By Chidi Anselm Odinaku.
Government must, therefore, be comfortable with hearing alternative views from Nigerians that it may not agree with. Irrespective of how we describe them – opposition, critics, or supporters – anyone who chooses the path of peaceful or public debate is fully paid up as a subscriber to a democratic Nigeria. Even when we don’t like or agree with their views, we must support their right to air them. Those who seek to brand peaceful disagreement as a crime or deny it airtime on public media violate our laws and do serious dis-service to this country.
It is the responsibility of democratic government to support citizens who can dis-agree and make articulate demands on government.
These are unusual times. Our security agencies are indeed stretched and require collective support in order to do their best work. The adversaries we confront are also determined. We must not underestimate their murderous capacities. What they would love most is for Nigeria to fall apart; for bickering and blame-gaming to divide us. We must resist the urge to grant them their wish and recognize that we’re all on the same side.
Protest organizers should liaise regularly with security agencies. Open and amicable conversations must be had. In January 2012, the National Human Rights Commission issued an advisory with guidelines on how to manage the competing demands on security agencies when policing protests. Those are still valid.
While it is the primary responsibility of our police and troops to secure the country, we all have a duty to work with them to defend the public sphere and the right to peaceful protest. Without it, elective government in our country does not have a future.
To achieve independence, our people protested continuously against colonial government. When the military nullified a free and fair election in 1993, our people protested continuously. To achieve the elective government we enjoy today, our people protested continuously against military rule. To achieve peaceful handover from an ailing President to his Vice in 2010, Nigerians protested continuously until we got a legitimate transition of power. This is why the right to peaceful protest is constitutionally guaranteed.
Today, in the face of mass-casualty insecurity, the #BringBackOurGirls movement protests continuously for action by all who can guarantee the high constitutional entitlement to a safe and secure country.
This country is our common patrimony.
I personally don’t want to go down as the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission who could not stand up in defence of the right to peaceful protest.
Nor do I want to end without acknowledging the women who provide the spine and leadership of this movement. United in compassion, empathy and pride as Nigerians, they have inspired a global outpouring of civic and human solidarity with our country in our time of difficulty.
It is cheap slander to accuse them – as some have done – of doing this for vainglory or political reasons. Such slander should not go unanswered. But while they lead this public service beyond the call of duty, we must spare them the indignity of having to respond to such flippancy.
In inspiring the #BringBackourGirls movement, these women also teach abiding lessons in both citizenship and leadership. They show that leadership can come about without seeking or holding elective office. They teach that in a time of national trouble, leadership is also a call to healing, empathy and compassion. They demonstrate that times of national difficulty are also indeed opportunities to renew one another and discover common cause.
This crisis must not be wasted. That’s what we do when we spend energy demonizing those demanding urgent action to bring #BringBackourGirls rather than investing fully in rescuing the girls or bringing their abductors to justice. Many things must change:
•More than two years into the life of this murderous insurgency, we need a credible humanitarian plan for north-east Nigeria that all interested can buy into. This must include elements of trauma care for victims and accountability for perpetrators of war crimes.
•We also need a credible plan for the defence of access to education in north-east Nigeria, for this is a war not just against the country but against education as the guarantor of our future.
•We must invest in restoring the credibility and capability of our defence and security institutions confronting asymmetrical conflict against a rampant and indiscriminate domestic adversary.
•We cannot win this war by being soft on corruption and impunity. So, we must restore credibility to the fight against corruption.
•Above all, insecurity is not an issue from which political parties – ruling or opposition – at any level should score cheap points. At this time, we need senior political and security sector leaders who understand when to put the country first.
Welcome as they are, international assistance and regional co-operation to #BringBackourGirls will not achieve much without these changes. We can’t conduct politics, public policy or counter-insurgency as if Nigeria’s biggest problem is an inability to abuse one another enough.
This situation requires involved citizens and communities.
That’s why the example of the #BringBackourGirls movement deserves to be supported across our country. We need to adopt its values of citizen leadership and make them ours.
As an act of stake holding by citizens in the most difficult issue of our times, it’s courageous and it’s right: to keep asking that we all in our various roles, do all we can to #BringBackourGirls – now, safe, alive, with urgency. And ultimately, to root out the greater insecurity that afflicts our land.
Concluded
Dr. Odinkalu is Chair, Governing Council, National Human Rights Commission.
