The Nation Newspaper

Category: Emeka Omeihe

  • Plateau’s killing fields

    Plateau’s killing fields

    Why can’t we be proactive and stop such attacks before they happen. What happened to our intelligence gathering mechanisms? Can anybody tell me that nobody knew that such attacks were coming?

    These were the very strong words with which the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar 111 queried the Christmas Eve’s coordinated attacks in three local government areas of Plateau State. Sultan’s observations contained in a goodwill message to the 80th National Islamic Vacation Course in Bauchi State, captures very succinctly the dilemma in the sustained killings in that state that seem to have overwhelmed the capacities of the security agencies.

    But in them can be located all that has been wrong with the handling of the orgy of violence that has left that state to the atavism of the state of nature where life has become nasty, short and brutish. We shall return to this.

    In those well planned and well executed attacks penultimate Saturday, spanning through Sunday and Monday, Bokkos, Barkin Ladi and Mangu local governments were invaded by armed bandits killing and maiming innocent residents, burning and destroying properties without challenge.

    The terrorists launched the attacks from several fronts on about 23 communities including churches leaving in its trail shock and awe. It took about 12 hours before the security agencies could respond to distress calls from communities.

     There were initial attempts to play down the casualty level because of the monumental embarrassment it was. When the real figures later emerged from the local government officials and aid agencies, the gravity of the harm gave out the attack as one of the most deadly and bloody the state had seen in recent times.

    The latest figures put the death toll at 195 with even a larger number of people sustaining varying degrees of injury. Some 1, 290 houses were said to have been burnt in Bokkos alone while that of Barkin Ladi is still sketchy. More than 10, 000 residents were also reported to have been displaced from their homes and taking refuge in schools churches and any available space.

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    The attack is just one in the series of killings and maiming that have come to characterize that state. A national daily reported recently that 346 people were killed in eight local governments of the state between April 17 and July 10, 2023.

    In May 2023, the House of Representatives member for Mangu/Bokkos constituency, Solomon Marren had said in a statement that about 200 people had been killed in his constituency within a few months. Of this figure, more than 100 people were killed within two days. Before he spoke, the unceasing killings had sparked off protests from youths and women in the area.

    Human Rights Watch estimated that more than 1,000 lives were lost in the communal ‘war’ of September 2001 in Jos. And hardly does any month pass by since the beginning of this year without reports of attacks by the so-called terrorists with serious tolls on human and material capital.

     As usual, we have been treated to the ritual of official condemnations from both within and outside the shores of the country. President Bola Tinubu condemned the killings in very strong terms and tasked security agencies to comb the whole zone and fish out the masterminds. He has also promised that the envoys of death, pain and sorrow will not escape justice even as relief materials to the displaced and medical attention for the wounded will be accorded utmost attention.

    But even as the president has vowed to fish out the masterminds of the killings, the invaders have threatened fresh attacks on the Pushit community in the Mangu Local Government. The police acknowledged the existence of the threat letter. But the community is not taking the matter lightly because when the terrorists issued such threats in the past, they made good their promise.

    They now live in fear and would want the government to take the matter seriously to avert being taken by surprise. In the past, allegations had been made of the inability of the security agencies to act on such credible information only for the terrorists to make good their threat. This had in part, fuelled allegations of sympathy of the authorities for the invaders.

    But more seriously, the threat brings to the fore the very insecure and dangerous environment in which these communities have had to live since the attacks resurged in the last couple of years. They have seen attacks after attacks. They have seen copious condemnations from the federal government, well-meaning Nigerians, foreign countries and international bodies.

    But all these have not brought any respite to the people. The government has overtime empowered special military operations to stem the tide. Sadly, Plateau communities have been at the receiving end; constantly prone to the killings by the invaders who operate with a seeming air of invincibility only to disappear into the thin air after their dastardly escapades. 

    The communities are unlikely to be enthused by mere orders, condemnations and proclamations unless they see a remarkably different approach by the government to substantially get at the secret of the attacks that have defied the security agencies. It is very puzzling that as many as 23 communities could be contemporaneously attacked and inflicted with the high causality level seen without the security agencies getting such intelligence prior to the attack.

    That was the puzzle the Sultan faced when he asked to be told why nobody knew that such attack was coming. It is a loaded question that ought to be resolved for the authorities to get the right handle to the recurring killings. For the terrorists to invade such a large number of communities from all fronts in coordinated attacks would suggests they have a standing ‘army’.

    Where this striking force lives, have their training ground, acquire and conceal arms and ammunitions are issues President Tinubu has to unravel if he must make the difference. The government also has to unravel where the terrorists/bandits escape to after every attack. But answers to these puzzles are not hard to fathom if the government musters the necessary political will to tame the monster.

    It is the glaring inability of the last government to decisively confront the known monster that accounts for the suspicion that it has some sympathy for the killers. The new administration must work to change that narrative. Understanding the real issues to the conflict, the warring parties, remote and immediate causes are vital to lasting resolution to the unceasing killings. When attacks are attributed to terrorists, the question of the identity of the terrorists should be resolved.

    Are they the same as bandits? What is the difference between bandits and rampaging herdsmen? Are they two sides of the same coin? The way these questions are resolved will get us closer to taming the killings that have reduced the value and worth of life in that state.

    Some of the issues that have fuelled the unceasing crises have been attributed to competition for land, herder-farmer conflict, ethno-religious conflict and politics. The issues are complex but not insurmountable if the government wants to do the right thing.

    It must have come as a rude shock to many when Governor Caleb Mutfwang disclosed on live television programme that terrorists/bandits have been occupying some schools in some local governments for up to five years now. And yet nothing happens! He said that more than 64 communities have been displaced from the ancestral homes even as he blamed the government not arresting and prosecuting the attackers. The governor identified land acquisition by force as central to the conflict.

    So the issues are known. The abode of some of the attackers is known. They occupy some schools in the state. They live in the forests under whatever guise. The forests in Plateau and neighbouring states are their planning and attacking platforms. What we do with those living in ungoverned forests and bushes with sophisticated weapons will make a whole lot of difference.

    The government is not really helpless in this matter! 

  • Unknown tenant kidnappers

    Unknown tenant kidnappers

    There is a new trend in child kidnapping. And a very dangerous one for that matter! The masterminds take undue advantage of the high poverty rate among the citizenry and the inordinate desire by sundry rent agents for quick commissions without due diligence on the genuineness of their supposed new clients.

    Unless urgent and far-reaching sensitization programs including making it absolutely mandatory for rent agents to obtain credible and authentic data of prospective accommodation seekers, the vulnerability of our innocent children will continue to be exploited by these demented souls.

    In this devilish business are mostly women, who cash in on the innocence and weaknesses of children to abduct them to satisfy whatever devilish needs they want. Their new tactics is to rent a room accommodation in compounds with many children. As soon as they pack in, they begin to endear themselves to their neighbours with an uncommon but pretended love for children. But that should be secured very quickly before their intentions are exposed.

    Once the confidence of the neighbours is secured, they wait for the opportune time to strike by deceiving and luring the children out to buy sweets and biscuits for them. Immediately they get to a safety zone, they zoom off with the children to unknown destinations.

    They plan their criminality and execute them with clinical precision within a few days of their packing in before their identity is uncovered. That is the new trend and a very dangerous angle in child kidnapping.

    In the last one week, two of such incidents have been witnessed: one in Sango Ota, Ogun State and the other in Umuahia, Abia State. In the Sango Ota incident, a yet-to-be identified woman kidnapped two children aged four years each. One of them is her landlord’s son while the other belonged to a neighbour in the same compound.

    The woman who moved into the apartment three days earlier had no known identity as both the rent agent and the landlord did not conduct any profile check before renting the apartment to her. She moved in, surveyed the environment and when it was safe for her evil trade, she quickly made away with the children after luring and enticing them with things they love most.

    As I write, neither the woman nor the innocent children have been seen with their parents left to bear the burden of that calamity.

