Radicalising the Shi’ites

AS in most things Nigerian, it is difficult to say how many members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), otherwise known and called the Shiites, have been killed by the security forces. The reports on the number of casualties vary, depending on who is tendering the figures. Usually, official sources are far more conservative than eye-witness accounts in such matters. Security agencies, when they are interested parties to the dispute, as the Army and Police are in this case, usually provide figures that will not scare the populace but which, from experience again and again, are usually vastly under-estimated – and deliberately so.

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In contrast, the victims, their relatives, supporters, and sympathisers usually present grotesque figures of casualties to whip up sentiments and garner support. Unfortunately here, the hospitals, which should provide accurate figures, are handicapped. Not all casualties end up in hospitals. Sometimes, those who do the killing also go away with the corpses to cover up their tracks. And where the victims are Muslims, religious zealots also usually hurriedly bury the victims ever before they had breathed their last. So, it is going to be difficult to say for sure how many Shiites have been killed by the security forces or will still be killed if the IMN keeps its vow to continue their protest until all of them are killed.

What is certain, however, and which even the security forces had admitted to, is that some Shiites have died as a result of gunshots fired by the security forces; which means that the security forces admitted to killing demonstrating Shiites. It could be one, two, three, four, five, six persons – the trifles the security forces are willing to admit – or the humongous and damning figures of 21, 22, 23, 24 or even 42 that the Shiites themselves allege. If we admit that the death of a single Nigerian, even in natural circumstances, least of all the unnatural, diminishes each and every one of us, then, there is no defending the figure of the dead in this case. One dead person is enough for all of us to hang our heads and do some soul-searching. But, then, we know that life has got so cheap here in recent times that pogroms and wiping out of whole families, clans, and villages mean nothing anymore. Our conscience is dulled and we take the killings around us in our strides.

The Shiites say they are insisting on their right to freely associate and assemble; especially so to ventilate their grievances against the continued detention of their leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, who has been in detention since 2015. Government calls it safe haven or protective custody but the Shiites and many other Nigerians describe is as unjust incarceration, especially so since courts of competent jurisdiction have, again and again, granted the man bail, but to which the powers-that-be have demurred. We all can still remember the genesis of the current Shiite/Government face-off, which started in Zaria, Kaduna state when State-damning and authority-spurning Shiites insisting on being laws unto themselves obstructed and later squared up to the military. In the end, only God knows how many Shiites lost their lives.

Their leader had been carted into incarceration ever since. A civilised society rules by laws, not by whims and caprices. A democracy enforces the laws that society freely makes for its good governance and orderly conduct; respecting the rights, liberties, and freedoms of the same citizenry. Unfortunately, however, it is not every leader that possesses the education, finesse, and acculturisation this demands. Often, civilised conduct by State and non-State actors alike is like walking a tight rope; akin to the situation a Yoruba adage describes as that of a chicken which perches on a rope. Neither the chicken nor the rope will know any peace. But this is the demand that democracy, said to be the best form of government after an age-long search by humanity, makes of all of us.

Admittedly, the Shiites failed in their duties to uphold this demand. In its response to the excesses and irresponsible behaviour of the Shiites and the danger this posed to other citizens as well as to the nation as a corporate entity, Government itself has breached the cardinal principles anchoring the very essence of the State. Two wrongs, as they say, do not make a right. Government killed fleas with the sledge hammer it wielded against the Shiites in Zaria. Not done yet, it has presented itself as an outlaw in the sight of every right-thinking person the way it has spurned court judgments asking that bail be granted the Shiites’ leader. Local and international public opinion is decidedly against the President Muhammadu Buhari administration on this score.

Read the lips of envoys when they speak: Recently the United States of America ambassador to Nigeria said disrespecting court orders or stomping the rule of law is the worst form of corruption. Those were not friendly or timid language and must have made an impression on the Buhari administration; whether it did on the Shiites and whether their resolve to push for the enforcement of the rule of law as it pertains to their leader took encouragement from that ambassadorial rebuke of Buhari remains to be seen.

