Nigeria's IDP's: The Law, Justice, and the 'placebo' of compensation by @9jaclicktivist

Here in Nigeria compensation appears to be an act that is at once humane, constitutes 'perceived' good governance and provides succour to the victims, many casualties, many victim, yet none is held responsible for the destructions of lives and properties in the Northern Part of Nigeria, Thunder fire those calling for the arrest of Tompolo and failed to call for that of Shekau, we must not be a tyrant, the fact is they both need to dance to the tune of the law. A deeper analysis however reveals that providing compensation is only a placebo - an act that merely gives the impression that justice is being done. In fact, there is no justice but only a charade which seeks to mask the incompetence of our institutions the Executive nor the Judiciary in protecting citizen's rights.

One of the basic tenets of a society governed by the rule of law is that violations of citizens' rights need to be adjudicated and the violator or perpetrator punished. Providing compensation is an added benefit no doubt, but it is the perpetrator who needs to pay both monetarily and otherwise but it is so sad that the perpetrators ends up getting state pardons, Nigerian government pardoned the criminals that maimed, killed and drove people out of their home into the IDP camps. Successive governments in Nigeria however focus mainly on providing compensation as it is something they can do easily and immediately even when it closes its eye to the mere fact that terror is being unleashed upon its people, allowing it to fester to an extent at which it already gave rooms for terror to grow. Had it been Yusuf the pioneering Boko Haram founder had been stopped or arrested earlier, Shekau would have been a Joke, a none existence.

Though identifying the perpetrators and punishing them takes a long time and is most often very difficult. The inadequacies of our police and judicial system more often than not make this already difficult task improbable. However, it is this process that safeguards the rights of the citizens in the long run and more importantly fixes responsibility on the person or persons responsible for the act. It is this fixing of responsibility in accordance with the law that ensures guarantee of rights, respect for the law and acts as deterrence for future acts. Compensation does not do any of this- it only provides immediate and temporary relief for the concerned victim, but does not benefit either the society at large or the victim's own rights in the long run, compensating victims (or their families) instead of focusing on upholding of the law and rights of individuals reflects just a continuance of the symptom in our country of governance focused on immediate gains and crisis management rather than long term goals that aim to build strong institutions and ensure that rights are meaningful. In recent times compensation had been hijacked by some people, this is an old practice: the relieve materials provided by the Nigerian government are not really getting to the people, Only few private institutions are helping matters, shoutout to Dr Peregrino Brimah of  ends.ng, Aisha Yesufu, Shonibare and co, this attitude of compensating the wrong people had caused the main casualties to loose hope in their own lives, the diversion of materials by government officials has a lot of  unwanted side effects.

Even in cases of tragedies, compensation is generally announced before any analysis of the causes of the tragedy and the identification of people responsible for those causes. The last administration even canvassed an Amnesty Programme for the Boko Haram terrorists terrorizing our brothers in the north. The rush to compensate the victims appears to be an effort to ensure swift closure to the incident and to prevent any questions from being raised on the reasons for the tragedy. Governments appoint enquiry committees or commissions which then function for years together collecting data and information about the tragedies. These reports are rarely given any importance when they are finally submitted because the incidents have faded from memory by then and each of the interested victims have received some compensation that has given them a false sense of justice and closure so nobody is going down or punished for the casualties. Even when the reports receive due importance it is generally a long time before any meaningful corrective step recommended by these committees are taken. In recent times, I cannot think of even a single tragedy that has resulted in the persons responsible being punished and corrective and long term systemic changes being implemented. These reports are dusted off and given a lease of life only when the next tragedy occurs and a noise is made by the media or the public. The IDP has been here for months, how many heads had rolled from the camp of the evil monstrous blood sucking demon sect called Boko Haram? What has happened to the military findings, arrest and recommendations? How many Boko Haramite have been sent to jail, tell me.... have our law failed us?

Unfortunately, compensation cannot address any real systemic problems. It is only a placebo that gives an impression of justice. Compensation is also a discretionary measure adopted by the state and does not follow after rights and wrongs are evaluated. It is not a drug that rights a wrong, punishes the guilty and helps learn lessons to prevent future tragedies and crimes. That can happen only when the state pursues every tragedy or crime with the same seriousness and with a commitment to enforce the rights guaranteed by law. It can only happen when we recognize that mere compensation is not good enough and move beyond it. Law, Justice then Compensation, the three works together perfectly

Let Justice be done even though the sky might fall!

Micheal Adebola Adeniyi

@9jaclicktivist