It has been 15 years of uninterrupted and turbulent civil rule. MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE examines the state of insecurity since May 29, 1999.
With the return of civil rule, an upsurge of militancy started across the country. Since 1999, the country has witnessed upsurge in civil strife and insurgency to the believe that the country is at war at the moment. From the ethnic militias, to ravaging armed banditries, Niger Delta militants, to the current Boko Haram insurgency, Nigeria has had no semblance of peace. Not that the county had enjoyed absolute peace before, but the severity and intensity of the current insecurity is far beyond what has been witnessed since the end of the civil war in 1970. Nigerians today have become so wild against each other that the sanctity of human life has completely lost its essence.
The recent report by the Amnesty International that about 2,000 Nigerians have been killed by insurgents in the first quarter of this year shows the threat posed by insecurity. Even after 15 years of uninterrupted civil rule, lives and property of Nigerians are not guaranteed; hundreds of lives are being lost on daily basis, particularly in the Northeast geo-political zone. According to the Human Rights Watch, no fewer than 25,000 people have been killed since 1999.
In fact, insecurity is threatening the corporate existence of the country. It started in 2009 as a revolt against state authorities for molesting and killing their members. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay, said Nigeria was “facing its most daunting set of challenges for decades.” The development has led to a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states since May 14, 2013.
Nevertheless, it took the abduction of about 234 students from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, by the Boko Haram sect, to bring the grim security situation to the attention of the international community. Britain, China, America and France have joined the search and rescue mission for the girls. In fact, the call for their rescue has become a refrain on the lips of political leaders, sports personalities and other celebrities, who are outraged by the abduction.
Street protests by the civil society have added fillip to the campaign to bring back the girls. Apart from the obvious political undertone, many believe that religious, ethnic and economic considerations are part of the factors fuelling insecurity.
According to observers, the recent mutiny in Maiduguri over Nigerian soldiers killed by members of Boko Haram, have corroborated the allegation that the army deployed to fight insurgency are not well equipped to deal with the situation; as funds meant for supplies are diverted to personal use by military authorities. The shooting took place when corpses of four soldiers who died in an ambush while returning from patrol duties in Chibok were being conveyed to the morgue.
Reacting to the shooting, army spokesman Major General Chris Olukolade said an inquiry would be set up to investigate the circumstances surrounding the conduct of the soldiers, who fired shots at the army commander, Major General Ahmed Mohammed was addressing troops in Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri.
Insecurity is not new in Nigeria. It is just that the current one is different in many respects. For instance, early in the Forth Republic, on November 20, 1999, the military attacked Odi, a predominantly Ijaw community in Bayelsa State, following the killing of 12 policemen by members of the community. The Odi attack has been described as ethnic cleansing by several observers.
The Obasanjo administration also sent a detachment of soldiers to bring Zaki Biam, a community in Banue State, under control when 19 soldiers sent to restore peace were murdered. Experts on security believe that state actors have contributed to insecurity. National Coordinator of the Odua People Congress (OPC) Otunba Gani Adams corroborated the position, noting that the monster consuming the country is a creation of politicians. He said: “The security crisis is not limited to the Boko Haram. It is spread across the regions of Nigeria and it involves different ethnic nationalities. A situation where ethnicity has overshadowed national interest will not make the country safe. We can see this in what is happening between the Tiv and Jukum, between the Fulani and Plateau people.”
How did Nigeria arrive at this sorry pass? Founding Secretary-General of the defunct National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and promoter of Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER), Ayo Opadokun, believes the civil rule has not given ordinary Nigerians a sense of belonging. According to him, money meant to change the lives of the people has been siphoned and stashed away by corrupt leaders, rather than being used to provide social security for the people.
He said: “Security is not all about weaponry; it is not all about war arsenal at your disposal. It includes the satisfaction the people derive from the services at their disposal. Nigeria has created a dangerous monster that probably will consume the country. How do you attend to the more than 10 million unemployed graduates in the country?
“That, on its own, is a cesspool of angry young Nigerians, who don’t know for how long they will wait for them to be engaged. The operators are behaving as if they are our masters. In that regard, politics has become very lucrative. Those who have been sidelined through fraudulent electoral process are not going to continue to accept poorly treated petitions at the tribunal.”
Opadokun said, if the petitioners fail to get justice because of dubious court process, they will resort to self help. He added: “If they cannot get justice in the law court, they will have to settle their cause on the pitch. That is to say, you can rarely emphasise the consequences of mutual self destruction. If you have the instrument of violence and I have, so, if they are waiting without hope for redress, they will seek redress through the use of force; this will heat up the security of the country.”
Many Nigerians are not happy with foreign troops on Nigerian soil. For instance, former Presidential candidate of the National Action Council (NAC) Dr. Olapade Agoro described the intervention as neo-colonialism, adding that it has exposed the weakness of the government. His words: “Now, we have foreign intervention coming here to protect us, but I don’t know why we did not throw our independence away and allow the British to take over the governance of the country again. This is because we are not capable ruling ourselves. Now, it is France, USA and China that are helping us to locate our abducted children, making the country a laughing stock of international community.
Also, the chairman of Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Alhaji Balarabe Musa, said, with the intervention, the country is no longer safe because the intervention was deliberately designed to achieve imperialist’s agenda. He said, if the situation was not redressed, what happened in other countries where such foreign intervention took place, would surface in Nigeria.
Human rights activist Olasupo Ojo said the huge money budgeted for security is not deployed for that purpose. He said this had been the case, there would not be need to invite foreigners to assist Nigeria in the war to rescue the abducted girls.
“If we look at defence spending in Nigeria since 1999, we have spent over N233 trillion on the nation’s security. In 2010, the sum of N254 billion was budgeted, in 2011 the budget was N348 billion, in 2012, government budgeted N921 billion, 2013 it was N364 billion, 2014 this year N340 billion,” he said, adding: “One would have expected that this would make impact in our armoury and the aircrafts needed in locating the Chibok school girls, if the money was judiciously used.”
Defending government position, Senate President David Mark said the negotiation with the insurgent is not feasible. He said, despite local and international pressure government would not negotiate the release of innocent girls with criminals. “A criminal will be treated as a criminal and this government in no distant time will bring the issue of Boko Haram and insecurity in the country to logical conclusion. We would spare no efforts in bringing the insecurity situation in the northern part of the country to an end,” he added.
