The Bakassi Boys: Vigilantism, Violence, and Political Imagination in Nigeria

Abstract

In Nigeria and elsewhere, vigilantism appears to be a common response to ambivalence and discontent about the authority of the state. The rise of the Bakassi Boys and their tremendous popularity reveal complexities and contradictions that characterize the contours of political organization and imagination in contemporary Nigeria. Vigilantism is shown to be a reaction to the disappointments of Nigeria's neoliberal economic reforms and democratization, drawing on idioms of accountability rooted in the supernatural. Yet, paradoxically, popular justification for vigilantism also draws on ideals of democracy and development. Further, popular perceptions of the Bakassi Boys and a coopting of vigilantism by politicians serve to obscure the responsibility of the state for the maintenance of inequality even as vigilantism is, simultaneously, a forceful reaction to institutionalized injustice.

A call for comparative thinking: Crime, citizenship and security in the global South

“…As Smith argues, writing about the growth of vigilante violence in Nigeria 'in response to perceived failures of government' 20 since the inauguration of the country's first civilian government in 16 years in 1999: public optimism that democracy would ensure economic growth and political growth has given way to frustration… perhaps nothing symbolises the disappointments of democracy more than the all-consuming public concern that crime is rampant and out of control. The intense sense of insecurity that pervades the country, expressed most clearly in concerns about violent crime, represents larger anxieties about economic deprivation and political insecurity.…”

The Struggling State

“…Other ethnographies of the everyday state focus on other types of middle actors, such as members of the military (Bickford 2011;Glaeser 2011;Kanaaneh 2009;Macleish 2013), customs agents (Chalfin 2010), bureaucrats and civil servants (Gupta 2012;Herzfeld 1992), and artists (Adams 2010;Frederik 2012). Additionally, a series of studies of vigilantes shows how those outside the state do the work of the state but also respond to state incompetence and impotence in an attempt to make society more moral (Goldstein 2003;Hellweg 2011;Smith 2004). These studies and others all recognize the importance of understanding how states are imagined and experienced by examining the actors situated ambiguously in the middle-citizens experience these actors as representing a state, but the actors themselves may be disillusioned with the state or have motivations that differ significantly from government policy.…”

“…Parallels with the measures teachers took and the work of vigilantes can be seen here. If vigilantism is an attempt to retain order, justice, and morality when the state is not capable of doing so (Buur 2003;Goldstein 2003;Lyons 2008;Smith 2004), vigilante violence comes from a crisis of state legitimacy, such as existed in Eritrea, and challenges the state's capacity to maintain control and enforce justice but simultaneously reinforces these same ideals of justice and an ordered society (Buur 2003;Goldstein 2003). Its purpose is not to "overturn the state" but to "recall it to its legal obligations, its social contract with its citizens" (Goldstein 2003: 25).…”

“…Work on sovereignty that draws on Giorgio Agamben's notion of devolved sovereignty also addresses the productive and unstructured nature of state violence (see, for example, Das and Poole 2004;Hansen and Stepputat 2005). Finally, work on vigilantism has also used these frameworks to show how extra-state violence functions as the state (Buur 2003;Goldstein 2003;Lyons 2008;Smith 2004). …”

Janus’ Voice: Religious Leaders, Framing, and Riots in Kano

“…that operates throughout Nigeria, in which political patrons hire local youths to be employed as 'thugs ' (Gore and Pratten 2003;Smith 2004). Finally, all these dynamics interacted with the fact that local street youths took advantage of the disorder to settle personal scores or engage in looting.…”