    If the Sango Ota incident was not enough to drive home the gravity of the emerging challenge, that of Umuahia illustrates very poignantly the imperative in quickly tackling this new trend before it gets out of hand.  Three tenants had four of their children taken away by a new neighbour who just packed in three days earlier.

     The women said in separate interviews that the woman whose identity remains unknown, packed into the building on December 15, with another woman purportedly his sister. When they were packing in, they were only seen with a camp gas, a six-inch small foam, a mat and a little bag purportedly containing clothes.

    Within the first two days of their arrival, they began to endear themselves to the hearts of their neighbours as women who love children by playing with them, buying them gifts and sending them on errands. They also cooked food and gave to the children who would playfully enter their room. That was the profile they displayed apparently waiting for the opportune time to strike.

    So it was till the day of their planned escape with the children. The accomplice was first sighted moving out with a sack bag with clothes. When asked where she was going, she claimed she wanted to buy something at the city centre. But she had told another tenant separately that she was going to give her sister the clothes she bought for her.

    The tenants did not suspect anything. When she left, the main one came out pretending to be playing with the children who rallied round her demanding sweets and biscuits. The mother of one of the children who witnessed that final encounter thought it was the usual show of love for the children and left shortly to fetch water.

    Unknown to her; that was to be the last scene in the script written and acted out by the two demented souls in the last three days of their packing into that room. It was all a decoy to get at the heart of the children and their parents before their evil deed.

    She was to discover on return that four of the children had vamoosed into the thin air with no sign of traces of them available. Frantic searches for the whereabouts of the four children yielded no positive results.

    And when the landlord called the phone number supplied by the rogue tenant, it was switched off. The plight of the women was compounded by their discovery that the landlord did not conduct proper profile check on that tenant. He apparently relied on the supposition that the phone was enough to trace her.

    Such has been the sad fate of these parents. Elsewhere, child kidnapping and abuse have been on the upward scale. A woman who pretended to be organizing lessons for children eloped with five kids in Port Harcourt in circumstances the police blamed their parents for carelessness. And in Borno State around the same period, another woman also made away with three children. It has been a tale of sorrow and awe as children after children disappear in the hands of these evil women.

    Hardly a day passes by without reports of children abducted from homes or schools with some abandoned on dangerous routes. Our children have become endangered species as all manner of evil men and women pry on their vulnerability to satisfy vaulting devilish desires.

    But as parents and guardians are getting more aware of the evil designs of these women child kidnappers, it would appear they are now finding new ways of continuing with their nefarious activities. Renting cheap accommodation in densely populated neighbourhoods largely lived by the poor have become their soft targets.

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    Such vicinities are usually characterized by overcrowding, inadequate room ventilation and absence of modern amenities. In that squalid environment, children live and grow up freely sharing whatever they can get from neighbours. Invariably, the children do not get to be properly monitored or even restrained from accepting gifts including food items from their neighbours.

    It is for similar considerations that rent agents and landlords do not take the pains to profile those who come before them as accommodation seekers. But they got it all wrong as the result has turned out disastrous. The criminal-minded women are now exploiting the looseness of such environments as fertile grounds for child kidnappers. And they have been succeeding.

    But the situation can be quickly put under check if those renting out accommodation take little pains to do background checks on prospective accommodation seekers. It says much about us as a people that someone will just saunter into a rent agent’s office pay for an apartment without seriously being profiled including asked to produce a guarantor.

    That cannot happen in saner climes. There is hardly any job you can secure today without serious profiling including credible guarantors. If those hiring labour require all that, there is no reason someone renting an accommodation where he or she will live with others should not be put to serious security checks.

    The lives of other tenants are put at serious risk when new tenants are admitted without serious profiling. It is high time the government took serious interest in the activities of rent agents and landlords that fuel the spate of child kidnapping witnessed recently.

    All these point inexorably to the degenerate level of moral decay in our society. We appear to have lost our senses of decency and humanity. Ours have become a haven of crime and criminality. Everything hitherto held sacred has been so desecrated as to give the wrong impression that evil ways pay. Imagine women who are supposed to be mothers enmeshed in the business of kidnapping other peoples’ children for sale or money rituals through desperate and devious guises!

    Our leaders share much of the blame for the bad examples the show. The damage has been so much. It will require ethical revolution to return the country to the path of moral rectitude and sanity. But is that going to happen so soon?

  • Illegal miners as banditry sponsors

    Illegal miners as banditry sponsors

    It will be a fatal risk to ignore the new dimension to the festering insecurity exposed by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake. Not that banditry and terrorism sponsorship is entirely new to this country. It is perhaps, the first time a key official of the federal government would come out very strongly and clearly on the reasons for the festering banditry and terrorism especially as they relate to the mining sector. But the phenomenon is not just limited to the mining sector.

    So, the disclosure may as well serve as a benchmark for understanding the nature and character of the multifarious security infractions that have reduced the country to a verity of the state of nature in the last couple of years. This may open our eyes as to why banditry and terrorism have refused to abate despite the efforts of the government to restore law and order in areas they are most prevalent.

    During his 2024 budget defence at the House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals, the minister fingered powerful Nigerians involved in illegal mining for responsibility for other criminal activities and involvement in sponsoring banditry and terrorism.

    “One discovery we have made is that a lot of these insecurities, especially banditry associated with this sector are sponsored by illegal miners. These are not your artisanal miners. They are not the people who pick gold on the ground. These are heavy and powerful individuals in our country. They are Nigerians and not foreigners” he told his audience.

    The issues raised here are as weighty as they are troubling. They indicate very sadly that the menace of banditry and terrorism are not mere happenstances. They are largely contrived and sponsored by men of means for some self-serving economic, religious or political motives. Little surprising that concerted efforts to stem the tide have often proved herculean as the same elite mount sundry obstacles to sabotage the process.

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    The way the minister spoke, there is everything to expect that the government has some idea of who these powerful unpatriotic Nigerians are and the incalculable damage their self-serving activity does to the national economy.

    The suspicion that some powerful individuals must be behind the unceasing insecurity that has stretched the powers of our security agencies to elastic limits has always been there. But the government has not been forthcoming in identifying and unmasking the masterminds. As a matter of fact, the body language of the last administration despite its trumpeted commitment to the war against terrorism had given cause for suspicion regarding its sincerity in the prosecution of that war.

    In 2021, the United Arab Emirate (UAE) named six Nigerians among other nationals as terrorism sponsors. The United States of America, (USA) followed it up by placing the six of them on its terror list for providing financial, material or technological services and support to Boko Haram.

    It is not clear till date what the federal government made of this vital information provided by the UAE. Neither is there evidence of the trial and possible conviction of the suspected terrorism sponsors. The much we got was an evasive statement from the media aide to President Buhari, Femi Adesina that Nigeria was not interested in naming and shaming terrorism sponsors but in ensuring that suspects are brought to book.

    At another occasion, the government through the then minister of information, Lai Mohammed said the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) uncovered 96 financiers of Boko Haram and ISWAP. The unit was credited to have unmasked 424 associates/supporters of the financiers, about 123 companies and 33 Bureau de Change linked with terrorism. But not much has thereafter been heard about the prosecution and possible punishment for these suspects.

     So, it was nothing strange when Alake said some powerful Nigerians are behind the sponsorship of terrorism and banditry in the mining sector. The difference lies in the motive which is to deprive the federal government of the financial revenue which full exploitation of the sector holds for the welfare of the toiling citizens.

    Banditry and terrorism in the mining sector are largely economic. The objective is to keep the mining areas lawless so as to allow the illegal business to go on unhindered. That is the objective and powerful Nigerians profiting from the illegal business will not let go.

    It is now getting clearer the uncommon interest shown by some of the elite each time there is a sustained push to smoke out all manner of bandits and terrorists from these shores. It can now be understood why insinuations of mundane colorations are quickly bandied each time there is a miscalculation from the security forces while engaging the bandits and terrorists.

