Whenever the government of Nigeria wreck havocs on the citizens of Nigeria, their next step is always to set up a panel of enquiry to look into the incidence; get to know the cause of the incident and make recommendations to make amends and make sure that such issue never occur again. Unfortunately, those panels of enquiry end up being a fluke, a bluff, a scam to the people and a waste of time and tax payers’ resources as it has been the history that none, absolutely none of the panels of enquiry set up that their reports have been implemented and amends made even during the colonial eras.
There are instance to back up this claim:
In November,1929, the famous Aba women riot which took place. The Aba women protested against the injustice melted against them by the warrant chiefs and this led to numerous lost of lives and properties. A panel of enquiry was set up to look into the issues raised by the aggrieved women and highlight ways to meet up with their demands. The first panel was tagged Aba commission of Enquiry and was set up in January, 1930. According to history, the panel of enquiry made no head way as there was no recorded success from the panel. Another panel of enquiry was set up and it was called the Aba commission in March 1930 for the same issue before there was a meagre of success.
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Also, many may not have read or heard about the Iva valley massacre in the old Enugu state which occurred on November 18th, 1949 where about 50 armed police arrived the Iva Valley led by a Senior Superintendent of Police, F.S Philips and brutally massacred over 20 miners who were only peacefully protesting against the bad state of their work environment. Panel of enquiry was set up by authorities to look into the incident, since 1949 till today, about 70 years later, nothing have been heard about the panel of enquiry set up or the implementations of the panel’s report as it has since been swept under the carpet while everyone moved on as if nothing happened.
Should we go on to the Asaba massacre of October, 1967 which occurred during the civil war where the Nigerian soldiers invaded Asaba, a town in southern Nigeria which was a part of the defunct Biafra country. The Nigerian soldiers nearly wiped out the entire people from the face of the earth. A false panel of enquiry was also set up after that incident and nothing came out of it.
Fast forward to 20th of November, 1999, the Odi incident in Bayelsa state where the Nigerian military at the order of the then president and commander in chief of the arm forces, President Olusegun Onasanjo invaded and massacred the people of Odi community. A panel of enquiry was set up and we both know the outcome of the panel; nothing, yes, absolute nothing came out of the panel of enquiry.
If you are too young to know of or too old to remember the above incidents then the Zaria massacre of Saturday, 12th December, 2015 which the Nigerian army shot and killed large numbers of the Shia Muslims in cold blood in Zaria, Kaduna state should still be fresh in your memory. As of panel of enquiry set up? Nothing has been heard of it 6 years later.
Lastly before the 2020 Endsars massacre, do you remember the Operation python dance (Egwu Eke) of 2016/2017 whereby over 100 persons were reported killed and mass buried by the Nigeria army in Abia state. Nothing have been done to assuage the death of the innocent citizens brutally murdered by the Nigerian army till today.
While we eagerly wait to see how this report of the endsars panel already submitted to the Lagos state government will turn out, we also pray that our predictions that the reports will never be implemented will be wrong.
