By Martins Agbonlahor
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
It was around 5.30pm on 3 December, this year. The sky looked eerie due to the murky weather, but this did not prevent the peasants of Tudun Biri, a village in Northern Nigeria, from gathering in large numbers, as they grabbed their gongs, drums, traditional trumpets and other local percussion instruments: They were celebrating Mawlid al-Nabī, the Muslim holiday commemorating the birth of Prophet Mohammad.
But their fiesta turned into a fiasco when drones from the Nigerian military bombed their convivial party, killing forty-five, maiming fifteen, and blowing the bodies of twenty others to smithereens. And then the erring military had this to say: “We will investigate this, as we thought the villagers were terrorists!”
Yes, it is incumbent on the government to investigate this monstrous blunder, but how many of such investigations, probes, inquests, and inquiries done in the past have seen the light of day in this Alice-like wonderland of ours? None.
Only in January this year, the Nigerian Air force conducted an aerial attack that occurred in a non-combat zone in Nasarawa State, North Central Nigeria, killing innocent civilians and maiming others. This was seen not as intentional but only as “collateral damage” in the force’s fight against Islamic insurgents prominent in those regions. A probe that was set up to look into this “mishap” is yet to deliver its findings and for all intents and purposes, may have been swept under the carpet or pigeon-holed to gather cobwebs.
A year earlier on 18 December 2022, sixty four (64) citizens, many of whom where women and children, were killed in a military air strike in Zamfara State, again, in a free, non-combat zone. There hasn’t been one damned probe to ascertain what went amiss. We’ve only been treated to anecdotal reports and mere infodemics of misleading tittle-tattle. Why? Because when beggars die, there are no comets seen. The victims were the poor and the down-trodden elements in Nigeria’s oppressive state. So, who cares?
But the State must care, because she owes every Nigerian citizen a duty of care to ensure they are protected and secured, as enshrined in Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution and the Right to Life guarantees mirrored in Section 33(1).
This senseless massacre carried out “inadvertently,” as the errant military now want us to believe, must therefore, be looked into holistically. The disaster has without any scintilla of doubt, produced instant orphans, widows and widowers. Whole families have been lost and ebullient men and women who had high hopes before that fateful evening, are now hopeless.
The government must therefore, desist from treating this as “business as usual.” In fact, the Head of the Army’s “condolence” visit to the sight of the carnage is not enough nor is his sanctimonious assurances of “looking promptly into this.” Action is what is needed now, because grief delayed is grief multiplied. We need a thorough, transparent investigation and not mere palliative measures and strategies that do not make sense. The erring officers must be brought to book.
SB Morgen, a firm of researchers puts it graphically, that over three hundred (300) innocent citizens have been killed by the Nigerian military since 2017. And the numbers keep growing.
It would appear as though our armed forces are ill-prepared and not well trained to deal with criminals and insurgents threatening the security of Nigerian citizens. Of course, genuine mistakes and oversights do occur, but our soldiers must do all it can to reduce all acts of recklessness to their barest minimum.
I also recommend financial compensation for the victims, as the state has failed utterly in its avowed duty to protect its citizens, as exhibited by the blatant foolhardiness of its military.
Although I have heard one or two apologies from stakeholders, this is not enough, because mere, hollowed apologies will not put food on the table of those who have lost their limbs nor can it alter their beggarly existence.
Oh God, rest their souls!
Martins Agbonlahor is a trained lawyer, journalist and author. He resides in Greater Manchester, The United Kingdom.
