War crimes and our culture of silence

Aliyu Musa

Amnesty International’s indictment of the Nigerian military in the on-going Boko Haram insurgency in northern Nigeria did not come to me as a surprise. Truth is we have allowed a culture of denial and tolerance of the most barbaric to foster in our bid to tackle the insurgency. But even more despicable is our culture of silence, conspiratorially, in the face of severe crimes against humanity. That is why it has taken Amnesty International to joggle our collective memory back to the excesses that followed the Boko Haram raid of Giwa Barracks five months ago.

Immediately after the raid on Giwa Barracks video clips and pictures were circulated celebrating the success of the military in repelling the attack and in capturing and killing some of the insurgents. Naturally, we all joined in celebrating our men’s gallantry and victory and delightedly flicked through pictures of the dead insurgents and asked no more questions.

A few weeks ago, however, stories began to filter that the pictures and videos had, in fact, been doctored and the story of the victory of our men had been made up. Witnesses started to speak out although they were hardly listened to. Our local media, to say the least, failed in their duty to act as the fourth estate of the realm and check the excesses of the state and its apparatuses of violence.

Boko Haram has without doubt been a complete menace for which there should be zero tolerance. But in tackling it it’s injudicious for a professional military to borrow a tactic of barefaced lawlessness from the terror group. It is, as such, shocking that we chose not to ask deeper questions after seeing videos of haggard men queuing up to be slaughtered. It is also such a shame that by dismissively saying the perpetrators of the barbaric crime were not Nigerians, despite clear Nigerian accents, or they were not our soldiers, regardless of visible Nigerian military signatures, we have, even unconsciously, helped in concealing the crime.

In a commentary shortly after the video came out I stated:

“For example a clip, about four minutes long, with very disturbing pictures of what looks like extrajudicial executions recently went viral in the social media. In it men dressed in the Nigerian military fatigues were seen slaughtering dozens of men they had captured in the goriest manner ever. It was shocking that each of the men, at the shout of ‘next!’, walked towards a mass grave and laid down to be slaughtered without any resistance, after which they were shoved into the mass grave. But even more shocking was the relish with which the slaughterers put their victims to death.

“After watching the clip the first time it took me days to get over the shock. But as a student of conflict studies I summoned the courage to watch it over and over again with the hope of finding something unusual. And although the Nigerian military were quick to dismiss the clip as the handiwork of people bent on tarnishing their image a proper and more serious study of the clip could reveal the identity of the men and who they were working for.

“But no one has taken it seriously or finds it necessary to investigate this and other series of crimes against humanity by security officials and their lackey, the CJTF, in the fight against the insurgents. So, from the executions in 2009, which the insurgents vowed to avenge when they resurfaced in 2010, to happenings now, it is certain we have learnt no lessons, whatsoever.”

It is not just the state that has refused to learn any lesson. The ordinary people, the direct victims of the violence, have shown no sign of an enriched experience. Rather, we have continued to allow our sentiments to determine our reactions to situations while perpetrators of colossal crimes easily get away – which is unimaginable elsewhere. And our media have remained the biggest let down.

Now that the military have, for once, agreed to investigate and bring the culprits to justice we hope it won’t be the end of the matter as it was in previous cases. If those responsible for the extra-judicial execution of Muhammad Yusuf, Buji Foi and other Boko Haram leaders and members had been brought to justice and the crisis properly handled we, probably, would not have plunged this low. The scores of thousands of lives lost and property destroyed would have been saved. And Nigerians would not be mourning perpetually.