I PRINCE CHUKWUEMEKA I. ONYESOH - 75th BIRTHDAY MESSAGE
CURBING STATE IMPUNITY, SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE & RESTRUCTURING OF THE FEDERATION. (An abstraction from my book " To the Rescue . . . Nigeria" (in print)
Last year for my 74th birth day, my message was titled“OPEN THE GATES – RELEASE THE INMATES AND NIGERIA’S DEVELOPMENT.” In that message I warned that celebrating the 2015 election which all indicators showed was heavily floored by the threat of violence of the kind which in the 2011 cost Nigeria more than 800 lives, was delusory. Pre-election threat of violence is black-mail and there is no democratic freedom of choice in the electorate voting under blackmail.
I reminded Nigerians that in 2011, five Colonels of the USA Institute of Strategic Studies, War College, Air Force University, Alabama did a marvelous study on Nigeria’s failure as a state in the Institute’s 156-page Occasional Paper No. 67 titled “Failed State 2030: Nigeria-A case Study” in which they theorized and warned that unless Nigeria worked hard on ten factors usually responsible for state failure, which were already highly visible and dominant in Nigerian affairs, Nigeria’s disintegration would commence in 2015 and end by 2030. They listed and extensively discussed these factors which portend imminent collapse and failure of any State:
“Nigeria’s lack of unifying national identity, history of tribal and religious conflicts, endemic corruption at all levels of government, poor national planning, uneven development, social disorder, rampant criminality, violent insurgency, and terminal weak governance.
Nigerian ruling elite, as usual, preferred to disregard this forecast by a US government arm and rather preferred to celebrate surviving the 2015 prediction dateline forecast by a US private Think Tank NGO of retired military scholars.
It is remarkable that whilst they celebrated Nigeria’s questionable 2015 survival fore cast, that by 2016 all the State failure indicators highlighted by the US War College had not only become prominent features of Nigerian life, but in many respects far exceeded the predicted levels. Instead of poor national planning, Nigeria now seems to be managed without any plan at all known to Nigerians. For the first six months of the new regime from May 29th, 2015, the country operated without an executive council. As if to heighten social disorder, rampant criminality, violent insurgency, Nigeria’s federal and state governments, except perhaps one state (Ekiti), have by acts of commission and omission, concessioned Nigeria to the world’s fourth ranked deadliest terrorist organization by deaths caused in 2014, the Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militants, and abandoned Nigerian communities under attack, to peace terms' negotiation with the terrorists; and what is more, arrogated citizenship right of freedom of movement to cattle, and in the process also granted the right to bear arms of the level of military assault weapons, without license, to terrorists. Bigotry, nepotism and non-inclusiveness and divisive management of Nigerian affairs at the centre became routine. The de- marketing of Nigeria by the leadership has generated capital flight of untold proportions and the stifling of the economy by over-centralization such as Treasury Single Account (TSA) for an economy and polity already too large and unmanageable for the low level of political manpower, integrity and technology locally available, contributed immensely to the ultimate collapse of the economy. Continued condonement by the Federal Government of the rebellion of twelve northern states against the Federation of Nigeria which proclaimed and instituted Sharia Law and religious police in their states, in flagrant violation of Section 10 of the Constitution, thus inciting their citizens to extremist religious fanaticism and heightening Islamic militancy, worsened the security situation in the region, thus compelling spending scarce resources in crushing the insurrection. The overt political corruption which has encouraged cattle rearers to bear arms of the level of military assault weapons (AK47) and kill, maim, rape and sack from their ancestral homes and farms with such impunity, citizens in Central and Southern Nigeria, while the security agencies look the other way at best and/or in some cases, outrightly intervene on the side of the herdsmen, like in the case of the 76 Ugwueshi community farmers in Awgu Local government Area of Enugu State, who were abducted by security agencies, transported across state judicial boundaries and detained in Umuahia prison in Abia state for over two weeks until Enugu State Governor was forced to personally intervene before a magistrate graciously freed them on bail. Waiving the investigation and prosecution of senior members of the government or government political party who have been openly indicted by indisputable facts in the public domain has left the impression of a one-sided anti-corruption war against government political opponents. The Central Bank of Nigeria’s flagrant abuse of allocation of scarce foreign exchange to pilgrims at about half the rate the real sector (industries, agriculture and commerce) cannot even get for importation of essential raw materials, machineries and spares, for prayers in the Holy Lands of Mecca and Jerusalem, perhaps for God’s intervention in Nigeria’s man-made woes, in place of a cohesive and constructive economic and political programs driven, managed and coordinated by tested experts in economics, public finance, international finance, commerce and development studies, law and politics confirms religious bigotry and creates the impression that the government has no serious economic plans. A penchant for bullets over debates and dialogues in resolution of conflicts and resistance in the Niger-Delta to the unfair exploitation of crude oil in their region has worsened militancy in the region thus forcing over 50% drop in crude export revenue. Mass murder of hundreds of unarmed demonstrators and agitators for separatism and indiscriminate detention of citizens without trial even against bail granted by courts of competent jurisdiction has dented the regimes human rights image and incited heightened resistance to tyranny. Overt efforts of the Executive Branch to emasculate the legislative branch, the bulwark of democracy, with duplicitous court trials and/or indictments, by anti-corruption agencies, the latter being mere agents of the executive branch, tend to conscript all branches of governance into a one-man dictatorship. Inconclusive elections, which seem to subvert all democratic doctrines, became the norm rather than the exception, with the partly and partially constituted Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declaring inconclusive most, if not all, elections conducted by the Commission since May 29, 2015.
