Nigeria Content Online

Like a recurring
bad dream, one of the violence prone fault lines running across the
country erupted again on Tuesday, sending residents of Bauchi running
helter skelter and causing the death of some officers of the Nigerian
security apparatus and some civilians.

The people behind
this latest outrage, members of the so-called Boko Haram (literally:
western education is a sin) are well known to Nigerians. Last year, the
group embarked on an orgy of violence and destruction that affected
several states in Northeastern Nigeria and led to the deaths of
hundreds of people as security forces reacted with violence to curb
violence. Incidentally, one of the outcomes of that incident, and the
ham-fisted way in which security agencies responded was encapsulated by
the cold blooded murder of the then leader of the group – which a
member of the police force, most likely, helpfully leaked on the
Internet.

There is little
doubt that this group has reorganised under a new leader and its
members are now doubly embittered against the state. Last year’s bloody
crackdown must have added to their social antipathy on top of the
existing conditions that had fed their protest in the first place.
Going by Tuesday’s attack on the prison – reminiscent of their attack
on police stations last year, it appears this group is still wedded to
its beliefs in violence and has learnt nothing from the killing of its
members last year.

More surprising is
the reality that our security forces have also not learnt much from the
other time. Despite lengthy investigation and an even lengthier report
– some 17 reports to the Presidency by some counts – the group was
still able to plan and launch a major attack in a cosmopolitan state
capital such as Bauchi, and was able to shut the town down for hours.

The presidency has
acted robustly by firing the head of the police and that of the State
Security Services and new men put in their place. But this is hardly
the solution to the issue, as one of those reports must have pointed
out.

One place to look
is the criminal justice system. Hundreds of people arrested over last
year’s violence are still being processed without any likelihood that
they will receive justice anytime soon. Matter of fact, there is some
sense to the attack launched on the prison, as the Boko Haram were able
to forceful free all prisoners – including some of their own members
detained within the facility.

It is easy to see
how the disgust with ‘westernisation’ spreads, especially if this is
represented by an unresponsive federal judicial and security system and
clueless state political leadership. It is likely another bout of
arrests will be carried out after Tuesday’s rampage and the suspects
will simply disappear into the maws of the judicial system. They will
be an addition to hundreds of thousands of suspects from various other
disturbances in the country.

The Ministry of
Justice would do well to hasten the trials of these detainees and
release those found innocent. This would serve to strengthen the
people’s confidence in the system and reduce their default reaction to
take the law into their own hands.

Government should
also use this opportunity to reorganise the intelligence gathering and
civil law enforcement agencies. It is apt to punish the head of such
agencies, but the rot surely goes beyond the two men. Their
replacements would do well to look into this.

But beyond this is the now tiresome call for our political leaders
to do the job for which they were actually elected. Groups such as Boko
Haram thrive on the misery and poverty of the people and a functional
society should reduce their allure. All arms of government need to
rebuild Nigeria’s infrastructure and nurse the economy back on track.
Failure to do that will ensure that the fault lines continue to erupt
into violence – and at a growing cost to society.