Opinion
By Emmanuel Onwubiko
IT was Wole Soyinka the Novelist who was once quoted as dismissing a political party in power in Nigeria few years back as the ‘nests of killers’. I think his angst was because the then Federal Attorney General and minister of Justice Chief Bola Ige(SAN) was brutally murdered in his Ibadan home in circumstances that pointed to the involvement of the Nigerian government.
The killing of Bola Ige and the failure of both the Oyo State and federal government to catch the killers and bring justice to them, is still a topic of discussion many years after this despicable act occurred.
I was personally pained because then, I was the judiciary correspondent of The Guardian in Abuja and the then AGF and justice minister Chief Ige(SAN) was like a father figure to the media practitioners working in his beat. Bola Ige was a perfectionist and a gentleman to the core. Just before he left Abuja for his countryside in Ibadan, Chief Ige had hosted us the few journalists covering the judiciary beat in the nation’s capital and that sumptuous meal i took plus the choice wine i consumed had hardly settled down in my tummy when that shocking news occurred. We were told that his police detail left his gun in his post and went away to eat at a mama put joint and then all the security details with him were not around when the officially permitted killers entered and killed him.
And the man died because government at that time wanted him dead and till today, not one killer is in prison. The case was muddled up and abandoned. This is a longstanding practice in successive Nigerian administrations that killers are never apprehended in most of the cases and the country is gradually turning into the big nests of killers.
Fast forward to only few months after the current Nigerian leader got into office, exactly on the 24th of December 2023, when Nigerian Christians were marking the eve of Christmas, terrorists of the Fulani ethnic stock, struck many communities in the largely Christian dominated Plateau state and took a great time to massacre about 200 citizens.
Mind you, for the first time since 1960 that Nigeria became a flag independent nation, Nigeria now has both the president and his vice are both muslims.
The Christmas Eve killings in Plateau state were actually not the first time that such a callous impunity had happened but what made it so unimaginably cruel, was that there wasn’t any single intervention by either the police or the Nigeria Army which has one of the largest divisions located in Jos, the capital city of the beautiful Plateau state.
The General Officer Commanding of the third division in Jos comprehensively failed in his duty to defend Nigerians. He wasn’t alone afterall. There was the state Commissioner of Police whose primary duty of law enforcement makes him the most important of all the internal security chiefs. He failed woefully. The State director of the Department of State Services also was no where to be found doing his duty of preventing such a callous impunity from ever happening. Funnily, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu didn’t think any of these failed security chiefs should be administratively sanctioned for their woeful failures to prevent one of the largest killings at any one time in Nigeria since after the civil war. This has become a pattern of most administrations that the security chiefs are treated like sacred cows and not punished even when failures are their best achievements in offices. Most of the military commanders who failed to prevent the killings of innocent Nigerians do go on to gain rapid promotions from the military as if to say that merit, competences and performance standards are not regarded when decisions to promote officers to their next ranks are made. Such an outrageous old practice of impunity becoming the order of the day.
Also, those killings in Plateau state became very symbolic for becoming the opportunity for the Army of Nigeria to demonstrate a conspiratorial communion with inefficiency and dereliction of duty. The Army said it was aware of the attacks but that bad roads inhibited the earliest response and counter attacks at the terrorists.
This is why I’m convinced that the political and military leaderships of Nigeria have built a nation whereby killers don’t just hibernate but move about freely unafraid of being caught or punished for their crimes against humanity. A certain military General fighting terrorists in Borno state once said that ‘repentant’ boko haram terrorists with blood in their hands can as well go on to run and win public offices including the possibility of emerging as the President. Is it any wonder that retired Major-General Muhammadu Buhari who criticised president Goodluck Jonathan for killing terrorists in the North whom Buhari identified as his brothers and then these boko haram terrorists listed General Buhari as their chief negotiator should the government choose to dialogue with them. Didn’t Muhammadu Buhari eventually got railroaded by Mahmoud Jega of the crooked INEC to become Nigeria’s president in 2015?
Afterall, there have been about 100 terrorists attacks in Nigeria in which the mass killers have still not been arrested or legally reprimanded since 2015 to date.
Two days back, General Christopher Musa insulted our intelligence by suggesting that Turji Bello the terrorist mastermind who has killed thousands of Hausas, wants to surrender. What a big shame!
However, two spectacular acts of mass killings and genocide which ironically happened in that same Plateau state, represents the perfect pictures of a country whose political and military leaderships tolerate killings and don’t invest in intelligence or any sort of forensic investigations to catch up with killers who carry out genocidal killings all over Nigeria.
These two stories were captured and told by the Vatican media and another international reporting organisation that works in the humanitarian crisis sector.
