Friday brief: The military is killing innocent Nigerians. No one is holding it accountable.
Friday brief: The military is killing innocent Nigerians. No one is holding it accountable.
+ Fuel protesters block Benin-Shagamu Expressway
Good morning.
We are covering the killing of innocent Nigerians by military airstrikes and a fuel hike protest in Benin-city.
Important Note: This is the last daily newsletter for a while. I’m taking some time to work on a community journalism project and learn more about climate science. I hope to stay in touch by sending in occasional newsletters but, for now, no more daily emails. I’ve enjoyed waking up at 4am every weekday to write you this email, and I’m grateful for everyone who has shared and recommended the newsletter to friends and family. The growth on my dashboard metrics has been quite encouraging.
If you are enjoying this newsletter and finding it useful, I’d like to ask for a favour: please support my work by sharing it with your family and friends.
Airstrikes kill over 30 herdsmen in Nasarawa
On Tuesday, herdsmen shepherding their cattle into Nasarawa were hit by airstrikes that killed at least 37 persons and an unspecified number of animals.
The strike occurred in Doma, a community that connects Nasarawa and Benue states.
“It has to do with some Fulani who got to rescue their cows, and after rescuing the cows, there was a bomb blast at the area where they gathered their cows to bring them back to Nasarawa state,” state governor, Abdullahi Sule, said.
About nine of the victims were from just one family, Sule added.
More fatalities are expected to have been recorded from the Benue state side.
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) said the affected herders had gone to get 1,250 cows impounded by the Benue livestock guards.
Reaction: According to a source who spoke to PRNigeria, a website used by the military to spread its propaganda, the airstrike was ordered following an intelligence report received by the military that insurgents had moved into some communities between Nasarawa and Benue states.
But “a particular state government official” was said to have given the military the wrong location, leading to the latest killing of innocent civilians.
Abdullahi Sule: The governor said it is not yet clear which military unit was responsible for the unfortunate strikes.
Quotable: “We have so many operations,” Sule said. “We have air force base that is operating; we have the special forces in Doma; we have the whirl stroke operating in Makurdi. We have many of them, so I don’t want to point a finger at any one of them, because I’m not sure what happened. That is the position right now.”
Official response: The military said it will not comment on the strikes “or join issues with anybody over the incident.”
My take: This keeps happening. Just this week, scores of people were killed after a yet-to-be-identified aircraft bombed a community in Niger State. In December, airstrikes killed more than 60 civilians in Zamfara; in February 2022, Nigerian airstrikes even crossed borders and killed seven children in neighboring Niger Republic. I can go on and on. The unintentional bombing of an IDP camp in Rann, Borno, which killed over 50 people, is still fresh in the mind.
Usually, the excuse is that the airstrikes were meant for bandits and terrorists. But why does it keep happening? And, as far as I can tell, without major consequences.
There are a lot of conspiracies about why insecurity persists in Nigeria, but one valid reason is the heavy mistrust between citizens and the security forces. Military officials are always quick to ask the public to trust them and provide intelligence, but why should I depend on a force that continues to kill the people I love? In many parts of Nigeria, whole communities would rather trust armed militia gangs over state-sanctioned forces because of this sort of unchecked behaviour. What happens now to the Fulani herdsman who lost nine of his family members to a government airstrike? Tell him sorry? Give him some money? The scale of the injustice is mind-numbing.
The military is an essential component of Nigeria’s fight against terrorism and insecurity, and their efforts cannot be washed away, but if this cycle of violence must end, they have to be held accountable for their actions.
What else is happening?
New naira notes: Despite an acute shortage of new naira notes, churches, businesses and schools have started to announce plans to reject old notes in compliance with directives from the central bank. The bank had set January 31 for the expiration of the N200, N500 and N1,000 old notes but commercial banks have struggled to provide the new notes. The central bank governor earlier this week said an extension of the deadline was not in consideration, despite opposition from federal lawmakers.
Femi Gbajabiamila: The speaker of the House of Representatives has threatened to issue an arrest warrant for central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, after he failed to honour an invitation from the House. The House had invited central bank officials to explain the “unmitigated failure” of the rollout of the redesigned naira notes. “The refusal by the CBN to heed the invitation by the House of Representatives is evidence of a blatant disregard for the well-being of the Nigerian people who are their customers,” a livid Gbajabiamila said. “It is also an insult to the authority and prerogatives of the people’s parliament.”
Bola Tinubu: The APC presidential candidate tried to walk back his criticism of the federal government in Abeokuta by saying the PDP was behind the recent fuel crisis across the country. “They met good oil prices for 16 good years, they didn’t remember gas pipelines, they are what I called saboteurs yesterday,” Tinubu said. “They gave PMS licenses to their supporters and sympathisers. They are the ones who started creating fake queues. PDP, enough is enough.”
Fuel protest: Commuters on their way to Lagos were stranded for hours after protesters blocked the Benin-Shagamu Expressway at Oluku junction in Edo state. The protesters, mainly young people, lamented the rise in fuel prices and the scarcity of the product.
Immigration: The UK government is seeking to reduce the amount of time foreign students can stay in the UK after graduation from two years to six months. If approved, this will affect thousands of Nigerian students who hope to work and live legally in the UK after their studies.
Dibu Ojerinde: The anti-corruption agency, ICPC, re-arrested the former registrar of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) after “new evidence” was “uncovered in relation to his ongoing trial for diversion of funds while he was a public officer.” Ojerinde is currently being prosecuted by the ICPC on a 19-count charge bordering on abuse of office and fraud to the tune of about N10 billion while serving as head of the National Examination Council (NECO) and JAMB.
Japa wave: A total of 309 Nigerians have renounced their citizenship in the last 16 years, according to the federal government. But over half of them renounced last year, a sign of the huge number of Nigerians seeking migration opportunities elsewhere.
And that’s it for today.