February 10, 2010
Late last night someone called my attention to Nigeria Army spokesman, Brigadier A. C. Olukolade’s piece published on SaharaReporters in which he denied the involvement of Nigerian Army soldiers in video clips that show extra-judicial executions of unarmed civilian suspects in the latest Islamist fundamentalist disturbances that took place in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. I didn’t find it difficult to locate his piece, but I panicked at the thought of playing those clips.
Late last night someone called my attention to Nigeria Army spokesman, Brigadier A. C. Olukolade’s piece published on SaharaReporters in which he denied the involvement of Nigerian Army soldiers in video clips that show extra-judicial executions of unarmed civilian suspects in the latest Islamist fundamentalist disturbances that took place in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. I didn’t find it difficult to locate his piece, but I panicked at the thought of playing those clips.
If you recall, in one of the pieces I penned yesterday, I intimated readers of SaharaReporters of my inability to completely watch one of those clips due to the enormity of graphic violence it contains. But after I managed to successfully psych myself properly, I was able to watch two more of those clips from start to finish. My goodness! Was my soul devastated by what I saw? My dear readers, I feel…
Brigadier A. C. Olukolade’s piece is in deed a feeble rebuttal of the said video clips that graphically show Nigerian Army soldiers and elements from the Nigerian Police as they brazenly executed unarmed Islamist fundamentalist suspects. Brigadier A. C. Olukolade’s feeble rebuttal is at best ineffectual. My assessment of what I saw is that nothing in any of the said clips looks manipulated by computer technology as he claimed. Although I’m not an expert in that realm of endeavor, what is evident in those clips on the Jos disturbance and the extra-judicial murder of the “Boma Brothers in the Niger Delta” looks most authentic, I must say.
But since Brigadier Olukolade waved off the Al Jazeera video clip as “nothing but a wicked manipulation aided by application of current advancement in computer technology”, what does he have to say about the clip on the murder of the Boma Brothers in the Niger Delta or the other clip on the Jos disturbance that are still playing on SaharaReporters’ new media site? All sensibilities and sensitivities of the world community is roundly assaulted by those clips, to say the least. No Army, soldier, security agency or operative has the right to inflict such violence on any suspect, irrespective of his or her alleged crime. Brigadier Olukolade must be careful about how he rebuts what appears solidly indefensible. The clamor for The Hague Tribunal to step in and handle the investigation might not be far off given that the international media are quickly latching on the story. Sooner than later, he’ll find out that the equipments and the skills needed to ascertain the veracity of his rebuttal are not in short supply out here in the real world. I won’t be surprised if someone steps forward to do just that in the days ahead. When that happens, Brigadier General A. C. Olukolade might rightly have a case to answer as well.
People of conscience the world over must raise their voices now to call on The Hague Tribunal to investigate the gross violation of human rights in Nigeria. Nigeria has become are blot on the conscience of humanity. To over look the violations that take place daily in Nigeria or to leave them in the charge of what exists currently in Abuja as government is akin to connivance. Perhaps, it’s because civilized humanity ignores the brazen culture of corruption that pervades every strand of Nigeria’s public and private life that Nigerian authorities have boldly graduated to the sort of violations evident in those video clips. The peoples of Nigeria are part of the world community. They deserve protection from the world. Someone must call me to order if I’m off mark when I say that the last time that civilized humanity came closest to this manner of assault on its sensitivities was under apartheid in South Africa, when its security forces brutally suppressed the Sharpeville and Soweto uprisings and shot unarmed citizens in the back as they fled. In which case, I’m inclined to add that even apartheid South Africa’s security forces didn’t subject world sensitivities to the kind of brazen violence portrayed in those clips.
Nigeria is out of control. Calling on the government in Abuja to identify the individual soldiers, and policemen in those clips and bring them to justice will be a waste of time. I say that because ample proofs abound to show that Nigeria has degenerated to a cesspool of sorts. The place is so rotten that even if those soldiers and their officers shown in the clips as they executed unarmed people are fished out and charged to court, knowing Nigeria, they will easily wriggle free. The Hague Tribunal is therefore the only avenue through which they will be brought to justice. The civilized world must act now and say no, to Brigadier A. C. Olukolade, to the Nigerian Army and Police, and to Nigeria and its government. They have shown their unbridled penchant and capacity to inflict unwarranted violence on people and the world community. Otherwise, the next set of video clips that we’ll see from them might be deployed mass extermination gas chambers.
