THE TOPIC TODAY: The Nigerian government's promise to "investigate abuses" in the South East, a genuine commitment or a tactic to delay justice and maintain impunity?
SCENE: A casual makeshift meeting discussing regional insecurity.
OLA (Pacing, visibly frustrated):
The government says it will 'investigate abuses' and 'protect people.' They've been saying that for years. That's not a plan; that's a press release. Protection is what happens before the bodies pile up, not an empty promise after.
JIDE (Sighing):
True, Ola. The promise to investigate in Nigeria is like a magician's act: the government waves a big, flowery statement, and accountability vanishes. The security forces that are supposed to protect are often, simultaneously, the ones being investigated. It's a closed-loop system of perpetual injustice.
AMARA (Checking her phone for supportive documents):
Jide is satirizing, but he hits the point. The lack of accountability is systematic. For instance, Amnesty International and other credible bodies have documented over 1,844 deaths in the South-East between January 2021 and June 2023, attributed to a mélange of state and non-state actors. The primary failure is that Nigerian authorities have been largely unresponsive to appeals for investigations. When you create a climate of impunity, you validate the violence
NNE (Checking her Face Book feed):
I get the numbers, Amara, but what's the practical step? Amnesty International keeps documenting, they keep denying. It's giving "The System is Rigged." You know what works better than all these talks? A viral video. Show the abuses, show the faces of the victims. If it’s not trending, it’s not an emergency. It's messed up, but that’s the reality.
JENNIFER (Nodding slowly):
Nne raises a sociological point on the power of the spectacle. However, documentation remains paramount. The philosopher Hannah Arendt, reflecting on the foundation of justice, stated, "The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen." The evidence, the reports—they are the free press of the judiciary. The documentation is the paper trail that proves the state's failure to uphold the social contract. You need the video for the outrage, but you need the document for the judgment.
OLA (Stops pacing, looking at Amara's phone feeds):
And what if the 'investigation' is just used to target the witnesses or the documenters? The state-backed paramilitaries, like Ebube Agu, etc have themselves been accused of abuses, even being disbanded in some areas. When the cure is also the poison, the only viable course is to challenge the entire structure, not just the symptoms.
AMARA:
We have to do both. We challenge the structure with the law. The rule of law, even when suppressed, is the final authority. We continue to pressure. We gather evidence. We make sure the world knows. The truth, as John Milton wrote, "never came into the world but with her Divine Master, whom she has always served, and has suffered with him, violently to be met with."
OLA (Pacing, visibly frustrated):
The government says it will 'investigate abuses' and 'protect people.' They've been saying that for years. That's not a plan; that's a press release. Protection is what happens before the bodies pile up, not an empty promise after.
JIDE (Sighing):
True, Ola. The promise to investigate in Nigeria is like a magician's act: the government waves a big, flowery statement, and accountability vanishes. The security forces that are supposed to protect are often, simultaneously, the ones being investigated. It's a closed-loop system of perpetual injustice.
AMARA (Checking her phone for supportive documents):
Jide is satirizing, but he hits the point. The lack of accountability is systematic. For instance, Amnesty International and other credible bodies have documented over 1,844 deaths in the South-East between January 2021 and June 2023, attributed to a mélange of state and non-state actors. The primary failure is that Nigerian authorities have been largely unresponsive to appeals for investigations. When you create a climate of impunity, you validate the violence
NNE (Checking her Face Book feed):
I get the numbers, Amara, but what's the practical step? Amnesty International keeps documenting, they keep denying. It's giving "The System is Rigged." You know what works better than all these talks? A viral video. Show the abuses, show the faces of the victims. If it’s not trending, it’s not an emergency. It's messed up, but that’s the reality.
JENNIFER (Nodding slowly):
Nne raises a sociological point on the power of the spectacle. However, documentation remains paramount. The philosopher Hannah Arendt, reflecting on the foundation of justice, stated, "The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen." The evidence, the reports—they are the free press of the judiciary. The documentation is the paper trail that proves the state's failure to uphold the social contract. You need the video for the outrage, but you need the document for the judgment.
OLA (Stops pacing, looking at Amara's phone feeds):
And what if the 'investigation' is just used to target the witnesses or the documenters? The state-backed paramilitaries, like Ebube Agu, etc have themselves been accused of abuses, even being disbanded in some areas. When the cure is also the poison, the only viable course is to challenge the entire structure, not just the symptoms.
AMARA:
We have to do both. We challenge the structure with the law. The rule of law, even when suppressed, is the final authority. We continue to pressure. We gather evidence. We make sure the world knows. The truth, as John Milton wrote, "never came into the world but with her Divine Master, whom she has always served, and has suffered with him, violently to be met with."
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