ICC’s amber warning for Nigeria

After much vacillation, erstwhile service chiefs of Nigerian armed forces eventually left and have since been replaced. Coming only weeks (or even months) ahead of the International Criminal Court’s proposed investigation of crimes against humanity in Nigeria, exit of the former service chiefs is unlikely to affect the probe.
The ICC panel was in response to a series of petitions by those on the receiving end of crimes against humanity by Nigerian security forces in the last 20 years. It is too late to raise the issue of soveraignty. Why did Nigeria, indeed, African countries sign up to the Rome Statute? On display were ignorance, timidity, short-sightedness and inferiority complex. What, for example, stopped Nigeria from insisting on signing the Rome Statute only on the condition that Britain, United States, Russia, Israel, etc, also signed at the same ceremony? Instead, Nigeria and other African (lackey) nations were intimidated by those world powers to sign the document and, being non-signatories, they (the world powers) are not liable or vulnerable to ICC sanction or even investigations.
Looking back today, it was God’s grace that Nigeria, even if ignorantly, signed the Rome Statute. Otherwise, Nigerians, at the slightest opportunity, might be shot on the streets by security forces anywhere in the country. So far, in the past 20 years, we have experience such massacres variously at Odi village (Bayelsa State), Zaki Biam (Benue State), Biafran agitators in Enugu, (Enugu State), Onitsha (Anambra State), Port Harcourt (Rivers State) and hundreds of Shiite Muslims along Kaduna-Zaria expressway (Kaduna State). There has not been a single investigation into why and how many were the fatal victims. Accordingly, somewhat surreptitiously, it seems to have become an unwritten policy for state murder. That clearly was why unarmed peaceful protesters at Lekki in Lagos were violently dispersed by Nigerian soldiers.
If Nigeria had not (again, ignorantly) signed up to Rome Statute, to where would we run for protection from murderous security forces? On its own, the security forces, as a group, got it into its head that Nigerians have no right to protest or demonstrate against government policies, with the consequence of being fatally shot without any repercussions. In any democratic world, protests, criticisms and demonstrations comprise the only control citizens have over government. Any murder(s) arising from a blatant violation of such human rights should be investigated and the culprits convicted.
It is, therefore, in the interest of Nigerian citizens (if not Nigerian government) that the probe panel of the International Criminal Court (ICC) should investigate the criminal recklessness of security forces in the past 20 years. No support for government must or even can condone routine murder of citizens exercising their rights. And unless such crimes are investigated NOW, the certainty, rather than the chances, are that more murders will be committed in the name of the state in the immediate future.
Somehow, security forces have gone berserk such that even when government is conceding the rights of Nigerian citizens to protest, these supposed subordinates countermand their Commander-in-Chief that they (soldiers and police officers) will not tolerate any protest or demonstration, whereas, even anti-government demonstration and protests are fundamental human rights under the constitution as long as such exercise is not violent. What is more, there have been landmark judicial pronouncements that Nigerians do not need the favour of police or government to demonstrate or stage protests. The latest mischief of the other side (Fela Anikulapo-Kuti referred to them as opposite people) is to infiltrate peaceful protesters/demonstrators with hired thugs damaging private and public property, to establish reason for violent repression/murder of innocent Nigerians exercising their rights under the constitution.
The probe panel of the ICC must not visit Nigeria for on-the-spot investigation? Why not? From the Obasanjo days of Odi village and Zaki Biam massacre through to the present arrogance, defiance, intimidation and complete disregard of constitutional rights by Nigerian security forces with their barracks mentality of the civil war days? Present generation of Nigerians must not know the magnitude of the tragedy of that dark period. It was precisely to avert a repeat of that era that the ICC was established by the United Nations, and the court was not meant for decoration purposes. The ICC is meant to make nations and bloodthirsty security forces accountable for crimes against humanity.
When crimes against humanity were being committed at Enugu, Onitsha, Zaki Biam, Port Harcourt, Odi, Kaduna-Zaria expressway and Lekki in Lagos, Nigerian security forces were warned many times in this column that the world had moved away from indifference to such state murders and that it was a question of time for Nigeria to be investigated for those murders. All the warnings were ignored. By the time Lekki bloodshed was recorded, world satellite was beaming on Nigeria, transmitting everything live, serving as the last straw. The young, well-educated peaceful protesters at Lekki were further alerting the world live from their GSM phones.
By the time street lights and CCTV cameras were mysteriously switched off around the Lekki area in Lagos with the indolent hope of covering up crimes against humanity, it was too late. The world knew all that happened. If they care to know, world satellite henceforth beams permanently on Nigeria as a potential theatre of crimes against humanity. To worsen matters, the idea of preserving territorial integrity at the blood-soaked price of crimes against humanity no longer makes any sell in the comity of nations. Otherwise, Sudan, Yugoslavia, Ethiopia, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union would each be as of old today.
United Kingdom is one of the oldest democracies in the world and better understands human desire for change. Rather than force, the country devolves power and more power regularly to the ethnic groups in the regions. Force alienates and antagonises, instead of offering any sense of belonging.. Constantly, all the componen administrations of United Kingdom are whacked by protesters and critics, without the involvement of blood-thirsty soldiers.
There is a compelling reason for the ICC panel to visit and investigate allegations of crimes against humanity in Nigeria, When the Cable Network News (CNN) investigated the bloodshed at Lekki, the reporter revealed that when Nigerian Army was approached for its side of the serious allegations made by relations of victims of the shootings and other survivors, the offer was rejected on the ground that a probe set up by Lagos State government was in progress. When the same Lagos State (Justice Okuwobi panel) invited Nigerian Army for details of its (army’s) role at the Lekki bloodshed, the army arrogantly and contemptuously refused to show up. That is why the ICC investigation is essential and Nigeria has no choice but to appear.
Whatever the outcome of the ICC investigation, it is a game changer. Before now, there were that ignorance and arrogance of Nigerian authorities on the prospects of ever being queried or sanctioned by the ICC, no matter the number of Nigerians murdered. The investigation alone will save Nigerians from being callously mowed down like chickens by security forces in the future. It will serve as a serious warning and Nigerians themselves are henceforth aware that no sovereignty will serve as licence to massacre them.
How many Biafran agitators were murdered in Enugu, Onitsha and Port Harcourt? How many villagers were killed by Nigerian security forces in Odi village, Bayelsa? How many Shiite Muslim adherents were murdered by Nigerian soldiers along Kaduna-Zaria expressway? Never again. That is the message of ICC probe.