"Our Governor Sir, hardly does any day pass in Nigeria, without a report of a massacre of Nigerians by Nigerians or at least, coordinated by Nigerians. Hardly does a day pass, without the report of a major violent crime committed against Nigerians by Nigerians. Hardly does a day pass, without the story of how large sums of money are stolen by Nigerians who are in positions of trust. The revelations at the various probes by the National Assembly are heart breaking as billions of Naira meant for the improvement in the welfare and condition of living of ordinary Nigerians are brazenly stolen by those who they are entrusted in their care. All these are examples of violence against the people of Nigeria. The killings and maiming of Nigerians, whether by Boko Haram, Militants, cult groups, kidnappers, armed robbers, misguided youths, political thugs and other forms of societal vices by deviant groups under whatever guise, are all examples of direct violence. There is also structural violence, which is the violence that does not hurt or kill through fists or guns or bombs, but through social structures that produce poverty, death and enormous suffering such as: corruption, injustice and bad governance. The truth is that, no one will be able to properly address the problems of direct violence especially, those with ideological inclination without understanding the relationship between direct violence and structural violence. For instance, take a hypothetical example of a man who loses his land or fishing port to oil /gas exploitation because of unjust laws. His son loses her mother because of poverty and crumbling social infrastructure in the Niger Delta, his daughter cannot further her education because the surviving parent is poor. Yet, they live closer oil pipelines When she manages to go to school through community effort. She is told that there is no job for her. She becomes unemployed and frustrated. The community also becomes frustrated, and unable to sponsor others like her. They become abandoned and trapped in the heinous poverty circle while their God-given resources are carted away and used to fund a system of fiscal federalism that is a misnomer and unbecoming of any true federation. The fund is used to pay for the construction of the expensive city of Abuja, fund the huge corruption that we read daily in the newspapers, finance expatriate workers in the Oil and Gas Industry who enjoy highest condition of service, incomparable to any of their equivalent in the world, fund one of the most expensive National Assemblies in the world and provide for the lavish and hedonistic lifestyle of the privileged few Nigerians . Our Governor Sir, you will agree with us that hunger, neglect, frustration and deprivation of this magnitude IN THE MIDST OF PLENTY is a serious form of violence, capable of pushing ( indeed has pushed) the man and his community into direct violence. The story is also not different in Northern Nigeria, where years of deprivation, neglect, corruption and misrule by the ruling elites have led to the emergence and establishment of dynasties of poverty in the form of ‘Almajiris’, and now we all cry over the terror in the land, occasioned by the ‘Boko Haram’ insurgence. Let me quickly add that I am not by any chance providing any justification for criminal activities, I am only showing how one crime, for example corruption, leads to another. For example, the killings by ‘Boko Haram’ or militant/cult groups in the Niger Delta. This analysis in my view, is important if we must address the unacceptable violence, insecurity and wanton killings in Nigeria that is fast becoming a way of life in our beloved country." Exerpt from AN ADDRESS PRESENTED BY COMRADE HYGINUS CHIKA ONUEGBU (JP, FCA) STATE CHAIRMAN TRADE UNION CONGRESS OF NIGERIA (TUC) RIVERS STATE COUNCIL ON THE OCCASION OF 2012 MAY DAY CELEBRATION IN RIVERS STATE NIGERIA.

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