The last two years or
so in Nigeria could easily be described as the worst period of unprecedented
terror-related violence and general state of insecurity in which thousands of
innocent Nigerians have lost their precious lives and property especially in
Northern Nigeria.
Because of the
increasing spate of bomb attacks targeted at churches, government institutions
and other flashpoints in the North East and North West of Nigeria by armed
Islamic rebels, most Nigerians are now apprehensive and fearful of the unknown.
In most states in the
South, the dare- devil activities of criminal gangs that have unleashed a
regime of violence, armed kidnappings for ransom payments and armed brigandage
has now made most people to be unease and the inability of the operatives of
the security agencies to combat this upsurge in violent crime has increased the
general climate of fear in Nigeria.
There is obviously a
comedy of error on how best to fight and effectively win the war on terror in
most parts of Nigeria because of what is seen as serious institutional
disconnect among the security agencies of government and even the Nigeria’s
foreign ministry officials. The justice sector has also failed to deliver
justice to arrested terror suspects.
While the Inspector
General of police Mr. Abubakar Dikko Mohammed has shouted from the roof tops
that soon the security operatives would effectively tackle the rising trend of
terror- related attacks but the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal
Oluseyi Petirin stated in clear terms that counter-terrorism operations do not
have time frame.
The Chief of Defence
Staff (CDS) stated thus; “The issue of terrorism or criminality is a difficult
thing, once people import it into any society, it is not always easy to
completely wipe it out but we have to continue to manage it and be conscious of
our security more than before. In the United States for instance, there hasn’t
been any serious attack since the 9/11 episode but the country and Americans
have remained more watchful than the pre-9/11 era, they have been managing the
problem. So, I can’t give you a definite time when the crisis will be over but
what I know is that we are on course”.
The Chief of Defense
Staff spoke so very well but a missing link is that Nigeria has no clearly
defined national policy on security even as the nation’s security architecture
is still weak.
To add salt to injury,
the Nigerian government through the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs appears
disorganized and not fully committed to wage relentless and intelligence-driven
war on terror. The policy flip flops of top foreign ministry officials have
denied Nigeria of any possible security assistance from foreign governments to
battle the scourge of terrorism that has spread like wild fire.
The Nigerian government
committed the willful blunder of stridently opposing the United States
government’s proposal to brand boko haram in Nigeria as a terrorist group and
the Nigerian government’s opposition has therefore weakened the dimension of
anti-terror fighting involvement of the international community within the
territory of Nigeria even when it is clear that a lot of the sophisticated
weapons used by the insurgents in the North are smuggled into Nigeria from the
many porous borders. Nigeria has therefore failed to properly secure her
borders.
Another fundamental
blunder that the Nigerian government is committing in the war against terrorism
in Nigeria is the absence of the necessary law reforms that would have quicken
the dispensation of Justice in the cases of the suspects arrested for their
involvement in the series of bomb attacks and mass murders.
The ongoing fight
against terror-related violence in most parts of the North is undertaken in the
notorious business-as-usual posture of most government officials so much so
that there is total absence of accountability and transparency on how the
dispensation of justice to arrested terror suspects is going on.
The other day, the
media reported that unspecified number of illegal weapons confiscated by
operatives of the joint military task force in the North are being kept in the
same store house that legal weapons belonging to security agencies are kept and
in fact the media quoted security sources as stating that some of these illegal
weapons taken away from the terrorism suspects may end up being re-possessed by
other non-state actors.
The biggest comedy of
error on the ongoing Nigeria’s war on terror is that the Nigerian government
has done nothing pragmatic in the last ten years to improve the standard of
detention facilities in prisons across the country thereby making it possible
for terrorism suspects to be detained in some facilities that are not meant for
dangerous suspects even as many of these persons arrested for terrorism
offences have escaped from these sub-standard detention facilities.
What then is the
essence of waging war on terrorism if the same government is doing nothing by
way of bringing the suspects of terrorism to swift and decisive justice? Why
does Nigerian government pay lip service to the dispensation of Justice in
compliance with section 6 of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria (as amended)? Why
is the government promoting impunity and lawlessness and thereby exposing
thousands of innocent citizens to the danger of untimely deaths through the
dastardly criminal acts of armed terrorists?
To buttress my point
that there is a huge comedy of error at play in the name of fight on terrorism
in Nigeria, let me remind my readers that only on Thursday September 13th 2012,
the media reported that the commander of the joint military task force in
Maiduguri, Borno State, bemoaned the unfortunate fact that the number of
detained terror suspects has over-stretched the capacity of the facilities
under the control of the joint military task force.
The Nigeria’s Chief of Defense
Staff (CDS), Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petirin and the inspector General of
Police, Mr. Abubakar Dikko Mohammed who visited Maiduguri, Borno State, were
told pointedly that there are 800 suspected members of the armed Islamic
insurgency arrested and detained in the cell of the joint task force and that
their presence there is telling adversely on the Joint Task Force facilities.
The Commander of the
Joint Task Force, Major General J.A.H. Ewansiah was quoted in the Nigerian
media as saying that there is very urgent need for relevant security agencies
to relieve the joint military task Force of the burden of keeping the suspects.
His words: “There is
urgent need for relevant security agencies to relieve the JTF of the burden of
keeping the suspects”.
Major General Ewansiah
reportedly pleaded with the nation’s two top security Chiefs to assist the JTF
in getting the suspects evacuated to other parts of the country to enable the
joint task force make proper use of their facilities.
The Commander disclosed
that the last time the Chief of Defence Staff visited them; the cell had only
200 but that because of the active partnership and cooperation of local
residents, many more suspected armed terrorists were arrested and detained.
The Nigeria’s Chief of
Defence Staff was quoted to have promised to reach out to the Comptroller-General
of Nigerian prison to work out modalities for moving the suspects to
alternative detention facilities in other parts of the country.
Come to think of it,
why is the Nigerian government not fully committed to waging effective war on
terror and why is government going about confronting this serious challenge to
the unity of Nigeria without any clearly defined objective?
Why would government so
run down the prisons that the military will now be compelled to detain
suspected terrorists in military detention facilities and no strategy is in
place to make these suspects face the full weight of the law?
Why are the capital
components of the federal budgets meant for the Nigerian Prisons not being
properly accounted for in the last ten years thereby allowing detention
facilities that were put up during colonial era more than seventy years ago to
still be in use in the modern era of sophisticated/organized crime?
On August 2011,
suspected armed terrorists carried out suicide bombing attack of the United Nations
building in Abuja which caused the death of over three dozen persons but more
than a year, the Nigerian government is yet to bring any suspect to justice in
the competent court of law.
Earlier in June 2011,
the Nigeria police Force Headquarters in Abuja came under car bomb attack
killing several persons but over one year now, government has failed to
prosecute the right suspects in that monumental affront to the country’s
national security and no significant arrest of the sponsors is known to have
happened.
If I may ask, where are
the suspects arrested for killing over forty people in the Christmas 2011
Madala, Suleja, Niger State Catholic Church bomb attack?
When will the Nigerian
government end this spectacular comedy of error and truly begin to battle
terrorism to save Nigerians from extermination and extinction?
* Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, HUMAN RIGHTS
WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA; blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
14/9/2012
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