AfriPulse
The Chief Executive Officer of House of Justice, Kaduna, Gloria Mabeiam Ballason, has opined that terrorism is state sponsored and a lucrative trade when government uses taxpayers’ money to invest in terrorists and criminals.
Speaking at the 10th House of Justice Summit with the theme, “From camps to justice and communities”, she stated that this “potentially risks victims forging their own forms of justice or transitioning from victimhood to being combatants.”
According to her, “Since 2009, Nigeria has experienced blistering asymmetrical insecurity. United Nations sources indicate that more than 300,000 people have died as a result, some from indirect causes, such as displacement, food crises, and lack of access to health care.”
She noted that the violence has displaced millions of people internally and forced hundreds of thousands more to flee to neighboring countries like Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.
Ballason stated, “In states like Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, Zamfara, Niger and, more recently, Kwara, hundreds of communities have been displaced and replaced by insurgents, some of whom have gained the audacity to rename those communities.
“The full extent of this humanitarian crisis includes heightened food insecurity, disruption of commercial and social interactions, psychological stress, decline in foreign investments, 18.3 million out of school children according to UNICEF’s 2024 report, and a general breakdown of law and order.”
In the face of this “swaggering unbridled audacity” by non state actors and belligerents, she explained that government’s response has been unsettling and curious, with “rehabilitation programs” for former Boko Haram members such as Operation Safe Corridor, Demobilisation, Rehabilitation and Reintegration, and the Yellow Ribbon Initiative. The government’s reasoning is that these “non kinetic approaches” will end insecurity.
Unfortunately, Ballason lamented that the recent escalation of hostilities does not empirically support the claim that the type of non kinetic intervention employed by Nigeria’s government is the way to go.
She observed that while the government could design a “non kinetic” intervention for insurgents and criminals, there has been no coherent commitment or intervention for justice and reparation for victims and victim communities, saying that the trial rates for terrorists are abysmally low.
“Destroyed communities remain in ruins. There is a daily bulge of out of school children and, in the past weeks, at least six states have sent school children home after 25 girls were kidnapped in Kebbi and 315 school children and teachers were kidnapped in Niger State. The security situation, which had improved, has now taken a nosedive and is taking us back, much worse, to 2019 when Nigeria was rated the third most terrorized country by the Global Terrorism Index,” she lamented.
Ballason stated that it is the position of House of Justice that there needs to be a coherent framework not just for addressing insecurity and insurgency, but for setting an agenda for the healing of the country and a return to normalcy.
She advised that justice and resettlement of displaced persons should be a deliberate healing plan for the nation, saying that victims, not perpetrators, are those in need of “non kinetic” interventions, as victims need justice, reparations, psychosocial healing and the ability to vacate IDP camps and safely return to their autochthonous communities.
Addressing the present precarious insecurity, she said, requires acknowledging the lived experiences of victims, pointing out that the debate about genocide on the basis of religion in the Middle Belt of Nigeria is, for instance, a reality, just as the insecurity in Zamfara, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, and other parts of the country.
She noted that it should be clear by now that these enemies of the state kill under different schemes, in pursuance of a common end by mowing down neighbourhoods and exterminating anyone within sight, stressing that as citizens, Nigerians cannot reduce the gravity of human lives to a debate on whose casualties are more. “This is not a death Olympics. This is an existential crisis.”
According to her, “We must now centre conversations and interventions on ensuring Nigeria is safe for all and protect our children from this carnage, for our future and the continuation of our species depend on their safety.”
Source: Daily Post Nigeria | Read the Full Story…
