Source: The Sun
Great thinkers have often stated that the logical consequence of not learning from history is the constant repeat of some costly human mistakes and intentional crimes.

Unfortunately, Nigeria seems to be a perfect laboratory for the experimentation of the above statement even as evidence abounds to show that the deliberate lack of institutional memories and the failure to learn from past mistakes has often resulted in the frequent repeat of same in much more devastating scale.

Let me explain what I am driving at. During the administration of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, soldiers were a major component of the peace keeping operations that facilitated the end to the prolonged civil wars in both Liberia and Sierra Leone.

As part of the United Nations peace keeping operations, Nigeria got accolades for playing these heroic roles towards the achievement of political stability in the troubled West African nations.

But besides this significantly positive contribution of the Nigerian contingent, there were reported cases of some moral and ethical indiscretions allegedly committed by the troops to such a level that dozens of Liberian and Sierra Leonean girls were impregnated by some of these soldiers.

Unfortunately, the Nigerian government did not take serious measures to sanction these misbehaving troops. It is said that the children produced from such sexual gratifications by our returnee soldiers are all over the place in those countries unsure of when they would see their real biological fathers.

Fast forward these scenarios to the ongoing conflict resolution efforts of the Nigerian troops in the troubled North East. Again, there are reports of sexual violations of teenage girls who are caught up in the terror territory and who have become internally displaced because of the destruction by Boko Haram terrorists of their homes, and schools including businesses.

But if these citizens expected that the troops and other government officials would truly provide protection for them and wipe out their accumulated emotional trauma they got from the activities of the terrorists, they may have exaggerated their expectations.

This is because most of the young girls have sadly found out that the fastest survival strategy in those internally displaced person’s camps is to play according to the immoral rule book put up by some of the morally depraved officials.

The state officials manning these camps in the North East of have compelled the girls to exchange their bodies for relief materials or food.

Reports that these violations of teenage girls were happening in the IDP camps are disturbing. But government officials have strongly denied these allegations. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), and the Ministry of Women Affairs, seemed tohave done little to condemn these crimes.

Recently, a United States-based organization- Human Rights Watch released a damning reports of these sex abuses in the IDP camps. The Presidency moved in to probe the allegation. First let us flip through the executive summary of the report on these serial sexual violations of teenage girls of the North East as compiled by the Human Rights Watch.

The report says that: “Government officials and other authorities in Nigeria have raped and sexually exploited women and girls displaced by the conflict with Boko Haram. The government is not doing enough to protect displaced women and girls and ensure that they have access to basic rights and services or to sanction the abusers, who include camp leaders, vigilante groups, policemen, and soldiers”.

HRW affirmed that the victims had been displaced from several Borno towns and villages, including Abadam, Bama, Baga, Damasak, Dikwa, Gamboru Ngala, Gwoza, Kukawa, and Walassa.

In some cases, according to the report, the victims had arrived in the under-served Maiduguri camps, where their movement is severely restricted after spending months in military screening camps.

“It is bad enough that these women and girls are not getting much-needed support for the horrific trauma they suffered at the hands of Boko Haram,” said Mausi Segun, senior Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It is disgraceful and outrageous that people who should protect these women and girls are attacking and abusing them,” the report added
Upon the circulation of this report and the global condemnation it attracted President Buhari immediately asked the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Kpodum Idris to probe the allegations.

The directive by President Buhari is seen by some as a smokescreen to sweep these crimes under the carpet of impunity. How does the President expect an institution whose members are guilty of serious infractions to investigate itself? It is same as making an accused both the judge and prosecutor in the same crime.

So what happened that a body like the National Human Rights Commission is not allowed to do this work which in any event falls under its statutory mandate?

The reason is that the National Human Rights Commission is so weak and compromised as to carry out professionally respected investigative work because the governing Council/board is not in place and the management in place lacks the requisite expertise and commitment to discharge her independent functions as a truly independent ombudsman.

Allowing the office of police Inspector General to mess up the investigation of these grave human rights violations is the greatest disservice to the Nigerian Constitution and this would rub off on the international status and respectability of the nation as a member of the civilized comity of nations.

By Emmanuel Onwubiko

• Africa
• Nigeria