Picking a copy of Daily Sun of Monday February
17th 2014,I immediately had a traumatic emotional shock by the level of
carnage and savage attack on humanity that has now become so unbearably
painful and pathetic. The cover shouted that over one hundred human persons
were massacred at the weekend by elements suspected to be armed Islamic rebels
in the state of Borno.
At severe pain to completely comprehend
the savage genocide being masterminded in the North East of Nigeria by armed
Islamic hoodlums who have waged war against the Nigerian state for two years
and still counting, a number of issues cropped up regarding the inability or so
it seemed of the Nigerian military to contain this insurgency that has clearly
posed devastating threats to Nigeria's survival as one united political entity
under one sovereign head.
My emotional and psychological pain is made even
more devastating by the cruel fact that the Nigerian state seems to have failed
the people in the most critical constitutional role of protecting their lives
and property.
Sadly, on daily basis, both the foreign and the
few brave local media workers based in the war zone, keep updating
the rest of us on the traumatic, graphic and very cruel high rate of casualties
involving primarily the hapless and seemingly abandoned rural poor who bear the
savage brunt of the devastating and horrendous violence unleashed on them by
freelance armed fighters who reportedly usually dress up in military uniforms
and said to be so well armed with sophisticated weapons that scares the hell
out of the conventional operatives of the armed security from the
Nigerian state.
The picture painted of graphic massacre of
hapless women, men and children and the relentless kidnapping of innocent
school age girls to God knows where by the insurgents have become even more
heart wrenching.
For two years now, President Jonathan has
experimented with high profile changes in the leadership cadres of the military
but the killings of both civilians and massive destruction of military assets
belonging to the Nigerian state have become even more disturbingly frequent but
all that the rest of us hear from the top echelons of Nigerian military are
empty and seemingly false hopes.
We no longer know between professional soldiers
and the perpetually lying politicians whom to believe. To whom do we go to who
will give us the message of truth and the soothing balm to calm our frayed
nerves?
Nigerians have also faced the intellectual
insults of military hierarchy making promises to end the insurgency within
specific time frame but only to hear another series of denials from the same
top ranking professional soldiers who had earlier made promises.
But what really are the constitutional functions
of the Nigerian military and what is expected of the Nigerian state to end
these unfortunate vicious circles of mass killings and abduction of female
students for use as sex slaves which clearly constitute crime against humanity
and genocide of the most cruel form?
Brigadier General Thomas Chiefe (Rtd); who held
a doctorate degree in law and was for many years the Nigerian Army's director
of Legal department at the Army Headquarters in Abuja, authored a beautiful
military law book few months before his death only few months back in Abuja.
In this book; “Military Law in Nigeria under Democratic Rule,” General Chiefe
thematically presented the role of the military. Judging from his conclusions,
what is imperative is that the nation's sovereignty hinges on the competence,
professional ability and combat readiness of the Nigerian military and no
effort must be spared to ensure that the Nigerian military is insulated from
mundane politics and that the men and officers of the Nigerian Armed Forces
will keep their constitutional vows to maintain the territorial integrity of
Nigeria come rain nor shine.
His words: “The Nigerian military does not
perform its roles in a vacuum as it derives the roles from the constitution,
presently the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.
As stated earlier, the Constitution, the General
stated, is the grundnorm or supreme law that voids any other law that is
inconsistent with it to the extent of the inconsistency.
According to the late military General who
excelled in both military and civilian Nigerian laws, Section 217-220 provide
for the establishment, roles, command and operational use of the armed forces
ad related matters.
For clarity, section 217(1) and (2) provides as
follows: “there shall be an armed forces for the Federation which shall consist
of an Army, a Navy, an Air Force and such other branches of the armed forces of
the Federation as may be established by an Act of the National Assembly.
Further, he argued that subject to an Act
of the National Assembly made in that behalf, Nigeria shall equip and maintain
the armed forces as may be considered adequate and effective for the purpose of
defending Nigeria from external aggression; maintaining its territorial
integrity and securing its borders from violation on land, sea or air;
suppressing insurrection and acting in aid of civil authorities to restore
order when called upon to do so by the President, subject to such conditions as
may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly; and performing such other
functions as may be prescribed by an Act of the National
assembly.