    The so-called powerful Nigerians will be the very first set of people to give weird meaning and interpretation to any sustained onslaughts against the activities of the sponsored criminal elements. We saw how ethnic, religious and political opportunists cashed in on the mistakes of the army in the Tudun Biri incident to stoke embers of discord.

    But there are other dimensions and motivations for terrorism and banditry. At the budding stages of the Boko Haram insurgency, allegations of connivance and sponsorship featured very prominently. The relative ease with which secondary school children were ferried away; disappearing into the thin air in the northeast had left  with it feelings that there was more to it.

    Then also, the efforts of the federal government to confront the monster had lent itself to misinterpretation by some northern elite. No less a person than the then governor of Adamawa State Muritala Nyako bandied vile and damaging allegations of an agenda to depopulate the north. The allegations were so acerbic and discouraging that they placed serious constraints on the war against Boko Haram.

    Had the terrorists been pursued with the vigour their activities demanded at that time, perhaps, we would have put that issue behind us today. Unfortunately, it appears no lesson has been learnt from that incident as the same old tactics is again being traded by the same vested interests in the miscalculated and unfortunate killings in Kaduna State.

    It would seem the Nigerian military command is not unaware of the constraints in its operations imposed by these unguarded insinuations and contrived conspiracy theories. It has despite the challenges, reaffirmed its commitment to remain focused in the fight to rid the country of insecurity.

    That is the way to approximate recent promise by President Tinubu that he will not lose the battle against the bandits and terrorists. We cannot afford to lose the war against insecurity. But the president should back it up with the political will to address the cascading insecurity according to the peculiarities they present.

    Banditry and terrorism sponsorship is not an exclusive preserve of illegal miners. The sponsors of banditry in Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna states and elsewhere have different motivations. While some are engaged in kidnapping for ransom, others are involved in cattle rustling and stealing. Yet, some others have interest in establishing their own form of government over the people in their areas, imposing taxes and securing allegiance.

    Before now, the motivation and interests of these bandits as well as their mode of operation had raised questions as to who they really are. Are they terrorists professing some weird religious ideology, herdsmen, rogues or bush guerrilla?

    In his interaction with former Governor Matatalle of Zamfara state after his visits to the forests, fiery Islamic preacher, Ahmad Gumi had said, “In most of the bandits’ and Fulani camps we have visited, I came to understand that what is happening in the state is nothing but insurgency”.

     Buoyed by this, he asked the federal government to enter into negotiations with the bandits and the Fulani and reintegrate them the same way the Niger Delta was settled.

    But one of the bandits’ leaders, Kachalla Turji was reported to have said only reconciliation can stop the killings while accusing the Zamfara people of impoverishing and beating the Fulani on the road. Another complained of constant attack by the military and cattle rustling which denies them their legitimate means of livelihood.

    What seemed to have emerged from this is the difficulty in differentiating between the interests of bandits and that of the herdsmen. It is vital that the military understands the complications imposed by this link in the prosecution of the current war.

  • Tudun Biri’s miscalculated bombs

    Tudun Biri’s miscalculated bombs

    Not a few Nigerians were thrown into suspense when the Nigerian Air Force, (NAF) denied involvement in the bomb attack penultimate Sunday that killed scores of villagers in the Tudun Biri community of Kaduna State. This apprehension was a consequence of public perception of the statutory role of that organization and its record in similar bombing activities in the fight against insecurity that held the country down for some years now.

    Public anxiety was further activated when NAF spokesman, Edward Gabkwet clarified that they were not the only organization operating combat armed drones in the northwest region of the country. Who could then have been responsible for the bomb attacks that killed and wounded dozens of villagers performing their private religious obligations?

    The question remained largely unanswered until the Kaduna State government told the media after a security meeting that troops of the Nigerian Army on routine operation against terrorists dropped the bombs. The sketchy information did not indicate the circumstance of the misadventure and what targets they saw on ground before the attack. 

    The situation remained tense and cloudy until the Chief of Army Staff, (COAS), Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja visited the scene of the attack last Tuesday. A statement by the army at the end of the visit indicated that troops were carrying out aerial patrols when they observed a group of people wrongly analysed and misinterpreted their pattern of activities to be similar to that of bandits before the drone strike.

    Lagbaja expressed sincere regret and apology for the incident and promised thorough enquiry to identify lapses and deficiencies in the human and artificial intelligence variables to forestall future occurrences. A couple of issues are manifest from the COAS explanations.

    First, the area in question and adjoining villages had been a hotbed of armed banditry.  Secondly, an aerial survey intercepted images of a gathering of people and when it was analysed, it bore semblance of the activities of bandits. Then a drone was dispatched to neutralize the supposed bandits.

    Whatever the images were, they all turned out a fatal error as the event was a religious gathering. It is unclear what semblance the religious gathering had with the pattern of activities of the bandits to warrant the drone attack.

     It was a miscalculation, a failure of intelligence both human and artificial. Human intelligence failed in the analyses and interpretation of data obtained through aerial survey. It also failed for its inability to establish human contact with people on ground before the drone attack.

    For an attack that killed more than 80 people and left several others wounded, it would have made better sense to have established some measure of contact with sister agencies and independent people in and around the area for confirmation before the attack. It does appear nothing of sort happened to crosscheck the information from technology.

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    Lapses may have also come from artificial intelligence. The environments in which some of these devices were configured are substantially different from our local situations. Activities and images that easily suggest possible threat to law and order or security compromise in advanced countries may turn out different in our own setting. This should not be surprising given the socio-cultural, religious and developmental disparities they present.

    Lagbaja must have had this in mind when he promised investigations to identify lapses in human and artificial intelligence variables that brought about that sad pass to forestall future occurrences. The imperative of that inquisition cannot be overstated. Good a thing, President Tinubu has ordered full scale probe of the unfortunate incident.

    Perhaps, this is the first time the army is getting involved in miscalculated bombing of innocent civilians. It came as a surprise when the NAF absolved itself of culpability in the incident because much of such accidental bombs have in the past, been traced to that organization. We are now faced with the expansion of organizations operating combat armed drones in the country. It presents new challenges.

    Going forward, it may now be risky to ascribe any and every bomb incident to the NAF as had been the case. Before now, the NAF had borne the responsibility for the serial accidental bombing of wrong coordinates in the war against insecurity across the country leading to avoidable loss of lives.

    In 2017, an air force fighter jet on a mission against Boko Haram extremists mistakenly bombed an Internally Displaced Persons IDP’s camp in Rann, Borno State. More than 100 refugees and aid workers were killed.

    Some soldiers were fatally wounded in the enclave that lies on Nigeria’s border with Cameroun. The scene was so devastating that an international aid agency dubbed it “an emergency within emergency”.

    The military blamed the attack on what they called, ‘lack of appropriate marking’. A fighter jet of the NAF in 2021 bombed Genu town in Niger State. Among the dead were wedding guests in Argida village and a horde of civilians.

     The same year, NAF fighter jet killed many soldiers and civilians after it dropped bombs on ground troops in Mainok, Borno State. The pilot accidentally hit the wrong coordinates while targeting Boko Haram insurgents on military fatigue who had encircled ground troops.

    Yet, NAF bombed Kunkuna village in the Safana Local Government Area of Katsina State killing an unidentified number of villagers. The pilot accidentally hit the wrong coordinates while targeting bandits’ camps. These are just a tip of the iceberg in the miscalculated bombings by the air force in the course of the war against the festering armed insurgency.

    The Kaduna bomb attack is therefore a sad reminder to the unfortunate pattern of accidental bomb attacks that have left sorrow, shock and awe on innocent citizens since the war against insecurity began. Public indignation and condemnation of the latest incident can be understood.

