There's a yoruba adage that says 'ilu ti ko si ofin, ko si ese' that literally translates "in Land where the are no rules there is no sin" I remember my Yoruba teacher in primary school saying this back in the day when trying to restore order amongst 'we' the over active/unruly kids in the class. It never really occurred to me how deep and succinct this adage is in relation to justice, peace and equity in a society of men.
Recently my mind has been obsessing about, crime and punishment, about what the Nigerian society is saying about crime pari-pasu what exactly it is doing. Its an Animal Farm society really, its a do as I say don't do as I do society. "The popular lady justice that adorns our theatres of Law, from the surpreme court to the customary court seems not to be blind after all, I suppose its scale of justice is equitable neither. Its sword it seems cuts through only the lowly and un-influential" Anon. So where am I going with these analogies?
BOKO-HARAM yes "the book no good crooner's", after all they have crept into our consciousness and have stamped their presence in a trail of blood, gore and terror. What do they want? An islamic state where western education as it were would be totally abolished. They also somewhere in there retinue of ever changing demands want the resignation of Mr. President. We the liberals have always posited that this is not a religious battle but time and time again "boko haram" has reiterated that this indeed is a Jihad. Let me not bore you with what you already know.
On the part of FGN and Mr President, the C in C of the nigerian armed forces spiritual and temporal, (I say this fully cognisant of the fact that a popular group called WITZAN gave him a chunk of his strongest spiritual backing during the 2011 electioneering process). We have equally heard a plethora of decisions and counter decisions, we have seen the use of brute force, we have heard a call for dialogue, and indeed "dialogue through BACK ROOM CHANNELS". well all that still being in tandem with president Jonathans proposed carrot and stick approach, we have also heared calls for amnesty for Boko Haram "at least MR presidents Ijaw brothers got millions at it" " some of them even became palace chiefs- from militant to Aso- Court chief!!!! Woooooow. Most hilarious being The presidents intermittent assertions "we are winning the war on terror" oh really!!!! Ok I'm beginning to bore you again.
Now somebody is beginning to ask what's the correlation of all these varying thoughts of yours Tope? Good question. I want to profer for His Excellency the one and only solution to the menace of insecurity and terrorism. JUSTICE!Yes JUSTICE to the high, the low, the weak, the strong the influential, the nobody, the rich the poor and what have you. Yes!!! Justice manifestly done in the eyes and mind of every strata of the society. JUSTICE.
For every crime, there must be a commensurate and corresponding punishment not minding whoever's ox is gored. We have lived in a country where as Obama put it "has powerful individuals and weak institutions" our entire justice system is weak. Time and time again Justice has been sacrificed on the alter of friendships (military/partisan/personal/influential). Is this actually a castigation of the JUDICIARY alone, Not exactly. The executive has many a time since the ungodly military era weakened the Judiciary through its process of selective justice. The judges can't go after the criminals themselves!!! No that's the Job of the Attorney General, the police and the attendant paraphanalia... But in a situation where the executive refuses to set the boys on the people complicit in every form of crime, from corruption to terrorism to oil and SUBSIDY payment theft, to land theft and all the other "easily besetting" crimes popular amongst the upper class high and mighty of this country,while the weaklings and the runts of the society are left to face the full wrath of the law for stealing "from a goat to a thousand Naira" is what has got us here. Justice needs to be served hot, justice has no friends or school mates or neighbours , party chairmen, godfathers or ex-presidents, justice just wants to be served hot to all and blind to all sentiments. Justice just has to be served.
I belong to the school of thought that beleives in RETRUBUTION as a form of administering criminal justice. More particularly the school of thought of J.M Finnis that beleives in RERIBUTIVE/DISTRIBUTIVE Justice. This group posits that "when a criminal commits a crime, he 'benefits' in a certain sense, for while other people restrain their actions in order to comply with the law, he casts off this burden of self-restraint and takes into consideration exclusively his own advantage." " If the free willing criminal were to retain this advantage, the situation would be as unequal and unfair as it would be for him to retain the tangible profits of his crime" - J.M Finnis. Hence all criminals must pay for their crimes to create a balance in the society.
Now back to the BH issue, who is on the right side of justice??? What would be seen as justice served????
