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Rise of
ethnic militias and threat to national security
Nigeria�s
return to democracy in 1999 after many years of military interregnum brought
with it hopes and challenges of nation-building. Yet, it also brought about a
lot of despair in the land as many ethnic militias sprang up capitalizing on
the liberalization of the political space to demand for equity and fairness. In
this report, Assistant Political Editor
Habib Aruna takes a cursory look at their activities over the years and the
continued threat they pose to the stability of the nation.
The world woke up on Tuesday with
the realisation that it has to pay more attention to events in Nigeria. The
disturbing news was that a militant group in the Niger Delta gave an ultimatum
to oil companies operating in the troubled-prone zone to withdraw their workers
or face the wrought of the militant youths who vowed to unleash terror on oil
workers and blow up oil installations in the area.
The statement reported to have been
signed by Asari Dokubo, the leader of the NigerDelta Volunteer Force (NDVF)
said the group was going to attack major oil companies, accusing in particular,
Nigeria Agip Oil Company of supplying helicopters to Military Task Force,
code-named Operation Flush 3.
Though Dokubo has been invited to
Abuja to confer with Aso Rock on how to find lasting solutions to the incessant
demands of restive youths in the region, it has however succeeded in bringing
to the front burner the plights and conditions of the people in the region and
the danger their activities pose, if not nothing concrete is done, to the
stability of the nation.
�I only hope President Olusegun
Obasanjo is sincere about this meeting and of dealing decisively with the
demands of these groups�, says Joseph Evah, a prominent voice in the Ijaw
Youths Movement (IYM). �But I believe they know what they are doing in Abuja
because the President has now realised that governors in the region have been
deceiving him all along�.
Yet, the instant effect it had on
the world oil market gave serious concern to the western industrialized
countries- oil price went up to more than 50 dollars-which suddenly realised
that more attention should be focused on Nigeria and more than this, a lot of
pressure should be mounted on the Nigerian government to quickly resolve what
they described as a disturbing situation.
�Perhaps the international dimension
the matter is taking would force the federal government to address the demands
of the Niger Delta and other aggrieved sections of the country that have been
crying against injustice and maginalisation�, says Nurudeen Ogbara, Secretary
of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (NADL).
Intruth, last week threat is only
one of the many that have become regular activities of the militants groups in
the zone within the past three years. Indeed, they have at times carried out
their threat by kidnapping oil workers and demanding a ransom before releasing
them. This has however created a lot of panic among the oil companies some of
whom have been forced to reduce or out rightly stop production.
Apart from the Niger Delta region,
there are also restive youths in other parts of the country whose militant
tendencies are giving Aso rock a lot of concern. But why the sudden animation
of militancy among the youth in the agitation for fairness and equality in the
land?
Since the return of the country to
democratic rule in 1999, a number of ethnic and regional pressure groups have
sprung up in almost all the geo-political zones in the country. The development
has been widely accepted as natural consequence to the nation�s unsteady march
away from military dictatorship. But not even the most incurable optimists fail
to discern the disruptive activities of ethnic militia groups and the dangers
they pose to inter-ethnic harmony and the overall peaceful development of the
nation.
During their operations, the ethnic
militias behave very much like a parallel government, using force and weapons
of death, albeit illegally, on other citizens, coercing them, maiming and
killing them. It would even seem that the ethnic groups are guilty of the
wrongs, which they seek to correct in the society, especially against the
background of the presence of so many minority groups.
Evenso, observers believe that the
current situation of ethnic hostilities and rivalry and religious conflicts
cannot sustain the corporate existence and unity of the country. �The current
situation cannot promote the much needed economic growth and national
development�, says Julius Ajose, theonly Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member
of the Lagos State House of Assembly, adding: �Sustainable national development
can only be erected on the foundation of durable peace.�
Still, analysts have ascribed
various reasons for the proliferation of these ethnic militias and why they
seem to be enjoying the support and sympathy of Nigerians. Some said their
prominence was because of the injustice that has been meted to them over the
decades. In this group are IYC, NDVF, the Egbesu boys; Movement for the
Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and others.
Yet, others attribute their
emergence to the failure and the incapacitation of the security agencies to
check the menace of armed robbery and other vices, which these groups have
succeeded in checking to some extent. Here we have the Bakkassi boys; the Oodua
Peoples Congress (OPC) and others. The OPC, for instance, has received a lot of
accolades from people, particularly in theSouth West region for helping to
check the antics of dare-devil robbers who have defied the orthodox method of
the security agencies.
�The rise of ethnic militias or
militarism tendencies within groups who are not happy with happenings in the
polity is a reflection of the inequity within the Nigerian society�, said
Lateef Raji, Lagos State secretary of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). �It is a
reflection of the general discontents among the people. And it is an indication
that the call for sovereign national conference (SNC) or whatever names you
decide to call it is a popular call. It is a popular call that will do a lot of
people a lot of good. I think the government should look into it�.
Raji would rather prefer to look at
the rise in two ways: social and economic reflections, which, according to him,
also has political undertone. He explained that in the political arena, a lot
of people believe they are being short-changed, particularly as regards to the
presidency. He argued that the1999 Constitution made the presidency to be too
powerful.