Going through the constitutional roles of the
military in Nigeria as encapsulated by the late military legal mind, one is
immediately reminded of the saying by General William T. Sherman that; “No man
can properly command an Army from the rear. He must be at the front. At the
very head of the Army. He must be seen there, and the effect of his mind and
personal energy must be felt by every officer and man present with it….”
What do we have in Nigeria if I may ask? Aside
the fact that the top most military commander in Nigeria (Chief of Defence
staff) operates from air conditioned office complex in one of Africa’s most
decorated cities (Abuja), there are widespread speculations that those armed
insurgents invading selected targets at will in the North Eastern Nigeria are
better equipped with state-of-the-art weapons. These claims have yet to be
independently confirmed except that those who bear the brunt of these vicious
attacks and violence by the insurgents have rendered accounts to state that the
fighters invading their abodes were well armed.
Understandably, the military spokesman in
Nigeria who operates from another equally cosy office in Abuja has reportedly
denied the widespread allegation that his rank and file fighting terrorists in
North East of Nigeria are better equipped.
Here are some immediate pragmatic steps to be
adopted to wage result-oriented anti-terror war in Nigeria. Let the principal
military commander in our case the Chief of defence staff, relocate
temporary to the North East to effectively coordinate the fight against terror
because these insurgents have demonstrated more than enough evidence that they
are targeting the destruction of the Nigerian state.
To compliment the military effort towards
curtailing the effects of invading armed freelance fighters into Nigeria,
let the office of the Nigerian custom's comptroller General and his
opposite in the Nigerian Immigration Services [NIS] be relocated to
North East Nigeria to coordinate effort at making Nigerian borders less
porous.
On a larger scale, the Nigerian government
should consider signing defence pact with either Britain or USA to counter the
French incursion through Cameroon. The allegation by a University professor
with considerable knowledge of international affairs that the French government
may be aiding and abetting the invasion by armed insurgents into Nigeria should
not be taken lightly.
Sadly, the Nigerian state has failed to use its
influence in the sub-region to compel the sub-regional body [ECOWAS] to
maintain an effective fighting force around the porous borders of Nigeria from
where the armed insurgents are reported to be using to invade parts of Nigeria.
Why is Nigeria making so much investments into the administration of this
sub-regional group if the security interest of Nigeria is consistently
sabotaged by other member nations who willingly look the other way while armed
insurgents use their territory as training and launching grounds to attack Nigeria?
Why has the Nigerian military not bombed those routes insides those nations
whereby these armed marauders operate from?
Nigerians are sick and tired of the empty
rhetoric and promises from both the military and government hierarchies to end
the unending rounds of mass killings. Nigeria's current chief of defence staff
initially gave April as deadline to end terrorism but after several daring
attacks by these insurgents, he has adjusted this widely publicized promised
time frame.
The federal government must therefore take a
range of measures to secure the Nigerian borders and sufficiently put practical
measures including granting gun licences to Nigerians to protect their God
given right to life which is constitutionally guaranteed.
The Nigerian state must view what is going on in
North Eastern Nigeria as serious genocide and must set up investigative panels
to collate and generate essential evidence to be used to prosecute the alleged
masterminds locally or internationally at the International Criminal Court in
The Hague, Netherlands..
The Nigerian state must also reform the way it
is waging war against financing of terrorism by immediately putting pressure on
the National Assembly to pass the pending executive bill to create an
independent National financial intelligence Department answerable only to the
National Assembly and the presidency.
The fact that terrorism financing has remained
undetected by the current anti-graft mechanism in place is one of the
fundamental reasons for the sophistication of the category of fighting weapons
being deployed reportedly by armed insurgents. If I may ask, where are the
armed insurgents procuring their military uniforms and fighting weapons? What
is the intelligence arm of the Nigerian military doing that they are unable to
trace this trail and stop the use of Nigeria's military uniforms reportedly by
these insurgents?
A stitch in time, saves
nine.
* Emmanuel Onwubiko; Head; HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF
NIGERIA;blog@www.huriwa.blogspot.com;www.huriwa.org
17/2/2014
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