    They stem from loss of patience with the frequency of such error bombings and the avoidable calamity they wrought on helpless and hapless citizens who have been at the mercy of this cycle of insecurity. They remind us of the inability of the military to develop sufficient capacities to protect civilians during and after armed conflicts. Civilian confidence and safety are vital in the war against armed insurgency. The cycle of violence can be broken if the military gains the trust of the local populace.

    But where the communities feel victimized, they may work to obstruct the operations of the military or even show some measure of inclination to rebellion. That is the danger in the recurring error bomb attacks that inflict mortal harm on the civilian population.

    These have left the affected communities suffer double jeopardy. They are victims of attacks from an assortment of armed non-state actors and miscalculated bombs from the military. A situation where the civilian population is wittingly or unwittingly made to suffer for the sins of the insurgents adds complications to the war against insecurity.

    The probe ordered by the presidency may get at the circumstances that led to the accidental bombing. It could also serve as a useful guide to future operations to forestall such mishaps. But it has no way of bringing to life again all those that died on account of the calamity.

    Even as no amount of compensation will atone for a single life lost, the government has to work out some compensation to the families of the bereaved to ameliorate their unfortunate situation. Heads of families and breadwinners have been lost. Many are also in hospitals nursing varying degrees of injuries. The cost of their treatment should be borne by the government.

    The message served by this unfortunate incident is the primacy of civilian protection in any calculations to attack the enemy real or perceived. Credible intelligence from people in and around the scene of the proposed attack is the surest way to avoid future mistakes. We can do with less of these miscalculated bombs.

  • Citizens’ confidence and electoral reforms

    Citizens’ confidence and electoral reforms

    The National Assembly Committee on Electoral Reforms last week, organized a Citizens’ Town Hall in conjunction with Yiaga Africa. The event which attracted a broad spectrum of stakeholders was aimed at deepening citizens’ engagement and inclusiveness in the electoral reforms process.

    Senate president, Godswill Akpabio set the tone for the discussions: “We are committed not only to go along with the people on the call for reforms to the electoral legal framework…but protect the independence of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and also restore the trust of our people in the electoral process”.

    Two key issues are encapsulated in the above statement. The first is the recognition of a welter of public demand for reforms of the electoral legal framework. The second which is a consequence of the imperfections of the first, is the growing loss of public confidence in the electoral process due to its inability to adequately guarantee and reflect the will of the electorate.

    These electoral deficits are not entirely new as various attempts have in the past been made to have them reformed. Late President Umaru Yar’Adua had admitted immediately he took over from his predecessor, the shortcomings of the election that brought him to power. That election defied all the rules of free, fair and credible contest leading to loss of confidence in the process.

    The disenchantment was so much so that it became inconceivable how people could submit themselves to future contests under that charade.  Yar’Adua moved quickly to set up the Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reforms Committee to come up with measures to restore the confidence of the people in the electoral process and deepen democracy.

    The high powered committee made far-reaching recommendations to improve the electoral process and environment, strengthen the legal framework and enhance the independence of the electoral body. It also had position on how to improve the performance of various institutions and stakeholders in the election management process such as the legislature, judiciary, executive and political parties.

    Yar’Adua accepted most of the recommendations except the transfer of the powers to appoint the board of the INEC from the president to the National Judicial Council, NJC. He was to begin implementing them before he fell ill. His successor Jonathan implemented the policy aspects and forwarded the entire report to the National Assembly for consideration.

    During the first and last tenures of the Buhari administration, the National Assembly made strident efforts to amend the Electoral Act to enhance the integrity of elections. Through the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, it sought to give legal teeth to the deployment of technology during voting, collation of results and direct transmission of results from the polling units to the INEC result viewing portals.

    At least on three occasions the bill came to Buhari for assent but he declined citing time constraints and raising objections that gave out his discomfort with the reforms. But he succumbed to pressure on the eve of the last elections finally assenting to the deployment of technology and direct transmission of election results from the polling units to the INEC result viewing portal.

    That assent did much to restore confidence that the then coming elections would mark a sharp departure from previous ones. Technology and the direct transmission of elections results were envisaged to eliminate ballot box stuffing and snatching, falsification of results and ambush of election materials by desperate politicians and their army of thugs.

    That was the setting the last general elections were conducted. Technology went on fairly well at the National Assembly election but things went awry at the presidential polls as the scanned results could not be transmitted due to what INEC was later to identify as glitches. This did not go down well with the citizens as allegations of foul play were freely traded by the political parties.

    The inability of the INEC to transmit the results of the presidential election was a major issue in the election petitions by the political parties. Those petitions have been put to rest by the Supreme Court. But what emerged from the Supreme Court ruling is that INEC is not under obligation to compute results from the result viewing portal. That seemed to have rubbished all the optimism on the capacity of direct transmission of election results to guarantee the integrity of our elections.

    Public confidence in the electoral process is again at its lowest ebb especially given the outcome of the off-cycle elections in three states. These have again resonated in agitations for the reforms of the electoral process to guarantee its integrity especially as politicians have not shown any change from their old and crooked ways.

    When Akpabio spoke of calls for reforms with a promise to restore the trust of the people in the electoral process, he was responding to palpable public disillusionment with the outcome of the last elections. That is the challenge facing the National Assembly. They want to get at it through citizens’ participation and engagement.

    But we are not really lacking in what to do to enhance the integrity of elections and deepen democracy.  The Uwais committee had far-reaching recommendations that addressed these electoral deficits had the political will for their acceptance and implementation been there. Much of the issues that were canvassed at the town hall had been elaborately dealt with by that committee. 

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    As should be expected, participants offered suggestions on aspects of our laws that should be tinkered with to enhance the integrity of institutions involved in election management, the credibility of the electoral process and survival of democracy. The first target of such reforms should be an amendment to the Electoral Act mandating INEC to deploy technology in accreditation and voting and computation of election results directly from the figures transmitted from the polling units to the result viewing portal.

    Former INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega raised a valid issue when he canvassed the proscription of cross-carpeting for elected officials. He would want them to relinquish their elective positions before decamping to any other party. Jega also wants the appointment of the board of the INEC to be taken away from the president to an independent body to ensure neutrality and impartiality of the officials.

    There is merit in both proposals even as they are not entirely novel. As a matter of fact, our constitution made copious provisions to discourage elected officials from decamping to other political parties unless there is division in their parties. But that provision has often been negatively exploited by elected officials to decamp and in most cases to the ruling party.

    This tendency is unhealthy for democracy as it encourages the slide to one party state. Matters are not helped by our brand of politics (political culture) that frowns at opposition, constantly evolving devious strategies to emasculate dissent.

    So that section of the constitution has to be tinkered with to make it mandatory for elected officials to relinquish their positions before decamping to other political parties. This will not only checkmate the increasing gravitation to the ruling party but more fundamentally ensure the plurality of party politics. Our democracy will be better with virile opposition.

    Before now, scholars had argued with varying degrees of plausibility that African tradition and culture loathe opposition. They point to our kingship system to buttress this point. That seems evident from the mad rush to cross-carpeting. It is also evident in the selective reward to those who voted for the winning party to the exclusion of others. It is no less evident in the winner-takes-all syndrome of our politics.

    And unless serious efforts are made through legislation to check this tendency, we may wake up one day to the reality of a one party state. One is frightened at such prospects. The divestment of the appointment of the board of INEC and resident electoral commissioners is another issue for urgent resolution. The Uwais committee wants the NJC to exercise that power. There is merit in an independent body taking over such appointments to guarantees the credibility and impartiality of the electoral umpire.

    A political party and some civil society groups have taken President Tinubu to court for allegedly appointing party members into such offices. This reinforces the urgency to insulate the presidency from such appointments to guarantee the integrity of an agency already assailed by credibility deficits.

    Our books are not lacking in what to do to strengthen and provide fertile ground for democracy to grow and flourish. What has been in short supply is the political will to do the right thing. But it does appear we have no choice if we want democracy in its pristine form. Will President Tinubu make the desired difference in this regard?

