By Rex Ejimonyeabala
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Photo: Rex
Ejimonyeabala
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During
my recent holiday to Nigeria, I had the opportunity to speak with friends and
family about their concerns in the run up to the presidential and state
elections this year.
Against a dire political context of high inflation, fuel scarcity,
a weak Naira and the expanding tyranny of Boko Haram’s insurgency, there was a
theme that seemed to resonate when speaking to people in Abuja, Port Harcourt
and Owerri; Nigeria’s political elite is failing the people once again.
Unfortunately
this is not a novel concern. Political instability in Nigeria is as much a
fixity as corruption is a way of life. However, what has changed over the past
few months is how the implications of the government’s inability to suppress
Boko Haram’s insurgency is spreading to neighbouring countries, and therefore
threatening the livelihoods of communities from Southern Niger to Northern
Cameroon.
The militant group formed in 2002 in an
effort to oppose Western education in Nigeria, but since 2009 they have
launched numerous attacks in Northern and Central Nigeria and recently declared
allegiance to the
Islamic State, reflective of their efforts to create an Islamic caliphate
in Northern Nigeria.
Human
Rights Watch estimates that in 2014, approximately 3,750
civilians were killed by Boko Haram in Nigeria alone. This is in addition
to the hundreds of boys, girls, women and men who have been subjected to their
kidnapping campaign in the North-East of Nigeria. In 2015, Boko Haram has
already launched deadly attacks in Maiduguri, Baga and Bama (Borno State,
Nigeria), and Lake Chad, a tri-border crossroad between Nigeria, Chad and
Niger.
The
pertinence of this is something that we in Europe can relate to. The past year
has proven that the core values we aspire to, for freedom of expression and
freedom to learn, women’s equality and rights to education, are under attack
from organised groups and radicalised individuals just as they are in Nigeria;
a recent example being the Copenhagen
shootings. The quotidian terrorising of innocent people across the
North-East of Nigeria is a severe manifestation of this reality.
Other
than the scale of the attacks, a consequential difference between events in
Europe and West Africa has been the response by those who have been elected and
appointed to serve and protect the people. In Europe, convincing arguments can
and have been made against the growing infringement of governments’
surveillance on civilians; demonstrably realised by the implementation of the
UK’s ‘Data
Retention and Investigatory Powers’ Bill of 2014. However, there is hardly
any doubt about European governments’ strategic approaches to counter acts of
terror. In Nigeria, there is not only doubt, but confusion and even chaos.
I
duly acknowledge the disparities between the technological and economic
capabilities necessary for effective enforcement at the disposal of the
Nigerian government in contrast to European governments, but what ought to be
critiqued is the Nigerian government’s lethargic approach to a proportionate
response against Boko Haram’s insurgency.
In
May 2013 President Goodluck Jonathan declared a State of Emergency in three
North-Eastern states; Adamawa, Yobe and Borno, the latter of course where more
than 200 school girls
would be kidnapped from less than a year later.
Having declared a State of
Emergency in this region, the President should have tasked the Armed Forces
with deploying far greater resources into those states, not because he or
indeed anyone could have anticipated the abduction of 200 girls and the
international outcry that would ensue, but because Boko Haram have been
terrorising and displacing citizens in the region since 2009. Estimates from
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International suggest that between 1-1.5
million people have been displaced as a result of Boko Haram’s insurgency.
Reports
from Nigeria about the government’s response have ranged from partisan
accusations of political and financial support for Boko Haram – who are
substantially well equipped – to claims from military personnel that frontline
troops are comparably ill-equipped.
Beneath it all lies a quagmire of
uncertainty and misdirection, the consequences of which are of course suffered
by regular civilians living in perpetual fear. These implications raise
questions in light of the fact that Nigeria possesses the most capable armed
forces in West Africa. Nigerian forces led peacekeeping missions during civil
wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the 1990s as the principle contributor to
ECOMOG; the peacekeeping arm of ECOWAS.
As such, it begs the question, how is
Nigeria capable of undertaking peacekeeping missions in entire countries,
albeit small countries, yet unable to suppress the terror of insurgents in
three domestic states? I won’t pretend to have the answer to this question
because it is one that has dumbfounded many others wiser and more informed than
I.
Recent
events would suggest, however, that Nigeria has initiated some form of
multilateral strategic response with a coalition of forces from Nigeria,
Cameroon, Chad, Niger and reports of hired South
African mercenaries in an attempt to counter Boko Haram’s expanding
insurgency. In addition to this, the scheduled presidential election in Nigeria
which was supposed to take place on 14th February has been postponed until
March 28th by an independent commission in order to allow the coalition time to
contain Boko Haram and ensure the distribution of over 30 million voting cards
to citizens in the north. In practice this means that Nigerians have had to
wait before exercising their democratic right to decide who will lead them
against this tyranny.
Their
choice is between PDP incumbent, President Jonathan, who has proved ineffective
in his endeavours to preserve security, and APC opposition candidate Muhammadu
Buhari, a former military dictator in the mid-1980s, accused of innumerable
human rights abuses and now running for democratic president for the fourth
time.
In Buhari’s favour, the people I spoke with in different regions of the
country seem to believe that he will crack down on corruption; regrettably a
pledge that now resembles a political mantra rather than a deliverable
objective. Nigerians are stuck between a very hard rock and an even harder
place.
The
challenges that the country faces in the coming year may be different, the
implications of the leadership’s decisions and indecision may be wider but
this is just a different chapter of a familiar story and the victims are always
the same.
This
piece was originally published here: http://uclpen.org/comment/a-different-chapter-of-a-familiar-story/
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