If you are shocked that the President, Major Geneneral Muhammadu Buhari, (retd.), is “surprised” at the recently escalated level of insecurity in Nigeria, you have good company in many other concerned Nigerians.
The President’s tone of helplessness reminds one of military dictator Ibrahim Babangida, who wondered why the Nigerian economy, that he was presiding over, had not collapsed (maybe despite the looting of the commonwealth, and the less than imaginative economic policies that his government, and those before him, had inflicted on Nigeria.)
Remember it was his government that introduced the International Monetary Fund-inspired Structural Adjustment Programme that crippled Nigeria’s economy, and tied the value of the national currency, naira, to the American dollar. It doesn’t look like the naira is going to get out of its thralldom to the currencies of the metropolitan powers soon.
The attempt of the current Federal Government to hook the naira to the Chinese yuan is getting unhinged. And, even if the naira were aligned to the yuan, it would still be a union of unequals, in favour of the yuan, at the detriment of the naira.
By the way, Babangida’s query caused the young and idealistic editors of African Concord magazine, led by Bayo Onanuga, to suggest that maybe he was bereft of ideas to turn the economy that was on wounded knees around.
The subtle demand for an apology by Babangida, from Publisher MKO Abiola and Editor Onanuga, led to the mass resignation of the editorial team, and the establishment of the intrepid The News and Tempo magazines that took on the successor General Sani Abacha regime in a gruelling guerrilla journalism duel. But that is a story for another day.
Buhari’s expression of shock demonstrated his level of detachment from governance, and the more urgent assignment of looking after the security and welfare of the people as guaranteed by Section 14(2)(b) of Nigeria’s constitution.
Well, you may recall that the President famously admitted openly that he didn’t realise that the Inspector-General of Police, whom he had ordered to take up residence in Benue State, until the clashes between herdsmen and farmers were resolved, failed to obey his instruction.
Unconfirmed reports claim that the gentleman returned to his base in Abuja to consummate plans for his birthday. If that were so, it amounted to gross negligence of duty, and utter disrespect for constituted authority. That word again.
The confounding aspect of the whole saga, in which many were killed, properties and farm crops were destroyed, and scores of Nigerian citizens were displaced from their ancestral homes, is that the Commander-in-Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces, who is also Chairman of the National Security Council, and of Nigeria Police Council, didn’t seem to have queried, nor suspended, let alone ask the IGP to go.
Indeed, he switched the responsibility to maintain law and order on the people of Benue State, when their governor, Samuel Ortom, led a team of that state’s leaders of thought to explain their concerns to him, while he was ensconced in the safety and comfort of Aso Rock Villa.
The President’s response that they should learn how to live with their tormentors reminds one of the Hobbesian state of nature, where there is “war of all against all,” and life, “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
In fact, the security chiefs, the tenure of some of which was elongated, despite obvious failures, and open calls by the National Assembly that they should be fired, are still sitting pretty as if they were effectively performing the duties that have been mistakenly placed in their hands.
Matters got to a head, that the usually mild-mannered Pastor E.A. Adeboye, General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, led a “prayer walk”, a euphemism for a protest, against insecurity in the nation. “Ngwa nu,” or, about time, as the Igbo would say.
All the security chiefs seem to be doing is seeking to outdo one another in determining who can locate the biggest service-sponsored university in his hometown: After all, the Commander-in-Chief has got the Transport University sited in his hometown, Daura.
A Nigerian newspaper copiously quoted the President to have said, “I was taken aback by what is happening in the North-West and other parts of the country. During our (electoral) campaign, we knew about the Boko Haram. However, what is coming now is surprising.” This wonderment makes you wonder if the President receives daily security briefings.
The President continues: “It is not ethnicity or religion (practically everyone knows that by now), rather it is an evil plan against the nation,” (thus laying the blame squarely on the doorstep of the devil, and not mere mortals).
Then, the Commander-in-Chief puts the responsibility far from himself and the security chiefs, making it look as if others, have a job to do, by vowing, “We have to be harder on them.” Who are the “We,” he’s talking about?
He even reminded Nigerians that, “One of the responsibilities of government is to provide security.” You feel like asking if he saw the man in the mirror while telling Nigerians of the most important job of the government that he leads.
As if to put enough scare in Nigerians, he added: “If we don’t secure the country, we will not be able to manage the economy.” You don’t say. Well, the more than two million Nigerians in Borno State Internally Displaced Persons camps can testify to what a disrupted economy looks like.
The President and his men need to really get their act together, and find quick solutions to the security challenges facing the country. Platitudes, buried in obfuscation and befuddlement, credited to Major General Mohammed Baba Gana Monguno (retd.), National Security Adviser to the President, after the National Security Council meeting last week, was just not it.
The following is a sample the opaque deliveries of Monguno, when asked, “What are the challenges facing the Nigerian security structure, because there are opinions out there that the security system has failed?”
He answered: “The major challenges are multidimensional in terms of security; challenges are both internal, external and defence-related as well as diplomatic as well as economic. So you will begin to appreciate the extent to which we need to work.”
Here is another: “These major challenges every Ministry, Department and Agency is aware of, (and) the aspect it has to deal with. And I am sure, yesterday, after the Federal Executive Council meeting, you are aware the Minister of Works talked about his own area. Likewise other Ministries, Departments and Agencies are working.”
And then: “The issue of security in the context of the 21st Century is not an issue of just arms and ammunition or robbers and gangsters, it’s a multiple situation, the canvass is very, very expansive and we are looking at it in a comprehensive manner.”
He finally berthed at, “The challenges all of us are aware of, and that is why in a nutshell, I said, there is a need for this government and the larger society to work together to find a solution to this problem… Government is aware and that is why we had this meeting at the highest level.”
If you think he was trying to hide his thoughts, from whomsoever, you are not alone.
