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President Muhammadu Buhari

Abuja – A bodyguard of President Muhammadu Buhari has reportedly been arrested for having close ties with Boko Haram militants. According to Vanguard, Hassan Aminu who was a personal bodyguard to Buhari, was taken into custody by security operatives to be interrogated. The presidency, however, could not be reached for comment regarding the reports.

The claim was alarming as it suggested that Boko Haram managed to manipulate itself to get extremely close to the president.

The Frontiersnews, however, reported that the presidency had completely overhauled the presidential security following the arrest of the Aminu.

Aminu was said to be linked to the leader of Ansaru Islamic Sect, Khalid Albarnawi, second in command to Abubakar Shekau in the hierarchy of the Boko Haram sect.

The internal displacement of people has become a significant concern in Nigeria. More than two million people have fled their homes because of the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast. Millions more have been displaced by other causes, including natural disasters and development projects.

The rise in the problem has led to calls for concrete rights-based solutions to protect and assist internally displaced persons. This is why the absence of a national legal framework for dealing with the crisis is receiving increased attention.

The problem of internal displacement is serious enough to require amendments to Nigeria’s constitution. The rising wave of displacements in the north has far-reaching implications for national political stability. Given that the constitution obliges the government to safeguard the welfare of all Nigerians, it becomes imperative that there be constitutional protection for displaced people.

There are existing trends for this argument. The Ethiopian constitution recognises the right of pastoralists not to be displaced. It further requires that displaced persons must be protected. The Colombian Constitutional Court in 2004 declared the situation of internal displacement in the country an “unconstitutional state of affairs”. This is despite the Colombian constitution not having such explicit provision.

Nigeria is party to the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (Kampala Convention). Increased attention is therefore being put on the need for it to align its national legal system with the convention. – AP