This he said would inevitably breed
a lot of discontents in the system and people would then be forced to look at
other unconstitutional means of addressing their grievances. �And with the type
of system we are operating, the people do not really keen on who their
president is, their concern is how their welfare will be taken care of�, the AD
leader added.
Rajicontinued: �Despite the billions
of dollars that the federal government has realised from the Niger Delta zone,
they don�t have light, they don�t have potable drinking water; their schools
and hospitals are not catered for where they exist, these things ignite their
anger. They have nothing to show for it. Just as Lagos State is claiming that
more than 70 percent generated from VAT comes from the state. So all these
imbalances largely contributed to the rise and militancy among these ethnic
groups.
�People want to give expression to
their yearnings. I don�t believe Nigeria will break up. But we should be able
to operate a true federal system where the constitution provides for the limit
of the powers of the central as opposed to the overreaching powers of the
present PDP government.�
The above views corroborate with
that of Evah, who told Daily Independent that the source of livelihood of
people in the Niger Delta region has been destroyed by years of oil exploration
and that the youth, having nothing on ground to engage them, have little option
but to take up arms.
�The oil companies have destroyed
fishing and farming which are the main occupations of the people and they have
failed to build companies with these raw materials. If the idle hands are
engaged, there will be no attack. But these youths grew up seeing their parents
to be idle and the only thing left is to engage the oil companies�, says Evah,
who noted that the youth have nothing to lose and are ready to fight alongside
with Asari Dokubo in the current crusade.
In the same vein, Yinka Odumak in,
acting Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, argued that the sudden readiness of
the restive youths to get desperate is a product of the unresolved national
question, which he said has once again brought to the fore structural
imbalances in the Nigerian nation.
�This renewed attack by the ethnic
militias is a reflection of the unresolved national question in Nigeria. If you
clamp people together against their will,it can only result what we are seeing
now�, Odumakin maintained.�And in the world today, the central issue is
self-determination and when you try to suppress it by force, then all these
resurgence groups will come up.�
Continuing, he warned: �When you
look at it today, Nigeria is very close to the precipice and unless we have a
sovereign national conference, where all the ethnic groups would freely discuss
their problems, there is no way out. You see when we agree to hold the
conference, tension will go down all over Nigeria. People will then come to the
table and lay out what they want in a new Nigeria.For everyday that we postpone
this national conference, so long shall we continue to have crisis all over the
country.�
Even then, it�s not as if the
federal government fold its hands while these ethnic militias operate with
impunity. Indeed, sensing the danger they pose to the stability of the country
and the viability of the current democratic project, the President had sent a
bill to the National Assembly in 2002 seeking sweeping powers to proscribe any
organisation of individuals or quasi-military groups in the country, formed for
the purpose of furthering the political, religious, ethnic, tribal or cultural
interest of any part of the country.
The bill came on the heel of cycle
of violence that has become the hallmark of OPC activities in the southwestern
part of the country and the frequent clashes between the militia group and
northerners resident in Lagos. There was even a time that the federal
government vowed to crush the group, while placing its factional leader, Gani
Adams under close surveillance.
But the founder of the OPC, Dr.
Frederick Fasheun, had always insisted on the need to renegotiate the destiny
of the nation, dismissing apprehensions of a possible disintegration of Nigeria
as groundless. Fasheun asserted that playing ostrich and failing to address the
nation�s burning problems was a deadly virus.
Heargued that a meeting of minds
would create the required political stability. A substantive economic framework
for national reconstruction will engineer the much-desired economic
enhancement.
�Thesetwo policy mechanisms,
strategically determined, operating in tandem and contemporaneously, would
provide peace and unity in Nigeria to ensure democratic survival�, Fasheun told
Daily Independent recently in an interview.
To move forward, the OPC leader said
the mutual suspicions that create barriers of communication among the various
peoples of Nigeria must be discarded.�This can be done when we resolve to sit
and discuss the areas of concern. Under whatever nomenclature this is made
possible, it is the most sensible way to address the problems over which we are
not in agreement with each other�, he said while confirming that the
consultations among the groups that are going on have yielded results with the
formation of the National Coalition of Ethnic Nationalities (NACEN).
It however does not appear that
Abuja is ready to go along with the idea of a national conference, an idea,
which observers believe its time has come. Even those who were vociferously
against it in the past have come to the realization of its importance in
resolving the myriad of problems facing the nation. �With the current
composition of the country, even if God sends Angel Gabriel to come and rescue
the country, there is absolutely nothing he can do�, said Chief Guy Ikoku, a
chieftain of Ohanaeze, the Pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, who insists
that the only way out is a conference of all ethnic nationalities.
But in his anniversary address to
the nation, President Obasanjo explained why he is holding discussion with
Dokubo. This he said was part of the effort to restore peace and harmony to the
oil-producing region of the country. The President also appealed to elected
officials in the Niger Delta area to live up to their responsibilities by
providing dividends of democracy to their people. This came on the heels of a
blank cheque given to the President by the council of states to use all
legitimate means to crack down on all groups threatening the security of the
country.
For now, the NDVF threat has
dramatically brought a fresh dimension to they earnings of people in the Niger
Delta and by extension forcing the federal government to have another look at
the policy in place for addressing their demands. It is not however clear how
the government intends to resolve the issues that gave rise to these ethnic
militias with its present hard line posture. And for as long as these
grievances are swept under the carpet, so long would the threat they pose to
the viability of the polity remains.
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