Against the backdrop of the declaration of state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states last week due to unabated mayhem unleashed by the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, concern over the proliferation of militia groups in the country in the last two decades has continued to rise, Remi Adelowo and Sunday Oguntola examine the growing menace.
The origin of militia groups across the country is widely traced to the sense of perceived injustice and lack of equal opportunities which some sections of the country feel have been perpetrated against them. For instance, militia organisations became pronounced in the 1990s, especially after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
Described as a child of circumstance, the Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC) was formed, according to its founders, to address the perceived injustice meted out to the Yoruba nation following the annulment of the election and the subsequent detention of the presumed winner Chief Moshood Abiola (widely known as MKO). Although the election was annulled by Gen Ibrahim Babangida who ruled the country with the title of president, Abiola was arrested and detained by the military regime headed by the late General Sani Abacha. He had toppled the Interim National Government (ING) left behind by Babangida and headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan.
At the early period of its existence, the modus operandi of OPC was arguably decent and noble. Taking advantage of the concentration of major media organs in the South West, its leaders engaged other stakeholders in important national discourse that enjoyed massive coverage.
Issues bordering on the restructuring of the country along the principles of true federalism, revenue allocation formula, to mention but a few, soon assumed the front burner.
The pedigree of most of the brains behind OPC was also not in doubt. For instance, its National President, Fredrick Fasheun, was a medical doctor and a former presidential aspirant under the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the aborted Third Republic.
Like most good things in Nigeria that started well but later faltered principally on the altar of huge egos, the organisation began to derail from its set objectives.
The resultant effect was the polarisation of the group into a militant arm headed by Otunba Gani Adams and the non-violent faction presided over by Fasheun.
Before long, the widespread support enjoyed by the organisation from many Yoruba turned to resentment, as the OPC began to assume the unenviable image of a thorn in the flesh.
From being an organisation with a clearly defined ideology, it turned to a group allegedly used by people to settle personal scores with real and perceived enemies.
Alarmed by the activities of the group, former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, sometime in 2002, ordered a massive crackdown on members of the group. In addition, its two warring leaders-Fasheun and Adams-were detained for about a year at the Kuje Prisons, Abuja.
At the height of its operations, it spread its wings across the South West and was always ready to ‘correct’ any perceived injustice against the Yoruba. In fact, it fought many battles and caused so many mayhem in the region while fighting its cause. However, of recent, save for its occasional intolerable acts, its unbridled actions have become more tempered till date.
The Egbesu Boys
The Egbesu Boys, also referred to as the Egbesu Boys of Africa, first emerged in the early 1990s. It began as a religious cultural group of the Ijaw people but subsequently took up arms to challenge perceived injustice caused by the exploitation of oil resources in Ijaw land and the Niger Delta by the Nigerian state and multinational corporations.
A report prepared by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada titled, “Nigeria: Egbesu Boys; Leadership, membership, recruitment practices and treatment by authorities,” described the group as the militant wing of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), the umbrella association of civil and youth groups in the Ijaw Nation.
The Egbesu Boys are active across the six South-South states comprising Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom. The group’s traditional headquarters was located in Amabulou in Ekeremor Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
Ex-militant leader, Mujaheed Asari-Dokubo, according to reports, was acclaimed as the leader of the group. He is also the founder of the Ijaw Youth Council and the leader of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF).
Most Egbesu Boys are members of other ethnic militias drawn from already existing groups in the Niger-Delta region. Membership is voluntary, and members are, “in theory,” free to “disengage” from the group as they wish.
There is no specific age for joining; however, most members first join the militia group at the age of sixteen. A number of youths initially joined as informants and are later initiated into the group.
During militant operations, members of the group generally carry guns and ammunition and wear red or white headbands. Members also wear leaves on their heads or carry them in their pockets or under their hats to protect them in battle. This is believed to the their charm against any harm.
The rule of militia groups
From OPC to Egbesu, different militia groups have sprung up in every part of the country, constituting themselves as sovereign authorities within the state.
