By Festus Ogun
Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (retd.), a former Minister of Defence, once told Nigerians to defend themselves against killers in the country, saying the armed forces were not ready to defend them. He expressed his dissatisfaction about the attitude of the Nigerian military in the face of the security crisis rocking the country during a convocation at the Taraba State University, Jalingo.
In his words, “Our armed forces are not neutral. They collude with the bandits to kill people, kill Nigerians. The armed forces guide their movements; they cover them. If you are depending on the armed forces to stop the killings, you will all die one by one.”
He, therefore, encouraged Nigerians to defend themselves as the country’s leadership and governance system appeared impotent to render necessary security help, for they were no longer neutral. He went further to say, “I ask every one of you to be alert and defend your country, defend your territory and defend your state. Defend yourselves because you have no other place to go. God bless our country.”
The right to life is an inalienable provision of our constitution. Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution makes provision for right to life of all citizens. Nowhere is it written that fellow citizens or a sect of citizens have the licence to kill. For the right to life is the greatest of all rights and cannot and should not be arbitrarily taken away. For this right to be properly protected, the constitution empowers the government to run security agencies that will be neutral in bringing about “peace, order and good governance of the Federation”.
As such, it is obvious that adequate welfare and being properly secure are civic entitlements of the citizens. The security of the people is sacrosanct to any state. A country is as good as dead if lives are insecure.
It is sad that the right to life in Nigeria is only provided for on the pages of our laws. The licence to kill others with impunity, prevalent here, is a pointer to the fact that the right to life in Nigeria is nothing other than a mirage. In the face of endless killings going on in the country, the citizens are made to see hell and are frustrated due to the improper attitudes of security agencies.
If the lives of the people are breached, about to be breached or ordinarily threatened to be breached, it becomes a constitutional onus on the government through its security agencies to provide adequate and necessary help. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, those necessary and urgent interventions of the security agencies will either come at the wrong time, late or not at all.
One is tempted to think Nigeria is a country with no security. When this is the case, then, the citizens appear helpless, cheated, betrayed and are made to be more of slaves in their own country. They are forcefully made to become victims of poor governance and insecurity; meaning their lives can be taken at any time. At this point that the citizens are dragged to the wall, the only lawful means to save their dear lives is to take advantage of the laws of self-defence.
Self-defence is a defence to criminal liability.
“A person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime, or in effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders or of persons unlawfully at large.”
Self-defence is a constitutional right. Section 33(2)(a) provides thus:
“A person shall not be regarded as having been deprived of his life in contravention of this section, if he dies as a result of the use, to such extent and in such circumstances as are permitted by law, of such force as is reasonably necessary – (a) for the defence of any person from unlawful violence or for the defence of property.”
Section 32(3) of the Criminal Code also provides that a person is not criminally liable for an act, when the act is reasonably necessary in order to resist actual and unlawful violence threatened to him or to another person in his presence.
In UWAEKWEGHINYA v. STATE (2005) 9 NWLR (PT. 930) 27, the Supreme Court was of the firm view that “where a person kills another in defence of himself, such a killing is excused, and it does not amount to manslaughter under the Criminal Code or Culpable Homicide not punishable with death under the Penal Code. The defence of self-defence is a complete defence under the Criminal Code and the Penal Code and a successful defence of self-defence leads to the discharge and acquittal of the accused person.”
So, it is appropriate to say that Lt. Danjuma only reminded Nigerians of an already settled position of our law. What should be done is to take realistic measures to curb insecurity in this clime.
For the sake of clarity, self-defence is not the same as self-help.
Whereas self-help is unlawfully putting law into one’s own hands and as such a crime, self-defence is the lawful protection of oneself against arbitrary attack, as we have seen.
Finally, the government should quickly give a lasting solution to security issues rocking the country. Even self-defence may not save us when it gets to a stage, as it might later lead to avoidable violence and disorderliness when virtually every citizen resorts to it.
*Ogun is a civil rights activist
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