Going by the reaction of the Department of State Services (DSS) to the BringBackOurGirls protests in Abuja, it is clear that the federal government continues to loath the gathering, perhaps because officials see it as an embarrassment to the government and a reminder of its impotence in the face of the abduction of 219 Chibok schoolgirls that has lasted for about three months. Addressing a press conference in Abuja last week, the DSS spokesperson, Marilyn Ogar, told a disbelieving country that the protests had become a franchise organised in a way that its aims and objectives could no longer be described as altruistic.
According to Ms Ogar, “BringBackOurGirls movement has become a franchise and security forces know what they are up to. If it is an ordinary movement seeking to pile pressure on government or security agencies to free these girls, there will be no need for the group to begin to have tags and insist that you must be registered. Security forces also know that they have bank accounts. We also know that they want to simulate a protest march inside Asokoro Extension in Abuja and claim that they were doing so inside Sambisa Forest, to be reported in some foreign media. We also know that they brought in some experts from outside the country to teach them how to beat security when they are demonstrating; to withstand police teargas and security operations. We are waiting to see when these things would work…”
If the secret service knows all these things about the protests and their organisers, it is surprising that it has not made any arrest. The accusations against the protest organisers are so weighty that the DSS seems to be saying they had become subversives. It will be recalled that in May, the Federal Capital City (FCT) police commissioner, the controversial Mbu Jospeh Mbu, had attempted to ban the protests by also suggesting its organisers had become anarchists and subversives. Higher police authorities had to wade in to countermand the ban and save the country a huge embarrassment at a time the whole world was still demonstrating in solidarity with Nigeria over the abductions.
Mr Mbu’s embarrassing order itself came after presidency officials and the first lady tried unsuccessfully to persuade the country to doubt the abduction story, suggesting carelessly that the story was cooked up to dishonour the presidency and undermine it. In spite of reports from security agencies in Borno State where the abductions took place confirming the crime against the schoolgirls, the federal government had to set up another panel to confirm the abduction and the circumstances that surrounded it. Useful time was lost in rescuing the girls.
Apart from the troubling fact that the Jonathan presidency is run along amateurish lines, as the world attests without equivocation, the DSS now gives the unsettling impression it has little respect for the constitution and seems unmindful of the fact that its actions and words indicate the secret service is more pro-Jonathan and pro-PDP than it is pro-Nigeria and pro-constitution. After many years of gaining respect for its professionalism and impartiality, the Nigerian Army is also unfortunately suffering from the same malaise of seeing itself as an instrument in the hands of Dr Jonathan and the PDP.
The present attitude of the DSS and the army suggests something even more sinister – that increasingly the leadership of both security organisations lack the character necessary to stand up to the president and resist all subterranean efforts to undermine the constitution and the law. Indeed, the army keeps reaffirming its support for and defence of democracy. But its actions demonstrate otherwise. It lends itself to brazenly partisan tasks in its eagerness to stifle the opposition, muzzle the press and carry itself generally above the law. The credibility of the DSS and the army will continue to be eroded if their commanders fail to embark on the deep soul-searching they need to unite their men behind the law and the constitution and retain the respect and admiration of the country. If they fail, the fault will lie squarely on their drooping shoulders.