically rural. Most often than not, most government programmes are targeted at the cities populace often leaving the rural areas with little or no government projects. Schools located in the cities are well equipped in contrast to schools in the rural area which most times have far more learners than the classroom can accommodate. Again most rural areas are without light; thus, students have to use candle light or lantern to read. This is in sharp contrast to what obtains in the city. Yet, both students in the rural areas and cities will have to take the same examination. What will be the result? The student from the cities does better and proceeds to the next rung on the academic ladder. While his counterpart in the rural area in most cases fail the examination. He either has to repeat or sometimes because he is completely disillusioned, may opt to drop out from school.
A student from the rural area therefore faces a bleak future; a life of struggle and poverty from the cradle to the grave often doing menial jobs. Of course, the situation will have been better had the distribution of facilities been less uneven between the cities and the rural communities.
An individual who is the product of the rural community faced with the above tales of woes at a point in his lifetime becomes frustrated particularly when he sees his age-mates from the city driving Porsche cars and controlling the political and financial machinery of the country. He then contemplates theft. He assumes that the city man has so much and thinks that if he steals a little from him, it will make little or no difference. If he succeeds in stealing, he goes away happy being very justified. However must times, he may be very unlucky and he is caught. He is accused of stealing, consequently, he is charged to court and sentenced to prison.
It should be pointed out quickly that even the cities do face similar problems. It is a well-known fact that in the cities, there too are schools better equipped than others. These well-equipped schools are most often than not owned by private proprietors in contrast to government owned schools, which are poorly equipped. That the Nigerian government is yet to take paramount notice of the educational sector is shockingly irresponsible.
Talking about natural resources Nigerian is currently the 6th largest producer of oil in the world yet, the people of the Niger-Delta where these oil fields are located live in abject poverty while oil company workers live in affluence. We are aware of the fact that the exploration of these oil fields will bring about environmental pollution to the various communities. The exploration of the oil has polluted their waters and killed aquatic life. All these cries of pollution of rivers and farmland, particurlaly where you can say the golden egg is being laid is unjustified. It is criminal not to pay attention to making sure that job are created for the youths and the unemployed in the area.
When the youths as a result of unemployment and frustration, decides to attack oil companies most times taking their staff hostage, the Nigerian Society frown at their action. Does this not tell us that there is something significantly still amiss?
Hope was high in 1995 that the execution of the Ogoni nine would at least help to redefine terms of structural and statistical imbalances in the economic production of the nation wealth. The Abacha regime and its successor, in spite of the above historical memory proved, through sheer indifference or mischief to continue to ignore complaint; even as it paid more attention to matters of state jamboree, welfare of neighbouring countries, creation of job for first ladies, construction of state of the art staid, and the transformation of Abuja into a modern architectural master piece. These superseded the Niger-Delta decimal.
Earlier, perhaps, to correct the injustices done to the people of the Niger-Delta, the Babangida’s regime enacted the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, Decree No 23 1990 (OMPADEC). Of significant importance is section 2 sub-section2.
The sums received by the commission shall
(a) be used for the rehabilitation and development
of oil mineral producing areas on the basis of the
ration produced in the popular state, Local
Government Area or Community and not on
the basis of the dichotomy of on-shore or
Offshore oil production. (Emphasis mine).
Not surprisingly. OMPADEC ended with the Bababgida regime. The Obasanjo’s regime in pursuit of justice for the Niger-Delta people enacted the Niger-Delta Development Commission (NDDC) bill. The functions of NDDC are quite similar with that of its predecessor (OMPADEC).
It does appear that with the regular disruption of activities at the oil farm terminals, kidnap of oil workers, eruption of violence, the NDDC still lacks the needed mi em to bring succour to the Niger Delta people. Therefore, as long as this problems exists, society should never blame the frustrated youth of the Niger-Delta whose last resort is to take up arms and fight for the course of justice. These actions of theirs is Socially Inevitable!
From the fore going, society should therefore be made to pay very dearly for the frustrations it has inflicted on individuals. After all, as earlier observed, the view of criminology is that society prepares the crime while the individual merely commits it. The individual is pushed by a force beyond his control to commit crime. This force emanates from the social imbalances in the society. Why then should an individual be made to pay for a crime prepared by the society?
Of course, society is a very complex organism; one that is difficult to imagine as one mass of humanity. Moreover, there are so many competing and in many instances, outright antagonistic tendencies within any society, that the idea of social singularity may be too difficult if not completely impossible to imagine. And yet, the success or indeed failure of any society depends on the mechanism by which dissenting opinions and practices are amicably resolved as the hallmark of a successful society.
Do we not therefore need urgently a re-orientation and transformation of our value system? That is the question for our society.
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