Like a recurring bad dream, one of the violence prone fault lines running across the country erupted again on Tuesday, sending residents of Bauchi running helter skelter and causing the death of some officers of the Nigerian security apparatus and some civilians.
The people behind this latest outrage, members of the so-called Boko Haram (literally: western education is a sin) are well known to Nigerians. Last year, the group embarked on an orgy of violence and destruction that affected several states in Northeastern Nigeria and led to the deaths of hundreds of people as security forces reacted with violence to curb violence. Incidentally, one of the outcomes of that incident, and the ham-fisted way in which security agencies responded was encapsulated by the cold blooded murder of the then leader of the group – which a member of the police force, most likely, helpfully leaked on the Internet.
There is little doubt that this group has reorganised under a new leader and its members are now doubly embittered against the state. Last year’s bloody crackdown must have added to their social antipathy on top of the existing conditions that had fed their protest in the first place. Going by Tuesday’s attack on the prison – reminiscent of their attack on police stations last year, it appears this group is still wedded to its beliefs in violence and has learnt nothing from the killing of its members last year.
More surprising is the reality that our security forces have also not learnt much from the other time. Despite lengthy investigation and an even lengthier report – some 17 reports to the Presidency by some counts – the group was still able to plan and launch a major attack in a cosmopolitan state capital such as Bauchi, and was able to shut the town down for hours.
The presidency has acted robustly by firing the head of the police and that of the State Security Services and new men put in their place. But this is hardly the solution to the issue, as one of those reports must have pointed out.
One place to look is the criminal justice system. Hundreds of people arrested over last year’s violence are still being processed without any likelihood that they will receive justice anytime soon. Matter of fact, there is some sense to the attack launched on the prison, as the Boko Haram were able to forceful free all prisoners – including some of their own members detained within the facility.
It is easy to see how the disgust with ‘westernisation’ spreads, especially if this is represented by an unresponsive federal judicial and security system and clueless state political leadership. It is likely another bout of arrests will be carried out after Tuesday’s rampage and the suspects will simply disappear into the maws of the judicial system. They will be an addition to hundreds of thousands of suspects from various other disturbances in the country.
The Ministry of Justice would do well to hasten the trials of these detainees and release those found innocent. This would serve to strengthen the people’s confidence in the system and reduce their default reaction to take the law into their own hands.
Government should also use this opportunity to reorganise the intelligence gathering and civil law enforcement agencies. It is apt to punish the head of such agencies, but the rot surely goes beyond the two men. Their replacements would do well to look into this.
But beyond this is the now tiresome call for our political leaders to do the job for which they were actually elected. Groups such as Boko Haram thrive on the misery and poverty of the people and a functional society should reduce their allure. All arms of government need to rebuild Nigeria’s infrastructure and nurse the economy back on track. Failure to do that will ensure that the fault lines continue to erupt into violence – and at a growing cost to society.