The request for the extension of the state
of emergency in the northeast states tabled before the National Assembly by
Goodluck Jonathan and sheepishly approved by the House of Representatives is
clear indication that they have harkened to the misinformed call of the
Southern Leadership Assembly and not the informed call by the North East
Leadership Forum. While the former live
over a thousand kilometres away from the northeast, the later are right at the
centre of the mayhem. The act of tabling
the request in itself is further prove positive that the Jonathan
administration “has now become a government of impunity run by an evil-minded
leadership..” to quote Admiral Murtala Nyako.
While the people of the three states –
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa – are counting the days and eagerly waiting for the
last day of the emergency rule, those who the Admiral described in his Memo as
“murderous/ cutthroats imbedded in our legitimate and traditional defence and
security organisations” are pushing for the extension of the emergency. As it turns out, Admiral, the “cutthroats”
are also embedded in the political class. The people of these three states have
been living through hell in the past one year. Their routines have been dislocated,
their economic activities were grounded and their psyches have been brutalised. Worse of all, the security situation became
shoddier under the emergency regime. An
unnecessary curfew is imposed on the people making life more difficult than
before the proclamation. All businesses
must be closed from a certain time to a definite time. One is not allowed to venture out once the
curfew hour kick-ins. Even the act of
taking a sick relation or expectant mother to the hospital has become risky
because one may either be shot or arrested.
While they were enduring these, those calling for the extension of the
state of emergency are ensconced in far away places like Abuja, Enugu,
Port-Harcourt or Lagos.
It is not unusual for the soldiers to close
down a whole town in the middle of the day in the name of “stop and search
operation”. While the innocent and law
abiding are harassed, humiliated and confined to their houses defenceless and
at the mercy of killers, the killers are having a field day with unbridled
impunity and access – choosing and picking their targets.
Another fall out of the state of emergency
is the unwitting “democratisation of violence” – the proliferation of arms
within the northeast of arms and ammunition. Today in the northeast, a toddler
knows what an AK-47 looks like. Small
arms and rifles are now common sight. It
also led to the escalation of violence to unthinkable proportions. Before the
declaration of the emergency regime, the insurgents operate in small ways
before the audacious Baga massacre, which was attributed to the military. This was the point that the mayhem took a
life of its own and the declaration of the state of emergency only escalated
the killing sprees. With the insurgents killing and destroying at will, the soldiers
are harassing, humiliating and brutalising the people. The innocent poor are now living a life
filled with violence from both sides.
While I may not be a security expert, I am
yet to see anything to convince me of the need to extent this martial
tactic. I am rather more convinced that
the emergency rule should not be extended because of the results so far seen by
the entire world and the pains it inflicts on those residing in the emergency
states. For those who are objective and
unbiased, I want us to put the emergency rule on a scale and see what it has
achieved. This is without prejudice to
creed, region or tribe. We should view
everything from a human prism untainted by our usual prejudices.
The invasion of Bama, Konduga, Gwoza Izge
and Gamboru Ngala all took place while the emergency rule is in force. The “insurgents” seem to be emboldened by the
emergency declaration because they know all law abiding citizens are confined
to their homes like chicken by the attendant curfew that is part of the
emergency. The insurgents who the emergency
rule was meant to tame had a smooth ride overrunning military formations like
the Air force base in Maiduguri and the Giwa Barracks. The destruction of Mobbar, Mafa and some
other villages along the Maiduguri – Damaturu highway were all carried out
under the emergency rule. And during
curfew hours.
Students of Federal Government College, Buni
Yadi were massacred in their sleep while Yobe state was effectively under the
jackboots of the military, whose Commander in Chief is the President of the Federal
Republic. Beni Sheikh, another town in
Yobe was invaded and many people slaughtered in cold blood. Residents of Damaturu, Potiskum and Damagun,
all in Yobe state, had to learn to sleep with both eyes open during in the past
one year as the insurgents make sweeping visits to their towns from time to
time unmolested. Parents of schoolgirls
in Chibok lost their kids under the emergency period and are yet to be reunited
with them. Their only consolation (if it
can be called so) is that they are sure for the moment their children are
alive, if the video shown to the world by their abductors is to be belived.
The northern part of Adamawa has not known
peace from the time the emergency rule has been introduced in the state. Numerous villages and towns around the area
were attacked several times without response from the soldiers that are
purportedly drafted to beef up security in the area. The Adamawa state governor escaped death by
the hairs of his beard at one time when he went to condole with those who came
under attack by God knows who.
Interestingly, all the aforementioned
attacks always take place in the night.
Security personnel are on the prowl during these curfew hours to ensure
its compliance by a browbeaten citizenry.
The people living in these areas are caught between a brutal gang of
killers and an unsympathetic security personnel whose presence is only felt at
the ubiquitous road blocks that are now a veritable source of frustration to
travellers and toll collection centres to those who man them.
The House of Representatives members hinged
its motivation for the approval to extent the emergency rule in the three
states on “evidence” presented before them by the Service Chiefs. The House will have done itself a world of
good by presenting this same evidence to the people of the northeast in order
to convince them to buy into the extension.
Living in their Abuja comfort zones and appending their names to the
continued brutalisation of their people by a military whose tactics are no better
than those of the insurgents is easy for them.
I will advice most of them to avoid their constituencies because the
evidences before the constituents paints a different picture. Most of them believe they are better off
before the emergency.
These are some of the few things the people
of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states have been subjected to in the past one
year. And this is what their so-called
representatives want them to continue with for another six month.
The proclamation of a state of emergency in
a democratic dispensation is an aberration and can therefore not be used ad infinitum. If Jonathan believes that the Boko Haram
menace falls under the factors numerated in S.305 (3) (c or d) of the 1999
Constitution (as amended), then in my opinion, the threat by the Ijaw Youth
Congress should be treated under S. 305 (3) (f). With the near collapse of civilisation in the
eastern region in the recent past when Port Harcourt was practically set
ablaze, no such drastic action was taken on the region. What is the difference now?
If the logic of those calling for the
extension of the state of emergency in the three northeastern states is allowed
to prevail, then the northern region of Nigeria should brace itself for a
declaration of state of emergency in the whole of the region before the 2015
elections. Either by design or default,
the north is on fire – Boko Haram in the northeast, farmers/ herders clashes in
the north central and bandits in the northwest.
The success of the Civilian JTF in Borno is
inspite of the emergency, not because of it.
Were the people of Raan, Kala Balge local government to rely on the
soldiers to save them, their town will have been laid to ruins. For the people of the northeast, emergency
rule is akin to lining them up to be killed. This, they are rising to reject. The result? Everybody is arming himself the
best way they know how. This way they
are all soldiers defending their lives and livelihoods. Violence have been democratised by the
emergency rule and who knows what becomes of these “civilian” JTF’s after the
war against Boko Haram is won? I leave
that to your imagination. The Senate may yet save the people by denying
Jonathan his request.
If all else fails, then Diariz God.
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