VANGUARD
Professor of Human Rights and Gender Law, Yinka Olomojobi was shot dead last week Friday by suspected kidnappers at Iperu Remo, Ogun state. Unaware that he would lose his life in the hands of kidnappers, the Babcock University lecturer in this interview, raised concerns on the dire security situation in the country and adviced that government must be firm and resolute in punishing kidnappers and terrorists to serve as deterrent to others. He also spoke on other issues.
Excerpt: By Henry Ojelu, Juliet Umeh
Your new book, “Armed Conflict, The convergence between International human rights law and international humanitarian law,” was launched in January. What was the inspiration behind the book?
I am a scholar and human rights lawyer. In my field, we have a number of books and scholarly articles on human rights but what has been missing are books on international and humanitarian laws. In the context of human rights, the international and humanitarian laws are always left out because it’s still in a growing process. I teach it as a component of human rights but it is limited in its application to fighting wars, and using the elements from distinction proportionality, humanity and those other various elements.
But my argument is that although they are distinct, they are not divergent. So the arguments is that once there is an infringement on the laws of war or how law should be conducted, then there is a violation of human rights.
Do you think Nigeria is adhering to international laws in its fight against insurgency?
When you look at the fight against Boko Haram, it is what we call non International conflict. The reason is that Boko Haram has a command structure and in that regards, the laws of war must be strictly adhered to between Boko Haram fighters and the military. The military must observe the rules and conducts of war as well as Boko Haram terrorist fighters. But usually there is complexity because how does the army identify who Boko Haram fighters are? How do they know those who are combatants? It may be easy to identify soldiers as combatants but the issue is that Boko Haram terrorists are always targeting none combatants. Obviously, they are not obeying the laws of war. In the case of the military, I would also posit that if non-combatant are target in the effort to fight back, then that would clearly be against international laws.
What do think of the FG’s consideration of amnesty for insurgents and terrorists?
On the issue of amnesty, it is very complex because there has been an infringement International humanitarian law and infringement of human rights laws. Once you have infringed on human rights law and the right to life has been taken away, I don’t think they should be allowed to go. There should be some punitive measure, otherwise, this may open the door for other insurgents to carry up arms at the end of the day knowing that there is a gateway to some amnesty.
So what should happen is that everything should be in accordance with the law. They should be tried for breach of international humanitarian laws and for violation of human rights. They should go hand in hand. Same should also apply to other crimes such as kidnapping and corruption which is also becoming a major problem in the country. When people are properly punished for crimes they committed, I believe it will serve as serious deterrent to others.
