Last week’s edition of the BBC Hausa discussion and phone-in programme Ra’ayi Riga was classically excellent in bringing home the plight of the people of Maiduguri. What actually came out clearly during the programme is that, to the people of Maiduguri, ironically soldiers are a bigger headache than the dreaded Boko Haram sect.
In July 2009, following the outbreak of the first Boko Haram insurgence the military were deployed to assist the police in quelling it. But it has since emerged that excessive force was used on mostly innocent civilians. It has also come out that due to the manner the crisis was handled the sect was merely driven underground, where its members re-congregated and returned with full vengeance.
But soldiers were scarcely indicted then; it was the police that were directly accused of senseless extrajudicial executions. In the video clips that went viral on the internet afterwards, police officers were seen forcing teenagers and the disabled to lay facedown before pumping bullets into them. There was also a video showing how Buji Foi, an alleged Boko Haram financier, was summarily executed.
When Muhammad Yusuf, the leader of the sect, was apprehended by soldiers another video clip showed how a military officer interrogated him. He looked hale and hearty. But when it emerged he had died it was also well known that soldiers did not kill him. Again, accusing fingers were pointed at the police.
The level of discipline demonstrated by the military then remains highly commendable, especially when they came out to belie the police for claiming that Yusuf died of injuries he sustained during the attempt to capture him.
It is on this basis that one now finds it too anomalous that soldiers are the ones terrorising the people they are supposed to protect. Their usual excuse is that residents are harbouring terrorists by not exposing them. So, whenever there is an attack by the sect on the military, soldiers run berserk, sporadically shooting and killing civilians.
There are several verified claims of serious crimes against humanity that soldiers on peacekeeping operations in Maiduguri and other parts of the North audaciously perpetrate. But senior officers like Lt Col Sagir Musa rather persistently deny it and accuse the people of not cooperating with soldiers. Even when all participants in the BBC Hausa Ra’ayi Riga discussion accused soldiers of killing civilians and setting buildings (housing people and businesses) ablaze, the JTF image maker boldly remained in denial – a stance that could be interpreted as a stamp of credence for the soldiers’ action.
In a newspaper report a correspondent covering the carnage in Gwange, for example, quoted a soldier saying residents were not helping them to trounce the Boko Haram and, by implication, deserved what they got.
Let’s assume the people were, in fact, harbouring members of the sect, should soldiers resort to killing sprees and arson? What benefit would burning down buildings bring them? Should such callous show of indiscipline be condoned?
What, probably, they have so easily forgotten is that identifying members of the sect is not as easy as they say it. Members of the sect do not have any distinct identity. They could be anyone: someone who lives under the same roof with you; eats from the same plate as you; attends the same Mosque and joins in the same congregation you pray each day etc. The only difference is that they know you and can easily reach you if they want to.
When they resurfaced in 2010 they began by targeting and killing ward and religious leaders they claimed exposed their members. In each video they have made since then they continue to warn ‘sell outs’ of what awaits them. And they often match their words with effective action. Even journalists they perceived were not with them have paid a costly price.
Of course I am not in anyway endorsing that residents should provide a safe passage or haven for fleeing sect members. But the JTF must sufficiently do their job. They do not need to wait for people to take the risk of exposing people that would easily come back for them.
Intelligence gathering is an essential aspect of their job. Without subjecting innocent residents to unnecessary risk or inhuman treatment they could rout Boko Haram if they want. Therefore, they must exercise restraint and a high sense of professionalism as they did in 2009. Vengeance in the manner they are going it is just not the way.
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