The killing of students in Mubi, Adamawa State, soldiers’ alleged reprisal shootings, endless Boko Haram attacks and mob lynching of four undergraduates in Aluu, Rivers State, have left many wondering whether security agencies have run out of ideas on how to tackle insecurity. More worrisome is people taking laws into their own hands due to apparent loss of confidence in the justice system. How can this degeneration be reversed?
Has Nigeria lost its war against insecurity? Is the country heading towards a failed state? These and more are some of the questions begging for answers.
For many lawyers, despite the government’s claim that it is ‘on top’ of the situation, recent happenings say otherwise. News of killings have become a regular part of the menu, daily. Security agencies have been accused of not helping the situation.
There seems to be no end in sight to security challenges posed by the Boko Haram sect. It was a black Independence Day celebration for inhabitants of Mubi Town, Adamawa State, as unknown gunmen, suspected to be members of Boko Haram, massacred at least 46 persons, mostly students of three tertiary institutions in the town at night.
More horrific was last week’s lynching of four University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) students at Omuokiri village near the campus. Nigerians were deeply horrified by the depth of barbarism displayed by the mob. To describe the lynching as gruesome and stomach-churning is an understatement.
Analysts are of the view that the insecurity is indicative of a failed justice system. Is Nigeria turning to a failed state?
A group, the Human Rights Watch, in a report released last week, catalogued atrocities for which Boko Haram has claimed responsibility. It also explored the role of Nigeria’s security forces, whose alleged abuses contravene international human rights law and may also constitute crimes against humanity. The violence, which first erupted in 2009, has claimed more than 2,800 lives, it said.
“The unlawful killing by both Boko Haram and Nigerian security forces only grows worse; both sides need to halt this downward spiral,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Nigeria’s government should swiftly bring to justice the Boko Haram members and security agents who have committed these serious crimes.”
Since 2009, hundreds of attacks by suspected Boko Haram members have left more than 1,500 people dead, according to media reports monitored by the group. In the first nine months of 2012, more than 815 people died in some 275 attacks allegedly carried out by the group – more than in all of 2010 and 2011 combined.
The government has responded to Boko Haram, which means “Western education is a sin” in Hausa, with a heavy hand. Security forces have allegedly killed hundreds of Boko Haram suspects and other members of the public with no apparent links to the group, in the name of ending the group’s threat to the citizens. But the authorities have rarely prosecuted those responsible for the Boko Haram violence or security force personnel for their abuses.
During security raids in communities where attacks have occurred, the military have allegedly engaged in excessive use of force and other human rights violations, such as burning homes, physical abuse, and extra-judicial killings, witnesses told Human Rights Watch.
Hundreds of people have been arrested in raids across the North, but many of them have been held incommunicado without any charge or trial for months or even years. In some cases, they have been detained in inhuman conditions and subjected to physical abuse or death. The fate of many of those detained remains unclear.
Just last Monday, operatives of the Maiduguri-based Joint Task Force (JTF) reportedly killed up to 30 unarmed civilians and burnt down multiple houses (some reports say at least 50 houses and shops) as well as vehicles in Gwange, Maiduguri. Some of the victims were reportedly burnt inside their houses beyond recognition.
The soldiers were allegedly protesting the death of a member of the task force and leader of the patrol team and injuries to other members following explosions caused by an improvised explosive devise believed to have been planted by members of the Boko Haram sect.
The soldiers reportedly stormed Lagos Street, where the incident was said to have occurred, and began shooting sporadically and indiscriminately at residents and motorists. Some reports say the dead were set on fire by the soldiers.
Condemning this development, a human rights group, Access to Justice (AJ), urged President Goodluck Jonathan and the Chief of Army Staff to arrest the soldiers who allegedly killed innocent persons, describing the killings as horrific.
AJ, in a statement by its Executive Director, Mr Joseph Otteh, said it was saddened by the reported death of the leader of the patrol team and the injuries caused to members of the JTF. It, however, condemned what it called the mindless, barbaric killings of innocent, unarmed civilians by the soldiers.
The statement said: “The shootings by the soldiers were mindless, irrational and completely unjustifiable. The soldiers were sent to the streets and communities to protect lives of residents from terrorists, maintain security and order and give residents the confidence to go from their houses and pursue their daily activities without feeling that their lives would be in danger by doing so.
“To be deliberately targeted by the soldiers drafted to protect them and summarily executed is such unspeakable treachery, savagery and villainy. There was nothing to justify the shooting of unarmed, innocent persons who presented no danger to the members of the task force.
“Access to Justice urgently calls on President Jonathan and the Chief of Army Staff to arrest the soldiers who perpetrated these acts of horrific barbarism and bring them to account. Government should establish clearly and unequivocally that it will not tolerate the impunity of killing innocent Nigerians arbitrarily or summarily.”
