|
The past and recent killing of innocent citizens in the on-going genocide playing out in Jos, the Plateau state capital and its environs is very worrisome. Even more worrisome is the role purportedly being played by soldiers that were deployed to help maintain peace there. Recent reports by villagers who were attacked that men kitted in military uniforms were responsible for their ordeals leaves people wondering if our soldiers have not become part of the problem on the Plateau.
A pointer to the probable culpability of the military can be seen in the abduction of Pa Mikel Obi, the father of Chelsea football club player and Nigerian international of the same name. When news broke, that the man had been abducted sometime ago in Jos on his way from work, no body suspected that some bad eggs in the military were behind the ugly situation. Being a high profile case, our security operatives swung into action immediately and ended the old man’s ordeal in record time. It came as a rude shock for a bewildered nation to wake up to the news that the abductors included two soldiers and have been caught in Kano. Recounting his ordeal after regaining freedom, Pa Obi narrated how he was abducted by the men who rode in a military vehicle fully dressed in military uniforms.
After that damning report that cast our military in bad light, many in the land are asking if the villagers’ comments to the effect, that soldiers attacked and killed the kiths and kin should not be taken seriously.
If these reports are found to be true, then the Jos crisis is a long way from been over. It portends a new vista to crises resolution in the country where law enforcement officers drafted to quell crises now take side to perpetuate crimes against the very people they are sent to protect. Questions are already been asked as to reasons why these military personnel would like to take side in the Jos crisis. It is no longer news that the crisis in itself emanated from questions as to who owns the land. This is the question been asked by the Berom on the one hand and the Hausa/Fulani on the other. The crisis it must be noted is already degenerating into a religious warfare as churches and mosque have been touched. Our military is made up of personnel that belong to these two religious sect and their neutrality cannot be guaranteed in a country where suspicion reign supreme when issues of religion crops up.
It would not be out of place to postulate that untouchable elements in society who are believed to be the brains behind the crisis have penetrated our military and playing the religious card with them. Questions as to why the military authority have not come out to tell Nigerians where these attackers get their military uniforms and arms from makes the suspicion of military partisanship in the killings believable. It is also very surprising that the killings have reached this dimension despite the presence of the military in Jos and its environs. Only recently, the National Security Adviser, Gen. Owoeye Azazi and Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau state traded words on who should take the blame for the recent killings. While Azazi blames Jang for ignoring the security agencies, the governor insisted that he instructed the security agencies on security report he received concerning impending crises before travelling out of the country for medical check-up.
Another reason why the Jos and Boko Haram crises have lingered lies with government’s inability to implement white paper reports submitted in the past and its inability to punish perpetrators.
Arrests have been made in the past and these culprits were release when powerful people in the society prevailed on security agencies to let them off the hook. Such actions can be related to what was in vogue in the United States during the 30s when mafia dons held sway. During that period, families controlled the society through organised crime and if any member of their family was apprehended by the law enforcement agencies while committing crime, it took just a telephone call to get that agency to set the criminal free. These Mafioso dons were so powerful that they had their men in positions of authority to the extent that politicians considering going for any elective position must first get their nods if they wish to win any election. That was a period that anarchy reigned supreme, life then was brutish, cheap and short.
The Nigerian nation cannot afford to allow things degenerate to such a level, though it cannot convince Nigerians that they do not know the powerful people behind these mayhems. Perhaps they are too afraid to touch them because these people were responsible for their victories at the polls or they are traditional rulers whose arrest, they fear, may trigger more unrest in the land. Not until scape-goats are made of these people and their messengers, there might not be any end in sight to these crises. It might even get worse especially if the military seen as the last bastion of our unity get polarised along ethnic/religious line.
This is the time for the military authority to do an in-house assessment of the activities of its personnel in Jos, any soldier and officer found to have taken part in the killings in Jos must be made to face the full wrath of the law. There is also a need for soldiers to be drafted to the hinterlands in Plateau state where recent killings have been more rampant. Soldiers and officers should be held responsible for any killings that take place in such place under their watch.
Our military, while remaining apolitical must also strive to be nationalistic in all their dealings, after all, with the civil society presently disenchanted with the Nigerian Police Force, they look up to the men in khaki for solutions to the insecurity in the country.
The people must also be encouraged to be involved in intelligence gathering. This can only be achieved if the different security agencies work together as one unit instead of seeing each other as rivals, only then can they have the confidence of the people.
SOURCE: Leadership Newspaper 14 September 2011. http://www.leadership.ng
No comments:
Post a Comment