At the last count, about ten of such militant groups are very active. They include Boko Haram (Western education is sin), an Islamic sect which has, in the last two years, unleashed unprecedented violence in some states in the North West and North East regions of the country, with over 5,000 people reportedly killed in the process.
Another northern Islamist sect, Ansaru, with its main operational base in Bauchi State, has taken after the Boko Haram in terms of similarities in their mode of operations.
A few months ago, the group claimed responsibility for the abduction of seven construction workers in Bauchi, threatening to kill them if certain demands were not met by the authorities.
The South East is not left out in the share of its militia organisations. Within the region, two militant groups-The Bakassi Boys and The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB)-hold sway.
While the former was allegedly set up by a former governor of Anambra State to tackle security challenges in the state, particularly incidences of kidnapping and armed robbery, the latter was specifically established to agitate for the secession of the South East from the country.
A failure of the state
Not a few Nigerians, in high and low places, have described the worsening security situation in the country due to the activities of militant groups, as a potent danger to its continued unity and existence.
Recently, the Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, expressed fear that the nation is teetering on the brink. The governor, who raised the alarm at a dinner organised in honour of the President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mr. Femi Adesina, and other executive members of the association, stated that unless the Federal Government urgently takes some concrete steps, the nation might collapse.
The basis for such palpable fear, Aregbesola said, hinged on the protracted unrest in virtually all the regions of the country. For the governor, militant groups have thrived due to the perceived deep seated injustice suffered by all sections of the country.
He said: “Crises manifest in different ways but the real causes of the nation’s abnormalities have not been addressed. It is not enough to tag the insurgency in the South as militancy or youth unrest and the one up North as religious crisis or Islamic fundamentalism, rather the utmost thing needed is solution to all these unrests.”
Explaining why Boko Haram sect killed people indiscriminately in the North-East, Aregbesola said the area had suffered great neglect, which consequently led to social dislocation.
According to him:”The North-East had been so much neglected for several years. The region has the lowest power supply in the last 50 years. The region does not have power supply for up to 100 hours in a month.”
In a telephone chat, renowned constitutional lawyer, Professor Itse Sagay, said while the different militia groups were founded for varied reasons ranging from religious and political factors, the underlying reason may not be unconnected with the lack of provision of social justice to the vast majority of Nigerians.
He pointed out: “There is a deep dissatisfaction with the prevailing political economy, which has become entrenched over the years.”
Reiterating his call for the convocation of a national conference to address this perceived injustice, Sagay noted that the over-centralisation of the levers of power in the country has done more harm than good for the people.
He explained: “What we have currently is a suffocating centralism of power. We don’t operate a federal state but a unitary state. Our federating units are very weak. Power must devolve to the other federating units.
“That way, people will look up to the states and local governments for solutions to their problems and not the federal government. We need fiscal federalism and reduce the over bloated powers at the centre.”
Deadly adventures
In Nasawara State, the little known Ombatse cult made its first claim to national prominence (infamy?) with the death of over 35 policemen in one operation. The group allegedly waylaid the contingent of a police team sent to arrest its leader in Alakyo village, which lies less than 10 kilometres to the state capital, Lafia.
The policemen were going to raid the shrines operated by the deadly group. Apparently tipped off, members of the militia group ambushed the operatives in the bush and inflicted them with maximum losses.
Such needless deaths have become recurring decimal whenever the many militia groups in the country strike. They leave in their trails massive death toll and collateral injuries. As President Goodluck Jonathan declared emergency rules in Yobe, Adamawa and Borno states last Tuesday, members of the Boko Haram sect mobilised to attack secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in Borno State, Rev. Faye Musa.
Musa, who was also the presiding pastor of REME Assembly, Maiduguri, was trailed to his house around the Government Reservation Area (GRA) at about 7.30.p.m and shot dead by two gunmen. Before him, over 5,000 others have been killed by the sect in various attacks that started in 2009.
Last Monday, over 30 people were feared killed in Agatu Local Government area of Benue State after Fulani herdsmen allegedly invaded the venue of a burial ceremony of some of the slain policemen in Nasarawa State who hailed from the council area.
