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Mikky Attah
there are things that affect the psyche of the collective, and the effects manifest at certain critical times, when we least expect them to.
It is a fact that there were always youths in Cross River during past administrations just like in Governor Ben Ayade’s time. However, I do not believe that the ugly behaviour displayed by some youths in Calabar recently should be blamed on Gov. Ayade as the variable factor; rather, the circumstance of the times of the youths of Calabar is, to my mind, the cause of their “stinky thinking”, and I will explain by calling to remembrance a couple of events in the Ayade administration that were as epochal as they were definitive.
In the first case, a student of an all-girls school was sanctioned by her teacher over some misdemeanour, I think it was coming late to class. Unknown to this teacher, the girl had a relative who was an officer of the DSS, and she “reported” the teacher to her mother who contacted her DSS relative. The following day, as students were seated in class having their lessons, some DSS officers descended on the school, even though it wasn’t a visiting day. They further located that girl’s class and, storming the classroom, they OPENED FIRE. In a classroom filled with innocent, defenceless, unarmed, teenagers and their bewildered teacher, those officers fired LIVE BULLETS, sending the whole class, even the whole school, scampering for safety. This has never before happened in Nigeria’s history. Even the abduction of the Chibok girls in their dormitories six years ago did not involve such shooting, although weapons were brandished all through.
For the Calabar girls school shooting, some noise was made of it, and then silence. NOTHING was done after that, even to this day, by way of legal sanctions for that attempted murder. They just shot into a classroom, into a school of very young girls, and then went about as if that was normal. But,. like it or not, that action and the subsequent inaction SENT A MESSAGE TO THE YOUTHS OF CALABAR.
That message was that illegal entry, brutality and excessive use of lethal force are all tolerated behaviours.
The second incident happened at a most inauspicious time – on the eve of a certain official visit to Calabar by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. And it was just a minor thing that set off the next chain of events. A car malingered a little too long, so as to hinder the free flow of traffic in the heavily trafficked axis of Calabar Road just across from the U.J. Esuene Stadium. The policeman controlling traffic was not aware that the “offender” was also a uniformed person (and therefore, above traffic laws!). So, he proceeded to give the supposed “bloody civilian” a “dirty” slap, even as the man was trying to explain that he himself was a naval officer. Enraged by this, the navy man got out of his car, slapped back and then made some phone calls. The policeman knew then that it was not looking great, but no one could possibly have guessed the carnage that was to follow.
Hours later, a detachment of naval ratings in a surreptitious operation, crawling THROUGH THE CITY’S DIRTY GUTTERS, came to the Akim Police Station and what followed next was like a scene from a crime film. I had just closed from work at CRBC myself, just beyond the scene along the same IBB Way, and got back home moments before the evening massacre, or else I would not have been alive today to write this.
Those very heavily armed ratings ambushed the IBB Police Station and then proceeded wilfully to utterly destroy it. They shot indiscriminately at everyone, and they shot to kill. It is the best kept secret there now, how many policemen, commuters and passers-by were GUNNED DOWN by those ratings.
Scores of people were critically injured and hospitalized, with large sections of hospital wards dedicated to the treatment of critically wounded victims suffering from gunshot wounds.
My office covered and aired the visit of the State Deputy Governor and a senior Naval officer who was sent to Calabar from Abuja on Nigeria’s now normal “condolence visit”. A lot of other people escaped with less severe injuries and were treated and discharged or sought treatment at home.
The badly damaged police station, standing wretchedly, riddled with bullet holes and with blackened walls where attempts had also been made to burn it down remained in that awful state for several months. The state government promised to foot the bills of the injured survivors.
But after waiting endlessly for the federal government, the federal police or even the navy that carried out the mayhem and carnage, none of them came through to fix the badly damaged police station. That sent another message to the minds of the youths. Throughout all this, not once was there any condemnation from any quarters of the carnage, arson and mayhem. But now, when young hoodlums destroy a police station then there is round condemnation.
The Cross River State Governor had to bring out resources meant for the welfare and security of the citizens and use it to fix that police station. The damage done was so extensive that even the repairs took several months to complete, it was just like having to build a whole new police station.
The Cross River State government had very little choice in the matter. Calabar is known all over Africa and beyond for tourism, for its annual carnival, Calabar is known for hospitality and safety. Cross River State is known to be peaceful, in fact the number plate byline is: The People’s Paradise. Gov. Ayade himself has said it that, “ If you have never been to Calabar you have never really seen Nigeria.”
And so, with the level of inflow of tourists and visitors, the major police station along the only road to the airport, on the major road from the city centre, could not possibly be a half-torched, bullet-ridden police station. As a matter of fact, Akim Police Station lies along A major carnival route.
Its continuation in that derelict state would aimply scare away not only possible foreign investors as well as tourists, but even affect law-abiding hard working citizens whose morale would fall lower and lower at each passing.
A police station should otherwise stand as a symbol of law enforcement, it should be a beacon of security and a reference centre in the event of breakdown of law and order. It should not itself look like the epicentre of a war zone.
However, the emphasis here is not on the wilful destruction of lives and property by uniformed men.
It is my firm position that what failed to happen afterwards is what must have hardened, even concretised, the hearts and minds of Calabar youths.
Till TODAY, as I write, NOT ONE PERSON has been ARRESTED, tried to court or by now (years later) found guilty of murder, and/or destruction of of public property. NOTHING HAS HAPPENED.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”
It is true hoodlums raided business premises and looted wares. That is utterly condemnable. But it must also be noted with indignation the wicked, heartless warehousing of COVID-19 palliatives, hoarded from the poor and needy, and in many cases even left to rot. The Calabar youths simply re-looted the palliatives from the looters.
No, please do not get me wrong, because I am not supporting criminality or arson. What I am saying is that there are consequences for our actions, and also for our inactions.
I am saying that the #EndSARS protests in Calabar were a handy excuse for hoodlums and disgruntled elements to exploit.
I am saying that the three-day mayhem in Calabar was an event that was only waiting to happen. And blaming Ben Ayade for the ugly occurrence is tantamount to knocking on the wrong door.
Going decisively for the actual causatives will then lead to actual solutions, and even avert future tragedies.
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