OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU examines the issues surrounding the declaration of state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states and the controversies trailing the action.
Following series of attacks launched by the Boko Haram Islamic sect against the Nigerian state resulting in the loss of hundreds of lives and destruction of property, President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday, May 15 declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
In the beginning
Boko Haram came into national limelight in 2002, when Yusuf Mohammed took over the leadership of the sect and in 2004 established a camp called 'Afghanistan', in Yobe State where it launched attacks on nearby police stations, killing police officers and confiscating their arms.
Following reports that the sect was intensively procuring arms, which prompted the police to launch an investigation into its activities, the sect had a clash with security agencies, leading to the arrest of Mohammed, its leader and others.
On July 30, 2009, news filtered out that Mohammed was allegedly killed extra-judicially, while in police custody.
This led to deadly and violent clashes with the Nigerian security agencies, leaving in its wake, the destruction of private and public property, military and security installations and worship places, leading to the death of hundreds of people.
Litany of attacks
It was on record that before this litany of clashes and attacks, scores of Muslim leaders had warned the Federal Government and some state governments about the activities of the sect, but their timely warning, which would have helped to nip the sect in the bud were flagrantly ignored.
Between July and December 2010, no fewer than 85 people were killed in 35 Boko Haram separate insurgent attacks in four Northern states of Yobe, Borno, Adamawa and Kano and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Prominent among these attacks were carried out in Maiduguri, Jos, Mogadishu Military Barracks in Abuja.
The sect accounted for 115 separate attacks in 2011 which left over 550 people dead and property worth billions of naira destroyed. The 2011 attacks happened in Maiduguri, Suleja, Azare, Jos, Gombe, Sapele and Kaduna.
Prominent among the 2011 attacks were the bombing of the Police headquarters on June 16 and United Nations (UN) building on August 26, 2011, both in Abuja and the St. Theresa's Catholic Church, Madalla in Niger State. In 2012, 14 of the 36 states of the federation swallowed Boko Haram's bitter pill of attacks.
Twelve of these 14 states had adopted the Islamic legal code, Sha'riah. The sect had come out in 2012 with a claim that it wanted to Islamise Nigeria. No fewer than 900 people died in 290 bomb and gun attacks in 12 states from the Northern part of the country and Abuja.
And in 2013, over 500 people had been killed in various attacks, which the Boko Haram sect claimed responsibility for. Scarcely could any state in the North claim to be free from the incessant bombing and gun attacks by the dreaded Islamic sect.
However, both the police, military and other security agencies would not just sit down and look while the sect went haywire destroying lives and property. The security agencies went on counter-offensive against the sect, killing, arresting and detaining members of the dreaded sect.
Call for dialogue Rather than thaw, the spate of attacks and counter-offensives between the Boko Haram sect and security operatives continued to grow unabated, leaving in their wake tales of tears and destruction.
This development led to calls by Northern leaders and groups, prominent among which was the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) for dialogue between the government and the sect.
Efforts in the past at dialogue had failed irrevocably as there had been accusation and counter-accusations of insincerity from both sides of the divide in the dialogue, leading to more strident attacks from the sect, almost on daily basis. And lately, led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Abubakar Sa'ad III, the calls had transcended to granting of amnesty for members of the Boko Haram sect.
The Goodluck Jonathan administration, after an initial reluctance, premising its reason on the fact that members of the group had remained unknown and have refused to be identified, the government capitulated and bought into the amnesty option.
But despite the government's soft-pedalling, the attack by the sect had continued to gather momentum in the last three months, leading to speculations that President Jonathan may declare emergency rule in the affected states where the sect had been operating with careless abandon.
Opposition to emergency rule
Opposition to the declaration of emergency rule in any part of the federation had started to mount long before President Jonathan announced one last Tuesday. Opposition parties, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), had penultimate Sunday asked President Jonathan not to impose state of emergency on the states, worse hit by the Boko Haram crises in the North.
In separate statements by the parties National Publicity Secretaries, Lai Mohammed (ACN) and Rotimi Fashakin (CPC) respectively, they called on Jonathan to step down if he feels that declaration of state of emergency was the only option left to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency.
