Featured, Politics
The sudden resurgence of violence in the South East and South-South has been blamed on the twin shocks of trust deficits and politics and can only be successfully tackled by bridging the huge trust deficits between the federal government and the two geo-political zones and improving the abysmal governance deficit issues which gave rise to the lingering mistrust.
By Goddy Ikeh
ASIDE the usual peaceful agitation for the actualization of Biafra, which has persisted due mainly to the marginalization of the South East geo-political zone by the federal authorities, the zone has been known as one of the most peaceful zones in the country.
But the sudden eruption of violence in the zone in the last few months is a major concern to the five states in the zone and the overbearing federal authorities, which had militarized the zone for decades now.
Recently, there had been reported cases of attacks on a Correctional Centre, police stations and offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and a number of deaths of policemen and some other security officers.
Unfortunately, violent attacks are not peculiar to the South East zone of the country. The war against insurgency has been raging in the North East of the country for over a decade now and the theater of war is fast spreading to other zones, especially in the North West and North Central. But what is disturbing is the way and manner the federal government is tackling the security situation, which has become another pandemic for the country.
For instance, many Nigerians are wondering why armed herders who kill, rape and kidnap tens and hundreds of Nigerians daily are not arrested and persecuted, while some members of the Boko Haram terrorists, who either surrendered or repented are rehabilitated instead of facing the laws of the land for their crimes against the state.
The same approach has been extended to the bandits and kidnappers in the North West and millions of naira had been reportedly given to them to surrender their arms and allow peace to reign in some of the states like Katsina and Zamfara. And some influential northern elites are even canvassing for an amnesty programme for the bandits. The amnesty, according to them, should be similar to the one granted to the agitators in the Niger Delta region as a solution to their daily killings of Nigerians and kidnapping for ransom.
Regrettably, some of these northern elites, including some of them in government have openly criticized the southern governors’ ban of open grazing in southern Nigeria because of the devastating effects on farming and the atrocities committed by these armed herders.
A minister of the federal republic aptly demonstrated the level of impunity and ethno-religious approach to issues by some government officials when he compared the ban of open grazing in the south of the country to a situation where the Northern Governors should impose a ban on the activities of spare-parts dealers in northern Nigeria since the issue is constitutional and negates the freedom of movement. With such people in government, the future growth and development of this nation can only be imagined.
Recently, the ethno-religious application of policing in the country was clearly demonstrated when the federal authorities ordered “Shoot at Sight” to any person or persons found with guns and engaged in any criminal activities as part of the security measures adopted to restore peace and sanity in the South East and South South zones.
Speaking on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 in Enugu, the acting Inspector General of Police, Alkali Usman Baba told the Police Mobile Force and Special Tactical Squad of the Force in Enugu shortly after he launched Operation Restore Peace in the region not to adhere to the rules of engagement while dealing with Biafra secessionist groups and that his job was to protect them.
“Don’t mind the media shout; do the job I command you. If anyone accuses you of human rights violation, the report will come to my table and you know what I will do. So, take the battle to them wherever they are and kill them all. Don’t wait for an order. What another order are you waiting for when Mr. President had ordered you to shoot anybody carrying AK-47 rifle? Quote me, even a dead policeman can be tried and dismissed from the force and his family will not get his benefits. So, don’t seat and wait for them to come; take attack to them and don’t lose your arms to criminals,” local media reports quoted the acting IGP as saying.
Reacting to the directive of the acting IGP, a coalition of 44 rights civil society organisation, CSOs, and intellectuals from the South East have called on Nigerians not to allow the acting IGP to turn Eastern Nigeria into a society of beasts and barbarians.
The CSOs observed with deep shock, sadness and dismay the frightening moves by the IGP and the authorities of the Nigerian Army and other branches of the Armed Forces to turn Eastern Nigeria (South East and South South Regions) into society of beasts and barbarians.
A statement by the group made available to newsmen on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, said that the recent public utterances of the attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, are also clear and additional indication that the present Government of Nigeria has designated the two regions as “hatefully and religiously a must crush”.