All of the above are manifestations of high level impunity of untold proportions which among other infractions include extra judicial murder of thousands of Nigerian citizens by government security agencies annually.
Nigerians have been unduly docile on the impunities of government leaders, thereby failing to hold them to account for the powers vested in their offices. Impunity is responsible for grand and political corruption, extra-judicial killings, genocide and other international crimes. One regime after the other has preyed on this scandalous complaisance of Nigerians with atrocities committed by government leaders using the security agencies.
On Monday December 10, 2012, for example, then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoki, SAN, disclosed that the Nigerian Police had carried out extra-judicial killings of over 7,198 people in the four years preceding 2012, out of which 2,500 were detainees. The reaction of then President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Okay Nwali, the same day, a mere call on the Federal Government (FG) to investigate crimes which the Chief Law Officer of the Federation had admitted FG security agents committed. Till date there is no record that the Inspectors General with those four years of police murder of the 7,198 citizens have been taken to task.
There have been several cases of such extra-judicial killings and unconstitutional deportation of Nigerians from Nigeria, to which Nigerians’ have not meaningfully reacted.
However there have been a number of cases where Nigerians compelled the Nigerian government to account for impunity, but those were limited to financial compensations only.
For the 1,000 to 2,500 killed in Odi massacre of 20th November 1999, Odi community sued the Federal government for the lives lost and destruction of the community, claiming 100billion Naira compensation and the court awarded 37.6billion Naira compensation. A London Court compelled Nigeria to negotiate and settle for 15billion Naira prompt payout.
In the case of Zaki Biam massacre of October 2001, the Zaki Biam community sued the Federal Government for 100-200 lives lost and several thousand displaced and asked for compensation of 200billion Naira. The court awarded 41.8billion Naira but a settlement of 8billion Naira was negotiated and paid on the unwarranted intrusion of Benue State government.
Gbaramatu communities in Warri South-West Local Government of Delta State was invaded by the Nigerian Army on May 5, 2009, killing and maiming residents and also destroying property worth billions of Naira. The community sued the President, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Major General Sarkin Yakin Bello - the leader of the invasion, at the Federal High Court, Asaba, asking the Court to declare the bombardment unconstitutional and a gross violation of their rights. The court ruled in their favour and awarded special, aggravated and punitive damage claims of a total of N99 billion, which FG had after over three years neither appealed nor settled. A London Court has just registered the judgement for the attachment of the assets of the Government of Nigeria in England and Wales for settlement of the Nigerian Court award.
These are huge sums of settlement and can rebuild physical structures damaged but cannot restore any lives taken. Most importantly, regardless of the size of the awards, they have not deterred subsequent Nigerian regimes from massacring more Nigerians at will.
Nigerian Security agencies under present President Buhari have not hesitated in repeating the same reckless massacre of 347 Shiites in Zaria on December 12, 2015, as admitted by Kaduna State Government before the Public Hearing of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry and the serial slaughters of hundreds of unarmed Biafran agitators in Asaba, Onitsha, Awka, Aba and Port Harcourt from 2015 till date.
It is obvious that financial penalty alone cannot stop impunities by tyrannical regimes. Only criminal prosecution, conviction and sentencing (long term), of misbehaving former and/or current government leaders can deter impunity. It is doubtful that there is any such tenacity of altruistic purpose in Nigerians generally. Mercantilism and chauvinism seem to dominate the entire political space. Besides ethnic and religious politics would be waiting to invade any such drive; dividing the group pursuing justice for the people and strangulating any such moves. Impunity must be fought to a standstill.
One unpunished act of impunity breeds many. Political thinkers and philosophers from Plato (428-348BC), the Greek philosopher and one of the founding fathers of philosophy, to Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), the French political thinker and historian and Albert Einstein (1879-1955), the world acclaimed theoretical physicist, famous for his development of the general theory of relativity, also known for the influence of his work on philosophy of science, all agree that in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve and that the world is indeed in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.
The Council of Europe summarized the need and urgency to fight impunity wherever its ugly face surfaces in the preamble to their Guidelines on Eradicating Impunity for Serious Human Rights Violations:
"Considering that a lack of accountability encourages repetition of crimes, as perpetrators and others feel free to commit further offenses without fear of punishment; . . . impunity must be fought as a matter of justice for victims, as deterrent to prevent violations, and to uphold the rule of law and public trust in the justice system, including rampant circumstances in which there is a legacy of mass murder of unarmed civilians by security agencies."
International trials, convictions and sentencing of atrocious leaders of various countries of the world, are available to the serious minded who can document and produce evidence at trials. Only those who dare have a chance to succeed. The avenues for bringing about trials are various; have been tried, tested and found not wanting.