To Mohammed, imposition of emergency rule will amount to "shifting responsibility and unduly victimizing the governors of those states who have done perhaps more than the president in dealing with the crisis, even though they are not in charge of any security apparatus. "It is important to state here that the president virtually abandoned the states as they reeled under the effects of the Boko Haram onslaught."
Bringing a political angle to it, Mohammed said that the states being considered for emergency rule were not PDP states and feared that the president would appoint PDP card-carrying members to superintendent over the states in case of emergency rule.
Fashakin also said: "We wish to alert the nation about the sinister plot to invoke emergency rule in these states.
The question is what is the new thing that an administrator will hope to achieve given the present scenario of militarization in these states? Should this not be interpreted as another knee-jack response of this administration to situations that require out-ofthe- box thinking?
Is this approach not to be interpreted as a pre-meditated consequence of ineptitude of this regime?" While the ruling party, the People Democratic Party (PDP), had allayed fears of emergency rule, many governors and stakeholders cautioned against the declaration of state of emergency.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement said that there was no plan by the Federal Government to declare emergency rule in some troubled states in the North.
Metuh had said: "In their (ACN and CPC) usual noise making, homage to falsehood and lies and quest to always be in the news for frivolous reasons, the CPC and ACN purported in their statements that the Presidency planned to impose emergency rule in some northern states when no such decision has been reached." The Nigerian Governors' Forum (NGF) also warned against the declaration of state of emergency in any state where there is violence or insurgency.
The governors' stand was contained in a statement made available to the media on Monday, May 13, which suggested that they were privy to moves by the Federal Government to declare state of emergency in troubled states.
The statement, signed by the chairman of the NGF and Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, read in part: "We call on the Federal Government to ignore the ongoing agitation for a state of emergency in some parts of the country. These requests are being made by people who do not wish our country well and who are bent on plunging the country into a deeper crisis.
The Federal Government should not allow itself to be distracted from our collective goal of curbing the insurgency in some parts of our country once and for all." Opposition governors, under the auspices of the Progressives Governors' Forum (PGF) also cautioned against the declaration of emergency rule penultimate Sunday.
A statement signed on its behalf by Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, said: "We find the reported course of action incongruent with the posturing of the Presidency which has been reported to be pursuing dialogue with the non-state actors reportedly responsible for the breach of the peace in those states.
"In view of the foregoing, the Progressive Governors' Forum implores Mr. President to be consistent with the combination of dialogue and mediation which he has already set in motion, and stay action on the planned declaration of State of Emergency in the affected states, which we believe would be counter-productive."
Northern leaders were also not favourable to the declaration of emergency rule in their domain. Penultimate Sunday, they had met to deliberate on the development and vowed not to allow emergency rule in the North.
The Northern leaders and elders said: "We will never allow them to destroy the North by imposing emergency rule when policemen and soldiers are being killed daily in Bayelsa State and other parts of the country without any discussion of emergency in those states of the Niger Delta.
"We are convinced that there are some people in this government, who deliberately want to destroy the North and then provoke the people to revolt by always talking about imposing emergency rule in the region at the slightest provocation while overlooking massive killings, kidnapping and oil bunkering in the South-East and South-South.
"We want the government to perish the thought of emergency rule and concentrate on how to bring about genuine peace to Nigeria."
Enters state of emergency
But last Tuesday, President Jonathan once again refused to align with his party and aides, who had debunked rumours of declaration of state of emergency, when in a nationwide broadcast; he declared state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. Jonathan declared in his address: "Following recent developments in the affected states, it has become necessary for government to take extraordinary measures to restore normalcy.
After wide consultations, and in exercise of the powers conferred on me by the provisions of Section 305, subsection 1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, I hereby declare a State of Emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states."
Why state of emergency?
President Jonathan in his nationwide broadcast explained the reason behind his administration's declaration of state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. Majorly, he told a stunned nation that it was as a result of the incessant spate of violence that had taken over some states in the North, rendering socio-economic life in the affected states redundant.
He said: "The activities of insurgents and terrorists have been reprehensible, causing fear among our citizens and a nearbreakdown of law and order in parts of the country, especially the North.
