In a moment of pure, unadulterated political adrenaline, Edo State’s Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, went full Game of Thrones. Standing before a frustrated public, he announced a “brilliant” new security strategy: convicted kidnappers will be publicly executed right in King’s Square.
Cue the dramatic music. Cue the applause from a terrified populace tired of living in fear.
It’s an excellent speech if you’re auditioning for the role of a medieval warlord. Unfortunately, Senator Okpebholo is supposed to be running a modern democracy. The declaration was delivered with the vibe of a man who has just cracked the code to crime fighting, but in reality, it reveals a leadership operating entirely without the benefit of history, law, or Google.
The Nostalgia for Failed Bloodbaths
Governor Okpebholo seems to believe he has stumbled upon a groundbreaking deterrent. It would be rude not to remind him that Nigeria has already tried the “blood-and-spectacle” approach to crime management, and it has a 0% success rate.
Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane:
- The 1970s Firing Squads: Back during the military era, watching armed robbers get tied to stakes on Bar Beach was practically a weekend family outing. Did armed robbery stop? No, the robbers just upgraded their weapons and stopped leaving witnesses.
- The War on Drugs: Executing drug traffickers didn’t make the cartels repent; it just made them hike their prices to cover the “hazard pay.”
If public executions actually deterred criminals, Nigeria would currently be as safe as Switzerland. To suggest that a grotesque public murder in King’s Square will suddenly terrify kidnappers, men who literally play Russian roulette with the police for a living, is a special kind of optimistic delusion. What metric is His Excellency using here? The vibes-per-square-inch index?
Governance by Vibes and Adrenaline
What we are witnessing is the classic Nigerian political pastime: governing on the fly.
It’s the art of winging it on the microphone because crafting actual policy requires sitting at a desk and thinking. Why bother investing in judicial reform, forensics, or police welfare when you can just promise a public hanging and call it a day?
It turns out that shouting “Off with their heads!” is much easier than doing the boring, unglamorous work of fixing a broken justice system where a simple trial outlives the lifespan of a house cat.
By offering a Roman Colosseum-style distraction in Benin City, the administration is trying to mask a profound lack of policy depth with a splash of bloodthirsty rhetoric.
A Wild Idea: What if We Just Caught Them?
Here is a radical, avant-garde concept that criminologists have only been preaching for about three centuries: criminals don’t care about the severity of the punishment; they care about the likelihood of getting caught.
If a kidnapper believes there is a 99% chance they will escape into the forest with 20 million Naira, they will take that bet every single day, even if the penalty is being launched into the sun. But if they know they will be tracked down, arrested, and jailed within 48 hours, the business model collapses.
[The Governor's Plan]: No Policing ➔ Kidnapper Escapes ➔ King's Square Stays Empty ➔ Crime Wins. [The Actual Solution]: Data-Led Policing ➔ Swift Tracking ➔ Instant Arrest ➔ Certain Jailtime ➔ Crime Stops.
If the Governor truly wants to secure Edo State, he needs to trade the medieval script for a modern one:
- Invest in Intelligence, Not Theater: Buy drones, improve geo-tracking capabilities, and fund local security networks instead of buying ammunition for a firing squad.
- Speed Up the Courts: A swift six-month prison sentence is a better deterrent than a death sentence that takes fifteen years of appeals to execute.
Conclusion
Edo State does not need a tourist attraction built on public executions, and King’s Square shouldn’t be turned into a 17th-century gallows.
Governor Okpebholo needs to step back from the microphone of excitement, take a deep breath, and realize that leadership requires depth, not drama. True security isn’t achieved by acting tough on stage; it’s achieved by being smart behind the scenes. Let’s leave the public hangings in the history books where they belong, and get to the actual work of policing.
Centre for Nigeria Progress 