S.E. Security Outfit: Lions Are Man-Eating Predators O |The Source

By Onwubiko Agozino

“Nigeria has been trying to defeat and humiliate and defeat the South-east for decades, in vain. A fraction of the war-making budget could have transformed the Region into an industrial power house for the Country and for Africa.”

Agu, the lion, is a predator in the republic of Anumanu (animal kingdom). Yet, this is the image chosen by the Governors of the South East Region of Nigeria to represent their demand for ‘increased militarized policing’.

The militarization of policing has never succeeded in yielding improved security anywhere in the world because such policies tend to brutalize the conscience of the citizens, and result in increased violence in the community and internationally.

The communique issued by the Governors carefully avoided the demand for community policing, but called on Ohaneze and Church leaders, rather than Criminologists, to meet with security agents to discuss the causes of increased violence in the region. They called for herdsmen and farmers to coexist peacefully while claiming to ban open grazing. But this is not possible unless they implement ranching as is done in many parts of the world.

The South East region remains the most peaceful part of Nigeria and the Governors should examine the hypothesis that agents provocateur may be responsible for the spectacular escalation of violence in the region to provoke the invasion of the region and the disruption of economic activities.

Instead of calling for a list of security infrastructures and budgets from the security agents for immediate funding by the Governors, they should prioritize the awarding of huge grants for business start ups and scholarships for the unemployed graduates to shift policies from a war-making approach to a peacemaking approach that would promote community security through increased prosperity that would be secured through community policing.

Nigeria has been trying to defeat and humiliate the people of the South East for decades, in vain, but a fraction of the war-making budget could have transformed the region into an industrial powerhouse for the country and for Africa.

The Governors from the region should be brave and demand for reparations to be paid to the survivors of the Igbo genocide in which 3.1 million people were killed, especially, because the survivors are not terrorists seeking for revenge. Rather they are exemplary citizens excelling in business, education, arts, and sports, and helping to develop other parts of the country where they migrate to set up businesses partly because of the lack of industries in the South East.

All the offense they cause is the non-violent demand for a referendum to decide the future of the region, the same way Scotland has been demanding for referenda without the Scottish National Party being banned as a terrorist organization.

Reparative justice may persuade more people from the region to vote for African unity in a referendum that includes the option of the United Republic of African States that Azikiwe and Nkrumah canvased. No more war.

As Noam Chomsky would say about the definition of terrorism in the laws of different nations, including especially the US, the 2011 Anti-Terrorism Act of Nigeria defines terrorism in such a way that the Government itself qualifies as a terrorist organization using intimidation to breed fear among the people for political reasons. Decolonize politics by erasing the colonial boundaries to reunite Africa and pool resources to solve the problems posed by neocolonialism in all parts of Africa.