We have taken robust steps to unravel and address the root causes of these crises, but it would appear that there is a systematic effort by insurgents and terrorists to destabilise the Nigerian state and test our collective resolve.
"These terrorists and insurgents seem determined to establish control and authority over parts of our beloved nation and to progressively overwhelm the rest of the country. In many places, they have destroyed the Nigerian flag and other symbols of state authority and in their place, hoisted strange flags suggesting the exercise of alternative sovereignty.
"They have attacked government buildings and facilities. They have murdered innocent citizens and state officials. They have set houses ablaze, and taken women and children as hostages. These actions amount to a declaration of war and a deliberate attempt to undermine the authority of the Nigerian state and threaten her territorial integrity. As a responsible government, we will not tolerate this."
Past emergency rules
Emergency rule was first declared in independent Nigeria in 1962, by the parliament under the Tafawa Balewa administration, following a breakout of violence when Moses Majekodunmi was appointed the sole administrator of the defunct Western Region, following a crisis that erupted in the Western Region House of Assembly.
The crisis started when the then premier, Samuel Ladoke Akintola was removed by the government of Western Nigeria under the control of the defunct Action Group (AG) and was to be replaced by Dauda Adegbite and in the exercise of the provisions of the 1960 Constitution, the parliament, following the 'resolution' for the declaration of state of emergency in the Western Region by the Prime Minister, Balewa and seconded by the then Federal Minister of Finance, Festus Okotie-Eboh on May 29, 1962, declared a state of emergency in the region, suspending the Western government.
The next state of emergency was declared in Plateau State under the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo on May 18, 2004, following a sectarian crisis that claimed hundreds of lives, destroyed property worth millions of naira and left many people homeless.
Obasanjo not only declared a state of emergency, relying on section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, but also suspended the executive and legislative arms of government in Plateau and appointed retired Major- General Chris Alli as sole administrator with the mandate to end the crisis that led to the declaration. It lasted six months. Obasanjo wielded the big stick again on October 19, 2006, when he declared another state of emergency in Ekiti State, which according to him, was "to ensure that peace and orderliness return to the state."
This followed the impeachment of the then state governor, Ayodele Fayose, and the ensuing power tussle between Fayose's then deputy, Biodun Olujimi and the then Speaker of the House of Assembly, over who was to act as the state governor.
While suspending all political office holders in the executive and legislative arms of government, Obasanjo appointed retired Major-General Adetunji Olurin as the sole administrator of Ekiti State, also for six months in the first instance.
Emergency rule without emergency administrators
Perhaps, this informs the President's decision not to tow the path of his predecessor, by leaving elected officials at the state level to continue to perform their constitutional responsibilities. The president had declared that: "But in the meantime, let me make it clear that within the purview of this Proclamation, the governors and other political office holders in the affected states will continue to discharge their constitutional responsibilities."
Prof. Ben Nwabueze (SAN) had argued that no part of Section 305 actually empowered the president to remove governors of states where emergency rule had been declared or suspend the House of Assembly of the affected state. Nwabueze said "there is no place in the entire section 305 that allows the president to decapitate the elected office holders" as was witnessed in Plateau and Ekiti states under Obasanjo administration and also during the First Republic.
He added: "The removal of a state governor from office by reason solely of an emergency situation prevailing in the state, whether or not an emergency is formally declared under section 305, is completely and unequivocally precluded by the proviso in section 11(4), which states that "nothing in this section shall be construed as conferring on the National Assembly power to remove the governor or the Deputy Governor of the state from office."
"The President has no inherent power to remove or suspend a governor, anyway," Nwabueze argued.
Shettima, Geidam and Nyako speak
Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima has thrown his weight behind President Jonathan, saying that the step taken on emergency rule was to ensure that lives and property of citizens were safeguarded.
In a state-wide television broadcast, Shettima urged the citizens of Borno to cooperate with the military through the provision of information that would bring the Boko Haram insurgency to an end.
