- It was unnecessary and unacceptable
Once again, the Nigeria Police Force seems to have misfired, as its men who handled the Shiites procession in Kano acted without subjecting their action to deep analysis that would have shown the implication of their decision for national security. At a time when the country is still recovering from the challenges posed by the Boko Haram insurgency, Niger Delta militancy, youth restiveness in many parts of the country, kidnapping, cattle rustling and mindless killings by herdsmen, Monday’s action against the Shiites by the police was one too many.
Given the spate of religious and communal clashes in the past, we expected that the security agencies, especially the Nigeria Police, would have devised a means of dealing with such incidents without lasting negative effects on security. In the Second Republic there was the Maitatsine uprising in Kano State and what was initially regarded as requiring mere police action became a big challenge to the country’s stability.
It is even more unfortunate that the killing of the Shiites is coming at a time that the Boko Haram insurgency remains a major drain on national resources. Millions of Nigerians, especially in the North East region, have been displaced and thousands of children orphaned by the war have died of malnutrition.
The Boko Haram crisis started as a child’s play. Their leader, Alhaji Mohammed Yusuf, who was then an official of the Borno State government, was arrested and died in questionable circumstances in police custody. The country is yet to recover from the killing as his supporters picked the gauntlet and, supported by enemies within and without, introduced suicide bombing to the country with telling effects.
It must be realised that the Nigerian State cannot afford another round of bloodletting. There are many political as well as socio-economic challenges rocking the national boat now. The economy remains in a precarious position with the Federal Government trying to secure loans from multilateral agencies to address the economic challenges.
The Shiite-Police clash could have been handled more maturely as life is sacred and must, as much as possible, be protected by the State.
If the Shiites chose to embark on an unauthorised procession from Kano to Zaria, blocking the highway as they usually do, unfeeling for motorists, it behooves the police to device means of organising them and ensuring that the protest was at minimal disruption to the activities of other NIgerians. We know the police could say they cannot give cover to the activities of a banned group, but we have said it several times that banning such groups can only drive their members underground, which is even more dangerous.
Besides, if the procession had to be broken, the use of live bullets cannot be justified since, even by police admission, the sect members, though armed, were not in possession of firearms.
Apart from being a religious observance, the procession/protest had also been called to press home the release of their leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, who has been in detention since December, last year. In a similar show of force then, the Nigerian Army had reacted rather unevenly to the daring act of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria in Kaduna. The state government went ahead to ban the movement and the Federal Government consequently chose to keep the leader behind bars for so long in a clear breach of the Nigerian constitution.
By these actions, the Federal Government is demonstrating that Amnesty International might be right in its consistent report that our military and the police have often behaved as an Army of Occupation in conflict zones. We expect the Buhari government to take more interest in ensuring that men armed by the state to protect its territorial integrity and ensure that peace reigns act with caution.
We call for a thorough investigation of the killings, with the culprits brought to book. Similarly, the reports of previous probes of acts of violation of human rights by the police and the armed forces must be made public and white papers released. Nigeria is not a banana republic. We would have thought the security agencies will identify criminals rather than branding everybody in a group as criminals, and dealing with them accordingly.
