Fear As A Potent Weapon

BY GORA ALBEHU GORA

The Merriam Webster’s Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary defines fear as, to be afraid of something or someone, to expect or worried about something bad or unpleasant happening. There is also reverential fear which is to a Supreme Being (God) which is driven by deep respect. This essay seeks to dwell on the first 2 meanings all of which have to do with being afraid which in itself is informed by a climate of uncertainty. If humanity was endowed with the capacity to see or know into what is to happen, we will be better prepared for the consequences of such occurrences but unfortunately we are bereft of such an endowment which is why we continue to live in perpetual fear. Because we are alive today, we know except we delude ourselves that we shall die someday. We know generally that all living things will die of one cause or another. When the British philosopher and one of the foremost writers on political thought Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679 referred to death as ” the leap into the great beyond ”, there was a veneer of fear in the statement represented by the words ” Great Unknown ”. Further down the line, one of his greatest quotes ” No art, no letters, no society and which is worst of all continued fear of danger and  violent death and the life of a man, solitary, poor nasty brutish and short ”, clearly evinces such fear. If humanity knew the content of this great beyond, surely we will be better prepared for it. We are not though entirely left completely blank about the great beyond as Religion stepped in to say that the great beyond is made up of a heaven and hell. Religion has also been gracious enough to educate humanity on how to qualify for either heaven or hell. If we are not completely well informed as to the great beyond, why then have we continued to behave and conduct ourselves as if we are on top of the situation? If we all somehow fear death or are uncertain as to what may come to pass why do some arrogate to themselves the right to terminate the lives of others in the most vicious of ways? Should we not in the circumstance have contrite hearts not knowing how our own end could be? Without fear, who knows what humanity would have achieved? Fears holds you back, it restrains you from moving forward to explore and conquer the unknown. Therefore if any mortal being tells you that he/she has no fear of the unknown which in this case could be anything, such is austere with the truth.

Measures have been put in place designed to, at the very least, reduce fear if not eliminate it, but fear is still with us. Training is one of such measures. The Military vocation essentially has fear of death stalking every man under arms for such know not when the end may come.  Quality training though, instils confidence and or courage during war. Many a research have been carried out by the militaries of old, in an attempt to source an antidote or vaccine against fear but all the efforts ended up in futility. In the medical profession for example, student doctors must to a large extent defeat the fear of death since they must use cadavers in the course of their training. Only morticians can largely be said to have developed the capacity of making a living managing the dead. Humanity has lived with death for all of history yet we have not been able to conquer it.  It is to this extent that fear has become a very potent weapon.  The moment an adversary can put fear into an opponent, there may be no need to actually have a military engagement on the field of battle. Deterrence is one means through which a potential adversary could be compelled to back down in the face of a possible military engagement in which he could suffer devastating consequences. In the years of the Cold War between East and West, either parties knew too well that each had the capacity to destroy the other over and over again which was what gave rise to the philosophy of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). This philosophy kept the adversaries well away from the nuclear buttons. There is also the political dimension of fear particularly in climes like ours. Politicians unsure of what will become of them after leaving office embark on massive looting of the resources they should have used to better the lives of the electorate.  It is fear also that feeds the sit tight tendencies of political office holders. Such hardly understand when they are no longer relevant in the political space and so they deploy crude force as an intimidating tool against their opponents.  What such politicians fear most is that if they left their period in office could be subjected to investigation as is currently the case with the upper most echelon of the Kaduna State PDP leadership.

In Nigeria as things stand, there is a thick blanket of fear wrapped around all of us because we are passing through uncertain times. The pandemic of poor leadership has drained us of hope for a better tomorrow. The uncertain situation has now been further compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has reduced all of humanity to a fearful lot as none including the most advanced nations in science and technology have been put to fright. In our part of the world which has a surfeit of healing pastors and future tellers the pandemic has proven many of those as fakes since they all retracted to their cocoons. One critic of such fake healers asked how many of the so-called men of God were using the holy water they sell openly as hand sanitizers? He went on to enquire how many of such who claim to have healing powers during the pandemic ever called for a healing crusade exclusively for COVID-19 patients. The point being made here is that they were all gripped by fear for their own health.  When the pandemic expires, we should all be on the lookout for any of such fakes who will claim again that they have healing powers. This essay must not be interpreted to preclude completely the fact that there are indeed some genuine men of God whom the Creator uses to heal others.

The current campaign by a cocktail of Fulani bandits and jihadists is clearly designed to induce fear in the population.. Just last week in Katsina State came the news that life is so uncertain that some District Heads were considering abandoning their domains for the safety of other areas. It is fear that is informing this situation. The bandits themselves are so cowardly that they sneak into unprotected villages and communities to wreak havoc and death on hapless civilians and like the cowards that they are, they sneak back to their hideouts in the bushes. In Kaduna State and Southern Kaduna in particular, the strategy adopted by the jihadists is to deploy whatever crude means there is at their disposal including hacking men, women and infants to death in the dead of night. That done, they go on to burn their stocks of food and houses. Those who are lucky to make it out alive are compelled to abandon their villages to safer areas possibly in Internally Displaced Camps. In truth, is any place safe in this country aside the seat of power particularly Aso Rock?  If you desire to see or know what fear can do to a population, you only need to visit one of the displaced camps housing the Adara internally displaced. It is there that you will see a state of hopelessness, despondency, frustration and bleakness about the future on the faces of those little children whose parents were dispatched to their early graves. Surely the State has a duty to not only provide protection to the population which is the primary responsibility of government, but also to reassure and give them hope. Will the State care enough to do the needful? Your guess is as good as mine.

Retired Col. Gora, a public commentator, wrote in from Kaduna