  • Rethinking democracy: Why not

    Rethinking democracy: Why not

    It is in the very nature of intellectual tradition to explore new grounds, new ideas with a desire to discover and improve on knowledge. This entails regularly breaking down old ideas to allow new ideas; bigger and better ideas to grow in their place and flourish.

    Societal progress and development are inexorably tied to the capacities of humans to constantly interrogate their environment, ideas and precepts with a view to expanding the frontiers of knowledge for public good. That was the foray former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, delved into last week when he grilled western liberal democracy both as an ideological construct and development paradigm.

    In his presentation at a consultation on ‘Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy in Africa’, he faulted that ideology for not delivering good governance and development to Africa. Obasanjo chastised western democracy for not factoring in African history and its multi-cultural complexities and in its place, proposed what he called ‘Afro Democracy’.

    He is yet to come clear of the essential features of his model of Afro democracy. But he did not quite hide his dissatisfaction with the representative dimension of the western democratic model. It is a “government of a few people over all the people or population and that those few people are representatives of only some of the people and not fully representative of all the people invariably, the majority of the people are wittingly or unwittingly kept out”.

     He said those who brought the contraption are questioning its deliverability, its relevance today even as he challenged Nigerians to interrogate western democracy in the countries it originated and here as the inheritors of the concept.

    The issues raised are both challenging and profound. They spin around the philosophical and ideological questions embedded in the concept and practice of western democracy. His inquisition is of universal value even as he used Africa as a case study.

    But the presidency did not see his contribution from the above prism. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Tinubu on information and strategy was quick to blame him for poorly copying that model during his tenure both as military head of state and civilian president.

    He held Obasanjo liable for jettisoning the less expensive parliamentary system which the British colonial masters bequeathed us in preference to the presidential system.  “Obasanjo also knows that he copied this presidential system wrongly. He copied the form and structure. But he didn’t copy the spirit of it”, Onanuga contended.

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    The presidency may be within their rights to get Obasanjo share part of the blame for copying the American model of the presidential system. He is also unlikely to escape culpability for some of the observed imperfections of western democracy as practiced in this country.

    But all that can neither obfuscate nor whittle down the fundamental observations raised by the former president. Neither will they stand as justification for the many pitfalls of western democracy especially as practiced in Africa and Nigeria in particular. It is not all about the messenger but the heuristics of his message. Neither is it just a choice between the presidential and parliamentary systems, as Onanuga would wish to argue.

    Even then, our brand of presidential democracy has been found largely deficient for virtually concentrating the powers of life and death at the centre. That has been the basis for agitations for restructuring. But who really listens?

    Obasanjo spoke of ‘Afro Democracy’. He said western democracy has not been able to deliver good governance and development to Africa. And that cannot be faulted.  He also has serious reservations with representative democracy for shutting out a majority of the people. The evidence is not in doubt.

    These are the real issues to interrogate. How accommodative of the history and peculiarities of the African people is western democracy? Are there certain cultural, economic and developmental conditions under which western democracy flourishes that are lacking in our clime? What is the ‘spirit of democracy’ Onanuga alluded to and where do African countries stand on that matrix?

    Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba categorized political culture based on one’s level of political participation and came up with three variants-parochial, subject and participant. In the parochial political culture, people have little awareness of the central government and do not play any active role in governmental affairs. This is found largely in the underdeveloped countries of Africa and Asia.

    The participant category gives opportunity to all citizens to participate in politics. They are aware of their rights, ability to influence political workings and feel it is their duty to participate. The American system of democracy is associated with this variant. Almond and Verba identified the latter as the political culture best suited for democracy.

    What this entails is that the attitudinal support and orientation supportive of effective working of democracy will be found lacking in a clime where the predominant political culture is still parochial. It speaks of dissonance between the political system (democracy) and extant political culture (spirit).

    Sadly, that culture of democracy (spirit) has not been allowed to grow by our brand of democracy that is often skewed by self-serving leaders to function in its most aberrant form. Our variant shunts out a majority of the citizens from active roles in the way they are governed. It is characterized by the subversion of the rules of the game and impositions rendering free, fair and credible elections a near impossibility.

    Obasanjo spoke the minds of many when he questioned the representative nature of our democracy. Representative democracy as opposed to the direct democracy of the ancient Greek city states derived its justification from the large population of modern states. Because of the small size of the Greek City states, it was possible for people to gather in a square and directly determine how they were governed. But the sheer size of modern states precludes that. Hence, the concept of representative democracy that allows the people to freely elect those they trust to represent their affairs.

    The idea is that if people elect those they trust, their interests will be properly reflected in decision making. But how do our representatives actually emerge both at the party primaries and elections proper? How much of the will of the people is reflected in such political recruitment processes?

    That was perhaps, the point Obasanjo raised when he grilled the representative nature of representative democracy with a verdict that our democracy is not just working. Our democracy is not working for its serial failure to reflect the collective will of the people to elect their leaders. Those who capture state power do not derive their mandate from the people. They show scant obligation to good governance and development because the electorate has no way to hold them accountable. 

    Democracy will not thrive with the do-or-die politics in the country. It cannot grow and flourish where all manner of buccaneers are allowed to capture the instruments of state power which they deploy unwholesomely to perpetuate themselves in power. It will not endure in a system where politics is conceived as the quickest source of primitive wealth accumulation.

    As long as we are assailed by these systemic dysfunctions, rethinking democracy will continue a recurring decimal. There is nothing sacrosanct about democracy both as a human contraption and governance construct. It can only remain relevant as long as it continues to deliver on its promise.

    Of late, there have been challenges to the capacity of the American democracy to deliver on its promise. Former president, Donald Trump had after the last presidential election, questioned the fairness and integrity of the election, alleging among others, that tens of thousands of his votes were stolen and credited to Joe Biden. This exposes some of the weaknesses of western democracy and the imperative to interrogate that system.

    Systems atrophy if they no longer serve their need. We are witnesses to the sad fate of a dominant and competing development paradigm-Communism. In a bid to address some of its imperfections, Mikhail Gorbachev came up with the policy of Perestroika and Glasnost that eventually led to the breakdown of the former Soviet Union.

    Why not liberal democracy if it can no longer live up to its bidding? The rise of military rule in about four African countries reinforces the imperative for a re-examination of the suitability of the western development model to the African circumstance.

  • Ribadu to the rescue

    Ribadu to the rescue

    It is heart-refreshing that the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress, TUC suspended the nationwide strike to protest the attack on NLC president, Joe Ajaero in Imo State earlier this month.

    Tommy Etim, deputy national president of the TUC said the unions suspended the strike based on the trust they have on the National Security Adviser, NSA, Nuhu Ribadu. “We also saw that he wasn’t playing politics with our demands and he was ready and promised to follow up with everything”, he had said.

    Before the meeting with labour leaders last Wednesday, the NSA had issued a statement in which he strongly condemned the attack on the NLC president. “The NSA regrets the incident and condemns it in its entirety as it was against the rule of law and principles of freedom of association subscribed to by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his administration”.

    The statement had also spoken of efforts the government was making to get at the root of the matter. These included a directive to relevant authorities to thoroughly investigate the incident and bring the culprits to book, the arrest of some suspects and a promise to make the findings public.

     The NSA had also appealed to the unions to call off the strike and allow the dialogue process underway to be exhausted. It did not come as surprise that after a follow-up meeting the NSA had with the leadership of NLC and TUC, the unions subsequently called off the strike, albeit temporarily.

    They gave the credit for the suspension to Ribadu. He fully deserves that credit for unambiguously condemning the attack on the NLC president in Imo State and reaffirming the commitment of the President Tinubu-led federal government to the rule of law, freedom of expression and association.

    That should be the minimum expectation from a democratic government given the circumstance of the matter. Anything less would have amounted to according free reign to unmitigated acts of impunity and lawlessness.

    Ribadu’s position is reassuring given the way the attack on the NLC president was twisted to convey the impression that he deserved the beating he got. What are the issues?

