We appreciate the role media is playing in the restorative justice in north east Nigeria – Tony Ojukwu

We appreciate the role media is playing in the restorative justice in north east Nigeria – Tony Ojukwu

In this interview, the Executive Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, Mr. Tony Ojukwu speaks on the role of the media in restorative justice in Northeast Nigeria. Bodunrin Kayode sent in Excerpt:

Q: Give us an insight into transitional justice and how you intend to manage it in the three states affected in this workshop.

A: Yah, the program is a two prong reconciliation project. If you are doing a reconciliation that means there are more than one parties involved. You think of the community that has suffered, those who have been displaced, who are now internally displaced persons IDPs. Also you think of those who caused the displacement. That is when you now consider the repentant Boko Haram. So it’s going to encompass everyone, so we can reintegrate and rehabilitate as well.

Q: What are some of the Challenges you encounter?

A: Of course, the road is long, tough and rough. Because we cannot pretend that all is well because there will be a lot of challenges in the project of reconciliation. Which is understandable? This is because someone has caused you hardship and we are saying, we can’t continue quarreling forever. We can’t continue this crisis because it’s affecting so many things. Look at the development of Borno, if there was no destruction initially, can you imagine where we would be now? So we can’t continue like this. If there is no love, no reconciliation, we will just keep going round and round and that is why we feel that since the community is the bedrock of any society, we need to go back there and reconcile ourselves. We need to have a sense of justice and restitution. Restitution to me is like trying to bring you back to the original state where you were before the conflict started.

It is difficult because if we want to think of restitution in terms of cash and so on, all the money in the world will go in. So, love and peace is the solution. If we agree that we need a peaceful society, we need a peaceful environment to make progress. And we all genuinely reconcile, then we can now deal with the symbolic compensation which is an admission that someone has been wronged and that genuine efforts have been made to assuage your feelings. It cannot be total because nobody can really quantify the total value of any compensation.

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So that is what we are out to do because we believe that this is very necessary. Because we already know what today is but we must work for tomorrow because If we don’t deal with these issues today, it means our tomorrow is not certain. And we want a sustainable environment so that we can have long lasting peace and development. So that is the foundation we want to lay. We want to put behind us the devastation, the conflict in the past and start building the foundation of a sustainable, peaceful and development society.

Q: What do you think is the best way to manage the defected insurgents with the obvious tension between them and their victims? 

A: What we are doing in conjunction with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is not different at all. It’s government policy. And this is that we need to reconcile and reintegrate People. And we need to carry out some restorative justice. So what the military is doing is not too different from what we are doing. It’s just a matter of approach and strategy. However, coming from the human rights commission our strategy may not be like theirs. Military is military but everyone is geared towards the same goal which is how to reintegrate the repentant Boko Haram returnees into the society. So our own strategy is that we need to work within the society to win the minds of the communities to make sure that there is genuine reconciliation.

There must be genuine reconciliation and acknowledgement that a wrong has been done. Then apologies and then we now deal with the issue of symbolic compensation. Which is recognition that a wrong has been done and when there is a wrong, there must be a remedy? Our approach is basically the traditional institution, community, civil society, etc because we believe that we are deeply religious and traditional in Nigeria. You cannot do much without recognizing the religious and traditional institutions, faith based organizations. These people do a lot of work in the community and what they do is similar to what we do in the human rights Commission too, so they have become our first partners and that is why we are taking this route. And we believe that it will be enduring and a lot of successes will be achieved. Already the enthusiasm that welcomes this is a pointer that we are putting a lot in place.

We are having these committees made up of people in the society and we are going to embark on a restorative justice session. People will attend these sessions and they will see that it will not just stop at being a theoretical project. We are going to work within the people and they will see practical reconciliation and compensation of the people. Practical discussions by carrying people along which is very important. So already, there are signs that it would be a very important and successful project. And we are also dealing with data issues.  We have already mapped out all the data we need. And off course if you use data you can’t be too wrong. So we are looking forward to the usual support from the media. Because without you we can’t go far.

How many people can we talk to one on one, we can’t do it alone. But you can imagine what we are doing here with just 20 people, yet the information will be shared to the whole world. That is the marvellous work the media is doing. You can see, that is the first step we are taking. We also  trained them on advocacy. Because we had no doubt in our mind that bringing the whole media will have multiplier effects. First of all we need to build  the capacity of the media to buy into this project, because if they don’t,  how are you going to convince the people  at the grassroots?  If the media is not supportive it’s dead on arrival, so if the media is supportive and appreciative, and they think  that is the way to go, off course you can see the progress we will be making with that. So we really want to appreciate the media and we keep emphasizing that you are our key partners.

We appreciate the role media is playing in the restorative justice in north east Nigeria – Tony Ojukwu