07 Jul 2006 |
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| The 'repentant robbers' of Yobe By Reuben Abati TWO months ago, the Yobe State Government determined to curb the spate of armed robbery in the state introduced a novel anti-crime, social protection programme, what it termed "the repentant robbers scheme". I acknowledge the fact that the government of Yobe State, like other state governments must have seen the need, in the face of the failure of the police, to find a creative solution to the menace of armed robbery. In Anambra State, for example, two former Governors, Chinwoke Mbadinuju and Chris Ngige had to create their own structures for combating crime, even if on the long run, those structures were abused. In other parts of the country, local and state governments have also had cause to devise similar ad-hoc means. In Yobe State, the curious innovation is this idea that the best way to check crime is to bribe criminals. By recruiting robbers on a salary of N5, 200 per month in order to prevent them from committing crime, the state government is inadvertently encouraging criminal conduct. It should have been clear to the Yobe authorities, that N5, 200 (about $40 US), which is below the national minimum wage is not likely to make any impression on hardened criminals. And would they be willing to pay rapists, murderers and pick-pockets as well, provided they are willing to take an oath? The Yobe "repentant robbers" scheme is a waste of public funds, and a ready channel for corruption. Do robbers have special identities? How does the state determine who a robber is? Can't anybody just show up, claim to be a robber and then collect free public funds every month? What stops the payment officers from putting the names of their own relations on the list as robbers? We are told that the beneficiaries are required to attend religious classes to educate them, and also swear to an oath with the Qu'ran. Bukar Ibrahim and his advisers ought to know that the use of religion as an instrument for crime control is an exercise in self-deceit. Since independence, Nigerian public officials have been taking oaths with the Holy Qu'ran and the Bible; this country is one of the most religious in the world, with churches, mosques and temples in virtually every street, but this has made little impact on the country's value system. Most of the official robbers of the state, those who are responsible for the failure of the state, have been persons who can swear with the Holy Books from now till the end of eternity. Knowing this to be true, why should anyone expect any form of honesty from robbers? Interestingly, the Yobe state government received a useful answer to this question last week from a certain "54-year old Muhammadu Baleri whose story is told in the Daily Trust of July 4, pp. 1- 2. Baleri one of the "self-confessed armed robbers paid to retire by Yobe state" was arrested while on a robbery operation. According to him, he signed up for the Yobe state "repentant robbers programme" only as a form of protection, to enable him continue with his chosen profession without any further molestation by the authorities. A sworn robber, Baleri told his interrogators that he would rather die in the course of duty than "die at home with his family." He pooh-poohed the Yobe state scheme declaring that there is no such thing as "honour among thieves". In his words, "whoever says there is any discipline among robbers is just talking out of ignorance because there is no such hierarchy in the business. There is so much money in robbery. Most of the time you get N1 million or a little above..." This self-confessed criminal then declared that robbery is a "way of survival", in other words a job, like any other! Buba Lawal, speaking for the Yobe state government, tried unsuccessfully in the same report to discredit Baleri noting that he is not one of the 200 robbers on the state government's payroll. But how does that negate the point that the armed robbery buy-out initiative is delusionary? It is not the duty of a state government to offer bribe to robbers. Its responsibility is to ensure the safety of lives and property and to promote the rule of law. Negotiations with common criminals have always proven to be harmful. A few years ago, President Obasanjo ordered every university Vice- Chancellor to stamp out cultism from the country's higher institutions. This resulted in a competition among Vice Chancellors as each one of them fought for Presidential attention. We were subsequently treated to a drama of the burlesque when one university after another announced how it had converted some cultists to the path of righteousness. Names of students who had willingly renounced cultism were published in the newspapers at public expense. In some of the universities, the Vice Chancellors also paid the cultists to pose for cameras! But has this worked? No, it hasn't. Campus violence has remained a major threat to education in Nigeria. It is one of the causative factors of brain drain and the growing resort of privileged parents to overseas education for their children. To address the problem of crime and insecurity, our governments must show a commitment to apply the rule of law, not compromises. The insecurity of lives and property, is an abiding source of frustration for all Nigerians. Since 1999, the Obasanjo administration has held many special retreats on the question of national security. The office of the Inspector-General of police has been charged on more than one occasion to find a creative and lasting solution to it. But to date not much has been done. Human life remains endangered; fear stalks and rules the land. In Lagos where I live, families sleep with both eyes open. Every privileged household is a police station unto itself as the landlord feels obliged to make arrangements for the security of his household. Such arrangements never involve a recourse to the police but to ad hoc self-help structures such as the vigilante groups which operate under all kinds of ethnic and neighbourhood umbrellas and usually outside the framework of the law. Car-jacking, bank robbery, theft are all on the increase. Ordinary people who go about in public transport are subjected to the ordeal of a so-called "one chance" phenomenon. If you respond to the exhortation: "Enter, enter, One chance going", or a variant of that, you may well discover that every other person inside the bus is a member of a gang of robbers. Persons have been robbed, raped and beaten under such circumstances. It could be risky crossing the road on foot. You could be stopped midway and asked to surrender your cell phone and money. You dare not protest. The highways across the country are not safe either. Luxury buses are routinely waylaid and in the process, lives have been lost, women have been raped; in one bizarre incident all the passengers were undressed, male and female, and ordered to start having sexual intercourse with one another while the robbers watched!. Armed robbery is one unifying tragedy affecting the entire country. Most recently, Mohammed Haruna, a distinguished public affairs analyst reported how a friend of his was killed and how he too narrowly escaped death in the hands of night marauders. His commentary on "Adamu Jibrin (1951 - 2006): Victim of state failure" in The Comet, July 5, 2006, back page, is quite touching. In the face of all this, the police are helpless. The intelligence agencies are unable to provide necessary assistance. In the past ten years, no case of assassination has been successfully investigated or prosecuted, and so every year, Nigeria records a number of unresolved murders. Our higher institutions have become killing fields. Hardened criminals going under the generic umbrella of cultists continue to wreak havoc particularly in the Southern parts of the country. All these call for serious worry and response. I am aware that there has been so much back-slapping in the corridors of power particularly in Abuja over recent achievements in the national economy. But we must never lose sight of those little things that matter, without which economic successes make no sense. Our economy has received a BB minus rating from Fitch and Standard and Poors. Fine. We have paid off the Paris Club; Nigeria now owes multilateral institutions only $5 billion as external debt. Very good. By next week, government would begin to pay internal debts owed pensioners and local contractors and so offset about $1. 3 trillion, the outcome of which should be a reflation of the economy. Okay oh. The country's foreign reserve has also risen to $36 billion; the Naira has appreciated against the dollar at N124 per dollar, the official and the parallel markets are almost at par for the first time in a decade. And what is more, the Financial Action Task Force in Paris has given Nigeria a clean bill of health as a destination for international finance...Fine. But of what use is all this if Nigerians cannot sleep at home, feel secure, and enjoy a standard of living that is untouchable by the sadism of robbers?. The appropriate response is not for our governments to abdicate their responsibilities in the area of social development. That is where the soul of the big picture lies. It is not enough to be obdurate like the spokespersons of the Yobe government or to engage in hollow but grand gestures. As for the Yobe state government, Bukar Ibrahim and his men should be more interested in how to create employment for the distracted youths of Yobe, invest in education and raise the people's standards of living. The "repentant robbers" programme should be stopped. There must be a proper account of whatever has been spent on it so far, and the Governor must personally refund that amount to the state treasury. All the so-called "repentant robbers" who have been on the state pay roll, should be handed over to the police for investigation. The right place for identified robbers is in jail not the pay office.
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