    The NLC president was in Imo State to mobilize workers for an industrial action against the state government for practices they considered anti-labour.  But as they were mobilizing on the first day of the strike, pandemonium broke out at the state headquarters of the union in Owerri leading to the arrest of the NLC president.

    Accounts of how the fracas erupted vary. But initial reports from the union had it that, thugs allegedly acting at the behest of the Imo State government invaded the premises and attacked all those gathered dispossessing them of their personal effects even as the police watched seemingly helpless. In the midst of the confusion, the police was reported to have whisked away Ajaero to an unknown destination.

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    Ajaero’s whereabouts remained cloudy until late afternoon that fateful day when he surfaced at the hospital with bruises all over one of his eyes. The state police command was later to issue a statement in which it gave account of what transpired. They admitted that the NLC president was in the state as part of the arrangements to mobilize workers for a mega protest.

    In the course of planning, the police claimed disagreement arose as to the modality of carrying out the strike leading to scuffles and heated arguments and an eventual attack on the person of the president by a mob. On receiving the report, the police said its operatives swiftly moved to the scene and took the NLC president into protective custody at the state command.

    Having ensured the protection of his life and that he was not lynched, they took him to the hospital for medical attention. Such was the account of the incident by the Imo State police command. But they were also quick to draw attention to a subsisting injunction from the National Industrial Court barring the NLC from holding the protest.

    But the account of the incident by the NLC president faulted the claims by the state police command. He shocked many when he disclosed that he was arrested by the police and handed over to thugs led by an aide to the state governor who gave him a beating of his life. Ajaero described how he was blindfolded, beaten, his hands tied, dragged on the floor with a threat to kill and dump his body into a river.

    He lacked words to properly describe the kind of beating he received from his captors. By providence, he is alive to give a chilling account of his story. His account is bound to ruffle the sensibilities of all decent minds.

    That was the setting in which the NLC and TUC issued ultimatum to the federal government to arrest, reprimand and bring to book all the individuals including the security agencies connected with that odious pass. That was the background of the strike that was just called off courtesy of the intervention by Ribadu.

    There is a message served by this. If the intervention by the NSA could get the unions call off an ongoing strike, it could have also been possible to nip the strike at the bud had the authorities come up unequivocally on the potent danger the attack constituted to the rights of labour to peaceful protests.

    That failed to happen even as the state commissioner of police under whose watch the unwarranted attack occurred had since been redeployed. The seeming conspiracy of silence on the part of the government conveyed wrong signals precipitating the strike with its toll on the struggling national economy. Matters were not helped by the seeming impression that Ajaero deserved what he got. Partisan politics was also woven into the incident with very predictable effects.

    The state police command and Governor Hope Uzodimma were quick to draw attention to a subsisting injunction restraining the NLC from going on with the strike. The purpose was to show the illegality of the strike action. That could as well be even as it stood no justification for the attack and body harm inflicted on the NLC president.

    Uzodimma raised an issue that should not be allowed to slip by. He said he intervened to prevent the national leadership of the NLC from dissolving the state chapter since their tenure had not expired.

    Hear him: “they decided to dissolve them to put in a caretaker. Of course, I’m the Chief Security Officer and I have a responsibility to intervene. I encourage the national leadership not to dissolve a management team that their tenure has not expired and that was what they did”.

    This position is as curious as it is confounding. When did it become the duty of a state governor to dabble into how the NLC runs its internal affairs? One needs to be guided on aspects of the constitution that empowers a governor as the chief security officer to stop organized labour from dissolving a state organ if such need arose.

    Before then, we should be told how such dissolution is different from the penchant by the leadership of the political parties to dissolve state chapters and institute caretaker committees? Even then, governors find themselves helpless in such circumstances when the state executive of the party loyal to them is replaced with nominees from competitors. Herein is the absurdity in a state governor intervening to prevent the NLC from dissolving a state chapter and appointing in its place a caretaker committee.   

    By drawing attention to the injunction of the industrial court, they seek to demonstrate the illegality of the strike action. That may also justify the presence of the police at the scene to ensure there is no breakdown of law and order. It could also warrant the arrest of the organizers of the protest.

    But that cannot justify the attack by hoodlums apparently acting at the instance of the state government. That cannot empower the police to brutalize the NLC president or even hand him over to some band of thugs for jungle justice.

    If the NLC president was found to have disobeyed a court restraining order, it is left to that court to determine the kind of punishment he deserves. It is neither for the police nor that of some unruly mob to resort to jungle justice. The Imo incident was no doubt, a national embarrassment that a democratic government cannot afford. The interest shown by the NSA is most reassuring. He should ensure that all those responsible for that show of shame are made to account for their acts of indiscretion. Overzealous officials should not be allowed to give the government a bad name. Conducts capable of conveying the notion that ours is a system that accords scant regard to the rule of law must be discouraged.

  • The matter with security advisories!

    The matter with security advisories!

    But for the reaction from the federal government, recent security advisory by the United States of America US, urging its citizens to keep off major hotels in Nigeria may have passed largely unnoticed. The reason is not hard to fathom. Nigerians are used to such security alerts in the wake of the assortment of security challenges that enveloped the country in the last eight years or so. We have seen country qua country advice their citizens on precautionary measures against perceived security threats in this country. The latest one would have passed just like the ones before it.

    Even as the federal government was raising concerns with the US advisory, the Canadian government joined the fray. It warned its citizens to avoid non-essential travels to Nigeria including Abuja, “due to the unpredictable security situation throughout the country and the significant risk in terrorism, crime, inter communal clashes and attacks and kidnapping”.  

    There was therefore nothing unfamiliar when the US government said it was aware of credible information on elevated threat to major hotels in Nigeria’s major cities and warned it citizens to keep off them. Interestingly, the advisory also came with a proviso that the Nigerian security services were working diligently to counter the threat. That would have settled any perceived apprehension.

    But in an interaction with editors in Abuja, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Muhammed Idris picked holes with the advisory. He sees the alert as needless because it generates panic and undermines investments.

     “What we have seen is that such advisories do no achieve anything other than needless panic and they can have a severe adverse economic impact not to talk of what they do to undermine the government’s efforts to attract investments”, the minister argued.

    Idris cautioned the US authorities against using isolated security incidents to make generalizations across the entire hospitality industry even as he reeled out comprehensive measures by the government to address insecurity, secure lives and property.

    His position has undoubtedly, thrown up a number of issues that should not be brushed aside. The first is whether the minister was right to have claimed that such advisories are needless and unnecessary. Is it from the point of view of the Nigerian government or the US and its citizens that are being alerted of possible danger for them to take necessary precaution?

    Even if the Nigerian government is inclined to view such alerts as needless because it seeks to protect its national interest, they are eminently very useful not only to the US citizens but also our local population that have come to rely on such alerts for information. The fact remains that many of our citizens also rely on such advisories as a guide in the absence of credible security information from the government.

    Countries all over the world have the obligation to protect their citizens from potential threats and harm wherever they reside. That is part of the reciprocity attendant to citizenship. That is why the US is known to be in the forefront of securing its citizens in any part of the world they come into harm’s way. That also accounts for the uncommon love, loyalty and patriotism of their citizens for their country; ever prepared to sacrifice to the point of paying the supreme prize.

    Ironically, that concept of social exchange between the state and its citizens seems not to be working out on these shores. It is a mark of the low premium we place on the lives of our citizens that a public functionary would view such alerts as patently needless. They are not.

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    Little wonder the festering competition between the government and primordial cleavages for the loyalty of the citizens. There is absolutely nothing untoward in alerting and guiding citizens or foreigners out of perceived danger without sounding panicky.

     It is also not just enough to jump to the conclusion that mere circulation of such advisories is all it takes to create panic and discourage investments-local and foreign. It does not add up. Panic of unmitigated proportion is created and investment discouraged by the actual incidence of insecurity such that has reduced the value of life across the country. Sectarian insurgency, kidnapping for ransom, armed banditry, the insurgency of the herdsmen and agitations for self-determination are factors that incubate insecurity and heat up the system.