“In other words, it appears to us that the two regions are hated and targeted on religious ground and marked for violent conquest and subjugation. The coalition therefore makes bold to say that it will not allow the acting IGP and the country’s armed forces to turn Eastern Nigeria into society of beasts and barbarians,” it said.
Stating that Nigeria has been governed as ‘Islamic Republic’ since 2015, members of the coalition noted the challenges to public security in the country and its six geopolitical zones as well as approaches to same adopted by the present federal government are deeply shocked and dismayed at how things have played out.
Part of the statement read:
“The best way to understand the Government of Nigeria’s responses to insecurity is by taking a critical look at the ethnic and religious composition of the country’s 40 top security, defense, policing and justice executive positions and chairmen of their legislative oversights.
A look at the 40 top posts clearly shows that 85%, if not 90% of same are Muslim controlled. In an evaluation of several studies relating to the above, done by the Coalition, it was found that Nigeria has since mid-2015 been governed as “Islamic Republic” and government’s responses to security and safety of lives and properties are toeing the same line, including imbalanced composition of the officer corps and other ranks of the country’s Armed Forces (i.e. Captain to Major General in the Army and their equivalents in other branches of the Armed Forces as well as SP to AIG in the Police and their equivalents in paramilitaries and Intelligence Services). The same goes with their promotions and postings.
“Generally speaking, the country’s present security forces are 80% Muslim controlled and in responses to security of lives and properties, Muslims and their regions are given more attention, while the rest receive acutely less attention. Same thing goes with office appointments and contract awards as well as citizens’ treatment and recognition before the law and enforcement of same. It has become a common knowledge and order of the day for citizens of non Muslim faith such as Christians of Eastern Nigeria to be routinely made to undergo ethnic profiling and cleansing by the country’s Muslim dominated security forces. This is to the extent that in the Muslim held areas of the North, citizens including criminals are regularly treated as sacred cows whereas in the Christian held South and Northern parts, citizens are hatefully degraded and falsely or criminally labeled. This is worsened by deliberate flooding and takeover of key military and other security formations in Southeast and South-south by senior Muslim security officers.
“Going by the above, therefore, the Coalition is not surprised at the recent uncultured, frightening and genocidal comments and incitement by the Acting Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba Usman at the flag off of the so called “Operation Restore Peace” held in Enugu (on 18th May 2021) and Port Harcourt (on 19th May 2021). Going by unprintable things said by the Acting IGP, including open threat and authorization of genocide against Christians of Eastern Nigeria, the Coalition wishes to conclude that such morally disreputable and savagely comments are literally jihad and ethnic cleansing enabler and therefore must not be taken for granted.
Surely, this strategy is at variance with what the same authorities had adopted to tackle the daily killings across the country, especially in the northern states of the country. In the same vein, the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor, explained that the rising violence in the South East was due to the attention Igbo quest for the 2023 presidency has generated. Speaking recently to the British Deputy High Commissioner, Peter Thomas, Prof. Obiozor expressed sadness over the killings and burning of police stations and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) offices and stated that the people of the South East were not known for violence but believed in hard work. He told Thomas, who visited the Ohanaeze Secretariat in Enugu that the crisis notwithstanding, Ndigbo were united in the quest for a president of Igbo extraction in 2023.
Lamenting how insecurity was ravaging the region, he said that the Igbo were the most exemplary in peace and security as well as the most organised with a vigorous grassroots economic activity until most recently, adding that the Igbo “are a unique set of people in terms of hard work, ingenuity, perseverance and inventiveness”. Explaining that the people of the zone struggle to get whatever they were denied by themselves, he lamented that the recent violence in the zone was giving the Igbo a bad name.
Although he agreed that the nucleus of agitations in the country was in the South East region, he, however, stressed the need for restructuring of Nigeria to reflect true federalism. Local media reports quoted Prof, Obiozor as saying that Nigeria owes equity and justice to the South East and that the Igbos are the most federating group of people in Nigeria and commended the British government for the cordial relationship between it and the country. According to the reports, the deputy High Commissioner had earlier said that the essence of his visit was to find out from the Igbo Leader why the South East had suddenly become violent.