The United Nations Human Rights Council receives petitions, investigates and tries cases in member nations and of citizens, on crimes against humanity including murder, massacres, dehumanisation, extermination, extrajudicial punishments, death squads, forced disappearances, kidnappings, unjust imprisonment, slavery, torture, rape, and political or racial repression, identified as part of a widespread or systematic practice.
The pogrom of 1966 and torture to death by starvation of over 2 million Igbo non-combatants, which Nigeria controversially claimed as legitimate instrument of warfare, during the 1967-70 uncivil war under General Gowon, qualify for investigation and trial by the UN Human Rights Council.
Nigeria was admitted to UN on 7th October, 1960; and therefore Nigerian citizens are entitled as of right to the protection of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN Charters, Conventions, Covenants and treaties, subject to the protocols of each instrument.
Nigerians therefore can file petitions before the Human Rights Council (successor to UN Commission on Human Rights - UNCHR) against General Olusegun Obasanjo and his security chiefs for Odi and Zaki Biam massacres, both of which took place under him as Head of State, in 1999 and 2001 respectively, before the Rome Statute brought the International Criminal Court into effect on 1st July 2002.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) brought into being by The Rome Statute adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome on 17th July 1998 and entered into force on 1st July 2002. ICC exercises jurisdiction over four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression and they are “not . . . subject to statute of limitations.”. The United Nations Security Council may however authorize extra jurisdiction. Nigeria signed the Rome Statute in June 2000, ratified and deposited it on 27th September 2001, but the Rome Statute came into force in 2002.
Gbaramatu was invaded on 22nd June 2009. President Yardua died on 15th May 2010 and Dr. Jonathan was sworn-in as President. The Minister of Defence, the Chief of Army Staff and the Task Force Commander, Major General Sarkin Yakin Bello (now retired) should be brought before the ICC to account for the criminal aspect of the judgement of Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Asaba.
The same time, ICC should be petitioned to investigate and if found culpable charge President Buhari and his security chiefs for the various well-documented mass killings of, brutalities to and detention of unarmed pro-Biafra demonstrators, all in 2015/16 and the extra-judicial murder of 347 Shiites in Zaria between December 12and 14, 2015 and the indefinite detention without trial of Shiites and their leader; and the Director of Radio Biafra, London against court ordered bail.
Nigeria human rights NGOs, must find out who were the Inspectors General of the Nigerian Police in the four years preceding 2012 during which the over 7,198 people were extra-judicially killed, as already submitted by AGF Mr. Adoki. A National Assembly public hearing would compel complete disclosure.
Cynicism, ethnic/religious chauvinism/extremism and mercantilism dominate the politics of Nigeria and it is very doubtful if any political leader or associates who depend or associate with politicians for financial or business patronage would allow this process to play out without mobilising against it.
Nigerians should be ashamed that a much poorer and less literate country like Chad with much less population of 12.83 million (2013), with 1,284,000km2 land space, almost 50% of which is desert, against Nigeria’s 923,768km2 (with only encroachment of desert in a few uppermost northern states), was able to wage over 20 –year war against the impunity of their former ruler, Hissene Habre and was able to compel the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) constituted by the African Union on the injunction of a UN Court order to Senegal, to convict and sentence Mr. Habre to a life sentence after a trial in Dakar, on Monday 30th May 2016, for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture including rapes he personally committed in Chad between 1982 and 1990 whilst he was President of Chad. Habré’s eight-year reign of terror and political repression had led to the deaths of an estimated 40,000 Chadians. Despite major political barriers, victims working with civil society groups, led an unyielding national, regional and global campaign which led to the establishment in August 2012 of the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) which investigated, tried and sentenced Mr. Habre.
The case sets a new benchmark for efforts to end impunity in Africa, as it is the first universal jurisdiction case on the continent, and the first time a former African leader has been prosecuted for crimes under international law before a court in another African country.
Other international Trials, Convictions and Sentences -
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY):
Slobodan Milošević, as the former President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia, was the most senior political figure to stand trial at the ICTY. He died on 11 March 2006 during trial for charges of genocide and complicity in genocide, in territories within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Radoan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, was convicted on March 24, 2016 and sentenced to 40 years in prison for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by a United Nations Tribunal and for leading a campaign of terror against civilians in the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. Mr. Karadzic conviction is a forceful manifestation of the international community’s implacable commitment to accountability. The conviction offered a note of closure to the bloodiest European conflict since World War II, a civil war that tore apart the former Yugoslavia and left more than 100,000 people dead.
(ii) International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Created by UN Security Council in 1994)
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was a court under the auspices of the United Nations for the prosecution of offenses committed in Rwanda during the genocide which occurred there during April 1994. Over 800,000 mainly of the minority Tutsis ethic group by majority Hutsis were massacred within 100 days.
Jean-Paul Akayesu – interim Prime Minister - life sentence in October 1998.
Jean Kambanda - Former Rwandan Prime Minister became the first head of a government ever to be convicted of genocide and sentenced to life by an international court. Sixty-one others out of 93 indicted, were convicted and sentenced, including politicians, businessmen, high-ranking military and government officials, heads of media and religious leaders.
