Osibanjo: Constitute a Panel of Inquiry on Mambila Genocide Now

The Acting President, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, has a duty to the hundreds of Nigerians recently killed on the Mambila as well as for the living who may come to bear the consequences of the actions of few stupid politicians. The duty is what he promised in the statement he issued: "bringing the perpetrators to justice".

Difference

It is a commitment that the Acting President must fulfil and we sincerely pray that it will not be among the list of other empty promises of this administration. The 'change' mantra must be established here. It is the least respect that the Buhari administration can pay to the victims who sacrificed everything to vote for it, hoping for a better living, not knowing that just two years down the line governments from the federal to the local level would stand by for four days watching while about 1000 of them are hacked to death, one after another. For the victims in Sardauna Local Government, the change so far is a delusion. Though in their graves, the dead are still saying that a chance is still here to make a difference.

In making that difference, Osibanjo must avoid the mistake of his principal, that of leaving the matter in the hands of the state government. President Buhari left investigations into the massacre of Shi’ites in Zaria in 2016 in the hands of the state government which from the beginning proved to possess an overdose of contempt for the Shi’ite leader and his followers. In the end, from the proceedings of the committee to the utterances of some officials in the government, it was clear that the state government had interest in suppressing the truth. If one can excuse Buhari for being a layman, Osibanjo is “learned” enough to know that the surest way to deny anyone justice is to make a party a judge in its own cause.

In most cases where these crises happen, state governments have repeatedly proved to be supporters of the perpetrators. We have repeatedly seen it in the ethno-religious crises in Plateau, Benue and Kaduna states. Because most of the police are indigenous to the states as does all the judges and the public officers in the state and local governments, there had been a consistent connivance to successfully set every indigenous perpetrator free.

Frustration

Federal officers in various establishments have also been subjects of manipulation by the local administrations of Yakowa (2011) and Jang (2008-2014), for example. The postings to states of commissioners of police, GOCs, SSS directors, STF Commanders and their sector commanders were all influenced to ensure that only those sympathetic to the perpetrators were sent. The Fulani delegation from Jos illustrated this point before the former president in 2012. Yet nothing has changed. As secretary of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, MACBAN, Alhaji Saleh Bayari even once published the names of policemen who were returned to Plateau State to partake in 2008 genocide against the Fulani after the officers werer transferred out of the state for complicity in previous killings.

The result was the total blockade of every avenue for redress to the poor victims from local traditional authorities that know the culprits to policemenand successive STF commanders that would arrest the culprits, to the state Attorney-General and Directorate of Public Prosecution officials that would prosecute them, and to magistrates and judges who would sit on their cases. Through this systemic blockade, every victim was effectively frustrated. On most occasions, murder and arson suspects did not even pass a night in the police cell if at all they were arrested.

Reprisal

It is this frustration that pushed the Fulani victims to revenge after nine years of carnage, abuse and dispossession in Plateau State, after six years in Kaduna State and after thirty years in Benue. Peace did not prevail until the merciless pain of impunity was served the perpetrators by their fellow citizens who tolerated the same pain time without number. By the end of his administration in Jos, Jang had caused the displacement of thousands of Beroms for the first time in their history. They fled the homes of their ancestors, taking refuge in schools and spending the nights on hills amidst the cold, darkness and snakes. Some have vowed never to return to their districts. Disappointed with their shallow stomach and in spite of all the assistance he gave them including Israeli military trainers, Governor Jang suggested buying their men braziers! Now there is peace on the Plateau precisely because the new government does not sponsor such criminality. Kaduna just experienced similar retaliations to a lesser extent and it was noise all over the land.

The truth is that all these killings and counter killings could have been avoided had the Federal Government taken seriously, on each occasion, its duty of protecting the lives of Nigerians without fear or favor. Unfortunately, for fourteen years on the Plateau, for example, it paid only lip service to that commitment, especially during the tenure of President Jonathan. And victims were left to degenerate into retaliations perhaps to the pleasure of the President and his controllers from the Southeast and native South-south, as they mischievously advised him to sustain Boko Haram.

Repeat

This avoidable circle of violence is about to be repeated in Taraba State for many reasons. One, this is not the first time the Fulani were attacked in Mambila. Two similarly brutal attack took place in 1982 and 2002. Nothing was done.
Two, the state government has shown sufficient interest in sweeping the matter under the carpet in many ways. As the GOC 3rd Div said, “prominent politicians from the area played roles that fuelled the crisis.” The local government Chairman is reported to be deeply involved in its planning and execution. The Governor has appointed the leader of the Mambila tribe, the Emir of Mambila, to head the committee of investigation he constituted. This charade unequivocally kills any hope of justice in the victim. This has been happening in Taraba time without number. It cannot contniue forever.

Reprisal attacks must be avoided because they harm the attackers and the victim communities alike. We have seen this happen to a number of Fulani communities where they have taken place. Of course, the initiating community does suffer losses of lives and property but the Fulani attackers suffer the consequences of militarization exactly the way as Igbos suffered them after the civil war and continue to do so to date.

