Political murder is reported to be first used in the medieval times to describe murders of prominent Christians by the Hashshashin, a secret Islamic sect and with time assassination were said to be used in the twenty-first century to describe murders committed for political reasons. However, political assassination is a tool that's not only potent n the hands of miscreants in the federal government but is also becoming a rampant option in many states of the Nigerian federation as a tool for the elimination of perceived opponents.
In October 1986 Dele Giwa a renowned Nigerian journalist and co founder of the Newswatch magazine was killed in a bomb parcel blast in his Ikeja residence, Mr Giwa was reported to have received a parcel with the logo and mast head of the then president of then military Federal republic of Nigeria. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida
Receiving parcels from the presidency was said not be an unusual thing for Giwa as he had in the past received familiar parcels, his last words was reported to be “this must be from Mr. President” and as he opened the parcel a loud explosion emerged taking the life of Giwa and rendering his colleague Kayode Soyinka who was visiting partially deaf.
Nigerian human rights lawyer and activist the Late Chief Gani Fwehinmi put up a gallant effort to bring the alleged perpetuators of the killing of Dele Giwa to justice. Gani was of the firm believe that the then Military president of Nigeria, General Ibrhahim Babangida and his security agencies where behind the cruel elimination of Giwa. Dele Giwa’s death brought the terror of political assassination to limelight.
After the death of Dele Giwa, Dr Shola Omoshola the American trained criminologist and then head of security at the Lagos international airport was killed in a car bomb in his official car. Omoshola an employee of the then Nigerian Airports Authority was a no nonsense aviation security operative, he had in the past prevented foreign currencies being taking out of the country by the then Nigerian military ruler General Sanni Abacha and his family members. Omoshola had regular brush with military personnel who claiming to act for the presidency flout aviation security rules and would want to fly in an out of the Lagos airport unhindered. Bola Ige a sitting attorney general of the federation was killed in his country home, Pa Alfred Rewane, Ayodeji Daramola, leading candidate for governor in the south-western state of Ekiti, Mr. Taye Fasuba, former Chairman of Ado-Ekiti Local Government, Godwin Agbroko, slain Editorial Board Chairman, Thisday Newspaper, recently, Bayo Ohu, the assistant news editor of the Nigerian Guardian; the list of Nigerians killed in cold blood by assassins is endless.
Obviously, Nigerians’ are accepting the situation as part and parcel of our day to day living, thus it is not unusual that when news about the assassination of a journalist, politician, business man or just about any other Nigerian breaks on television or radio people no longer cringe. We just shake our heads and move on.
2006 was a peculiar year in the history of political assassinations in Nigeria. Politician and front runner in the race to become governor of Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos Engineer Funso Williams was murdered in cold blood in his Lagos residence. The murder of Funsho Williams was the second obvious political assassination in the month of July 2006. By the end of that same year the country had witnessed more assassinations and as usual the riddle about the motive and who was responsible remain unsolved; a mystery.
As Nigeria is heading towards another election in the year 2011 the tendency for a rise in polictial assassination is very high. Reports of massive arms importation into the country by politicians and mischief-makers are being confirmed by reports of large quantity of arms intercepted by the Nigerian customs service in recent months.
The cache of weapons submitted by the militants in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is an indication of the fact that small arms and high calibre weapons are now freely available in Nigeria. The high unemployment rate coupled with the neglect of the educational system render our youths idle making their availability for use by unscrupulous politicians a recurring decimal.
The winner takes all tendencies in our elections increases the desperation by politicians to go all out and kill opponents. Nigeria must take a close look at the electoral processes, open the playing field and put a check on the system that closes the door to the opposition. The sit tight disposition and political god fatherism is a building ground for political bullies and evil people. We must return power to the electorate.
Unfortunately, the Nigerian Police Force is not in anyway positioned to resolve the many cases of murders-be it political assassination or for other reasons. We have over the years neglected the Police; we expect so much for them yet we pay little attention to the endemic problems in the force.
Without a doubt, our police force is a reflection of our society. We accuse them of being corrupt and as a people we partake in corruption in all ramifications. Corruption strives in every segment of the society from the clergy man, to the government officials and even down to the social critique; the police can not be better than our society in general.
From issues of training, to poor equipments, poor morale, poor pay, poor police-citizen ratio and the high level of incompetence of the people to whom we have entrusted the administration our policing policy, the need for restructuring is crucial. Why should we expect too much from a police we give too little?
Not so many people know that in the year 2009 alone more than 39 police officers were reported to have been killed in Lagos State alone. When you add that to the national statistics then you acknowledge that we do have some gallant men and women in the Police who deserve our praise for the little good and painful sacrifices they make. The various police academies established to train disciplined police men are a shadow of their old selves with corruption institutionalised in the recruitment processes.
Recently a police senior Nigerian Police officer publicly assert that he noticed that the arms submitted by the militants in the Niger delta is of better standard than the arms supplied to men and women of the Nigerian Police Force. If the militants in the Niger Delta can easily get weapons with high fire power, how did we end up with a police force that can not boast of adequate protective equipments? To stem the high rate of assassinations, crime and murders we must train our police on intelligence gathering, information processing, crime control and prevention as well as other sundry matters that will reduce the high rate of crime and killings. The bad eggs and corrupt police officers should be shown the way out of the agency.
2011 is close by and as we brace up for a definite increase in political assassinations, the Nigerian Police still remain our only hope of combating crime and everything must be done to assist them. The issue of the creation of state police should not be thrown away by the federal government and the grandstanding on police control by the states should stop forthwith.
Politicians in the country should stop inflammatory catch phrase such as “do or die”, “rig and roast” and other headline grabbing words that are meant to encourage the use of violence in the prosecution or resolution of political disputes.
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