The attack was barely a week after eight villages in the same council were invaded by the herdsmen who left several dead and many injured. In Imo, Kaduna, Adamawa, Oyo and Ogun states, the herdsmen have been killing hundreds over the years on grazing farmlands and sundry issues.
From Egbesu boys, MASSOB, OPC to Ombatse and other ethnic militia groups, the nation has witnessed untold deaths and killings in increasing proportion, especially since the return of democratic rule in 1999. Bottled up ethnic agitations and grievances have suddenly found a route of expression never allowed under military juntas.
All-time low security
All these deaths have worsened insecurity across the nation, turning Nigeria to more or less a country at mini-war. In fact, the Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka recently said with the events in the country it could be safe to say it is at war. Security has hit an all-time low as militias easily overrun state forces and violate rule of law. A criminologist, Dr James Alfred, said the development is a disturbing trend capable of consuming the nation.
According to him: “When armed groups free prisoners and orchestrate breaks, then you know anarchy is close by. A country that cannot arrest this trend is heading for the rocks. That is where Nigeria is at the moment and it is a very precipitous state.”
Alfred explained that the inability to guarantee lives and property is a clear indication of lawlessness and chaos. “When people no longer feel safe in any parts of the country, then you wonder if there is a government in place. It is a dangerous signal really.”
He pointed out that all the indices playing out in Nigeria have led to the disintegration of several nations, stating the country may be heading in the same direction. “You look at Syria, Lebanon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Libya and even Iraq and see that Nigeria is where they used to be shortly before they exploded. If nothing is done to address the situation, we may also disintegrate beyond redemption,” he stated.
The increasing balkanisation of the nation across ethnic armed groups, experts say, is a clear danger of disintegration that must be arrested. Yet, most of them started as ethnic freedom fighters and agitators for greater federal presence. They rode to public acclaim and acceptance on the strength of their commitment to better delivery of good governance to the grassroots.
A tale of abuses
Most ethnic opinion moulders and agitators embraced them as foot soldiers, considering them as comrades in the struggle for better governmental presence in their neighbourhoods. They were adopted more or less as unofficial community police operatives to offer protection. The dismal performances of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) also boosted their wide acceptance.
Unlike state police officials, they are readily accessible and provided visible protection from common ‘aggressors’. With their rise came abuses and bastardisation. Members of the militia groups became intoxicated with power and turned to lords manor. They exploited people and held many to ransom.
In the South East, the Bakassi boys arrested with impunity and engaged in extra-judicial killings. The OPC boys replicated the same orgies in the South West, mesmerising imaginary and perceived enemies. Politicians hijacked the machineries, making the militias pawns in their games. Rather than sticking to regional interests and agitations, they started chasing opposition figures.
Saving Nigeria
The militias have also become a veritable source of livelihood for private individuals. The outsourcing of community security has turned ex-militia leaders to overnight billionaires, attracting contracts from even government agencies.
A security expert, Mr. Gabriel Da Silva, said the various militia groups must be disarmed as a matter of urgency to safeguard the nation. “We have overgrown these militia groups and really need to dismantle them to save the nation from disintegration,” he began. “The way things are going, it is easy for a civil war to break out because there are far too many small arms and ammunition in private hands that can harm the nation.”
Da Silva believes the promotion of regional armed groups diminishes national interests and runs contrary to Pan-Nigerian agendas. “The sooner we drop our ethnic togas and paraphernalia, the better for all of us. As long as we sustain these structures, we are setting up for a big fall,” he explained.
He called on security forces to enforce the outlawing of the various ethnic militias in the country. The security expert also appealed to governors and other political office holders not to fund or promote enforcement groups outside the official police force.
As the militias continue to hold the nation by the jugular, there are apprehensions their activities will become even more dangerous in the run-off to the 2015 general elections. Observers believe many of them are political creations orchestrated to negotiate for power. Whether or not they are whittled down or dismantled successfully before 2015 will determine the survival of the nation to every extent.
