Sunday, October 3, 2010

The Abuja Bomb Blasts and the Pains of an Insecure Nation

By Dr. Reuben Abati

The celebration of Nigeria’s 50th anniversary coincided with a series of crises- all
of which indicated aspects of the failure of governance and a wake-up call these
should be, to the effect that there is so much still to be done to transform the
country, to make living in Nigeria more meaningful, and to rescue the country
from the brink. Everyone who protested a few days to October 1, that Nigeria is
a failed state or a nation in crisis would seem to have been vindicated as the
Movement for the Emancipation of Nigeria (MEND) allegedly successfully
disrupted the Golden Jubilee celebrations in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
The morning after, the headline was not about the celebration at Eagle Square,
not about the Nigerians who were honoured by the state, not about the
President’s speech, or the country’s preparedness for the future, rather the
headlines were focused on the explosions that marred the golden jubilee
celebrations.

Thus, if all the money that was voted for the golden jubilee (about N16 billion)
was meant to be used to highlight Nigerian glory and sell Nigeria to the world, all
that has been wasted in symbolic terms. For, on the day of Nigeria’s golden
jubilee, the biggest news on CNN and other media was the crisis of insecurity in
Nigeria. This was very bad publicity for the country; it was a terrible
advertisement of how insecure the country is. Security is an important aspect
of nation-building. It is one of the original purposes of government to secure the
people and guarantee human dignity and other freedoms, for it is only within the
context of security that the individual components of a country can best express
themselves and fulfil their potentials in accordance with articulated national
objectives.

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This is an area in which the Nigerian authorities have consistently failed the
people even when security is taken in an expanded sense beyond physical
protection of lives and property. The bomb blast in Abuja on October 1 has had
the Presidency vowing to deal with the dissidents who brought shame to Nigeria
on the day of its 50th independence anniversary. The question to ask the
authorities is: how exactly do they intend to deal with the insurgents? Nigeria
has found itself at a point whereby insurgents seem to wield greater authority
than the state. They strike at will, wherever and whenever they wish, confident
that the state can only bark, and lacks the capacity to bring them to book. For
more than a decade, the security agencies have proved incapable of resolving
many cases of murder, including the murder of prominent Nigerians; criminal
elements have proven to be better equipped and more determined than the
state.

The circumstances leading to and after the Abuja bomb blast are worth reviewing
to show how strikingly this is a comment on the incompetence of Nigeria’s
security agencies and the vulnerability of the state. There are insurgents in many
other countries of the world; Nigeria certainly is not the first country where
bombs will be exploded by criminals, but where there have been such
challenges, they have been met with an organized response particularly in the
event of early warning signs, and where the state failed once or twice, this
usually led to a review of the country’s security system, which is what we had
asked for immediately after President Goodluck Jonathan changed his service
chiefs, to wit, that what Nigeria needs is not a mere change of guards but a
more far-reaching review of the country’s security status. At the parade grounds
on October 1, the country’s military and paramilitary forces had tried to
advertise Nigeria’s state of preparedness. But the message from the insurgents
who detonated bombs around Abuja proved more instructive.

Reports of the incident indicate that by Thursday, September 30, MEND had
issued a warning alerting the Nigerian authorities of its intention to detonate
some bombs to show its displeasure with the proposed golden jubilee jamboree.
Before the bombs went off, the insurgents again issued an alert advising
members of the public to leave the parade grounds. They also gave hints of the
location of the bombs: parked vehicles and trash bins. And as has always been
the case, the Nigerian state was caught napping, the Boko Haram notice being
the clearest example in this regard. The MEND statement asked people to
evacuate the Eagle Square within thirty minutes, with a declaration: “This
warning expires after 10.30 hrs.” The first explosion occurred at 11. 10 am.

The audacity with which rebel groups inform the state of their action, including
time and methods and they still proceed as scheduled, succeed and disappear
into thin air is scary; it shows utter contempt for the state. In MEND’s case, it
not only claimed responsibility, it also stated that it succeeded in detonating
three bombs and not two as has been claimed. It is not only MEND that has been
so impudent in recent times. The Boko Haram in attacking the Bauchi prison to
free some of their members, also similarly served notice of their intention, the
timing of their action and the target. They arrived an hour late, but the target as
pre-announced was the Bauchi prison where after overwhelming the authorities,
they freed over 700 prisoners; and subsequently they disappeared into thin air,

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leaving many casualties behind. As in almost every case the state was unable to
deal with the situation. It was the same effrontery that was demonstrated in
Abuja on October 1.