(iii) The International Criminal Court (ICC):
(a) Darfur, Sudan
In April 2007, ICC issued arrest warrants against the former Minister of State for the Interior, Ahmad Harun, and a Militia Janjaweed leader, Ali Kushayb, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
On 4 March 2009, the ICC also issued a warrant of arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity on Omar Al Bashir, President of Sudan, having decided his position as Head of State does not grant him immunity against prosecution before the ICC. He remains a wanted criminal in ICC records and could be arrested any time.
(b) Conviction of Charles Taylor by I.C.C.
The first African president to be prosecuted at the International Court, Charles Taylor, 54 years old, was in April 2002 convicted for aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, sexual slavery and enforced amputations and for supporting rebels who carried out atrocities in Sierra Leone in return for "blood diamonds" and was sentenced to 50 years in jail.
(c)The trial of Laurent Gbagbo, former President of Ivory Coast is undergoing trial on four counts of crimes against humanity stemming from the violence surrounding the 2010 presidential election and has been in detention since his arrest in April 2011.
(d) President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and his Deputy, William Ruto, were arraigned before ICC, charged with crimes against humanity in connection with the 2007-8 post-election chaos in Kenya that left more than 1,200 people dead and many others wounded or raped; and about 600,000 were forced to flee, but the charges were dropped for want of evidence, understandably withheld by the government of Kenya under him as President of Kenya.
Until the enslaved and oppressed people of Nigeria break out of the present cocoon of docility and challenge the oligarchy with charges of international crimes they committed from 1966 to date, including (a) various riots in the North which have consumed hundreds of thousands of Nigerian citizens and destroyed hundreds of billions of naira worth of private property, and (b) the duplicitous role of the Federal Government in allowing Cattle Fulani Herdsmen to terrorise the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria, before the International Criminal Court (ICC), or such other commissions or tribunals that are enabled by UN or AU to try and put international criminals away long term, or in foreign municipal courts where Nigeria has substantial assets to pay for damages caused by the terrorists, no Nigerian outside the oligarchy can enjoy any real sense of liberty, freedom or mutual respect as is common in the modern world.
The day Nigerians secure convictions on any past or present leader or Security chief of Nigeria for crime against humanity for any of the international crimes they committed whilst in office and for which Nigerian courts have found them liable; or arrest warrants from ICC on serving Head of State and/or his Security Chiefs for on-going mass murder of unarmed street demonstrators and/or condoning/conspiring with world acknowledged terrorists to kill and menace Nigerian citizenry; and even General Gowon for the atrocities committed against Eastern Nigerians (1966-1970), that day will mark the beginning of liberation of Nigeria from the vice grip of the oligarchy. And the earlier the better!
Crimes, local or international, are not time bound. Therefore the pogrom and genocide of 1966-70 are still on the table, along with various unchallenged outstanding atrocities.
SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE
The 2014 President Jonathan’s National Conference fell far below minimum requirements in its intentions and structure, essential to bring about any change in the present enslaved polity of Nigeria. The details are in my work, To theResque.
The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as an Enslavement Ordinance:
More extensive research is required to highlight how the oligarchy devised the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as an Enslavement Ordinance and it has indeed enslaved other Nigerians by (a) the falsehood told in its preamble “We the People of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: Having firmly and solemnly resolved:”; (b) the undemocratic process by which it was brought into being and (c) its various contentious and contradictory sections which deny the people of Nigeria of various fundamental rights guaranteed and ratified by Nigeria in the UN Charter, Treaties and Covenants and African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. My works; The Uncivil War; To the Rescue - Nigeria and Open the Gates and Release the Inmates and Nigeria’s Development contain a lot of eye-opener and intermediate materials on Nigeria’s enslavement, which well expanded with more indebt studies should be presented to the UN Security Council for granting of extra jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court to try the oligarchs of Nigeria for enslaving the peoples of Nigeria with an Enslavement Ordinance branded the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
Mass Mobilisation for Sovereign National Conference and Re-Structuring of the Federation : Having, by international litigation caged in the government of Nigeria within the limits allowed it by even its controversial Constitution, the people can freely mobilise unfettered for a Sovereign National Conference of all the Ethnic Nationalities of Nigeria, as free peoples, to re-affirm their wish for the continued federation of Nigeria; and if they do, the New Constitution that would restructure the country into a federation of semi-autonomous zones like the regions of the First Republic, guaranteeing equality and mutual respect between the different nationalities with differing values; and with the right to self-determination and secession guaranteed every group in very clear and transparent terms.
Undoing the present Enslavement Ordinance cannot be achieved by magic wand. It requires patience and perseverance and might take upwards of years of well organised hard work, consistency and diligence.
Prince Chukwuemeka I. Onyesoh ( Author, Writer, Civil & Democracy Rights Protagonist)
President,
Forum for the Promotion of National Ethos and Values ( FPNEV)
Civil and Democracy Rights NGO - CAC/IT/No./71471.
Enugu.
14th Sept. 2016.
