By Rotimi Fasan

Chika Viola Anele and Ifeyinwa Fidelia Ezeiruaku are women, both of the 13 Brigade headquarters of the Nigerian Army, Calabar, Cross River State. One is a second lieutenant in the Army and the other a member of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, on mandatory national service at the Army headquarters in Calabar.

This makes them in their different ways agents of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

From the sound of their names, both are from the same part of the country. But all these shared attributes of gender, ethnicity and professional affiliation were not enough to dissuade Anele from violating Ezeiruaku in the most horrendous, inhuman way possible.

Should the opportunity have presented itself, and going by her action, it is clear that Anele would not have hesitated to put a gun to Ezeiruaku’s head and blown it off. For her, the corps member could not be worthy of human dignity. That much is clear from the spectacle Anele made of Ezeiruaku last week.

In a video footage that was first posted online by human rights activist, Agba Jalingo, the same man who was himself subjected to the horrors of long incarceration without trial by Ben Ayade, governor of Cross River State, Anele could be seen pouring begrimed water scooped from a bucket on Ezeiruaku who was on her knees, drenched to her underclothes. This act of physical and psychological abjection to which Ezeiruaku was subjected was accompanied with violent slaps to the head with the same bowl from which Anele poured dirty water on her.

It is significant that both women were in their official uniforms, while the assault took place right inside the Army headquarters. This leaves one wondering what acts of impunity are randomly executed in that place as are other military establishments and environments under the control of paramilitary and private security agents, so-called law enforcement officers.

How come nobody saw this gross dehumanisation of a fellow human being by an officer that could only be older than the youth corps member by a couple of years?

A report has it that Anele herself observed the national service only in 2018, which means she was probably in school at the same time as the woman she so callously humiliated. And it is pertinent to ask by what or whose authority this woman perpetrated her unjust act of human degradation.

How could she have done this without any fear of discovery or sanction? Who doesn’t know that many, if not most of Nigeria’s military personnel, are far more interested in the imagined or self-imposed immunity their uniforms confer on them? Many are known to take liberties other Nigerians dare not take simply because they happen to wear the uniform of one of the forces.

Which is why personnel of the armed forces would often not pay to ride in public transport, for example, preferring to rely on the immunity provided by something as ordinary as one of the many items that these personnel have claimed for themselves as exclusive symbols of their connection to the military: camouflage vests, hats or leather belts. At other times, all they have to identify them is their animal hide whip (koboko/bulala), put on conspicuous display around them.

That is the extent to which our men and women in uniform have degraded Nigerians. For who else are their whips meant if not the hapless civilians apparently undeserving of the normal courtesies that ‘officers’ think should be extended to human beings.

But since both Anele and Ezeiruaku wear uniforms that proclaim their connection to the Nigerian state, they should both enjoy some degree of mutual respect not to say respect from other Nigerians. This shouldn’t be too much to expect. But the men and women of uniform, especially those in the military and paramilitary forces, must think they have the exclusive right to everything including the right to humiliate other Nigerians at will.

They are not to be controverted. Nor should anyone question their position. To hold an opinion could be tantamount to challenging them to a duel. For it was as a result of an argument, the nature of which nobody has bothered to explain, that Ezeiruaku was reduced to the level of a slave.

Had there not been a recording of the incident, it is doubtful if the military hierarchy would have reacted to it in the manner it has done. Had Agba Jalingo not posted the footage of the assault, it is probable nobody in the Army would have said a word about it. But this is the age of social media with the affordances of citizens-created content that comes with it. It was not possible for anyone to call this fake news and kick it into the waste bin of media coverage. There was no way to deny it.

The names and identities of those involved have been clearly spelt out. All that was left was for the military to act to restore the dignity of an innocent Nigerian and instil discipline in one of their undisciplined officers.

If words are anything to go by, they have been doing their bit in this regard. Anele who is a disgrace to the uniform she wears ought to be made to face the worst form of sanction available. For the needless and avoidable trauma she has caused a young Nigerian serving her country, nothing should be off the table, including the loss of her commission.

Her type is a shame to our men and women in uniform and there should be no place for them in the military. Nigerians should follow developments on this matter and be on the lookout to ensure that justice is served and that the military high command follows through with its promise to put Anele through the processes of military justice. When the military is done with her, then Ezeiruaku should sue her in a private capacity. She should not be allowed to hide under the guise of being an Army officer subject only to the dictates of martial law.

We know that this incident won’t mark the end of military impunity. Decades since the end of military rule, Nigerian uniformed officers still find it hard to live up to the standards expected of others. There are numerous instances of violations of both the rights and humanity of Nigerians by people in uniform, be they military, paramilitary and even others employed by private agencies.

Official uniforms seem to give Nigerians the right to commit the worst infractions possible. Soldiers have been known to go on rampage, killing, burning and looting, in a bid to avenge imagined slights to their position even by their counterparts in the other armed or paramilitary forces.

These are acts that should stop and which Nigerians in their millions must learn to reject.

Vanguard News Nigeria