At first, the Vatican newspaper reported that at least 140 people were killed and others are missing after a series of attacks by gunmen on remote villages in north-central Nigeria’s Plateau state. But eventually, over 200 people were confirmed dead.
Officials and survivors confirmed the Christmas Eve attacks and blamed the killings on the herders’ terrorist violence in the West African nation.
They said the military gangs, locally called “bandits,” launched “well-coordinated” attacks in “not fewer than 20 different communities” and torched houses on Saturday and Sunday. Gunfire was still heard on Monday morning.
A terrifying Christmas
Plateau Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, said that in Mangu local governorate alone, 15 people were buried and authorities in Bokkos had counted not less than 100 corpses.
“I am yet to take stock of (the deaths in) Barkin Ladi,” Mutfwan said, adding, “It has been a very terrifying Christmas for us here in Plateau.”
More than 300 wounded people have reportedly been taken to hospitals.
Amnesty International’s Nigeria office told The Associated Press that it has so far confirmed 140 deaths in the Christian-majority Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi areas of Plateau, based on data compiled by its workers on the ground and from local officials.
There are fears of a higher death toll as some people remain unaccounted for.
Criminality, climate change, social tensions
Some witnesses said it took more than 12 hours before security agencies responded to their call for help.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, though blame fell on herders from the Fulani tribe, who have been accused of carrying out such mass killings across the northwest and central regions.
The bandit militias operate from bases deep in forests and raid villages to loot and kidnap residents for ransom.
Competition for natural resources between nomadic herders and farmers, intensified by rapid population growth and climate pressures, has also exacerbated social tensions and sparked violence.
A jihadi conflict has raged in northeastern Nigeria since 2009, killing tens of thousands of people and displacing around 2 million, as Boko Haram battles for supremacy with rivals linked to the so-called Islamic State group.
Government response
The Nigerian army said it has begun “clearance operations” in search of suspects, with the help of other security agencies, although arrests are rare in such attacks.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, elected this year after promising to tackle security challenges his predecessor had failed to address, instructed security agencies to “scour every stretch of the zone and apprehend the culprits,” according to a statement from his office.
He also ordered the “immediate mobilization of relief resources” for the survivors and prompt medical treatment for the wounded. Years after, not one killer is behind bars.
This ugly chapter of Christmass Eve terrorism in Plateau state reminds me of the massacre of even greater number of casualties in Plateau state dominated by Christians in Dogo Nahawa, Plateau state.
Secondly, from a report by Peace Direct titled: “From the ashes: a memorial of resilience after atrocities in Dogo Nahawa” published 31 Jul 2024, the narrations about how the successive Nigerian administrations paid lip service towards bringing mass killers to justice are replicated.
It said thus: The Dogo Nahawa massacre scarred the collective memory of Plateau State, Nigeria. But amid the pain and grief, courageous individuals have risen to confront the cycle of violence with unwavering determination and a commitment to peace. These local peacebuilders have become beacons of hope, resilience, and healing for communities torn apart by violence.
On 7 March 2010, the village of Dogo Nahawa was the site of a brutal massacre: 500 people were killed in an early morning attack. This incident drew international attention and highlighted the deep-rooted conflicts in Plateau State, North Central Nigeria.
Fourteen years have passed since the horrific massacre and the revenge-fuelled merciless machete attacks that followed it. The scars of that dark day remain etched in the collective memory of the region.
Amid the pain and grief, courageous individuals have risen to confront the cycle of violence with unwavering determination and a commitment to peace. These local peacebuilders have become beacons of hope, resilience, and healing for communities torn apart by violence.
“if we didn’t break the cycle of violence, it would only continue to consume us”
One such peacebuilder is Simtong, a community leader who survived the massacre. His journey from victim to peace advocate began in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. “The pain of losing so many friends and family members was unbearable,” Simtong recalls. “But I knew that if we didn’t break the cycle of violence, it would only continue to consume us.”
Simtong dedicated himself to the painstaking work of healing wounds and fostering reconciliation. Recognising the profound impact of trauma on individuals and communities, he prioritised initiatives that provide psychosocial support, counselling, and therapeutic interventions to survivors and bereaved families. Through counselling sessions, support groups, and trauma-healing workshops, Simtong offers a safe space for survivors to process their pain, confront their trauma, and begin the journey toward healing and recovery.
Let me add a third leg to these narratives about a country that permits mass killings of her citizens and this is the current negotiations with terrorists being coordinated by the Kaduna State governor Uba Sani who claims to have the by-in of the National Security Adviser to the President Mallam Nuhu Ribadu. This negotiation is an unmitigated evil, outrightly condemnable and reprehensible. There is no legal, moral or religious justification for doing business with mass killers of innocent people. Why is the Kaduna State governor dinning with murderers under the guise that the victims called for the process? Is the governor unaware of Stockholm syndrome whereby victims due to persistent fear would embrace their killers as their saviours? Couldn’t the governor decide to follow what the law says that whomsoever kills, should be killed?
