The Apo massacre

It appears like the Nigerian security service has dropped its constitutional mandate of intelligence gathering to brute use of weaponry in the name of war on terror. In the last several months the DSS has become a fighting force and uses the advantage of the heavy weaponry at its disposal to perpetrate ‘legitimate’ crime against […]

It appears like the Nigerian security service has dropped its constitutional mandate of intelligence gathering to brute use of weaponry in the name of war on terror. In the last several months the DSS has become a fighting force and uses the advantage of the heavy weaponry at its disposal to perpetrate ‘legitimate’ crime against the public.
Obviously it will continue to blunder as long as it assigns to itself roles that are secondary to the very ideological and practical basis of its formation and existence. We have seen how for instance the spokesperson of the service has increasingly become notorious in puerile propaganda in a service that is ideally discrete and under cover.
The events in Apo last week have further exposed the growing weakness of the national security apparatuses to confront the ills of the nation and defend not just the sovereignty and integrity of the nation. I think there is the need to revisit the concept of sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation within the context that Nigerian security officials and political heavy weights have painfully and wrongfully adapted it.
Sovereignty and integrity of any nation lie primarily in the citizens and not the landmass or material resources abound. When the security officials swore to protect these, what it simply means is to protect the lives and guard the sanctity and integrity of the people. That is the first principle in the social contract theory.
What we see happening in our society is brazen abuse of the material basis of life and existence by forces that we pay to protect us. This is endemic and has remained a fundamental problem of underdevelopment that is eating deep into the fabric of the nation.
An intelligence service that ought to be discrete and respectable is fast assuming a dimension that is worrisome. After the Apo killings, I watched the spokesperson of the security service comically and with desperation taking newsmen round the abattoir of innocent souls and the cemetery claiming that the person who knows where weapons are buried within the vicinity was at large.
Since when has intelligence became so low that officers whose findings in the ordinarily and in most cases are near perfect descend so low by taking speculation and share propaganda to the forefront of national intelligence curriculum. I weep for Nigeria and I think the way out is to begin to immediately reform the security service for the sake of now and the future otherwise the dangers ahead are enormous.
The problem of squatter settlement is a future in the third world nations generally and it is most endemic in the urban centers where either half or uneducated young people take shelter when they are in these places to earn a living. Agreed, it also could be a sanctuary for crime and criminality but the case before us certainly suggests otherwise.
I believe it is dangerous to allow this matter die without digging to its roots and determining those who are guilty and appropriate punishment meted out. Failure to do this exposes not just the rest of us but the families of those who recklessly and in complete disregard to the sanctity of the human life decided to sniff life out of those young elements.
I heard the Zamfara state government pulling its weight behind full scale investigation. Most of those young boys are from Katsina state but I am yet to hear any response from Ibrahim Shema or his government. Instead, all I hear is the debate over the new or old PDP in the state.
Nigeria is gradually descending into anarchy if those who carry arms legitimately would either on their volition or be used illegally to open fire and kill defenseless citizens. So, life of some Nigerians has become so cheap and does not raise national outrage when it is illegally terminated?
You see why there is instability in the polity, immorality in the society and corruption in the economy? How do you keep an egalitarian nation where the lives of some are more precious than those of others? I think there is a problem. Injustice to one or some in this case is not injustice doe to all. I read painfully in a daily the statement credited to the president of the senate David Mark to the effect that the senate could not condemn what all indicators so far have suggested premeditated murder, the killing of those young elements in search of livelihood in a country where people like Senator Mark have run aground in the name waiting for the report of investigation.
Instead, the president of the senate would prefer that the senate condemn terrorism violence. I also in my little way condemn terror and violence especially the likes of the one in question.  I am not surprised because the senate president is among the few Nigerians dead or living that partook in the making of the reality of this country. He has been on the driver’s seat since the end of the Nigerian civil war and still holding tight.
My take on this matter is that there is a palpable fear that those who are supposed to be responsible are not responsive. Those who ought to care are careless and the implications of these are better imagined. If we need peace in this country, the surest guarantee to it is the resolve to have it and without recourse to trivialities otherwise we must do a sovereign national conference so that those who are responsible for these irresponsibility are flushed out and everybody goes his way.
This is a federation, the Katsina state government must push to know those and why their indigenes as well were summarily executed by overzealous security personnel in the name of war against terror. I tell all those that care to listen that these killings would intensify with the approach to 2015 and many of us may unfortunately be framed for what we say rather than what we do.
The National Assembly must unravel these killings using their parliamentary roles. If those at the leadership do not care because their children do not live in squatter settlements, they should be worried that perpetration of injustice gets to everybody everywhere. The only difference may be time, limit and space.
I mourn with the families of these young victims who chose to live decent lives through decent means but became victims of a weak state. May their souls rest in peace.