SIR: There is a seeming truth in the saying that it is easy to construct emergency powers in war time, but difficult to deconstruct in peacetime. This is perhaps the daunting situation Nigeria find herself at this critical time in the fight against the novel but devastating coronavirus. While in the world over, pragmatic efforts have been put in place to curtail the spread of the virus, Nigeria’s approach to the deadly disease is creating yet another deleterious challenge.
Announcing its belated measures to tackle the outbreak, the federal government issued a lockdown order on three states: Lagos, Ogun and FCT. With this order all activities were to be brought to a halt. However, before Nigerians could digest the strange pronouncement, security agents took over the three states in gestapo style and unleashed brutal assault on the alleged violators of the order. The assault on Nigerians by some security officials as captured in viral videos has called to question the democratic credential of security agencies, especially the Army and the Police, whose officials brazenly displayed their contempt and lack of respect for dignity of Nigerian citizens.
While arguments have continued to rage on the legality of the extra-ordinary measures put in place by nations to check the spread of the virus, scholars and political analysts have called attention of discerning minds to the debilitating consequence of allowing leaders around the world to amass unprecedented powers in the guise of fighting the pandemic. The question is, what happens when the novel virus is defeated? Would the leaders willingly relinquish those powers during peacetime?
As noted by Salem Gebrekidan in an opinion article published in The New York Times, “As the coronavirus pandemic brings the world to a juddering halt and anxious citizens demand action, leaders across the globe are invoking executive powers and seizing virtually dictatorial authority with scant resistance”.
While the situation in Nigeria is not altogether different, the conduct of some security officials in the wake of the lockdown order is as dangerous as the pandemic, and this is what the Nobel laureate warned against. Wole Soyinka and others knew that the growing culture of impunity of the country’s security agents did not start today and the fear that such flagrant abuse of Nigerians by some security officials might spill over to the aftermath of the present crisis is real. Rather than allaying the fears of Nigerians in this regard, those at the corridors of powers dismissed them and engaged in diversionary tactics.
But for those who have been following Nigerian trajectory over the years, the country’s security agencies did not acquire such infamous notoriety today, or even yesterday. The awful conduct of some state security officers is an unfortunate spill-over of military incursion into our democratic space. The military ruled with the iron fist of oligarchy through martial laws that cannot stand democratic scrutiny. With soldiers almost everywhere of our national lives with mandate to enforce martial laws on civilian populace, it didn’t take long for the soldiers to see themselves as the lord of the manor with the attendant violations of the rights of the citizenry. And so it was a difficult pill to swallow when the reality of civilian regime dawn on them, waiting only for the occasional calls – as presented by this pandemic – to unleash their venom on hapless citizens. By failing to realise that the rules in the walls of their barracks is different from that of the outside world, some of these soldiers continued to show wanton disrespect for civilian laws and all known normative culture of democracy.
Going forward there is the need to balance efforts at curtailing the pandemic with the respect for dignity of citizenry. Those found to have violated the lockdown order should be arrested and prosecuted according to the law, and not treated like animals. This should be the irreducible minimum obligation of a responsible security agents.