Sent from my iPad
CURBING STATE IMPUNITY, SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE & RESTRUCTURING OF THE FEDERATION. (An abstraction from my book " To the Rescue . . . Nigeria" (in print)
Last year for my 74th birth day, my message was titled“OPEN THE GATES – RELEASE THE INMATES AND NIGERIA’S DEVELOPMENT.” In that message I warned that celebrating the 2015 election which all indicators showed was heavily floored by the threat of violence of the kind which in the 2011 cost Nigeria more than 800 lives, was delusory. Pre-election threat of violence is black-mail and there is no democratic freedom of choice in the electorate voting under blackmail.
I reminded Nigerians that in 2011, five Colonels of the USA Institute of Strategic Studies, War College, Air Force University, Alabama did a marvelous study on Nigeria’s failure as a state in the Institute’s 156-page Occasional Paper No. 67 titled “Failed State 2030: Nigeria-A case Study” in which they theorized and warned that unless Nigeria worked hard on ten factors usually responsible for state failure, which were already highly visible and dominant in Nigerian affairs, Nigeria’s disintegration would commence in 2015 and end by 2030. They listed and extensively discussed these factors which portend imminent collapse and failure of any State:
“Nigeria’s lack of unifying national identity, history of tribal and religious conflicts, endemic corruption at all levels of government, poor national planning, uneven development, social disorder, rampant criminality, violent insurgency, and terminal weak governance.
Nigerian ruling elite, as usual, preferred to disregard this forecast by a US government arm and rather preferred to celebrate surviving the 2015 prediction dateline forecast by a US private Think Tank NGO of retired military scholars.
It is remarkable that whilst they celebrated Nigeria’s questionable 2015 survival fore cast, that by 2016 all the State failure indicators highlighted by the US War College had not only become prominent features of Nigerian life, but in many respects far exceeded the predicted levels. Instead of poor national planning, Nigeria now seems to be managed without any plan at all known to Nigerians. For the first six months of the new regime from May 29th, 2015, the country operated without an executive council. As if to heighten social disorder, rampant criminality, violent insurgency, Nigeria’s federal and state governments, except perhaps one state (Ekiti), have by acts of commission and omission, concessioned Nigeria to the world’s fourth ranked deadliest terrorist organization by deaths caused in 2014, the Cattle Fulani Herdsmen Militants, and abandoned Nigerian communities under attack, to peace terms' negotiation with the terrorists; and what is more, arrogated citizenship right of freedom of movement to cattle, and in the process also granted the right to bear arms of the level of military assault weapons, without license, to terrorists. Bigotry, nepotism and non-inclusiveness and divisive management of Nigerian affairs at the centre became routine. The de- marketing of Nigeria by the leadership has generated capital flight of untold proportions and the stifling of the economy by over-centralization such as Treasury Single Account (TSA) for an economy and polity already too large and unmanageable for the low level of political manpower, integrity and technology locally available, contributed immensely to the ultimate collapse of the economy. Continued condonement by the Federal Government of the rebellion of twelve northern states against the Federation of Nigeria which proclaimed and instituted Sharia Law and religious police in their states, in flagrant violation of Section 10 of the Constitution, thus inciting their citizens to extremist religious fanaticism and heightening Islamic militancy, worsened the security situation in the region, thus compelling spending scarce resources in crushing the insurrection. The overt political corruption which has encouraged cattle rearers to bear arms of the level of military assault weapons (AK47) and kill, maim, rape and sack from their ancestral homes and farms with such impunity, citizens in Central and Southern Nigeria, while the security agencies look the other way at best and/or in some cases, outrightly intervene on the side of the herdsmen, like in the case of the 76 Ugwueshi community farmers in Awgu Local government Area of Enugu State, who were abducted by security agencies, transported across state judicial boundaries and detained in Umuahia prison in Abia state for over two weeks until Enugu State Governor was forced to personally intervene before a magistrate graciously freed them on bail. Waiving the investigation and prosecution of senior members of the government or government political party who have been openly indicted by indisputable facts in the public domain has left the impression of a one-sided anti-corruption war against government political opponents. The Central Bank of Nigeria’s flagrant abuse of allocation of scarce foreign exchange to pilgrims at about half the rate the real sector (industries, agriculture and commerce) cannot even get for importation of essential raw materials, machineries and spares, for prayers in the Holy Lands of Mecca and Jerusalem, perhaps for God’s intervention in Nigeria’s man-made woes, in place of a cohesive and constructive economic and political programs driven, managed and coordinated by tested experts in economics, public finance, international finance, commerce and development studies, law and politics confirms religious bigotry and creates the impression that the government has no serious economic plans. A penchant for bullets over debates and dialogues in resolution of conflicts and resistance in the Niger-Delta to the unfair exploitation of crude oil in their region has worsened militancy in the region thus forcing over 50% drop in crude export revenue. Mass murder of hundreds of unarmed demonstrators and agitators for separatism and indiscriminate detention of citizens without trial even against bail granted by courts of competent jurisdiction has dented the regimes human rights image and incited heightened resistance to tyranny. Overt efforts of the Executive Branch to emasculate the legislative branch, the bulwark of democracy, with duplicitous court trials and/or indictments, by anti-corruption agencies, the latter being mere agents of the executive branch, tend to conscript all branches of governance into a one-man dictatorship. Inconclusive elections, which seem to subvert all democratic doctrines, became the norm rather than the exception, with the partly and partially constituted Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declaring inconclusive most, if not all, elections conducted by the Commission since May 29, 2015.
