Forgotten victims of military brutalities

Aliyu Musa

The recent trial and conviction of four members of the Brigade of Guards accused of rape and extortion in Abuja is a groundbreaking decision that should be genuinely lauded. It is a radical departure from tradition where such allegations are treated with out-and-out levity, and will serve as a springboard for those pressing for justice for the discounted victims of atrocities of similar or greater enormities.

The ignored victims are everywhere from the Niger to the Niger Delta, Maiduguri to Makurdi, and from Bauchi to Benin. They are those whose plight the powers that be have chosen to refuse to acknowledge, not because it did not happen but because they were casually dismissed as ‘bloody civilians’ whose lives matter too little.

In a BBC Hausa programme, Ra’ayi Riga, sometime last year the atrocities soldiers commit in the name of restoring order was significantly highlighted. But while every discussant, including phone-in contributors, corroborated this position with recent verifiable examples Lt Colonel Sagir Musa, image-maker of the Joint Task Force operating in the Maiduguri area, vehemently rejected all the claims. Soldiers, perhaps, are infallible as long as their crimes are against armless, defenseless and voiceless civilians.

Each day the JTF claims victory over the dreaded Boko Haram it often turns out the actual victims are in no way linked to the sect. They are the unfortunate ‘buffer’ on which both sides (soldiers and insurgents) audaciously vent their frustrations.

Each time a soldier dies or bombs explode and JTF members are affected, even slightly, they run berserk and embark on senseless killing sprees and the victims are usually not those responsible for the attack but whosoever is unlucky to be around where they launch their reprisal.

In October 2012, for example, there were reports of rampaging soldiers launching series of attacks in the Gwange and Gambaru areas of Maiduguri, killing no fewer than 40 people and setting several homes and businesses ablaze. Most of the victims were young men accused of being members of the dreaded sect. They were precipitously executed without any chance to prove their innocence. Up, until now no one has thought it right to probe these atrocities.

Again, there were reports of soldiers raiding homes, shooting male residents, raping women and taking away many that are hardly ever found alive. A woman once told of how her children, university undergraduates, were taken from their home and shot dead. A father also recounted how his sons, who were sleeping when the soldiers arrived, were woken up, taken and shot while he watched helplessly. Individuals and groups within and outside the state, including members of the Borno Elders Forum and Human Rights bodies, have substantiated all these claims. But no one has deemed it proper to either caution the soldiers or bring those behind the brutalities to justice.

Soldiers (and all arms of the military) are doubtlessly patriots who lay their lives in the service of their fatherland. They play messianic roles to unite their country and in the process pay the supreme price. In the civil war of 1967-70, for example, our own armed forces laid their lives to ensure Nigeria did not fragment. Even in sisterly countries like Liberia, Serra Leone and currently Mali they are eulogized for contributing in keeping the peace. They, as such, are heroes for whom no encomium is too elaborate.

Irrespective of the virtues highlighted above it would be totally crass and irresponsible to pretend that they are infallible. They are human and are bound to have their own spells of frustrations, to which their reactions could be what we see today in Maiduguri, Damaturu and elsewhere. But they must remember (and be reminded too) that in such circumstances their principal job is to protect the people and not to take advantage of them.

Time and again we are reminded of the inevitability of justice for those who are unjustifiably wronged. Just like the soldiers accused of rape and extortion in Abuja have been brought to justice and justice given to their victims, it is my sincere hope that the authorities in Nigeria would take the first step to revisit the cases of other victims of similar rights abuses. They have been ignored for too long and the atrocities are not receding. But they cannot be ignored forever; at some point every human endurance would hit its limit.

Postscript:

This piece appears in the Blueprint newspaper of 25/01/12.