The Nigerian state carries the seed of its own destruction. What Nigeria does to itself, no country that genuinely seeks to thrive can contend with. Indeed, it is difficult, extremely difficult, to see a pathway to enduring peace and unity in the country as led, forget some attractive façade of the superstructure. And it all comes down to leadership. Or lack of it.
The sociological constitution of Nigeria’s political elite deserves an exhaustive interrogation. Here is a critical group that vowed, as it seems, never to be faithful to any honest aspiration of the country to nationhood, working assiduously to pillage all resources within reach, while at the same time undermining basic institutions that sustain the state. Sadly, while the country is already in a ditch, the political leadership elite is digging deeper.
Nigeria does often appear as a classical example of a kingdom divided against itself, which the scripture referred to. The ultimate fate of such a kingdom was foretold.
While there are various fronts and areas where the tragedy of poor leadership manifests across Nigeria, the South East is, at the moment, perhaps, the ultimate face of Nigeria’s determination to undo itself. It may yet succeed. Again, it comes down to leadership, or lack of it, in addressing existential problems of the state.
History is there for reference. From 1967 – 1970, Nigeria fought a bitter, destructive (un)civil war, that pitched one part of the country, the East, against the rest. In prosecuting the war, Nigeria secured the services of Egyptian and Russian mercenaries, among others, especially in the air. These foreigners weighed in decisively, to execute the campaign. All is, of course, fair, in war, so there may not be anything exceptional about the procurement of mercenaries to fight a war.
In 1970, the Nigerian civil war ended. Thereafter, the two warring sides, hitherto one entity, resumed their common existence as a country, with citizens continuing where they stopped in their inextricably-tied social and economic lives. For all of 45 years, in spite of the entrenched burden of ethnic differences, Nigeria trudged on. While there had consistently been charges of injustice and marginalization, from the South East, as a consequence of the civil war, there had also been both symbolic and substantial marks that the country was moving on, incrementally putting the memories of the civil war behind it. Then Muhammadu Buhari happened. In 2015, the retired infantry man became president in a democratic government.
History will record it to Buhari’s credit, that he successfully resuscitated a war that ended 45 years earlier and made it a major agenda of his presidency for almost all of his eight-year tenure. While most other Nigerians had substantially, put the war behind them and moved on, Buhari adid not seem to believe that the war had ended. What he did as president often betrayed what he thought, or even said, at some instances.
Until 2016, a year after Buhari arrived the presidency, the South East was, by far, the most peaceful and secured part of the country. Somehow, Buhari latched on a loose group of youths marching on streets around some cities in the South East, protesting marginalization, and used that as an entry point. His government subsequently ordered heavy security onslaught against the youths under the banner of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB). That became the root of criminalization of non-violent youths and subsequently, the launchpad for Buhari’s war against agitators of the South East. It came as no surprise that Buhari comfortably looked away from terrorists ravaging the northern fringes, but proceeded to proscribe the non-violent IPOB as a terrorist organization.
In a bid to promote IPOB as a terrorist organization, guns were pumped into the South East, mindless killings and all manner of criminalities became rife, mostly carried out by what even security agencies dubbed, Unknown Gun Men. None of the ghost Rambos were ever apprehended. There were and remains, many theories about who was master-minding what crime in the South East. For sure, criminals of all sorts sprouted. Once IPOB was linked with violence, an agendum was accomplished, but at what cost and to what end?
Every time, Nigerian Armed Forces and the Police declare confrontation with IPOB and Eastern Security Network (ESN, the security arm of IPOB),in the South East, there is always an air of incredulity in many. IPOB may have been pushed to a corner, but the group, by its known concept and agenda, was not a violent group. Worse than that, incidents of security agencies quickly attributing all criminalities in the South East to IPOB, even before any investigation, betrayed a mindset and an agenda. Of course, criminal elements of all categories now took to hiding behind the tag of IPOB. The major problem in the South East became how to know which IPOB is IPOB and which was sheer criminality. But that seemed to serve the purpose of some interests.