    Inclement investment climate induced by mounting insecurity has seen to the exit of foreign companies from Nigeria, discouraging new ones from coming in. Banditry, kidnapping and the insurgency of the herdsmen have combined to drive farmers out of the bushes contributing to the escalating prices of staple food items. No one will invest in an uncertain, insecure clime. These are the real issues.

    Security warnings are just precautionary measures to save the citizens from the mortal danger posed by assortment of security infractions. They are just symptoms of a malignant tumour. Shunting out such advisories holds no therapy to the ailment-insecurity. The solution lies in tackling headlong the sources of those security challenges.

    But who is to blame: the foreign countries alerting their citizens to possible threats or our inability to substantially tame the monster? We shall return to this. It bears stating that security advisories or alerts are not just the exclusive rights of foreign governments.

    Our domestic security agencies are also into them. Time without number has the Department of State Services DSS warned Nigerians of potential sources of threat. Before the last Eid celebrations, the agency alerted of plans to attack worship and recreational facilities before and after the festivities. It based its warning on the recovery of primed IEDs among the suspected terrorists and warned operators of public places to be watchful.

    Just last September, the same agency said it uncovered plans by unnamed people to stage violent protests over sundry socio-political challenges in the country. According to the DSS, the plotters included certain politicians who were desperately mobilizing unsuspecting student leaders, ethnic based associations, youths and disgruntled groups for the planned action.

    Though the agency claimed it had identified the ring leaders of the plot and sustained monitoring to prevent them from plunging the country into anarchy, it still deemed it needful to alert the public to the lurking danger. The DSS should have gone ahead to arrest the identified ring leaders. But it chose the way of public alert. Why are we not worried by their potentials for panic and disincentive to investments?

    It is difficult to fathom how we can in good conscience blame the foreign governments for creating panic and discouraging investments when our agencies are neck deep into such advisories. Yes, such reports could create disquiet and scare potential visitors and investors. But they are neither the source nor the cause of the problem.

    The thing to do is to address the substance. And the substance of the matter is the cascading insecurity across the country that has reduced life to the atavism of the state of nature. The threats of insecurity are ever present in the regular killings, kidnappings and sundry atrocious acts that suffuse the social and political space.

    The minister may be right in his assertion that the government has implemented comprehensive security measures to ensure the safety of foreigners and our citizens alike. In spite of these efforts, Nigerians are still held down by the unceasing insecurity across the country. There is the urgent need to redouble efforts to tackle the assortment of security threats that are stretching the capacities of our security agencies to elastic limits.

    Some of these challenges can be perfectly addressed through political reforms. The government should move fast to engage those security threats that easily lend themselves to political resolution while efforts are geared to reduce substantially those that need kinetic strategy. Then, the frequency of those security advisories would have substantially diminished. Panic will cease. And investments will flow unhindered.

  • EFCC’s OAU sting operation

    EFCC’s OAU sting operation

    It is as well good that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has just banned its officials from sting operations at odd hours of the night. The new directive is said to be part of the measures by its chairman, Ola Olukoyede to align the agency with the newly revised procedure on the arrest and bail of suspects.

    It is not clear whether the newly revised procedure was done before Olukoyede came into office or just after his recent appointment. Whatever the case, the commission has assured the public that it will not relent in its adherence to the rule of law in the exercise of its mandate. That appears reassuring.

    Coming a day after the arrest last Wednesday of many students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Osun State, by officials of the agency, the directive would seem targeted at dousing concerns raised by the manner that raid was conducted.

    Officials of the commission had in a midnight raid, stormed the off campus hostels of the students, broke into their rooms and arrested those they saw there on suspicion of internet fraud. The raid which was said to have lasted between 1.30 to 4 am saw to the manhandling and subsequent arrest of about 70 students.

    Insider sources gave a graphic account of the Gestapo and dehumanizing manner officials of the agency stormed the hostels; arrested students owning iPhones, laptops and cars. And in a trending video, about six vehicles were seen along with a white Hummer bus ferrying the students away from their hostels to the zonal office of the EFCC in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

    The procedure and indiscriminate manner of the arrests did not go down well with the student union of the institution which quickly mobilized and stormed the zonal office of the agency to protest the action. The management of the university equally made some intervention to get at the root of the impasse.

    But in its reaction hours later, the agency said it arrested 69 suspects. It listed their names but was silent on their identity as students. The agency claimed the arrests followed actionable intelligence on their suspected involvement in internet-related activities. It further claimed that credible intelligence linked the Oduduwa Estate where the suspects were arrested with activities of suspected internet fraudsters.

    The management of the university was later to confirm that 58 of the students had been released to them while 11 others were profiled as having cases to sort out with the agency. There are speculations that those still with the agency may be taken to the courts after diligent investigations.

    It was against this setting that the commission announced a day after the controversial raid that it has banned night sting operations by its officials. But as relieving as that directive is, it exposed inherent flaws in the way and manner the raid at the hostels of the OAU students was carried out.

    The commission claimed its action was based on credible intelligence. Right! But it randomly broke into the rooms of students, frightened and woke them up from their sleep, only to arrest those owning iPhones, laptops and cars on suspicion of wire fraud. After profiling, nothing incriminating was found on 58 of them. That does not speak of credible intelligence which the commission claimed informed its action.

    But 11 others were not all that lucky and are still in detention. They may be arraigned in the courts which have the final authority to determine their culpability. What seemed to have emerged from the figures is that a whopping 58 students were woken up from their sleep, harassed and whisked away to Ibadan for no just cause. They were tagged suspected internet fraudsters because they had expensive phones, laptops or own cars.

    And the commissions talks of credible intelligence! Actionable intelligence that led to the arrest 69 students from their rooms only to discover that 58 of them had no business being arrested in the first instance is anything but credible. Yes, the commission may have had some information that some students in those hostels were into internet fraud. That possibility cannot be ruled out. Even in the larger society, we live and mingle with the good, the bad and the ugly. That does not give everybody away as suspects. How fair will it be to storm a street at night break into the homes of residents and arrest people indiscriminately just because some suspected criminals reside in that street? Credible intelligence would have detected the location of the actual residence of the suspects.

    That is where the EFCC officials failed. If they were acting on intelligence, they would have availed themselves of the specific details of the suspects, their rooms and other relevant information to aid their apprehension either during the day or at any other time they may choose. That failed to happen.

    Their response amounts to invading the privacy of the students and placing on them the burden of proving their innocence against internet fraud. There is everything wrong with this method of law enforcement.

    But what is this fuzz about expensive phones, laptops and cars by students? Students all over the world are known for their high craze for fashion. Expensive shoes, dresses, wrist watches, phones and cars for those that can afford. Many of us today bought expensive shoes and dresses as dependent students. But the reality of it today is that even with improvements in our incomes, many will be reluctant to buy those expensive items because they can find value for their money elsewhere.

    That is the irony of student life. Such inordinate tastes sometimes fuel crimes. But the leadership is to blame for not placing high premium on the right virtues and values that guide decent conduct. The youths take to all manner of criminalities because our system seems to encourage it through unbridled looting of our collective patrimony by public functionaries.

    That is by no means to cover up rising criminality within the student population in wire fraud. Both students and all manner of youths even the not well educated ones are fully into it. But the assumption that the possession of expensive phones and laptops constitute actionable evidence of internet fraud loses sight of the emerging sophistication in Information and Communications Technology ICT.

    Students need android phones, laptops for their assignments. Virtually every student needs such phones and laptops for their assignments, research and related academic engagements or pleasure. Parents buy these items for their children because they aid their studies.

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    If the possession of such electronic devices is now a prima facie evidence for internet fraud suspects, then our security agencies are still far from the realities of the times. The security agencies must through training and retraining programs update and align themselves to modern methods of internet fraud detection.

