A LETTER TO JONATHAN ON KIDNAPPINGS

Few weeks after Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan assumed the mantle of office as Acting President during the period of unprecedented uncertainty on the actual whereabouts of the then President (now late Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'adua), our group authored an open letter to the presidency on the disturbing cases of armed kidnappings.

Nearly two years after we wrote this open letter, the Federal government and other state administrations where kidnappings have persisted have failed to effectively bring this menace under control and enforce the rule of law.

On Sunday, September 9th 2012, the South East Governors met in Enugu State to deliberate on possible panacea to the unprecedented wave of kidnappings in the South East.

Governor of Anambra State Mr. Peter Obi who briefed Journalists said the forum has set up a security committee led by the General officer commanding 82 Division of the Nigerian Army, Enugu, Major-General Oluwaseun Osinowo to work out workable security blueprint on how to stamp out armed kidnappings and other violent crimes in the zone.

Belated as it is, the politicians must go a step further to ensure that suspects arrested for kidnappings, are made to face the full weight of the law in the competent court of law. As a civil society leader, I am aware that some police commissioners in the South East are alleged to be in the habit of collecting heavy bribes from suspected kidnappers and their sponsors and facilitating their freedom thereby endangering the security of the South East because these notorious criminals will return to the larger society to unleash further violence.

These bad eggs among the top echelons of the security community must be identified and prosecuted by the Federal Attorney General to break this vicious circle of impunity. Government must become much more serious regarding police reforms and show good examples to serving operatives indicted for sabotaging national security that crime does not pay. Government should be committed to law reforms including making justice delivery effective and efficient so that suspects arrested for offences such as kidnappings are effectively prosecuted with minimal delay and bureaucracy.

However, in order for kidnappings to be eradicated, the law must not be a respecter of any person and all those caught breaching the security and stability of any part of Nigeria must face decisive justice. The South Eastern states' Houses of Assembly have recently amended relevant criminal laws against kidnappings but the major problem is with poor enforcement of these relevant laws. Governments of those places whereby kidnappings are rife should also introduce economic empowerment projects and create enabling environment for private sector businesses to thrive in order to create job opportunities for young school leavers and graduates and make the youth busy and away from the trappings of crimes.

The state Attorneys General must wake up from slumber and implement radical measures to restore respect for the principle of rule of law because the fundamental cause of breakdown of law and order is the absence of justice and fairness in the society.

This trend must be checked effectively.

The last open letter on this thematic issue to the President almost two years ago, we had specifically told President Jonathan that we were urgently requesting that the federal government takes immediate, comprehensive and result-oriented action to stem the tide of the unprecedented rise in organized crime of kidnappings in Nigeria.

Our clarion call is necessitated by the need to remind the Federal administration under the President's watch that the essence of having a government in place is for the provision of the security of lives and property of the citizenry.

In my 516-page book 'politics and litigation in contemporary Nigeria,' I cited the work of T.H. Green who gave one of the best definitions of the concept of government.

Green in his book 'principles of political obligations' gave a descriptive and comprehensive definition of government thus; “In those levels of society in which obedience is habitually rendered by the bulk of society to some determinate superior who is independent of any other superior, the obedience is so rendered because this determinate superior regarded as expressly or embodying what may properly be called the general will, and is virtually conditional upon the fact that the superior is so regarded... The sovereign is able to exercise the ultimate power of getting habitual obedience from the people in virtue of an assent on the part of the people. This assent is not reducible to the fear of the sovereign felt by each individual; rather it is a common desire to achieve certain purposes, towards which obedience to law contributes”.

In the context of the Nigerian Constitution, the people are the true owners of sovereignty going by the provision of section 14(2) (b) that “sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this constitution derives all its powers and authority.” In other words, what T.H. Green and the Nigerian constitution have said above is that a government of men and women elected through a democratic process to preside over the political administration of the country is obliged to carry out only those functions and duties that serve the public interest. What then is the primary duty of government if we may ask? The 1999 constitution in section 14 (2) (b) answered the above question when it provides that; “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”.

A notorious fact of life in Nigeria since the operation of the 1999 constitution which incidentally marked the return of civil rule is the unprecedented level of general insecurity of lives and property of citizens. One clear manifestation of the general break down of law and order in the last decade is the unacceptable rise in some criminal activities such as armed robbery and violent kidnapping for ransoms which has made some members of the international community to issue travel warning to their citizens not to travel to the areas where kidnapping has increased.

* Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, Human Rights Writers' Association of Nigeria and blogs @ www.huriwa.blogspot.com.