All of the above are manifestations of high level impunity of untold proportions which among other infractions include extra judicial murder of thousands of Nigerian citizens by government security agencies annually.
Nigerians have been unduly docile on the impunities of government leaders, thereby failing to hold them to account for the powers vested in their offices. Impunity is responsible for grand and political corruption, extra-judicial killings, genocide and other international crimes. One regime after the other has preyed on this scandalous complaisance of Nigerians with atrocities committed by government leaders using the security agencies.
On Monday December 10, 2012, for example, then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Mohammed Adoki, SAN, disclosed that the Nigerian Police had carried out extra-judicial killings of over 7,198 people in the four years preceding 2012, out of which 2,500 were detainees. The reaction of then President of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Okay Nwali, the same day, a mere call on the Federal Government (FG) to investigate crimes which the Chief Law Officer of the Federation had admitted FG security agents committed. Till date there is no record that the Inspectors General with those four years of police murder of the 7,198 citizens have been taken to task.
There have been several cases of such extra-judicial killings and unconstitutional deportation of Nigerians from Nigeria, to which Nigerians’ have not meaningfully reacted.
However there have been a number of cases where Nigerians compelled the Nigerian government to account for impunity, but those were limited to financial compensations only.
For the 1,000 to 2,500 killed in Odi massacre of 20th November 1999, Odi community sued the Federal government for the lives lost and destruction of the community, claiming 100billion Naira compensation and the court awarded 37.6billion Naira compensation. A London Court compelled Nigeria to negotiate and settle for 15billion Naira prompt payout.
In the case of Zaki Biam massacre of October 2001, the Zaki Biam community sued the Federal Government for 100-200 lives lost and several thousand displaced and asked for compensation of 200billion Naira. The court awarded 41.8billion Naira but a settlement of 8billion Naira was negotiated and paid on the unwarranted intrusion of Benue State government.
Gbaramatu communities in Warri South-West Local Government of Delta State was invaded by the Nigerian Army on May 5, 2009, killing and maiming residents and also destroying property worth billions of Naira. The community sued the President, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Major General Sarkin Yakin Bello - the leader of the invasion, at the Federal High Court, Asaba, asking the Court to declare the bombardment unconstitutional and a gross violation of their rights. The court ruled in their favour and awarded special, aggravated and punitive damage claims of a total of N99 billion, which FG had after over three years neither appealed nor settled. A London Court has just registered the judgement for the attachment of the assets of the Government of Nigeria in England and Wales for settlement of the Nigerian Court award.
These are huge sums of settlement and can rebuild physical structures damaged but cannot restore any lives taken. Most importantly, regardless of the size of the awards, they have not deterred subsequent Nigerian regimes from massacring more Nigerians at will.
Nigerian Security agencies under present President Buhari have not hesitated in repeating the same reckless massacre of 347 Shiites in Zaria on December 12, 2015, as admitted by Kaduna State Government before the Public Hearing of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry and the serial slaughters of hundreds of unarmed Biafran agitators in Asaba, Onitsha, Awka, Aba and Port Harcourt from 2015 till date.
It is obvious that financial penalty alone cannot stop impunities by tyrannical regimes. Only criminal prosecution, conviction and sentencing (long term), of misbehaving former and/or current government leaders can deter impunity. It is doubtful that there is any such tenacity of altruistic purpose in Nigerians generally. Mercantilism and chauvinism seem to dominate the entire political space. Besides ethnic and religious politics would be waiting to invade any such drive; dividing the group pursuing justice for the people and strangulating any such moves. Impunity must be fought to a standstill.
One unpunished act of impunity breeds many. Political thinkers and philosophers from Plato (428-348BC), the Greek philosopher and one of the founding fathers of philosophy, to Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), the French political thinker and historian and Albert Einstein (1879-1955), the world acclaimed theoretical physicist, famous for his development of the general theory of relativity, also known for the influence of his work on philosophy of science, all agree that in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve and that the world is indeed in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.
The Council of Europe summarized the need and urgency to fight impunity wherever its ugly face surfaces in the preamble to their Guidelines on Eradicating Impunity for Serious Human Rights Violations:
"Considering that a lack of accountability encourages repetition of crimes, as perpetrators and others feel free to commit further offenses without fear of punishment; . . . impunity must be fought as a matter of justice for victims, as deterrent to prevent violations, and to uphold the rule of law and public trust in the justice system, including rampant circumstances in which there is a legacy of mass murder of unarmed civilians by security agencies."
International trials, convictions and sentencing of atrocious leaders of various countries of the world, are available to the serious minded who can document and produce evidence at trials. Only those who dare have a chance to succeed. The avenues for bringing about trials are various; have been tried, tested and found not wanting.
