The ongoing controversy over the suggestions of amnesty and compensation for bandits terrorising the North further exposes Nigeria’s fragility. Roving gangs, taking advantage of weak governance, have murdered hundreds of people, displaced hundreds of thousands more, kidnapped and robbed, burnt down and plundered farms and villages across the North-Western and North-Central states. When confronted with such brigandage, the response expected of a sovereign state is to crush criminality and bring offenders to justice. Nigeria should be no different.
However, terribly poor leadership at the national and state levels have allowed violent offenders, especially bandits, terrorists and kidnappers, both foreign and local, to morph into well-armed militias, pushing the country further towards state failure. Instead of addressing the root causes of the violent climate and enforcing the law, all manner of amnesty programmes are being offered to murderous gangs to lay down their arms. This is evident in the backing of some state governors and an Islamic cleric, Ahmad Gumi, for the failed strategy of appeasement through amnesty and compensation for criminals. Gumi returned from a meeting with hundreds of bandits in Zamfara State with security and state officials in tow to suggest robust compensation and unconditional amnesty for armed gangs. He is supported by Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, among others, who has failed to learn from the disastrous policy of appeasement of his predecessor that rather than stop banditry, encouraged it to explode and spread throughout the North-West and beyond.
There has mercifully been a vigorous pushback. Some other northern governors, notably Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna, and Samuel Ortom, Benue, canvass the sensible path of all out destruction of banditry with the full might of state power. “We are at war with bandits,” el-Rufai declared. This is the right attitude. Violent criminals are most unlikely candidates for clemency. It is clear that they did not personally request it; admit to wrongdoing and have not renounced violence before such an offer is made a quid pro quo for their release. Instead, they continue to express no contrition for their crimes, and are openly belligerent about their actions. Amnesty, in criminal law, says the Britannica, is granted by a government to persons who have been guilty of crimes. It is often conditional upon their return to obedience and duty within a prescribed period, though “amnesty is granted usually for political crimes against the state, such as treason, sedition, or rebellion.”
Unfortunately, the Federal Government that controls all the instruments of coercion, through the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, appears indecisive. “What I am sure is that he (Gumi) is working for peace,” Mohammed said. To demonstrate the absurdity, Awwalun Daudawa, whose gang kidnapped over 300 schoolboys in Katsina State recently, has reportedly surrendered to the Zamfara State Government in exchange for amnesty. He said other bloodthirsty outlaws were also willing to lay down their arms if pardoned and compensated.
Society is built on and sustained by the rule of law. This dictates that no one should be above the law and crime must be accompanied by prescribed punishment. Amnesty in the modern era, is usually given by governments to political offenders. International jurors oppose granting pardons to mass murderers and the International Criminal Tribunal has lately rejected pardons granted by weak states for crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and aggression.
Bandits have no legal basis to receive amnesty without going through the criminal justice system of arrest, prosecution and trial. The BBC reported that bandits killed over 8,000 persons between 2011 and 2020. Banditry, it said, “is the most lucrative industry in Zamfara,” where over N3 billion is reported to have been paid as ransom by relatives and communities of 3,673 kidnapped victims. Assessment Capacities Projects, a Swiss non-profit, said about 21 million persons in Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Katsina, Niger and Kaduna live in fear, with 35 local government areas severely hit. More than 210,000 people have been internally displaced and over 35,000 refugees have crossed to Niger Republic. The rampage has emptied the farms, rendered highways and markets unsafe and triggered food shortages.
As el-Rufai pointedly asked; “What have we done to them that we have to compensate and forgive them? They kill, burn down houses, kidnap and they are waiting for us to pay them.” Precisely; criminals must be punished. As lawyers have noted, it is either the courts, through clemency appeals, or the governors, exercising the constitutional prerogative of mercy after conviction, that can grant criminals reprieve. In the United States where the plea bargain is extensively used, criminals are not let off the hook; rather, in exchange for cooperation with prosecutors, they plead guilty to lesser offences to receive lighter prison sentences. Compensation is out of the question.
Importantly, many of the bandits and killer herdsmen, as governors, security personnel and the Presidency confessed, are not even Nigerians! They are known to be from neighbouring states, some from as far away as Mali and Senegal. Miyetti Allah said 23,000 Fulani herders in 2012 fled to Taraba State after they were dislodged by farming communities in Cameroon. It is scandalous to reward cross-border invaders who come to kill, plunder and rape.
It is a betrayal of the victims and the security personnel killed, raped, kidnapped and disposed to reward their oppressors. The maintenance of civil order is underpinned by justice for the victim and right to legal defence by an accused. A system where the victims are ignored and perpetrators rewarded is wicked, illegal and unjust. It breeds more criminals who then expect pardon and reward for their atrocities.
The Nigerian state must end the culture of amnesty without justice. The precedent set in 2009 when instead of resolving the resource control question, the government of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua came up with an amnesty programme for militants, was compounded by allowing it to stretch without an exit date. In 2013, Boko Haram swiftly rejected the unsolicited amnesty offer by the Goodluck Jonathan government. Since then, state governments have been pursuing this failed format, encouraging a culture of criminality. It has also bred graft. Researchers at the University of Leuven, Belgium, found that from three militant groups initially identified, scores of new violent groups emerged within 18 months to demand amnesty pay outs.
The Federal Government unwisely extends it even to terrorists whose apocalyptic ideology leaves no room for repentance. A senator, Ali Ndume, has confirmed that supposedly “repentant” Boko Haram terrorists are responsible for new outrages after collecting government’s cash. A bandit who makes millions from kidnapping will only be dissuaded by ruthless law enforcement. While international agencies do not rule out dialogue completely because of the bandits’ links with terrorist groups, the aim is to bring them to justice by pressuring them to surrender in exchange for lesser punishment, said West Africa Network for Peacebuilding.
Notably, Niger Delta militants are all Nigerians anchoring their deviance on real wrongs done to their people and their environment and clamouring for legitimate redress. Bandits have no legitimate grouse. Some Northern elite, fixated on the divisive national sharing culture that hobbles consensus, should stop citing the Niger Delta amnesty as conferring entitlement on bandits and terrorists for a similar treatment.
In 2006, some US politicians decried any attempt by the Iraqi government to grant amnesty to insurgents who have American blood on their hands. Even the Iraqi amnesty only applied to native Iraqi insurgents and their cohorts – bomb makers, safe haven providers, et al. – who have not targeted Iraqi civilians or engaged in suicide bombings. Only a fragile or failed state appeases criminals as the Nigerian government does. Judith Yaphe, a senior fellow at the National Defence University, says amnesty will only work if it is backed up with a show of strength. The federal and state governments should unite on the principle of law, crime and punishment to bring criminals to swift and severe justice. Victims should be compensated and assisted to recover their means of livelihood, not bandits. Banditry thrives in ungoverned border areas and forests; the Northern states especially should close this gap and ensure region-wide cooperation to defeat the menace.
