By Gbenga Olorunpomi
The dark days of
military oppression are back! The Black Era has returned! Soldiers took over a
major street in Lagos for five hours and we were helpless to stop them. They
slapped some; beat some senseless; destroyed public and personal property, all
without fear of retribution.
The signs were always
there. The way the PDP-Led government has consistently used the armed forces to
achieve their goals, I knew they were only going to grow bolder. Armed soldiers
have been used to harass opposition members into submission. They have been
used to suppress the press. They have been used to decimate small villages.
This time, they were used to terrorize the biggest city in West Africa. And
they did it with reckless abandon.
The eyewitness
accounts of the unfortunate and shameful events of Friday, the 4th
of July, left my blood boiling and frozen at the same time. A soldier was allegedly
killed in a collision with a BRT bus on his way to work around the Onipanu
Area. The details are fuzzy but what is clear is that the dead man’s colleagues
weren’t in a very forgiving mood when they arrived at the scene. After blocking
off the road at rush hour, they went on to unleash the most abrasive attack on
all the BRT buses they could find.
They beat the
drivers, chased them away and vandalized the buses. Tyres were deflated,
windscreens and windows shattered and lights destroyed. Not satisfied with the
carnage, on the suggestion of a female army officer and under the supervision
of senior officers, some buses were doused with petrol and lit on fire. By some
accounts, six buses were incinerated while many more were broken to shreds. In
fact, there was a picture of a female military officer busy breaking the
windscreen on a bus. How motherly!
For five hours, the
soldiers hung around, ensuring the buses burnt completely, harassing members of
the public who passed by, shooting at a bus conductor for daring to watch and
comment the proceedings. Total bestiality was exhibited by these so called soldiers.
While they are being paid to protect the people, they attacked them.
While they
should be shielding the people, they made them suffer the worst kind of
torture. Like war prisoners, free countrymen were forced to raise their hands above
their heads each time they passed by the soldiers. Any hint of a mobile device
and the military officers would physically attack. Journalists were brutalized, with some sent
to the hospital. Little regard was given to human life. Less respect was paid
to the Nigerian Army uniform.
So, who is the
biggest loser? Is it the soldiers who
have lost all the little reverence they have gained in through the little successes
they have made in the war against Boko Haram? Is it the family of the deceased
soldier, who may be chased out of the barracks in the next few months and would
have to wait for years before the gratuity arrives? Is it Lagos state
government and private investors that has lost a significant amount of
investment in the charred BRT buses and stations? Is it the BRT bus drivers who
have likely lost their livelihood to this madness? Or is it Lagosians who had
to travel for miles or pay double for their trip to work because of the traffic
jam?
I think the Nigerian
state is the biggest loser. A big chunk of our democracy was chipped off during
those five hours. We lost a bit of our essence in that attack. A lot of the
gains we have made as a people since the military left power on May 29th
1999 have been lost. Our people are back to cowering before the barrel of a
gun. We are back to the days when military officers will rudely get their way
using brute force.
My question is, if we
are being openly oppressed this way over the death of one officer, and given
how Ekiti was militrialised only last month for the gubernatorial poll, what
will happen during the 2015 election?
Yes, there is a lot
of desperation in Nigeria, but our military must show some restraint. When a
soldier was beheaded in the UK, there was no knee-jerk reaction by the
military. The perpetrators were talked down by a civilian woman and they were
arrested and faced justice.
What happened on the
streets of Lagos was not justice. It was a travesty… one the president and the
leadership of the army must take seriously. I have my doubts that anything would
be done on the matter, given how the cover up of the entire incident has begun
with the State Defense Minister and the Army Pro doing their best to blame
miscreants and urchins for the destruction. In fact, there is no way these men
would have done something that horrible and bold without some senior officers
sanctioning about it.
When some of us began
to scream about President Jonathan’s autocratic tendencies, we were shouted
down by his loyalists and cronies. We were called all sorts of names by the PDP
and labeled ‘Chicken Little’. They said we were yelling ‘Fire!’ in a theater
when there was no smoke. Now, the Nigerian Press knows better; the people of
the entire North-East know better; the Anambra people know better; the people
of Ekiti know better; and now, Lagosians know better!
Again, who is the
biggest loser? Ask yourself that the next time you see a soldier with a gun
stare at you. If you catch a draft and shiver, that loser is you. The military
are back in business!
Boys and Girls,
Welcome to Jonathan’s Nigeria!
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