The United Nations Human Rights Council receives petitions, investigates and tries cases in member nations and of citizens, on crimes against humanity including murder, massacres, dehumanisation, extermination, extrajudicial punishments, death squads, forced disappearances, kidnappings, unjust imprisonment, slavery, torture, rape, and political or racial repression, identified as part of a widespread or systematic practice.
The pogrom of 1966 and torture to death by starvation of over 2 million Igbo non-combatants, which Nigeria controversially claimed as legitimate instrument of warfare, during the 1967-70 uncivil war under General Gowon, qualify for investigation and trial by the UN Human Rights Council.
Nigeria was admitted to UN on 7th October, 1960; and therefore Nigerian citizens are entitled as of right to the protection of UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN Charters, Conventions, Covenants and treaties, subject to the protocols of each instrument.
Nigerians therefore can file petitions before the Human Rights Council (successor to UN Commission on Human Rights - UNCHR) against General Olusegun Obasanjo and his security chiefs for Odi and Zaki Biam massacres, both of which took place under him as Head of State, in 1999 and 2001 respectively, before the Rome Statute brought the International Criminal Court into effect on 1st July 2002.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) brought into being by The Rome Statute adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome on 17th July 1998 and entered into force on 1st July 2002. ICC exercises jurisdiction over four core international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression and they are “not . . . subject to statute of limitations.”. The United Nations Security Council may however authorize extra jurisdiction. Nigeria signed the Rome Statute in June 2000, ratified and deposited it on 27th September 2001, but the Rome Statute came into force in 2002.
Gbaramatu was invaded on 22nd June 2009. President Yardua died on 15th May 2010 and Dr. Jonathan was sworn-in as President. The Minister of Defence, the Chief of Army Staff and the Task Force Commander, Major General Sarkin Yakin Bello (now retired) should be brought before the ICC to account for the criminal aspect of the judgement of Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Asaba.
The same time, ICC should be petitioned to investigate and if found culpable charge President Buhari and his security chiefs for the various well-documented mass killings of, brutalities to and detention of unarmed pro-Biafra demonstrators, all in 2015/16 and the extra-judicial murder of 347 Shiites in Zaria between December 12and 14, 2015 and the indefinite detention without trial of Shiites and their leader; and the Director of Radio Biafra, London against court ordered bail.
Nigeria human rights NGOs, must find out who were the Inspectors General of the Nigerian Police in the four years preceding 2012 during which the over 7,198 people were extra-judicially killed, as already submitted by AGF Mr. Adoki. A National Assembly public hearing would compel complete disclosure.
Cynicism, ethnic/religious chauvinism/extremism and mercantilism dominate the politics of Nigeria and it is very doubtful if any political leader or associates who depend or associate with politicians for financial or business patronage would allow this process to play out without mobilising against it.
Nigerians should be ashamed that a much poorer and less literate country like Chad with much less population of 12.83 million (2013), with 1,284,000km2 land space, almost 50% of which is desert, against Nigeria’s 923,768km2 (with only encroachment of desert in a few uppermost northern states), was able to wage over 20 –year war against the impunity of their former ruler, Hissene Habre and was able to compel the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) constituted by the African Union on the injunction of a UN Court order to Senegal, to convict and sentence Mr. Habre to a life sentence after a trial in Dakar, on Monday 30th May 2016, for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture including rapes he personally committed in Chad between 1982 and 1990 whilst he was President of Chad. Habré’s eight-year reign of terror and political repression had led to the deaths of an estimated 40,000 Chadians. Despite major political barriers, victims working with civil society groups, led an unyielding national, regional and global campaign which led to the establishment in August 2012 of the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC) which investigated, tried and sentenced Mr. Habre.
The case sets a new benchmark for efforts to end impunity in Africa, as it is the first universal jurisdiction case on the continent, and the first time a former African leader has been prosecuted for crimes under international law before a court in another African country.
Other international Trials, Convictions and Sentences -
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY):
Slobodan Milošević, as the former President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia, was the most senior political figure to stand trial at the ICTY. He died on 11 March 2006 during trial for charges of genocide and complicity in genocide, in territories within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Radoan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, was convicted on March 24, 2016 and sentenced to 40 years in prison for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by a United Nations Tribunal and for leading a campaign of terror against civilians in the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II. Mr. Karadzic conviction is a forceful manifestation of the international community’s implacable commitment to accountability. The conviction offered a note of closure to the bloodiest European conflict since World War II, a civil war that tore apart the former Yugoslavia and left more than 100,000 people dead.
(ii) International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (Created by UN Security Council in 1994)
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was a court under the auspices of the United Nations for the prosecution of offenses committed in Rwanda during the genocide which occurred there during April 1994. Over 800,000 mainly of the minority Tutsis ethic group by majority Hutsis were massacred within 100 days.
Jean-Paul Akayesu – interim Prime Minister - life sentence in October 1998.
Jean Kambanda - Former Rwandan Prime Minister became the first head of a government ever to be convicted of genocide and sentenced to life by an international court. Sixty-one others out of 93 indicted, were convicted and sentenced, including politicians, businessmen, high-ranking military and government officials, heads of media and religious leaders.