Opinions differ on how to confront the myriad of security challenges facing Nigeria. The United States (US) has said that the problem would end if the government eradicates poor governance and addresses the rising security force abuses and impunity within the military and police.
Briefing the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Assistance Committee in Washington DC, the Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, Mr Earl Gast, said poor governance remained an impediment to development and a major trigger for political violence and public discontent.
He said: “Unless Nigerians begin using their substantial human and natural resources to address these challenges, the destabilising influence of violent extremist groups, such as Boko Haram, as well as inter-communal conflicts in the Middle Belt and Niger Delta, will continue to undermine Nigeria’s aspirations toward development and its desire to play a greater role on the world stage,” he said.
The shocking lynching of the four students has raised the question of whether the justice system, in which the police plays a critical role, has failed. The video of the killing, which went viral, shows four men stripped naked, with tyres around their necks, being beaten by a mob with wooden sticks, before being set on fire. The students were accused of stealing laptops and mobile phones.
Some analysts believe inefficiency of the police has led to increase in lawlessness. Nigerian Bar Association President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Okey WAli (SAN) said recent events point to “a state of total systems collapse.”
“The system has definitely collapsed. A situation where people will parade some suspects some hours before they are eventually killed and there was no intervention from the law enforcement agencies is an obvious indication of the system’s failure.
“If we have anything called security system in the society, those deaths would have been prevented because, from where those boys were beaten till when they died, from what we heard and read from the papers, there was sufficient time for the police to have intervened,” Wali said.
On the solution, the NBA President said: “That is why we call for state police because that will lead to better policing and protection of lives and property. It will lead to better policing; it will lead to more intelligence. The police are not well funded; they are not well equipped, so they are unable to match the criminals in the society, whereas if state police is the answer to the problems, so be it. Why not have it?
“The NBA condemns what has happened. It is a total disgrace to our society, our values or our security system, that those young boys were beaten to death and people were applauding, taking photographs and nothing happened. This cannot happen in any civilised society. It will only happen in a jungle where there is no law to protect the citizens.
“We have always said, as contained in the 1999 Constitution as amended, that the protection of lives and property is the primary responsibility of government, that is what makes all the difference between civilisation and primitiveness where you have jungle justice as they call it.
“This has shown clearly that the police have least capacity to handle situation like this. Look at what happened in Mubi, Adamawa State where they had something like gangster trial. People were brought out one by one, selected, those who would be killed were shot and no security man came.
“Can this happen in a civilised society? Can this type of thing go on for seconds, minutes and hours, yet police do not arrive the scene? This shows that there is no effective policing in Nigeria. The entire policing has failed,” he said.
On what to do with the police who have the constitutional role of protecting citizens, Wali said: “Obviously, it will need the amendment of the Constitution, and thank goodness we are in the process of amending the 1999 Constitution. An amendment would be needed to introduce state police.”
Reminded that some states opposed state police, Wali said: “That is the problem of the kind of federation we are running. We are supposed to be in a federation. In a federation, the federating units are at liberty to do what they want to do. The obvious fact is that some people do not need the level of security that others need.
“So, I can understand those not in dire need of such security not seeing the need for such responsibility because, of course, if we go for state police, it means more expenditure by the states and each state would now need to protect itself.
“Those who feel protected sufficiently by what is going on now should remain with that and those who want to go ahead with funding and policing of their states should go ahead and do it. That is the essence of a federation,” Wali said.
A professor of Law and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ado-Ekiti, Akin Oyebode, said Nigeria was becoming a failed state.
“Nigeria is surely manifesting symptoms of a state of anomie. It is at least a failing state if not indeed a failed state with all the consequences arising therefrom,” he said.
Former Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate in Kwara State Dele Belgore (SAN) said only a strong and visionary leadership could end insecurity.
His words: “The degeneration in our values and the high level of insecurity in the country can certainly be reversed with a strong, purposeful and visionary leadership. I have said this several times: we must put the country first, above politics, ethnicity and religion.
“The arguments on whether we should have state police or not must be viewed from the prism of what is best for our country. The country requires strong institutions within a strong and properly functioning legal framework where the rule of law prevails.
“Think about it; where there is justice there will be peace and security; where the rule of law prevails, treasury looters will not escape; election riggers will not succeed; public and elected officers will be accountable and the background for development would have been solidly laid.”
“So, it’s the big picture we should look at and target and then specific problems will be easier to tackle,” Belgore said.
Prince Adesegun Ajibola (SAN) said: “I think that we have allowed a very bad idea to cultivate for too long and it is now coming near and that is why we now feel we should do something about it and the sooner we do something very serious about it, I think all of us are in trouble. It came too close for comfort, that is why we had all these outcry. Otherwise, no sane society would ever allow such devilish thing to happen in its confines.
“It should never have been allowed to start, it should never have been allowed to continue to this very bad point of which we are talking about. There is a lot of lessons for us to learn from these incidents. There is a lot of arrangements that need to be put in place to secure our lives. Perhaps the time has come for us to address the issue seriously. It is unfortunate that this heinous events had to happen before we woke up to realise that we are playing with fire.”
