Between Amnesty International and the Nigerian Army

Amnesty International, the global human rights watchdog, recently released its report on Nigeria in which it accused the Nigerian Army of being directly responsible for the death of 240 people, including infants, in a dreaded military detention centre in Borno in 2016 and the extra-judicial killing of 177 pro-Biafran agitators and protestors same year. The watch-dog also partly blamed the army for holding hostage most IDPs in camps under inhuman conditions, which led to over 1200 deaths just in one camp alone. AI, writing on the condition of the detention facility said: “At the military detention facility at Giwa barracks, Maiduguri, cells were overcrowded. Diseases, dehydration and starvation was rife. At least, 240 detainees died during the year. Bodies were secretly buried in Maiduguri’s cemetery by the Borno State Environmental Protection Agency staff. Among the dead were, at least, 29 children and babies, aged between newborn and five years.”
On the killings of pro-Biafra agitators, the report alleged that, “Since January, in response to the continued agitation by pro-Biafra campaigners, security forces arbitrarily arrested and killed, at least, 100 members and supporters of the group, Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. Some of those arrested were subjected to enforced disappearance.
“On February 9, soldiers and police officers shot at about 200 IPOB members, who had gathered for a prayer meeting at the National High School in Aba, Abia State. Video footage showed soldiers shooting at peaceful and unarmed IPOB members; at least, 17 people were killed and scores injured.”
On the IDPs, AI alleged that “tens of thousands of IDPs were held in camps under armed guard by the Nigerian military and the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF)… Most of the IDPs were not allowed to leave the camps and did not receive adequate food, water or medical care. Thousands of people have died in these camps due to severe malnutrition. In June, in a guarded camp in Bama, Borno state, the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières reported over 1,200 bodies had been buried within the past year.
But the Nigerian Army has come out to strongly deny the reports describing them as “rather contrived lies orchestrated to blackmail and ridicule the Nigerian Armed Forces which they have successfully tried to do in the past”. As it has done with local journalists and human rights activities who criticise it for human rights violation, the Army, through its spokesman, accused AI of encouraging “activities of non-state actors who take up arms against the state, killing, maiming and destroying public property.”
But history is not on the side of the Nigerian Army. Countless bodies, international and local NGOs, journalists, and even the Panel of Inquiry instituted by the Kaduna state government to investigate the Army –Shiite clash in Zaria in December 2015 have all indicted the Nigerian Army for extrajudicial killings. It is also a fact that the people in the IDP camps are dying of starvation and want and are being detained there against their will by the Nigerian Army probably on the orders of the government. The allegations of soldiers killing pro-Biafran protesters were also backed by countless eyewitnesses, documentary and video evidences.
The balance of evidence weighs heavily against the Nigerian Army. True, Amnesty International has been relentless in its exposure of human rights abuses allegedly perpetrated by Nigerian soldiers in the country’s war against Boko Haram and the military’s ruthlessness in quelling protests in other parts of Nigeria. This is because of the Watchdog’s commitment to defending human rights and not because of any supposed bias or collaboration with violent non-state actors. While many Nigerians are willing to excuse extra-judicial killings and gross violations of human rights on the excuse that the army is defending the country, AI doesn’t buy that argument. It is its firm belief that human rights should be respected at all times regardless of situations and no life should be taken or if it should, not without the benefit of open and fair trial.
The Nigerian Army will do well to shed its famed notoriety of treating citizens as enemies or a conquered people. It must learn to operate on the basis of respect for the full rights of all individuals in the country. More importantly, we believe ultimately that the government directly sanctions or at worse condone these killings and abuse of human rights. We operate a democracy in Nigeria and the government must ensure that all security agencies treat citizens with the utmost respect and safeguard their rights at all times.