This is what has pushed many Fulani into robbery, rustling and kidnapping of their own people. No Nigerian community has suffered more than the Fulani from these crimes that are today committed in the North largely by many of their kin. At a point, in Laduuga, Lere and some districts of southern Kaduna, entire communities had to collectively take the extreme punitive measure of killing whoever is suspected of involvement in such crimes before they could live in peace.

So reprisal in Mambila will have the same effect. That is why Nigerians must press the judicial system to save both the Mambila tribe and the Fulani from the consequences of reprisal attacks that will harm both the attacker and the victim alike. Other citizens are not spared either.

Fear

Unfortunately, even the Federal Government has not shown sufficient interest to pursue the matter rigorously. Consider this. MACBAN has issued a statement saying, "1000 Fulani people, and more than 25,000 cattle reportedly killed or rustled, 521 Fulani settlement destroyed." How many people have the Police that belong to the Federal Government arrested? Seven only. The GOC 3 Div said - as he addressed officials in Taraba some four days ago - that he had to unilaterally call in military helicopters to shoot at the perpetrators who were still going about burning settlements and killing people freely days after the crisis started. To show us where the police are heading to, they said only 18 people were killed.

It is said that if a civil disturbance lasts more than 48 hrs, the government is involved in it. It took four days before intervention came - after the massacres were completed, as planned. This took place in a country where there are undercover operatives - State Security Service - in every local government who send daily reports to their office in each state capital. In fact, it took place where all signs of the pogrom were clear as the perpetrators went about preparing for the killings in public glare. Their commander - "a retired CID officer" according to a local Fulani leader - was arrested and brought to Jalingo two days before the crisis began only to be released just after spending a night with the police. And the killings started immediately he returned home.

The involvement of the Local Government Chairman has repeatedly featured in all narrations of the victims. His speech in a local radio that called for the mass killings of the Fulani is heard by all, including the security officials of the Federal Government. That was not enough to raise a red flag and avert the killings. As in all previous cases in Plateau and Kaduna, the response from the Federal Government came only after the culprits have met their targets.

Then Osibanjo came with a belated speech, promising to bring the perpetrators to book and send aid to victims. How he will do that remains unknown, to date. Time is passing fast and the killers are walking the streets freely or given the time they need to destroy vital evidence or even migrate across the border to Cameroon as the Hutus did in Rwanda.

Panel of Inquiry

MACBAN has suggested that the Federal Government must urgently constitute a judicial commission of inquiry into the massacres. “Nothing less than a judicial commission of inquiry ought to be instituted by the federal government and the United Nations due to the magnitude of these senseless killings,” it said.

I agree with MACBAN on this proposal given what we explained above regarding the legendary complicity of officials at state and local government levels in previous crisis. If the Federal Government leaves it to officials at that level, the victims should wipe out their tears and escalate their complaints to the Almighty, the final arbiter, as the Shi’ites did. This is another litmus test for the Acting President and the APC. No sane country or leader will turn a blind eye to the massacre of a 1000 people.

I will call on all peace loving people to join in the call for a full-fledged inquiry by the Federal Government into the Mambila massacre as MACBAN proposed. This I expect should include civil society organizations, leaders of religions, traditional rulers, politicians, political office holders and so on. All leaders and influential persons must push for this. Only the law can stop further violence. Nothing else. Let us allow it its course, or else the ugly monster of revenge will resurface to affect even the innocent as it did in many places before. And nobody can do it better than a SAN, a Professor of Law who is acting for a President who is “for everybody but belongs to nobody."

The Federal Government cannot institute a judicial commission of inquiry under our present constitution, I learned. Nevertheless, it can set up a panel of inquiry that can reveal the culprits and take the necessary steps to bring them to justice.

Appreciation to GOC

Finally, I would like to sincerely forward my appreciation to the Acting GOC 3 DIV, Brig. Gen. Benjamin Ahanotu, who showed great sympathy for the victims of the massacre and did not mice words in condemning officials who did nothing to stop the killings. The experience of victims with many officers like him in similar situations was lamentable, for they took side with the culprits for base reasons of ethnicity and religion. General Ahanotu operated above the two primordial levels,. He chose the evel of humanity instead. I hope he keeps this principle until the last day he retires from the army. May God be with him and with any peace loving Nigerian.

Conclusion

As for Osibanjo, this is another moment of truth. Beyond statement of promise which others before him equally made but did not keep, he owes a duty both to the dead and the living on the Mambilla Plateau - the Fulani and Mambila tribe alike - to see that this time the perpetrators are brought to justice through a convincingly transparent, judicial process. This will avert the circle of violence in the area and prove to the world that change is indeed here.

After the panel has submitted its report and government has brought the culprits to justice - no matter how long it takes - the Acting President can stand on the graves of the dead victims and plant an epitaph that would read, "Yes. We have done justice." Only then will Mambila Plateau and the dead know peace.

Dr. Aliyu U. Tilde
30 June, 2017