Baga tragedy and Nigeria’s show of indifference

Aliyu Musa

The invasion of Baga and coldblooded murder of civilians, including women and children, is further confirmation of the little value we attach to life and liberty. It also validates previous arguments that soldiers constitute as much threat as the insurgents to the civilian population. It is, therefore, deeply saddening that those who should liberate the people from those that hold them hostage end up crushing them on spurious allegations.

It is not the first time our military have vented their frustration on civilians because of their failure to tackle insurgency. The Odi and Zaki Biam tragedies quickly come to mind. In all three cases the entire communities were devastated for allegedly harboring a handful of miscreants. In civilized societies people don’t get blamed for the sins of others unless it can be proved that they have played a role in either facilitating the crime or covering up afterwards. And they don’t get subjected to jungle justice. They are properly probed and appropriately penalized, if found indisputably complicit.

Tackling insurgency is not a simple job. But soldiers are professionals whose familiarity with rules of engagement should have prepared them for the kind of frustrations they face in their battle with the Boko Haram insurgents in Northern Nigeria.

Since July 2009 when the first Boko Haram insurgence was suppressed briefly, records suggest not much lesson has been learnt and the same mistake is repeated again and again. Insurgencies like this are fuelled perpetually by such mistakes. And this is mainly because atrocious acts like those go unpunished and victims begin to see reason with the insurgents and either sympathize with them or physically lend them support.

The main implication is that the insurgency will continue to get out of control, further threatening Nigeria’s survival.

The military is too important as an institution to be recklessly run by people who have no respect for life or liberty. Our soldiers’ action in Baga shows utter disrespect and Brig. Gen. Austin Edokpaye’s endorsement of this cruelty is a major tragedy that should not be left unchecked.

Even when the entire world can see, particularly from the pictures and reports the international media and Rights groups made available, Brig. Gen Edokpaye insists the destructions were from small arms and rockets Boko Haram insurgents fired.

To demonstrate an unrepentant show of levity he dismisses claims that soldiers under his command deliberately set ablaze more than 2000 houses and killed about 200 innocent people.

According to him: “Contrary to media speculation that hundreds of houses were burnt down, instead, it was the explosions from Boko Haram terrorists’ weapon that triggered fire to about 30 thatched houses.”

This statement demonstrates clear insouciance despite satellite images courtesy of Human Rights Watch corroborating media and eyewitnesses accounts. Even if the number is so barefacedly downplayed to 30 (burnt homes) or 30 plus (killings) it still does not absolve soldiers of any complicity.

Surviving residents describe how soldiers went from door to door fishing out every male resident and summarily executing them. There are also accounts of how they set homes, which Brig. Gen. Edokpaye calls ‘thatched’, on fire in frustration because they believed residents failed to cooperate with them to expose the insurgents. Not even women and children deserved any sympathy.

But massacres of this nature won’t end with Baga just like its case was not the first. It will continue for as long as no one is punished for their role and each government downplays casualty figures and describes them as ‘only’. Injustice does not need to be quantified for it to be a crime. If one life is unjustly taken whoever is responsible for the unjust act needs not be shielded from the law of the land.

However, typical of our government and country nothing will happen after all the uproar. All the findings made by various ‘fact-finders’ like the National Emergence Management Agency (NEMA) and Defence Headquarters will be swept under the carpet like previous ones and we will, once again, bury our heads deep in the sand, to wait for another opportunity to find facts or fallacies.

Postscript:

This article was originally published on Friday May 2, 2013.