Nigeria in a season of anomie

It’s indeed season of anomie in Nigeria. The country has been turned to killing field by heinous and fiendish insurgents and herdsmen. It used to be weekly bloodletting but it has since about two weeks ago turned into a daily ugly phenomenon. Not even the state visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to Taraba, Yobe, Nasarrawa, Benue and Plateau has been able to stem the orgy of killings by the murderous herdsmen. The President had earlier asked the Inspector General of Police, I. K Idris to relocate to Benue State while additional mobile unit has been sent to Benue to reinforce the existing force on ground. All these have achieved limited success as the killings have continued unabated. In the last few weeks with the latest being last Thursday, March 15, 2018, Benue State had conducted two mass burial of its citizens murdered in cold blood by the rampaging herdsmen.

When it became obvious that the Police are overwhelmed by the crimes and criminality of the villainous herdsmen, the Nigerian military stepped in. On February 7, 2018 the Nigerian Army announced that it has concluded plans to deploy its troops to conduct operation Ayem Akpatuma (Cat Race) from February 15 in a bid to tackle armed banditry, kidnapping and cattle rustling in some volatile states in the country. It was reported that   the exercise that will last till March 31 this year is an operation meant to end herdsmen/farmers clashes and attacks on innocent members of communities in Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa States by armed men. The operation Ayem Akpatuma, a Tiv term which means Cat Race in English translation is also targeted at combating cattle rustling in Kaduna and Niger States as well as sundry crimes in Kogi State. The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt Gen Tukur Buratai, announced the launch of the operations at the Nigerian Army Headquarters Abuja. It has been more than a month since this military exercise commenced. Rather than abating, the evil ones seems to be gaining upper hand as the killings are now spreading to other states like Plateau and Kogi  where there have been prior relative peace.

Between Tuesday and Thursday last week, over 30 persons were allegedly killed by herdsmen in Dekina and Omala Local Government Areas of Kogi State. The State government in its reaction believed that the killings are politically motivated. On Thursday, March 8, 2018 when President Buhari went on a state visit to Plateau State, he launched the state Roadmap to Peace, a five-year strategic peace plan. He commended the state governor for uniting the people of the state, saying, “I have been monitoring the activities of the Plateau State Peace Building Agency. I am indeed quite impressed with the gains and successes recorded in the area of conflict management and peace building which has returned the state to the path of relative peace.” Unfortunately, hardly had the President left Jos back to Abuja when the killing spree began in some communities of Plateau State. The two-night attacks on Ganda village of Daffo district of Bokkos Local Government Area and on Miango village of Bassa Local Government Area led to the death of about 11 persons.

The states that have had bitter taste of the dose of criminality of suspected herdsmen attack include Kaduna, Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Plateau, Ekiti, Ondo, Edo, Kogi, Enugu, Nasarawa and Zamfara. The surprising thing is that government seems to be at its wits end as all efforts to curb this menace seems futile. This has led to a lot of insinuation about lack of political will, poor intelligence gathering, sabotage, lack of adequate manpower and financial resources to rein in these marauders called herdsmen.

While the herdsmen are having a field day maiming, killing and destroying property of people with impunity, their partners in crime, the Boko Haram terrorists dealt a fatal blow on the Nigerian security forces when on Monday, February 19, 2018 they struck at Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC) Dapchi  in Yobe State and abducted 110 school girls. Though Federal Government had set up a 12 member committee to look into how and why the Dapchi abduction took place, one is at a loss as to whether any lesson was learnt  from a similar abduction that took place on April 14, 2014 in Chibok in Borno State where over 200 schoolgirls were abducted by the Boko Haram insurgents.

There were allegations that the Nigerian military was informed of plans by Boko Haram to attack and conduct mass abductions in Yobe State. It was reported that the Defence Headquarters was notified by the Defence Intelligence Agency of plans by Boko Haram militants to carry out a massive attack in February. The confidential memo dated February 6, 2018, and titled “Plans by BHT to Carry out Massive Attacks in Maiduguri and Damaturu” was allegedly signed by Brigadier-General E.A Adeniyi.  If truly the military was forewarned that these insurgents will carry out this abduction, what did they do to prevent it? Why did the military leave Dapchi without security? Even though the military is claiming to have handed over to the Police, the Police had denied vehemently that there was such handover. While the buck-passing is going on, government has pledged to negotiate with the terrorists for the release of the Dapchi girls. This is a bad omen as prior negotiations with the group for the release of over 100 Chibok girls further reinforced the terrorists as the money and some of the terrorist commanders allegedly swapped for the Chibok girls enabled the insurgents  to regroup and become more vicious.

The Dapchi kidnapping had further pooh-poohed the federal government claim that it had technically defeated the Boko Haram insurgents. The Constitution of Nigeria 1999, as amended in section 14(2)(b) says the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. With the high level of insecurity in the country, it means the government has failed in abiding by the social contract it has with the people. The upshot of the prevalence of insecurity in Nigeria includes food insecurity and humanitarian crises. Millions of my compatriots are now living deplorable life in Internally Displaced Persons camp. These IDPs are no longer productive and have been turned to parasites. Public and private properties worth billions of Naira have also been destroyed by these terrorists.

The way out of this insecurity include the overhauling of the security architecture of this country, mopping up of small arms and light weapons in the hands of wrong people in the country, arrest and diligent prosecution of masterminds and arrowheads of these crimes against humanity, compensation to the victims of these crimes and enactment of law for the establishment of State Police and Cattle Ranching. There is also need to ensure that our security agencies are well resourced with human and material needs.

On the controversies generated over the withholding of presidential assent on the amended Electoral Act 2010 I think the president is in order to exercise that constitutional right. Likewise, it is within the right of the National Assembly to seek to override that veto. Unfortunately, we have begun to see the judiciary dragged into our electoral process too early in the lead up to 2019 general elections. I do not think it was right for individual or political party to approach the court to stop another arm of government from exercising its constitutional powers. What the Presidency need to do is to lobby the national assembly to see reason and make the necessary adjustment and not to override the presidential veto. I am happy that this issue, though subjudice, may have been discussed at the truce meeting held between the presidency and the leadership of National Assembly on Thursday, March 15, 2018. I foresee a situation whereby if the presidential veto is overruled, the members of the National Assembly who may have spearheaded that action will be denied ticket on the platform of All Progressives Congress.

When recently the Independent National Electoral Commission released timetable of election for 36 years (2019 – 2055) it came to me as a surprise. I do not totally agree with the commission on this action. We should actually be looking at possibility of holding all our future elections in one day and not two as INEC has proposed.

I enjoined all people of goodwill to join government to fight and overcome the nagging issue of insecurity in this country. As has been requested of us, “if you see something, say something!” Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

This article was published today March 20, 2018  in the LAWYER pullout of Thisday newspaper P. 11