    It is sometimes amazing the kind of ignorance depicted by some of our security officials at check-points. This writer was once asked by a police officer what he does with his laptop. The question came after I opened my car booth as demanded. He saw a bag inside it and demanded it be opened.

    On seeing the laptop, he asked: what do you do with this laptop? I was taken aback by that question and did not have any immediate response. But inside my mind I was ruminating, what do you do with laptop? What do people do with laptop? What kind of question is this?

    After a while, I answered him that I work with it. I was expecting him to ask what kind of work I do with it. But I moved fast to remind him that I even bought laptops for some of my children in higher institutions apparently to drive home the inappropriateness of the question. Why do you ask someone in my age what I do with laptop?

    But in that question lies the ignorance and some of the limitations of our security operatives. It is the same mind-set that led the EFCC operatives into arresting any and every student they saw with iPhones, laptops and cars at the OAU hostel. It is the same sweeping generalization that has been the source of friction between the police and members of the public each time they ask people to unlock their phones for a search. Many have been fleeced by rogue policemen in the process. You are a suspected internet fraudster if you are seen with any of these items and the onus is on you to prove your innocence else?

    There is everything wrong with such blanket profiling. At a time the country is assailed by all manners of insecurity, midnight raids for suspected internet fraud should be out of the way. The agency can perfectly do it job without the Gestapo and intimidating style deployed in the OAU incident and the ensuing backlash.

  • A cattle market and quit order abuse

    A cattle market and quit order abuse

    One was taken aback reading the screaming headline; “Northern group withdraws quit notice issued to Igbos”, which got copious space in the media last week.  Since the initial quit notice passed seemingly unnoticed, its withdrawal obviously raised curiosity as to what led to the order in the first instance.

    What could have given rise to such a sweeping order on a major ethnic group in the country? Was there any skirmish within the polity that could warrant such or is it one of those instances when events in other parts of the world would be vented on the local population?  How come such event of seemingly national weight escaped public notice?

    With this curiosity, I made quick to read through the text of the story. But to one’s utter consternation, there was no event of any serious national attention to warrant the order. There were neither ethnic clashes nor the usual combustible rhetoric that could pitch any ethnic group against the other. Neither was there any altercation between the Igbo ethnic group and the northerners.  Nothing of such!

    It was just all about a rag-tag northern group that goes by the name, Northern Consensus Movement, NCM, arrogating to itself the powers to expel an ethnic group from the north under very inexplicable and hazy circumstances. The group which is said to be an amalgam of community based socio-cultural and economically-inclined northern organizations was withdrawing a 14-day ultimatum it purportedly issued to the Igbo to quit the north.

    The NCM just took a cue from sundry northern groups in the habit of arrogating to themselves the powers of issuing quit threats to the Igbo at slightest disagreement. But, the issue involved in this instance does not deserve all that noise.

    They had misconstrued an order by the Abia State government converting the Lokpanta Cattle Market in the Umunneochi Local Government Area that has been serially fingered for providing cover for all manner of criminality to a day and non-residential operations. The measures followed credible intelligence that the operation of the market both during the day and at night coupled with the fact that cattle dealers live inside it, provided cover for all manner of criminals to launch attacks on innocent people using that highway.

    For whatever reasons, this measure was twisted as a quit order to cattle dealers who are mostly from the north to leave the state. How that misrepresentation came about can only be explained by the leadership of the NCM. The state government was compelled by the twisting of the directive to issue a statement explaining that no such quit order was given. It followed it up with a meeting with the leadership of the NCM.

    The statement issued by the NCM withdrawing its purported quit order to the Igbo was the outcome of their meeting with Governor Alex Otti. Both the withdrawal order and disclosures by the NCM leadership after the meeting showed clearly the mischief in twisting an unambiguous directive.

    The group’s president, Awwal Aliyu while announcing the withdrawal of the quit notice, had said they realized there was no tribal sentiment attached to the state government’s decision. According to him, Otti meant well and is interested in the safety and security of traders in the market contrary to the allegation that he had asked northerners resident in the state to leave.

    This speaks volumes. And if one may ask, at what point did the issue of quit notice arise in the course of the decision by the Abia State government to restrict the market to operate during the day and on a non-residential basis?  How an innocuous policy measure to safeguard lives and property lent itself to ethnic interpretation is at the root of the many challenges stultifying the development of this country.

    Perhaps, only those who misread the state government’s directive can reasonably give a clue as to how the confusion arose. But the body language and position taken by Awwal after their meeting with governor Otti appear to have let the cat out of the bag.

    His disclosure and eulogy for the governor for agreeing to assist vulnerable members of the northern community to rent accommodation outside the market strike at the root of the mix-up.

    The envisaged displacement of those who converted the market to their personal residences is the source of the distortion.  Uncomfortable with the reality of having to seek rented accommodation outside the market, mischief makers went to town and invented a quit order to northerners to sway sentiments of ethnic and parochial hue to their side.

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    To allay the fears of the cattle dealers, Otti went out of his way to promise financial assistance to vulnerable ones to enable them rent accommodation. That gesture must have assuaged the fears of the cattle dealers who had converted the market to their places of residence.

    But the choice of where cattle dealers and sundry herdsmen reside; how they pay for their accommodation are essentially their private concerns. If the government’s gesture is what it takes to get those residing inside the markets out, the end would have justified the means. If that is the prize Abia State will pay to secure that axis of death, sorrow and awe, so be it.

    The state government may not be unmindful of the huge sacrifice in deploying its scarce resources to pay house rent for cattle dealers and herdsmen. But whatever financial inconvenience it suffers to find enduring solutions to the unceasing criminalities along the Lokpanta-Umunneochi-Uturu axis will be a worthwhile sacrifice.

     Before the directive restricting the market to day operations and on non-residential basis, the state government had in conjunction with security agencies embarked in an operation around the market vicinity. Discoveries were quite revealing. A 160-room brothel and shanties suspected to harbour kidnappers and other band of criminals were located and destroyed.

    In the course of the operations, some kidnappers were arrested even as millions of Naira suspected to be ransom from kidnapped victims was recovered. There were clear indications that the area is a hotbed for sundry criminalities.

    The government gave a graphic account of how criminal elements took control of the area raising obstacles along the expressway to seemingly control traffic. But these were decoys for slowing down vehicles deliberately to allow single passage only for informants to alert their collaborators to rob them at some point along that highway.

     It was based on these startling findings, the state government came up with the informed decision which unfortunately was twisted out of context. Good a thing, those who misread the government’s intentions now know better. Their fears of how to secure accommodation outside the market they hitherto saw as their residence has also been allayed by the promise of some form of financial assistance.

    Abia State government has the total endorsement of this writer in the decision to tame the monster of insecurity in that axis, which has over the years defied the authorities for whatever reasons. It is gratifying that since after the raid and destruction of the shanties and brothels, insecurity has reduced in the area. The government should expeditiously implement its twin decisions restricting the market operations to day and on a non-residential basis after allowing time for those residing inside it to find accommodation elsewhere.

    But it remains a huge surprise that contrary to the practice, cattle dealers and all manner of herdsmen were all this while, allowed to convert the market to their residences in that winding highway that serves as border to three states. Little wonder the near state of anarchy that reigns supreme around that area.

     That axis has remained a sore point and national embarrassment with men of the underworld exercising control over its ungoverned territories. Time without number have the ease with which criminal elements operate around the cattle market location led to friction with the host communities routing for its relocation.

    The issue is not about relocation now. The market is being restricted to day operations and non-residential. With these twin measures, the Abia State government in liaison with security agencies and security arm of the cattle dealers union will move to secure the entire market vicinity. There will be no more loitering in the guise of night business around the market. It will be easy to detect those hanging around the market at odd hours to commit heinous crimes. Abia State government is on the right path to untying the puzzle of devious insecurity around that axis. They deserve all the support and encouragement to consign the spate of criminalities for quick monetary gains in that zone to the dust bin of history.