Obviously, the MEND if it was truly the mastermind of the bomb explosions,
wanted to make a strong statement and it did. The clear message is that the
Federal Government’s so-called amnesty programme in the Niger Delta is not
working. Even if it is, the message is that it is not all the forces in the Niger
Delta that have been pacified. MEND is a Niger Delta construction, or to be
polite, structure. With the same MEND purportedly now embarrassing Nigeria on
a day when a Niger Deltan, a man who could well have ended up as a member of
MEND if circumstances had worked out differently was in the saddle as Nigeria’s
Commander in Chief, we were told that Goodluck Jonathan is not in control of his
own political zone. This political undertone of the MEND strike should be carefully
underlined, in addition to the declaration that the Niger Delta crisis remains
unresolved.

Why should Jonathan seek to be Nigeria’s President if he cannot control his own
kinsmen? There has been no other time in Nigerian history that anyone
detonated bombs to disrupt independence anniversary celebrations. It is usually
taken to be a solemn day for reflection, but on Friday, Jonathan’s kinsmen
reversed the poet’s wisdom (Femi Osofisan’s) and made the claim that birthdays
are also for dying. It is not only the sixteen dead or the many more injured who
have been disappointed, younger Nigerians are likely to remember the occasion
of Nigeria’s golden jubilee as the day when the blood of innocent persons
watered the flower-bed of Nigeria’s freedom.

In matters such as this, the line of interpretation that suggests itself readily on
the basis of immediate facts may not necessarily represent the truth. The state
authorities in investigating the incident must bear this in mind. Was MEND acting
truly in pursuit of its own cause? Or was it claiming responsibility as an agent for
some other hidden rogue elements? Why would MEND, a Niger Delta
organization seek to embarrass Nigeria on a day when a Niger Deltan is playing
a historically significant role? In pursuing this, special attention should be paid to
the alleged claim by MEND that it managed to plant bombs in and around the
venue of the golden jubilee celebration through its operatives “working inside
government security services.”

So is this the handiwork of fifth columnists, then? President Jonathan has

boasted that he will deal with the culprits; he said precisely the same thing about
kidnappers on his assumption of office. The authorities should learn to resist the
temptation to make idle threats. If there are indeed persons within the security
services who aid and abet sabotage, then the country is in trouble indeed.
Identifying such persons and fishing them out would be useful as there have
been allegations of collusion between state officials and dissidents in
perpetrating crimes against the state and the people. The golden jubilee Abuja
bomb blast must be taken as a strong message signalling the vulnerability of the
president, of the state itself and the people in general. Coming so close to the
2011 general elections, it is disturbing if it is a sign of likely developments in the
immediate future.

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The loss to Nigeria is colossal. CNN, the international cable television network
made huge capital out of the incident. David Plouffe who had been scheduled on
the MTN platform to hold a series of seminars on the subject of audacity, has
had to call off his trip to Nigeria in the meantime. Plouffe’s itinerary includes an
evening in Abuja! Nigeria continues to lose many opportunities on account of its
inability to guarantee the safety of lives and property. The international
community is afraid to do business with us. Nigerians themselves are afraid of
their own country. In the week of our country’s golden jubilee, it was revealed
that Nigeria, along with Ethiopia, has the highest number of US Visa lottery
applicants. There are too many Nigerians who are voting with their feet, because
they no longer feel secure in their own country. Ten years ago, there had been
much hope that the country was set on the path of renewal, resulting in reverse
immigration towards Nigeria, with many brain-drained Nigerians and other
economic refugees finding their way back home to contribute their proverbial
quota. Only very few Nigerians in diaspora would be willing to make that return
trip to the native land as Nigeria turns 50. Where would they return to? Abuja
where bombs are now exploding? Or Aba, a deserted city?

The case of Aba is tragic. Once the crossroads of the South South and the East,
it is now the city that no one wants to visit or live in, overwhelmed as it is by
evil-minded kidnappers who do not even spare school-children. The abduction of
15 school children in that city a few days to Nigeria’s golden jubilee anniversary
was embarrassing; it took the combined team of the armed forces to secure their
release on Thursday, September 30. But the world had taken notice: Nigeria
may now be regarded as a country that cannot guarantee the safety of its
citizens including the most vulnerable members of its population.

The Federal Government has an urgent responsibility to ensure national security.

Many international agencies deserted Lagos and relocated to Abuja not only for
reasons of proximity to the seat of government but because Abuja as a city held
special promises in terms of security and infrastructure. If Abuja, the
headquarters of all the security agencies is no longer safe, then which part of
Nigeria is safe? The October 1 security breach should be carefully investigated
and the culprits fished out and punished. This is the least that government can
do. It should also pick up the healthcare bills of the injured in addition to paying
special compensation to the families of the deceased. The Government of
Nigeria should not wait until the people begin to ask the question: who is
effectively in charge: government or the insurgents?

For comments, send an e-mail to the author at abati1990@yahoo.com

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