(iii) The International Criminal Court (ICC):
(a) Darfur, Sudan
In April 2007, ICC issued arrest warrants against the former Minister of State for the Interior, Ahmad Harun, and a Militia Janjaweed leader, Ali Kushayb, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
On 4 March 2009, the ICC also issued a warrant of arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity on Omar Al Bashir, President of Sudan, having decided his position as Head of State does not grant him immunity against prosecution before the ICC. He remains a wanted criminal in ICC records and could be arrested any time.
(b) Conviction of Charles Taylor by I.C.C.
The first African president to be prosecuted at the International Court, Charles Taylor, 54 years old, was in April 2002 convicted for aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, sexual slavery and enforced amputations and for supporting rebels who carried out atrocities in Sierra Leone in return for "blood diamonds" and was sentenced to 50 years in jail.
(c)The trial of Laurent Gbagbo, former President of Ivory Coast is undergoing trial on four counts of crimes against humanity stemming from the violence surrounding the 2010 presidential election and has been in detention since his arrest in April 2011.
(d) President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and his Deputy, William Ruto, were arraigned before ICC, charged with crimes against humanity in connection with the 2007-8 post-election chaos in Kenya that left more than 1,200 people dead and many others wounded or raped; and about 600,000 were forced to flee, but the charges were dropped for want of evidence, understandably withheld by the government of Kenya under him as President of Kenya.
Until the enslaved and oppressed people of Nigeria break out of the present cocoon of docility and challenge the oligarchy with charges of international crimes they committed from 1966 to date, including (a) various riots in the North which have consumed hundreds of thousands of Nigerian citizens and destroyed hundreds of billions of naira worth of private property, and (b) the duplicitous role of the Federal Government in allowing Cattle Fulani Herdsmen to terrorise the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria, before the International Criminal Court (ICC), or such other commissions or tribunals that are enabled by UN or AU to try and put international criminals away long term, or in foreign municipal courts where Nigeria has substantial assets to pay for damages caused by the terrorists, no Nigerian outside the oligarchy can enjoy any real sense of liberty, freedom or mutual respect as is common in the modern world.
The day Nigerians secure convictions on any past or present leader or Security chief of Nigeria for crime against humanity for any of the international crimes they committed whilst in office and for which Nigerian courts have found them liable; or arrest warrants from ICC on serving Head of State and/or his Security Chiefs for on-going mass murder of unarmed street demonstrators and/or condoning/conspiring with world acknowledged terrorists to kill and menace Nigerian citizenry; and even General Gowon for the atrocities committed against Eastern Nigerians (1966-1970), that day will mark the beginning of liberation of Nigeria from the vice grip of the oligarchy. And the earlier the better!
Crimes, local or international, are not time bound. Therefore the pogrom and genocide of 1966-70 are still on the table, along with various unchallenged outstanding atrocities.
SOVEREIGN NATIONAL CONFERENCE
The 2014 President Jonathan’s National Conference fell far below minimum requirements in its intentions and structure, essential to bring about any change in the present enslaved polity of Nigeria. The details are in my work, To theResque.
The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as an Enslavement Ordinance:
More extensive research is required to highlight how the oligarchy devised the 1999 Nigerian Constitution as an Enslavement Ordinance and it has indeed enslaved other Nigerians by (a) the falsehood told in its preamble “We the People of the Federal Republic of Nigeria: Having firmly and solemnly resolved:”; (b) the undemocratic process by which it was brought into being and (c) its various contentious and contradictory sections which deny the people of Nigeria of various fundamental rights guaranteed and ratified by Nigeria in the UN Charter, Treaties and Covenants and African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. My works; The Uncivil War; To the Rescue - Nigeria and Open the Gates and Release the Inmates and Nigeria’s Development contain a lot of eye-opener and intermediate materials on Nigeria’s enslavement, which well expanded with more indebt studies should be presented to the UN Security Council for granting of extra jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court to try the oligarchs of Nigeria for enslaving the peoples of Nigeria with an Enslavement Ordinance branded the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria.
Mass Mobilisation for Sovereign National Conference and Re-Structuring of the Federation : Having, by international litigation caged in the government of Nigeria within the limits allowed it by even its controversial Constitution, the people can freely mobilise unfettered for a Sovereign National Conference of all the Ethnic Nationalities of Nigeria, as free peoples, to re-affirm their wish for the continued federation of Nigeria; and if they do, the New Constitution that would restructure the country into a federation of semi-autonomous zones like the regions of the First Republic, guaranteeing equality and mutual respect between the different nationalities with differing values; and with the right to self-determination and secession guaranteed every group in very clear and transparent terms.
Undoing the present Enslavement Ordinance cannot be achieved by magic wand. It requires patience and perseverance and might take upwards of years of well organised hard work, consistency and diligence.
Prince Chukwuemeka I. Onyesoh ( Author, Writer, Civil & Democracy Rights Protagonist)
President,
Forum for the Promotion of National Ethos and Values ( FPNEV)
Civil and Democracy Rights NGO - CAC/IT/No./71471.
Enugu.
14th Sept. 2016.