In addition, Ohanaeze had in April this year called on the federal government to commence an inquest into the rising violence in the South East, with a view to arresting and prosecuting those behind the killings and attacks on valuable assets.
The group, in a statement by Prof. Obiozor and its Secretary-General, Okey Emuchay, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, said that the attacks did not bear the usual marks of local perpetrators.
It decried the violent attacks on some institutions in the South East, including the one on the correctional centre, police headquarters and the country home of the Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma.
“These attacks were clinically conducted by the perpetrators and to this extent do not bear the usual and known signature of local operators.
“Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide condemns in strong terms the killings that took place at Igbariam, Anambra State. Such dastardly acts are not in Igbo character. Ohanaeze urges the security agencies to trace the perpetrators of this heinous crime and bring them to book,” the group said.
Ohanaeze stated that it has reviewed the incidence of criminality in the region in the recent past and concluded that going by the sophistication and capacity of the likely perpetrators, some powerful elements or groups could be deliberately orchestrating violence to justify pre-planned and predetermined invasion of the South East.
The organisation, therefore, requested the federal government to investigate the nature and the sophistication of the crimes that were taking place in the South East in the interest of all.
“Ohanaeze requests the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to thoroughly investigate this new wave of criminalizes and violence in South East of Nigeria,” it said.
| The position of the Ohanaeze group was collaborated by the Governor of Imo State,Hope Uzodimma, who on Sunday, May 23, 2021 stated that more than 400 of those
who carried out the threats on the state in the past had been arrested and were undergoing trials in the courts. Uzodimma said in a statement made available to newsmen in Owerri by his Chief Press Secretary, Oguwike Nwachuku, that more than 70 percent of those arrested were not Igbos. He enjoined Imo people to ignore the rumours making the rounds that hoodlums were planning attack on some institutions and government facilities in the state, saying they were unfounded. He also advised those planning to visit the state with any form of violence to have a rethink as “government is more than ever ready and prepared to keep Imo safe and secured.” He said that rumours had been making the rounds of late that some unscrupulous elements were planning attacks on some public and private establishments in the state such that nothing would remain after the attacks. According to him, such rumors are designed to put fears in the minds of Imo people and assured that no such thing would happen. The governor seized the opportunity to reiterate his earlier claim that those perpetrating the violence and evil in the state are mostly not Igbo people, but hired machinery. In its editorial of May 30, 2021, the Vanguard Newspaper warned that the exchange of truculent rhetoric between the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and the former ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, over whose duty it is to protect the people from bandits and kidnappers and the claim by the minister of information and culture Lai Mohammed, that banditry and kidnapping are “not federal offences” are hardly relevant at this point. It blamed the security challenges partly to the colonialists monopolized security system, which was handed over to the country and “Nigerians with a federal system chosen by us, the ruling elite that replaced the colonialists refused to properly configure the security architecture to serve the national purpose. Instead, they retained the colonial legacy for sectional domination, which the Muhammadu Buhari-led APC regime has further devalued to ethno-religious domination. This is why our security system cannot protect us”. “What we have is a security structure where policing and the correctional systems remain centralized. The correct system for a federation like Nigeria is for the police, the correctional system and the judiciary to be fully devolved to enable the federal, state and the grassroots to play their roles. That way, some classes of crime can be handled at the communal, state and federal levels. “Such a system will enable the states to, in addition to having high courts, also possess supreme courts. The state legal system will be aligned with those of the communities. States and local communities should have their own jails. In some advanced countries, even private companies are licensed to operate jails and holding cells. “It is only under such a properly configured system that the state governors can rightly be called “Chief Security Officers”. The undying desire of the powers-that-be to continue lording colonial imperialism on Nigerians has made it impossible for us to effect the changes we need to secure the country. If we do not change this structure now, it will destroy Nigeria as we know it. “Unfortunately, it is already doing so,” it added. – May 31, 2021 @ 19:29 GMT A.I |