Enter Asari Dokubo, an irascible, violent militant in the Niger Delta area, who, in the wake of President Umaru Yar’Adua resolving the Niger Delta agitation for fair deal for oil communities, became a hired gun. It has turned out that under the Buhari government, someone hired Asari Dokubo and his gunmen and unleashed them on the South East. The killings by known and unknown gun men made some people happy.
Dokubo is not the type to hide his activities. He has always publicly said what he was into. Last Christmas eve, December 24, 2024, a video featuring an interview with Asari Dokubo went virile. The clip beamed light on the license granted him by the government of Nigeria, to kill. In the South East.
When the interviewer in the video asked Asari Dokubo whether he has resolved his misunderstanding with the military, hear him: “I did not have any face off with the military. They are the people looking for a face off… Even today, as we are talking, now in Imo, the military people; the Army, the Navy, are standing side by side with my men, fighting at Okigwe and Ideato, now, in Imo……. So, some of them coming to make this thing, I laugh…You know, why they do these things, is they are working for federal government, so there are certain things they cannot say… What they cannot say to other people…. they are saying that insurgency will not end……who is Simon Ekpa?….As I am talking with you (the interviewer), we have destroyed virtually all ESN and IPOB camp….As we are talking now, we are standing side by side with them(the Nigerian Armed Forces) in Okigwe, in operation”
He added, for clarity, “When you are fighting for self-determination, it can take any means, because the person oppressing you will not allow you to go, the person oppressing you will do everything to keep you….so it is not a new something, it is not new….”
Over two weeks after this video went virile, the Nigerian Armed Forces are yet to issue a statement, denying the proclamations of Asari Dokubo. So, Asari Dokubo’s men are “standing side by side” with men of Nigeria’s Armed Forces, fighting in some operation in Imo State. People are being killed, camps and houses are being destroyed, by Asari Dokubo, on behalf of the Nigerian State.
What is the correct expression for a situation where a state is promoting criminality against its own citizens? How further low can a state sink in depravity of conduct? So now, going by Dokubo’s testimony, the Nigerian state hired a non state actor, a mercenary, to go out and commit mayhem in parts of the country, against citizens, in a no war situation. Only in Nigeria!
The same Dokubo few months ago, publicly made it known that he was hired by the government, while Buhari was president, to provide security on Abuja-Kaduna Road. What a country?
There are many questions begging for answer in the arrangement that Asari Dokubo claims to have with the government of Nigeria, that grants him license to kill. He talks without restraint and with no regard for the Armed Forces of Nigeria, because, obviously, he operates with a higher command. Such a tragedy.
Dokubo’s latest information about the activities of his army, casts some shadow over the periodic briefing by the Armed Forces when they say they confront and neutralize insurgents in the South East. When next they talk tough about neutralizing insurgents and IPOB agitators in the forests of the South East, people definitely see them in light of those standing side by side with Asari Dokubo’s men.
It also helps to have in mind the words of Dokubo that “When you are fighting for self-determination, it can take any means, because the person oppressing you will not allow you to go, the person oppressing you will do everything to keep you….so it is not a new something”
What now is the level of believability of the campaign by the armed forces of Nigeria in the South East, when it is now known, in the words of Dokubo, that they are fighting a war to oppress and subjugate citizens?
By the same token, the massive extortionist ring in the South East, executed through scores of military and police check points should now be seen in the light of mechanisms of subjugation, not as means to ensure any security. Asari Dokubo can be referenced on this.
Unless and until the military releases a counter narrative to Dokubo’s, there is a serious moral and integrity question mark on the true intent of various security campaign in the South East.
Who gave Dokubo the license to kill? Who drew the contract between him and the state or the Armed Forces on this shady operational alliance? Does the agreement or contract break the monopoly of the military and state security agencies in the areas of deployment of state instruments of coercion, as obtains within states? Who pays for innocent citizens killed by non-state actors like Dokubo’s army, when they stand side by side with men of the Armed Forces in operation?
This indeed, is a kingdom divided against itself. Asari Dokubo stands as a star witness against Nigeria in its crime against its citizens.