Owo Carnage and Red Flag for National Instability

The recent attack on St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State has not only reinforced the global concern over Nigeria’s gradual descent into anarchy and the inefficacy of the current national security architecture, but the need to allow the states exercise the policing powers within their territories in accordance with Section 4 (7) of the 1999 Constitution, Gboyega  Akinsanmi writes

Owo, a sprawling ancient city of Ondo State with a chequered history of communal crisis, came under armed invasion last Sunday. Unlike when its princes were at war over who ascended to the throne of Owo Kingdom between 1960s and 1990s, this time, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church was the target of the attack.

The attack occurred when the worshippers had already converged for Sunday service. Its consequence is collateral and grave, though conflicting. This is evident in the conflicting records of casualties, which the Ondo State Government and Catholic Diocese of Ondo State reeled out a few days after the invasion. On Tuesday, Ondo State Governor, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu put the number of death casualties at 22 and the survivors at 56. But this figure is sharply at variance with what Catholic Bishop of Ondo Diocese, Most Reverend Jude Arogundade had presented after Akeredolu gave his own update.

According to the church’s records, a total number of 38 worshippers died due to the armed invasion, which many believed, was unconscionable, unprovoked and unwarranted. Their bodies, according to the church, have already been deposited at the morgues in St. Louis Hospital, Owo and Federal Medical Centre, Owo.

Whatever may be the actual death toll, the church invasion ignited stern consternation globally. From the United Nations to the European Union, United Kingdom, United States; Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Justin Welby; Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the invasion triggered widespread condemnation and public outcry .

The reason for global concern is not far-fetched. The invasion, as shown in its consequence, is perhaps the most lethal attack the South-west region ever witnessed in its recent history. For Welby, therefore, it is an act of pure evil and a profound offence to God. The Sultan likened it to “a direct attack on all law-abiding citizens” at the sanctuary of God. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. António Guterres termed it an abhorrent attack, which he believed, the federal government should spare no effort to bring its masterminds and perpetrators to book.

At the UK Parliament, also, the invasion triggered profound deliberation during its June 7 plenary. In its resolve, the parliament saw the attack convincingly from the lens of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The attack, it believed, unequivocally flouts Articles (5-7) of the statute, which frowns at killing of any person irrespective of his colour, group, race or religion.

Likewise, the invasion stoked global concern over Nigeria’s gradual descent into anarchy, which according to analysts, was a red flag for national instability if not properly managed. In this light, also, Akeredolu claimed, the attack was an attempt to test the will of the people of the state and, indeed, the South-west given the security sector reforms the South-west Governors Forum has recently been pursuing within the ambit of the 1999 Constitution.

 This global apprehension is not founded in what happened in Owo alone. It is also rooted in the sustained attacks, which the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, MP Victoria Ford observed, occurred almost on a daily basis across all the states of the federation. This fear is further delineated graphically by  the findings of the Nigeria Security Tracker, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations and Mass Atrocities Casualties Tracking, an initiative of Global Rights. Between January and May, according to Global Rights, at least 3,288 had died due to armed attacks.

In January, as shown in its report, 740 persons fell to armed attacks nationwide; 593 in February; 641 in March; 646 in April and 384 May, a trend that depicts a bleak future for the federation at large. In the first fifth months of 2022, according to the report, 3,288 lives have been exterminated compared to 3,422 that were recorded in the first sixth months of 2021.Like death records, abduction cases are as well unprecedented across the federation. In this year alone, as indicated in the tracking report, 2,347 persons have been abducted, some of whom are still in captivity of the bandits. This trend bolsters the global concern about the future of Nigeria, which most development partners believe, is gradually fading into oblivion.

But what actually triggered the carnage of worshippers in Owo? Its triggers have been explained from different perspectives, which analysts argued, may in part have religious dimension. First, Ford argued that religious identity “can be a factor in incidents of violence in Nigeria.” The root causes, according to the MP, are often complex and relate to competition over resources, historical grievances and criminality.

 As established by Ford, religious identity is indeed a factor. However, it is not sufficient to explain what happened in Owo alone. Womanifesto, a coalition of over 500 women groups, also explained it in the entrenched culture of impunity, which it argued, had been a motivation for attacks and reprisals across the federation. The women coalition further justified its explanation in the failure of the federal government “to properly investigate; take tangible actions to ensure justice and deter future occurrence.” Whether in the south or north, as shown in its different reports, the inability of the federal government to ensure justice has been the sole motivation for the escalation of insecurity nationwide.

 Also, in a viral video by its National Chairman, Hon. Olawale Oshun, the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) partly agreed that the entrenched culture of impunity, which Womanifesto observed, was the trigger of the church invasion. ARG, a welfarist socio-political think-tank of Yoruba Nation, further  argued that the country’s unduly centralised security architecture can no longer guarantee public safety and order with the present socio-political realities of the federation.

This challenge, ARG observed, is associated with the security sector governance structure that needed to be reviewed to reflect a truly federalised regime. Under the current structure, as stipulated in section 216 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, the policing powers reside solely in the Inspector-General of Police, who is answerable only to the president and not the governor.

On this ground, as different interests have observed, the lack of constitutional power “to command, control, deploy and fund their own police institution is the challenge of the federating units to guarantee peace and stability within their territories.”

Reports of the 2006 and 2008 Presidential Committees on Police Reforms, among others, also, attested to these challenges just as they offered antidotes to address them. Like most thorny policy issues in the federation, CLEEN Foundation observed, the federal government has always been unwilling to share policing powers, which it has failed to effectively and efficiently exercise.

But the question of who exercises policing powers under the 1999 Constitution generated national debate in 2020 when marauding herdsmen invaded most states in the South, destroying economic crops, maiming farmers who challenged them, raping their wives and daughters, as well and taking occupation of their farmland. While sections 214 to 216 of the Constitution obviously affirms the power of the president over the Nigeria Police, the governors of South-west states relied on section 4 (7) to ensure law and order within their territories. The section stipulates that the House of Assembly of a State “shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the State…” 

 With this Section, the South-west governors resolved to enact a legislation that established in their states the Western Nigeria Security Network (codenamed Operation Amotekun). With the creation of  Operation Amotekun, relative order was restored in nearly all states of the region, at least before the latest armed invasion.

Unlike its counterparts, Ondo State has particularly been dispassionate in the enforcement of its Security Network and Amotekun Corps Law, 2020 due to what it ascribed to the unacceptable abduction cases recorded within its territory. So, for Akeredolu, the church invasion was a reprisal against the resolve of his administration to enforce the law. Now that bandits have resorted to the use of guerrilla tactics in the South, it is apparent that Amotekun Corps can no longer respond decisively to the region’s emerging security challenges. To prevent the repeat of the Owo carnage, stakeholders are now demanding a paradigm shift in the security sector governance.

In the short term, ARG challenged the federal government to review the legal regime governing the purchase and use of arms, ammunition and related hardware. The regime, as suggested in its response to the church invasion, should be reviewed to allow the state governments to procure high-grade arms for the use of the Amotekun Corps since bandits are in possession of AK-47 rifles, the kind of weapon the corps are not permitted under laws to use. Security analysts are also canvassing a comprehensive review of the country’s current security architecture to allow the states exercise the policing powers within their territories. Such a regime, as the Nigerian Governors’ Forum has suggested at different times, should create a state police for the purpose of enforcing law and order within the territory of each state of the federation.