However, the Kaduna State Governor, Mr. Uba Sani, claimed his administration opted for peace deal with bandits unleashing terror in some parts of the state because the victims asked for it.
“It is the people affected by the violence that called for the dialogue.
For example, the Emir of Birnin Gwari has come with his subjects calling for dialogue.
“When I asked his reason, he said our communities have been plagued by the scourge of banditry, resulting in tragic loss of lives and abduction of our people, for over a decade now, with no lasting solution in sight.”
The governor added that following the pleas, he met with critical stakeholders including the National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu before finally deciding to initiate the peace deal.
He also stressed that the decision came after the bandits released 200 persons abducted in Giwa and Birnin Gwari local government areas of the state, expressing optimism that the deal would restore peace in the state and enable farmers to return to their farms and businesses to bounce back.
Further speaking, the governor maintained that he’d rather negotiate with bandits than to lose a single resident of the state.
“I’d rather negotiate with bandits than to bear the weight of a single life lost in Kaduna. If not, I will be held accountable on the day of resurrection, having promised and sworn an oath.”
Asked if the state government had paid money to the bandits to facilitate the peace talk, the governor said, “I want to assure you that not a single naira was paid to them.”
He disclosed that the deal was done with support and collaboration from traditional and religious leaders, with negotiations spanning for six months before official announcement to the public.
On sustainability of the initiative, Sani allayed fears of possible betrayal, insisting that the bandits’ release of 200 abducted persons gave indication that the deal has come to stay.
“They have released our people and now farming and business activities have resumed. We will continue to pray, and I am assuring that the relative peace we are enjoying now will be sustained.” he added.
Sani’s decision to engage in dialogue marks a significant departure from the stance of his predecessor, Nasir El-Rufa’i, who had consistently maintained that negotiating with bandits was not an option.
“We will not engage with bandits or kidnappers. Private citizens like clerics and clergymen can do so in their individual capacities, to preach to them and ask them to repent.”
“We also want them to repent but it is not our job to ask them to do so,’’ El-Rufa’i was reported to have said ng while speaking at an expended meeting of the Kaduna State Security Council and traditional rulers at the Council Chambers of Sir Kashim Ibrahim House on Tuesday, March 16, 2021.
This position of the Kaduna State governor is pathetically laughable and outlandish. Why negotiate with terrorists but give the harshest punishment to small thieves who steal chickens and foodstuffs? There is no justifiable reasons for negotiating with terrorists. Terrorists deserve only one thing: decisive justice like the way the United States of America deals with them. Just yesterday, president Donald John Trump authorised the bombing of Islamic terrorists in Somalia and dozens of terrorists were decimated. The law is against what Uba Sani is doing. The Kaduna State governor is violating the law of Nigeria by negotiating with terrorists. The National security adviser if he is involved, is breaching the law of Nigeria by negotiating with mass murderers.
The Penal Code provide as follows:
Part II. Criminal acts
Chapter 18. Terrorist acts and terrorism-related acts
Section 131.Terrorist acts
A criminal act as specified in sections 138 to 141, section 142 first paragraph, sections 143-144, 192, 238, 239, 240, 255, 257, 274, 275 and 355 is deemed to constitute a terrorist act and is punishable by imprisonment for a term not exceeding 21 years if it has been committed with terrorist intent as specified in the second paragraph.
Terrorist intent exists if an act as specified in the first paragraph is committed with the intention of
a. seriously disrupting a function of vital importance to society, such as a legislative, executive or judicial authority, energy supply, reliable supply of food or water, the banking and monetary system or medical services and disease control,
b. causing serious fear in a population, or
c. wrongfully compelling public authorities or an intergovernmental organisation to perform, submit to or omit to do something of substantial importance to the country or the organisation, or to another country or intergovernmental organisation.
Any person who intends to carry out an offence as specified in the first paragraph or section 132, and who commits acts that facilitate and point towards carrying out the offence, shall be subject to punishment for attempt. An attempt is punishable by a milder penalty than is a completed violation. Section 16, second paragraph, applies correspondingly.
The penalty may not be set below the minimum penalty prescribed in the provisions specified in the first paragraph.
Can Nigerian government for once decides to be law abiding?
***Emmanuel Onwubiko is the founder of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). He was a NATIONAL COMMISSIONER OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF NIGERIA.
A.I
Feb. 4, 2025
Tags: Emmanuel Onwubiko wole soyinka