It is a thing of regret that the Shiites, a dangerous set of people no doubt, hold the high moral ground on this issue while government and its apparatuses have not found the right mix of policies to appropriately respond. Stick and carrot might have done a better job than this stick and still more stick approach. In a democracy, citizens, however vile, cannot be thrown into prison and the key thrown into the ocean. That offends not just the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of the victims it also bruises the sensibilities of every conscionable person.

More than that, it is a pointer to the essential nature of those who govern this way and a wake-up call that we, who are today’s free citizens, could become the next victim. Sad and ironic as this may seen, it becomes a fight for self to fight for the rights of elements as dangerous as religious fanatics such as the Shiites. The blame for this incongruous situation is not the citizens but that of an unthinking, daft, and myopic Government unable to differentiate its left hand from its right. Abrasive governance belongs in the Dark Ages. Convoluted democrats have no decent place in the Age of Enlightenment, which today’s democracy typifies; which is why, even in war situations, rules of engagement have been fashioned out to ensure that humanity does not descend into savagery. We have in prison cells former leaders serving time for crimes committed against humanity. Commensurate force must be employed to confront crises situations.

It is doubtful if that was the case between the Shiites and the security forces, calling to question the alibi of the security forces that it followed the internationally-sanctioned rules of engagement. The simple fact that we cannot count just one casualty on the side of the military exposes their defence as banal falsehood. If scores of Shiites, said to be armed and said also to be shooting guns at security forces, fell to the superior fire-power of the military, we should at least count one or two dead on the side of the military. Or were the military bullet-proof? Even those said to have been injured on the side of the military have remained ghosts receiving “treatment” in undisclosed locations. They should have known better than hide such casualties if truly they exist. As it were, it gives vibrancy to the Shiites’ story as victims while the security agencies are hanged out to dry as the oppressors.

Court judgments ought to, and must be respected, especially by Government that must lead with good examples. When Government itself is lawless, it discharges the citizens from their obligation to be law-abiding. A lawless Government teaches and emboldens its citizens to be lawless. It is also trite that an oppressive Government radicalises its own citizenry. This was how Boko Haram elements were radicalised by a Government that engaged in jungle justice and extra-judicial murders rather than tow the path of law. The Buhari administration, deaf and dumb to the outcries against its dictatorial tendencies, is towing similar lines with the Shiites. We may as well be witnessing the making of the next most deadly terrorist group in the world!

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Please note that Atiku is a performer; a go-getter and is 80 per cent better than Buhari. I will close my eyes and vote Atiku. About 85 per cent Christians will. God has endorsed Atiku. The London Economist magazine says Atiku will win. Atiku can never disappoint Nigerians. This is Atiku’s time.

—Prophet Israel, Kaduna

Iyiola Omisore made a serious but simple-looking mistake that will have dire consequences on his political career. He has mistakenly buried his political career just because of a pot of porridge. He forgot that PDP made him when he was under lock and key at Agodi prisons, where he contested and won the 1990 senatorial election. There was no reason other than his being a PDP stalwart that made him Chairman of the Senate committee on Appropriations. He can also not deny that PDP rallied round his governorship ambition in 2014. Notwithstanding Adeleke family’s political immaturity, he ought to have showed maturity by siding with PDP when it mattered most – but he frittered the opportunity on the altar of political expediency. Considering Gov. Rauf Aregbesola’s expletives, blackmail, and uncouth language in the past on Omisore, I am still livid and really disappointed in Omisore; more so with his well-canvassed article of faith with Osun state had he won the election. This he has now jettisoned for pedestrian, transient gains. The way some politicians reason at times leaves much to be desired!

—Prince Bola Olaoye, Osogbo

Omisore actually committed political suicide with his unwise decision to sell the mandate given to him by the people to APC. He was once the foremost critic of Aregbesola; why did he turn coat? Is it for selfish reasons or to rubbish PDP? He will surely regret his action very soon.

–Femi Joseph, Kogi State