● E. C. Ejiogu, PhD is a political sociologist.
If you recall, in one of the pieces I penned yesterday, I intimated readers of SaharaReporters of my inability to completely watch one of those clips due to the enormity of graphic violence it contains. But after I managed to successfully psych myself properly, I was able to watch two more of those clips from start to finish. My goodness! Was my soul devastated by what I saw? My dear readers, I feel…
Brigadier A. C. Olukolade’s piece is in deed a feeble rebuttal of the said video clips that graphically show Nigerian Army soldiers and elements from the Nigerian Police as they brazenly executed unarmed Islamist fundamentalist suspects. Brigadier A. C. Olukolade’s feeble rebuttal is at best ineffectual. My assessment of what I saw is that nothing in any of the said clips looks manipulated by computer technology as he claimed. Although I’m not an expert in that realm of endeavor, what is evident in those clips on the Jos disturbance and the extra-judicial murder of the “Boma Brothers in the Niger Delta” looks most authentic, I must say.
But since Brigadier Olukolade waved off the Al Jazeera video clip as “nothing but a wicked manipulation aided by application of current advancement in computer technology”, what does he have to say about the clip on the murder of the Boma Brothers in the Niger Delta or the other clip on the Jos disturbance that are still playing on SaharaReporters’ new media site? All sensibilities and sensitivities of the world community is roundly assaulted by those clips, to say the least. No Army, soldier, security agency or operative has the right to inflict such violence on any suspect, irrespective of his or her alleged crime. Brigadier Olukolade must be careful about how he rebuts what appears solidly indefensible. The clamor for The Hague Tribunal to step in and handle the investigation might not be far off given that the international media are quickly latching on the story. Sooner than later, he’ll find out that the equipments and the skills needed to ascertain the veracity of his rebuttal are not in short supply out here in the real world. I won’t be surprised if someone steps forward to do just that in the days ahead. When that happens, Brigadier General A. C. Olukolade might rightly have a case to answer as well.
People of conscience the world over must raise their voices now to call on The Hague Tribunal to investigate the gross violation of human rights in Nigeria. Nigeria has become are blot on the conscience of humanity. To over look the violations that take place daily in Nigeria or to leave them in the charge of what exists currently in Abuja as government is akin to connivance. Perhaps, it’s because civilized humanity ignores the brazen culture of corruption that pervades every strand of Nigeria’s public and private life that Nigerian authorities have boldly graduated to the sort of violations evident in those video clips. The peoples of Nigeria are part of the world community. They deserve protection from the world. Someone must call me to order if I’m off mark when I say that the last time that civilized humanity came closest to this manner of assault on its sensitivities was under apartheid in South Africa, when its security forces brutally suppressed the Sharpeville and Soweto uprisings and shot unarmed citizens in the back as they fled. In which case, I’m inclined to add that even apartheid South Africa’s security forces didn’t subject world sensitivities to the kind of brazen violence portrayed in those clips.
Nigeria is out of control. Calling on the government in Abuja to identify the individual soldiers, and policemen in those clips and bring them to justice will be a waste of time. I say that because ample proofs abound to show that Nigeria has degenerated to a cesspool of sorts. The place is so rotten that even if those soldiers and their officers shown in the clips as they executed unarmed people are fished out and charged to court, knowing Nigeria, they will easily wriggle free. The Hague Tribunal is therefore the only avenue through which they will be brought to justice. The civilized world must act now and say no, to Brigadier A. C. Olukolade, to the Nigerian Army and Police, and to Nigeria and its government. They have shown their unbridled penchant and capacity to inflict unwarranted violence on people and the world community. Otherwise, the next set of video clips that we’ll see from them might be deployed mass extermination gas chambers.
● E. C. Ejiogu, PhD is a political sociologist.
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