Saying that no responsible government would fold its arms while innocent citizens were being sent to early graves, Shettima called on the Boko Haram sect to seize the amnesty opportunity extended to it by government to bring about peaceful end to the crisis. Also, the Yobe State governor, Ibrahim Geidam, backed the declaration of emergency rule in his state.
Speaking through his Special Adviser on Media and Information, Abdullahi Bego, Geidam said: "As everyone knows, there is no alternative to peace. The Yobe State government therefore agrees with Mr. President on the need to take more effective measures to address the problem of insecurity in the country."
Expressing regret that over the past years, the problems of insecurity and criminality in the state and other states of the North have led to many deaths and injuries, causing untold hardship to millions of innocent people, Geidam called on people of Yobe State to be law abiding and to go about their normal business, adding that his administration "like always will continue to partner with security agents to ensure normalcy is restored across the state."
Governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, expressed surprise at the declaration of emergency rule in his state, arguing that the state is one of the most peaceful in Nigeria. He, however, calls for support of the state of emergency.
Mixed reactions
The reactions on state of emergency have been mixed. While some people saw it as a step in right direction, others saw it as an attempt to emasculate the North in the march towards 2015.
Those in support of the president's declaration include: the Northern States Governors' Forum (NSGF), South-South governors, governor of old Kaduna State, Lawal Kaita, the CPC, the ruling PDP, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and the Christian Association Nigeria (CAN) among a host of others.
The NSGF urged security operatives deployed to the affected states to operate by the rules of their engagement, adding that it was a complement to the amnesty being proposed by the government. It called on the people of the affected states to cooperate with the military personnel posted to the affected states.
Kaita said: "It is in order, every right thinking person will support it. All we want is peace and if this will usher in the peace, why should anyone kick against it?"
Leading the array of opposition was the ACF. Others include: the ACN, Mike Ozekhome, Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) and Arewa Youth Forum (AYF) among a host of others.
Ozekhome thinks that "it is the civilian, the half innocent populace that will suffer it because the Boko Haram people who are few in number will simply try to be hiding. "So what the president has done now is to dance to the tune of former President Obasanjo who had prescribed the same in Odi and Zakibiam.
"He has criticized that step by the former president, who went demolishing villages and towns. It is not the best way of handling security situation. But he has unwittingly fallen into that same trap by doing what he has done."
To the AYCF and AYF, the emergency rule was more of punitive and a setback to democracy, which not only negated the amnesty principle, but showed government's insincerity.
Also, the ACN described the declaration as lacking in original thinking, asking the National Assembly to reject it. This was contained in a statement issued in Abuja by the party and signed by Mohammed. He added that if the use of force was capable of solving the problem, Boko Haram insurgency would have ended long ago.
Tinubu reads political undertone
Former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu saw it differently, alluding political undertone to the declaration. He said it was a ploy by the PDP-led Federal Government to remove opposition governors in the race towards 2015.
His words: "The body language of the Jonathan-led administration leads any keen watcher of events with unmistakable conclusion of the existence of a surreptitious but barely disguised intention to muzzle the elected governments of these states for what is clearly a display of unpardonable mediocrity and diabolic partisanship geared towards 2015."
While chiding the Federal Government for its failure to protect the lives and properties of its citizens, Tinubu said there was nothing new in the status of the states, since "a state of emergency already exists in the states where military operates."
Military operations
Meanwhile, heavy military deployment to the three affected states has been ongoing, but the questions on the lips of many are: How long will the state of emergency last? How long will the military remain as an army of occupation in the affected states?
This is just as national lawmakers expressed divergent views, although with majority supporting the presidential declaration.
Key areas being controlled by the insurgents in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states have continued to witness deployment of military and security personnel as well as heavy duty machines.
But the mood in the occupied territories was tense as businesses have grounded to a halt, with shops and business centres closed and very few people found on the streets. Schools are not also left out.
Will this option solve the Boko Haram insurgency? Will the insurgents move en masse to other states where emergency rule has not been declared? How will the elected officials in the affected states operate under a military jackboot that has occupied their domains?
Questions and questions begging for answer; but the days ahead will determine whether the Federal Government has taken the right step in the right direction or whether it has actually shot itself in the foot.
National Mirror