OPC and the Scourge of Terrorism: Extending the Debate

By Abdullahi Bego 

[IRAN]

abego5@yahoo.com

After nearly a decade of causing mayhem in the quest for ethnic supremacy, the Odua People’s Congress (OPC) has now been added to the U.S. Government List of terrorist organizations. According to a BBC report, an organization, called the Federation of American Scientists, was instrumental to unmasking the physiognomy of the Yoruba ethnic militia before the U.S. law enforcement establishment. The report added that, as a result, the former secretary general of the OPC Kayode Ogundamisi was being detained in Germany (note that the fight against terrorism is global in character) and might possibly be deported.

It will be a trite to say that the measure taken by the U.S government was long overdue. In the years following the death of General Abacha, the OPC had transformed into a monster ready to consume whatever was within its prey. In very recent history, the ethnically inspired killings it perpetrated in Sagamu, Ketu, Lagos and other places are vivid reminders of how dangerous the militia had become. 

Protagonists of the OPC within the ranks of the vocal Yoruba elites and the so-called Lagos-Ibadan axis press had consistently grounded the formation of the OPC within the repressive political economy of the Abacha dictatorship. After the political permutations that brought Obasanjo to power as an elected president, the existence of the OPC was rationalized, albeit tenuously, on the need for some ‘community assistance’ to law enforcement in the face of rising crime rates.

Given the U.S government stance and the long standing position of the government and majority of the people of Nigeria about the illegality and monstrosity of the OPC, this intervention will seek to examine the role of the OPC and other ethnic militias within the context of the dreadful scourge of terrorism and the political economy of a developing democracy.

As a systematic use of terror or unpredictable violence against governments, publics or individuals to achieve political objectives, terrorism is now on top of the global agenda, as the civilized world seeks to entrench the foundations of peace and progress among and between peoples and nations. The September 11th terrorist’ attacks against U.S targets in which at least 3000 people lost their lives, of other unjustifiable terrorist onslaughts, had now become the defining moment of the spirited fight against terrorism. It is therefore no surprise that the U.S government would be wary of organizations having public records of unjustifiable killings such as the OPC. 

In Nigeria the return to ethnic politics, since elections swept away over a decade of military rule, has given impetus to the formation of ethnic militias. In the current democratic dispensation, the vocal Yoruba elites were the first to perfect the use of a militia (the OPC) to further their political objectives. Given to such thinking as the need for restructuring (which is fine if properly pursued), the desire to correct perceived or real imbalances and crave for a Yoruba supremacy in the equation of politics in Nigeria; a number of Yoruba leaders deployed the OPC as a potent weapon. Since most of the OPC ‘fighters’ are miscreants with a moral turpitude, it was easy to use them to cause disorder and destruction to life and property.

And so in Sagamu, Ketu and other places, the Mallams who have ‘destroyed everything’ had to be driven out or killed because ‘they don’t belong here’. It was such a tragic tale on the lofty statue of the human being that a minor argument over a parking space, for instance, would so easily degenerate into a spate of ethnic violence. It is also a tragic tale that, while political leaders in other democratic societies are working together to make life easy for their people, many of our political leaders across Nigeria are pursuing pecuniary, self-centered objectives with plain disregard, even disdain, to the living conditions of the ordinary people.

 So as a strategy, the OPC was yielding political dividends. As a means of coercion, it has helped trumpet the voices of its instrumentalists, made the Obasanjo administration to have to make certain concessions to the Yoruba leaders and generally created a ‘police’ society in the South West in which the northern Mallam was deliberately made to feel vulnerable. But the OPC phenomenon had also led to the creation of other militant organizations either as a response to or as extension of the quest for ethnic supremacy. The Bakassi and Egbesu Boys are practical examples. The Arewa Youth Forum, although practically non violent and not particularly ethnic-oriented, could also potentially be used to exact retribution if and when the need arose. All these create a polity marked more by the feelings of insecurity, fear and general distrust among the populace.

If Yoruba leaders are as minded about democracy and the rule of law as they always claimed in scholarly circles or before conferences in Europe and America, why do they have to resort to stone- age and primordial tactics to attain political goals, one might ask. Why are they always prominent, not in the use of time honoured democratic principles of dialogue, persuasion and normal political horse-trading, but always in mercurial swings to achieve ethnic, and thus trivial, political objectives through means condemned, and now fought, by the democratic world?

It is my opinion that the OPC and all similar ethnic or tribal militias be not only outlawed and disbanded but also openly condemned by those making pretensions to supporting democracy and the rule of law in Nigeria. The National Assembly has a crucial role to play here. Recently President Obasanjo has submitted a Bill banning such tribal militias and providing stiff penalties for persons who engage in election violence. This Bill needs to be urgently worked on if the apprehensions of many Nigerians and the international community about the prospect of the 2003 elections marked by violence are to be minimized.

More importantly, the police as the strongest arm in law enforcement must convince Nigerians it was ready to bring criminals who parade as ethnic ‘police’ to book. So far Nigerians have very legitimate reasons to doubt its readiness. How Ganiyu Adams, the young militia’s warlord, remained elusive to the police for long and how OPC-engineered violence in the South West in the past practically went out of control give bent to the disposition of Nigerians. The police must prove their mettle as impartial arbiters in troubled spots, especially with recent government efforts to reinvigorate them.

Now that the U.S government has put the OPC in its list of terrorist organizations, it will be logical to argue for the application of the tough measures that the U.S normally impose on such organizations or those with links to acts of terrorism. It will be safe to call, for instance, for the freezing of assets of known OPC financiers and ideological masterminds and the provision of such support to law enforcement agencies as would assist them fight a terrorist organization. These measures will help in checking some of the unnecessary threats to our teetering democracy.

But the people of Nigeria generally, regardless of region or religion, must show more tolerance of one another. This is one way to fight extremists. The world is moving at a fast pace and we Nigerians are left behind exhausting our resources and energy on matters that have repeatedly put the hand of the clock of our development several eons back.

Abdullahi Bego writes from Tehran, I R Iran  (email-abego5@yahoo.com)