Searing public outrage attended police denunciation of the #BringBackOurGirls group’s recent march to the Presidential Villa to demand urgency in government’s efforts to free the Chibok schoolgirls who are still in Boko Haram’s captivity two and a half years after they were captured. A police team had stopped the protesters on the way, just as another horde of protesters acted as spoilers. This brought a curious twist to what was otherwise a pristine and righteous civic engagement.
As the police and other security agencies are wont to do, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, tried to please his master – the President − when he saw the protest from the prism of illegality, or one that could “threaten public peace and order.” He went into overdrive with his assertion that the campaigners “… must not trample on other people’s rights through over-dramatisation of emotions, self-serving propaganda and disrespect of public (office) holders.”
There was nothing unruly about the conduct of the BBOG protesters, who had on about three occasions marched to the same Villa and interfaced with President Muhammadu Buhari. If the IG was genuinely concerned about breakdown of law and order, his clampdown should not have been on the #BBOG campaigners, but on the hirelings that infringed on the constitutional rights of the pro-Chibok girls protesters.
As the IG was to appreciate later, peaceful public protest or procession is part of the democratic process, which should not be trifled with, once it is within the ambit of the law. He should not only say it, but at all times, should be seen to have acted accordingly.
Unfortunately, every IG since 2007 has acted within the framework of the discredited Public Order Act. A Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, in December of that year, upheld the judgment of a Federal High Court that a police permit was not needed by any group or association to hold a peaceful rally. The Federal Government had appealed the decision of the lower court to that effect. The appellate court also nullified the Act, (Cap 382) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 1990.
Police excessive use of force to disrupt public protests is in the structure of the security outfit set up as a “Police Force.” This came from their colonial forebears who used the apparatus to brutally suppress anti-colonial struggles, until 1960. But Nigeria has long passed that ugly phase of its history. For such mentality to still be an integral part of its policing in the 21st century is very sad. The policing model the country needs is evident in the United Kingdom system, where the police fired their guns only seven times in 2015; and this was the highest since 2009.
However, we commend the #BBOG group led by Oby Ezekwesili for its drive and resilience in seeing that the remaining 218 abducted schoolgirls return safely to their parents. When most Nigerians appear to have forgotten the girls and their ordeal, which undoubtedly underlined the incompetence and crass irresponsibility of the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency, the group has kept the issue on the front burner of national discourse. Regrettably, incalculable harm has been done to their safety since April 14, 2014 when they were kidnapped.
Early audacious moves by the Buhari government against the Boko Haram challenge raised high hopes among Nigerians, the #BBOG members and parents of the girls that they would soon be found. Buhari had visited Chad, Niger and Cameroon a week after his inauguration in 2015 to seek stronger trans-border coalition, among other things. And in his earliest meeting with the #BBOG group, he forthrightly said, “…we cannot rationalise the government incompetence in dealing with this issue.”
Ironically, his government seems to have found itself in the same hell-hole with the embarrassing emptiness in intelligence gathering that would have led to the location of these maidens and their eventual release. For the sake of his own reputation, Buhari should extricate himself from this web by redoubling government’s efforts towards ending this national nightmare.
Remarkably, Boko Haram’s leadership recently provided a window with its demand for a swap of the girls with its members held by the government. This is a chance the #BBOG campaigners and Nigerians want the government to exploit, and fast too. Buhari has acceded to the overtures. On the sidelines of the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, in Kenya, in August, the President voiced his desire for a deal with credible leadership of the Islamist group, if it could convince the government that it was holding the girls, and then choose an internationally recognised Non-Governmental Organisation as its negotiator.
Apparently, Buhari needs help. And he did not hide it when he told the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, at the just-concluded 71st General Assembly in New York that Nigeria would welcome its intermediary role to achieve the swap deal with the Jihadists. The world should act fast.
All those involved in this most delicate task within our shores, both overtly and covertly, should expedite action for the country to close this revolting chapter in its history. This was the kernel of the #BBOG group march, which the IG failed to appreciate.