Sometime back I was opportuned to watch an al-jazeera report recorded during the crisis that lead to the death of the BOKO HARAM leader Muhammed Yusuf, the video showed how able bodied young men were told to line up, lie down and were executed in the streets of Maiduguri by men of the Nigeria Police Force in broad day light. These young men were selected with no apparent criteria, they were not captured or killed in an exchange of fire, these were unarmed young men who were selected randomly from house to house raids and murdered in cold blood all for being members of a community that allegedly played host to the dreaded sect. At the end of that video, Muhammed Yusuf the Boko Haram leaders body was shown mutilated and shot dead with his handcuffs on as against the claim by the police that he was killed while trying to escape.
Now on whom should this JUSTICE be served??? What is JUSTICE in this context??? Is it killing all the leaders of BH or prosecuting them in the courts of law alone??? Justice of this matter swings both ways. A two edged sword. The government must show unreserved sincerity to bring every one culpable in the extra judicial killings of suspected BH members to book, and also go after everybody connected with boko haram from the powerful sponsors to the foot soldiers and bring them to book. In my opinion, it would be impossible for the government to claim that they have no incling as to who the major backers of this sect are. They just may belong to Nigeria's group of "untouchables".
Here are few ideas for the three tiers of Government:
The legislature has to be more pro active in making laws that relate to terrorism. Our criminal code and criminal procedure codes have to be updated swiftly to put Treason,Terrorism and Murder on equal footing so that we no longer have a situation where suspected BH members apply for and are granted bail. After a ll the courts are always reluctant to grant bail to offences that carry capital punishment.
» The Executive should stop acting as a shield to any criminal no matter who he is. Prosecution by the attorney general must be without preferential treatment. The executive must clearly set a precedence of decisive and strong leadership. I would never forget a quote by George Bush Junior in his address to the joint sitting of the legislature just before the troops were sent to Iraq. He said "either we take justice to the terrorists or we bring the terrorists to justice, justice would be done" that is what we want to see here too. Not necesarilly a war, but justice being metted out to each and every one of them Not Negotiations.
Negotiating with BH would only set another bad precedent for my generation and Nigeria generally. In my opinion the act of Negotiating with terrorists is the height of subversion of the course of justice. Ok let's say we negotiate and they agree to a permanent cease fire, the FG pronounces some form of Cash for Arms/ Amnesty for these nefarious criminals that have already claimed the lives of over 2,000 Nigerians from 2009 till date. There will be widely celebrated fragile peace till another hungry group that claims to be carrying out an assignment for 'Jesus Christ'(pls permit my cynicism) or an OPC or MASSOB will pick up arms against the state. Negotiating with Boko Haram will only set off a vicious cycle of "violence for a piece of the National Cake" and this is not good for an already fragile polity.
» The FG also has to hit the ground running with its policies like the 'Al Majiri' schools et al fast. A visit to Maiduguri and indeed most parts of Northern Nigeria will show you that there are a lot of idle, Uneducated and Jobless youth out there that are willing and able hands for the propagation of violence. When a young man without a job is offered a monthly stipend, and an AK 47 plus the seemingly irresistable offer of virgins in paradise, why wouldn't he pick up arms against the state?? The youth in these areas need to be positively engaged by the Government. We don't want to hear about road maps or blue prints, we want to see skills aquisition centres springing up everywhere in the North, we want to see the National Orientation Agency on regular rural sensitization programs, vigorously dis-abusing the mind of the youth and explaining the benefits of 'western' education to these people.
»The Judiciary, the final arbiter of hope for the common man, must rise up and indeed prove that it operates without fear or favour. The judiciary must set judical precedent that will serve as deterrent to anybody who would in future contemplate crimes against humanity. The idea of granting bail to suspected terrorists is alien to our criminal procedure laws and should remain so. The full wrath of the law must be visited on those who perpetuate these crimes against humanity.
In conclusion, I leave you with this quote by Harrison Ford
"Peace is not the absence of war but the presence of justice." There are no perfect society's anywhere in the world, but commitment to the better standards of equity, good faith and Justice always makes a difference. I want to see that in Nigeria I'm sure you do too. We can take it from here.
I hope I didn't bore you too much!.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.
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