Asked whether state police can assist in curbing the trend, Ajibola said: “I am not too sure that state police is the answer to these event. The force is only as good as its efficiency. We are talking about efficiency here. That is the essence of having a Police Force, not necessarily whether it is state or federal owned. As a way of dealing with the kind of problems we are talking about, I don’t think the absence of a state police has anything to do with it.”
Constitutional lawyer Fred Agbaje believes state police is the solution. He said: “Whatever the misgivings about state police, it’s still the best option in this season of social malady and extra-judicial killings.
“Coupled with this anomie is the failure of the justice system, with so many awaiting trial inmates, slow speed of justice delivery, more corruption cases in court and lesser convictions arising from lack of logistics and tools to enhance justice delivery.
“Absence of good governance and the wicked culture of impunity are cascading our political, economic and social landscape. Mass revolution as witnessed in the Arab world would be a perfect answer,” Agbaje said.
Executive Director, Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC) Mr. Felix Morka said Nigeria is witnessing a tragic escalation in violence.
“It is a total collapse of our security system. I think it is indicative of what has gone wrong with our security system. But more importantly, it is an expression of the failure of the state and federal government. Nigeria is in a very serious situation when it comes to political leadership at the federal level, the state and the local government level.
“People can be very surprising. As Nigerians , we gathered around other Nigerians , setting them ablaze, killing them like they are not humans ! Then, people were watching them with their telephones, taking photography of the dastardly act. This indeed showed that our tolerance for inhuman animalistic behavior has really, really increased.
“It is particularly surprising that nobody intervened. Even I watched and listened to some of the comments that were said by the spectators, it showed they prepared to kill. Throughout the whole incident, where were the police?”
On how law can be used to combat the spate of violence, he said: “It is so easy. Law is the framework for resolving matters like this. The laws are there in the books but in reality, these laws cannot function without being implemented. People have lost faith in the justice system and in the legal system. Sometimes you go to the police station to complain and you become the criminal when you are supposed to be the victim.
“So , people don’t know where to go again to get justice. The judiciary is almost like in a coma. Our judiciary has become comatose and they are not able to respond to the needs of the people”
Rights activist Bamidele Aturu and Otteh described the lynching as unfortunate and outrageous, calling for the prosecution of those behind the dastardly act.
Otteh said: “These killings are unfortunate, enraging and outrageous. The action of the mob was callous, barbaric and inexcusable. How does anyone justify a mob killing for unproved allegations, such as theft of mobile phones where people are still standing trial for the theft of many billons of naira of public and even pension funds, and no one has lynched them?
“How do you begin to compare the disparities? Those who carried out these barbarous actions should be sought out and brought to justice. Certainly, the mob may have felt that it was useless taking this matter to the police.
“Bystanders may have felt there was no point communicating the danger the young men faced to the police as they were being beaten by the mob. Even where the police got a tip-off, it was unlikely they would have responded. Everyday, we see compelling reasons why we must overhaul the police or disband it and start afresh.”
Aturu said the perpetrators must be brought to justice. “It is an act of barbarism and those behind it must be fished out and tried,” he said, adding that the mob action amounted to a vote of no confidence by a section of the public in the efficiency of the justice system.
The Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) called for the trial of all those involved. In a statement by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Officer, Miss Zainab Yusuf, the group condemned the vicious show of shame demonstrated by the mob.
“We hereby condemn in totality the show of bestiality, and the crude enforcement by an angry mob of the most irrational and unconstitutional penalty to a group of young Nigerians caught for allegedly offending the law.
“Nigeria being a nation governed by law and not by the whims and caprices of mobs, HURIWA hereby gives the Federal Government and the River State Government 78 hours to apprehend and prosecute those mass murderers for the dastardly crimes against humanity to serve as a deterrent to other would-be mass murderers in any part of Nigeria.
“If the Nigerian Government fails to carry out this legal obligation, we will begin a series of campaign in the mass media, drawing the attention of the world to the reign of impunity with government’s tacit approval in Nigeria.”
However, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar, said insecurity would be curbed if all security agencies collaborated.
Speaking at an event at the Police Service Commission (PSC) at Jabi, Abuja, Abubakar said: “My dream is to lead a police force that will enforce the law of the land, a police force that will not harass and molest the citizens, and a corruption-free force that will ensure that people’s lives and property are well protected. We are working towards these, and by the grace of God, we will achieve it all.
“Nigeria is a very large country and to fight and reduce crime to the barest minimum, all security agents must work together. We must bury any hatchet or grudges we might have been holding against each other and collaborate against insecurity if the primary aim is to protect lives and property of the citizens.
“I am using this medium to solicit for the security agencies’ support, assistance, and collaboration to fight the current surge of insecurity in the country,” Abubakar said.
