Femi Orebe

SINCE the federal government loves to exert a stranglehold on virtually everything in the country, it must be told that, with regards to security, Nigerians are in dire straits and everything must be done to restore sanity.

Not only are people no longer able to travel freely, farmers have been run out of their farms indicating that hunger may not be far off.  Government must realise, and own up, to the fact that we are fighting, not only  against Fulani  herdsmen, some of who hug AK47, perpetrating  heinous crimes which include violent rapes, killing  or kidnapping  of poor, defenseless Nigerians,  but  also against  an obviously re- energised Boko Haram/ ISWA elements,  many  of  who are aliens and,  therefore, have no qualms  about slitting throats or disemboweling pregnant women. We must do everything to exterminate these lunatics from our midst.

Government is already far behind in ensuring the security of life and property but it may not be all lost yet, as a stitch in time could still save nine” –  Femi Orebe in THE IMPERATIVES OF A LOCALISED, EMBEDDED SECURITY ARCHITECTURE, The Nation, 04.08. 19

I had decided to, once again, touch on the issue of insecurity long before the National Assembly roused itself from its somnambulism on security matters this past week – yes, true it held a summit on security late last year but since then thousands of Nigerians have been needlessly killed – without us hearing a whimper from them any longer. Incidentally, those of them sponsoring anti people bills appear to come from areas with very serious security issues which should, rightly, have been of far greater urgency and importance to them.

I was going to suggest to the president that a moratorium should now be placed on all other concerns of government, even if for as little as six months so that maximum concentration, and effort, can be devoted to this life and death matter. Our present state of insecurity does not deserve less. Education or railways development, as important as they are, mean nothing to a dead man. Therefore, given our present circumstances, finding solutions to insecurity must trump everything else, at least for now.

We have the men and women of our armed forces to thank for the great job they have done securing our country this far, albeit at great personal and corporate cost.  Our condolences go to the families of the many who have paid the ultimate sacrifice as we pray that the souls of the departed will rest in peace.

It will be most ungodly if we allow these supreme sacrifices go to nothing or be in vain.

For this not to happen, President Muhammadu Buhari must do much more than he has done since he assumed responsibility for the security of life and property in this country.

Yes, a period was, in the early days of his government that Nigerians believed he was fulfilling his campaign promise to them in this regard. But to make that claim now, close on five years down the line, will be to provoke huge guffaws. And this is largely because you cannot be doing the same thing all over and expect to have a different result. Without a doubt, the president should have thanked his chiefs of staff for their service to the country and promptly ease them out at the end of his first term. These patriotic citizens, who faced that initial fire, gave their all, and significantly degraded Boko Haram, ought not to have been left to the National Assembly to harangue, and harass, as was the case this past week.

In the article ‘Lest Nigeria Strays into a War’ – Sunday, 28 July 2019, I wrote as follows:”Conjunctively, President Buhari should rejig the country’s security apparatti and do everything within his power to rein in the murderous activities of kidnappers, bandits and criminals of whatever hue. In particular, he must show that ethnic considerations do not influence his actions on Fulani herdsmen who, truth be told, and going by the testimonies of almost all kidnapped persons who were lucky to tell their own story, are responsible for most of the kidnapping in the country. The president should have by now been briefed that literally all Nigerian ethnic groups are now discussing how to be free of this Fulani herdsmen’s menace”.

This past week in Edo State, for instance, some of them were reported to have killed a police man who did nothing more than trying to help recover the corpses of people these evil men have killed earlier on their farms.

I cannot pretend to be teaching the president anything about security but for emphasis, I think Nigerians must keep reminding him of where we are, and how life in Nigeria has become short and brutish.

I wrote at length on this  terrible security situation as captured by Mike Kebonkwu in my article “Still On Amotekun of 26 January, 2020, but all that pales into nothing compared with Jide Oluwajuyitan in: State/Community Policing As Answer To Insecurity, January 30, 2020 ,  and  you  will come to  realise what  humongous task confronts  President  Buhari  if Nigeria is to ever know peace,, ever again.

He wrote inter alia:

“Let us start  with the president’s own Katsina State where  eight  local government areas  including Kankara; Faskari; Dan-Musa; Safana; Sabuwa; Dandume; Jibia and Batsari have according to a report in Thisday, lost about 2,000 people, with 500 communities destroyed and over 33,000 people displaced as a result of  incessant attacks. President Buhari’s establishment of Air Force bases at Daura and Katsina, and a Brigade Command of the Nigerian Army has, according to Dr.  Bashir Ruwangodiya, Masari’s special adviser on higher education, failed to “put an end to banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery and murder, as well as other crimes in Katsina State.” In Plateau State, separate attacks by some unidentified gunmen, reportedly led to the death of 32 people in Riyom Local Government Area, 19 in Rajat, and 11 in Atakar with about 60 houses burnt. In Kaduna State, the paper also claimed that gunmen suspected to be Fulani, killed no fewer than 30 people and razed hundreds of houses in the three communities. Similar killings were reported in other areas of the state notably Sankwai, Tekum and Unguwan Gata villages were invaded by those the villagers said looked like cross-border Fulani gunmen. Last Monday, January 27, police in Plateau admitted that the death toll in last Sunday night attack on Kwatas village had risen to 15. Twelve persons were reportedly killed in Kulben village in Kombun District of Mangu Local Government Area”.

President Buhari’s response to last week attack on Dogon Gona forest in Niger State communities by bandits, kidnappers and cattle rustlers was predictable. Garba Shehu, the president’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, has since informed Nigerians that the president had authorised the deployment of air power to support troops and policemen deployed to the “difficult terrain,” to counter the menace of the attackers operating in the forest area bordering Kaduna, Niger and Zafar states”. Of course, always after the mayhem.

Now what manner of beasts in human clothing is doing all these with a government in place?

These killings call for a paradigm shift in the way Nigeria is structured but the Federal Government curiously remains unwilling to let go of anything, even when it is obvious that the status quo has failed dismally. Or where do we go from here Mr President if some people remain eternally afraid of restructuring; and rather than reconfigure the country so that a thousand flowers can bloom; each according to its ability, we remain rooted to the same old, unproductive ways?

One needs not be told that a new leadership corps, that will reflect the country’s diversity, is sorely and urgently needed in our security architecture to turn things around. Without a doubt, the near mono cultural thought process that dominates that critical section in our country has obviously reached its sell by date as it constricts the variegated viewpoints that would have enriched decision making in crucial circumstances.

The president must now let matters appertaining to our rather inscrutable security problems completely concentrate his attention. He must give his efforts in this regard a new lease of life by rejigging the security high command, as suggested above, provide required munitions, make our men and women in uniform happy and ensure that relevant authorities promptly pay the allowances of those redoubtable men and women who daily confront these vermin’s who, it is alleged, are armed with arms far superior to ours.

One thing is obvious though, if we must restore peace: the federal government must let go its stranglehold, and allow communities, local governments areas and state governments take ownership of their own security. They know their terrain, the people know one another and are better placed to gather intelligence and spot threat issues which will tremendously assist the police in effectively performing their own responsibilities.

This monstrous Abuja stranglehold over everything has not helped and will never help in restoring all- round peace to our beleaguered country.