By Henry Uche
Following the unending killings in Nigeria particularly in northern region, groups of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) across the country has called on the federal government of Nigeria to live up to its international obligations of ensuring accountability for crimes committed within its territory.
The groups enumerated the commonest mass atrocities in Nigeria to include: mob killings, herdsmen attacks, banditry, terrorist, secessionist related massacres, targeted killing of security personnel, communal attacks, pillages, extra-judicial killings, kidnappings, sextortion, ritual killings, politically motivated assassinations, security forces’ brutality, and forced disappearances.
In a communique issued by Global Rights-led Community of Practice Against Mass Atrocities at the end of a 2-day hybrid National Summit on Mass Atrocities themed: “Remembering to Prevent: Enhancing Collective Memory for Mass Atrocities Prevention,” the groups said the federal government must not only investigate and punish ongoing atrocities but must begin to account for the past atrocities that have jaded the country’s history.
In the communique, they called on Nigerian government to develop a national strategy on psycho-social support for victims of mass atrocities, recognizing the critical role psycho-social support plays in healing memories.
“The Nigerian state must begin to fulfil its constitutional duty of ensuring the security and welfare of its citizens and defend their rights to individual and communal life and bring perpetrators of atrocities to book in line with extant laws.
“There is an urgent need to promote the Nigerian identity in order to foster the culture of “an injury to one is an injury to all” and rally a critical mass of citizens to stand against mass atrocities perpetrated anywhere in the country, regardless of the geographical or religious identities of the victims.”
According to them, there is need for citizens-led movement for monitoring and documentation of mass atrocities for accountability as well as need for urgent mobilization by the Community of Practice to begin to investigate and study the worrisome rise in ritual killings which have grown in practice and spread.
“It is imperative for the members of the Community of Practice and other civic actors to increase citizens’ capacity on early warning and early response measures against mass atrocities.
“More so, Art is a critical tool in the fight against the culture of impunity, and the promotion of memory in Nigeria. It is therefore essential to enlist artists of various media, including artists, writers, actors, and musicians to foster a counter-culture,”
By way of observation, they identified that both state and non-state actors were perpetrators of these forms of violence; however, noted that the acquiescence of the state, and impunity were their major drivers.
They also applauded the resilience of Nigeria’s civic movements and actors in the face of mounting atrocities targeted against citizens and communities, and acknowledged the role played by members of the Community of Practice Against Mass Atrocities and other civic actors in the documentation, prevention and demand for accountability for mass atrocities in Nigeria, as well as their creation of various platforms for experience sharing and collective action.
“We observed that memory deficit and the lack of institutional capacity to latch memory continues to sustain chronic mass atrocities in Nigeria resulting in the mass killings and the wanton destruction of communities.
“We noted the acquiescence of the Nigerian government in the perpetration of various atrocities in and across the country. We are concern that mass atrocities had become endemic and were assuming a cultural dimension in Nigerian societies,”
They noticed the Nigerian government’s lack of political will to hold perpetrators of mass atrocities accountable for their crimes and expressed worry that the types of mass atrocities across Nigeria are rapidly metastasizing in size, geographic boundaries, actors and nature.
They remarked that the failure to address the dynamics and root causes of these atrocities are tearing the fabric of Nigeria’s nationhood and catalysing its economic depression, hence the need to strengthen grassroots communities’ capacity to implement early warning systems for detecting imminent attacks and taking appropriate safeguard measures against mass atrocities.
“We have observed that governance gaps are limiting the extent to which citizens can interact with public officials to demand accountability for mass atrocities.
“We therefore reiterate Chapter 2, Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (As Amended) which places the duty on the Nigerian state to ensure the security and welfare of the Nigerian people as its primary objective. Hence the onus to prevent mass atrocities by ensuring justice and adequate remedies for victims of mass atrocities falls within its purview,” they added.
The summit which affirmed that mass atrocities, invariably, are political crimes, had representatives from government Ministries and Agencies including: National Human Rights Commission, the National Orientation Agency, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Défense, and the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, as well as Development Partners including Heinrich Boll Foundation, Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI).