Nigeria is still what Chief Obafemi Awolowo called it before independence: a mere geographical expression. Until it builds a home for its over 350 ethnicities, it will always have insecurity.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu sat in one of his offices at the Aso Rock Villa. He was not in his usual dandogo or kaftan. He wore a white agbada with simple embroidery. Sitting opposite him were some guests obviously from Plateau State who could not be seen in the very short video clip that this writer watched. Plateau State has become a killing field where bandits and insurgents kill rampantly. The state is mostly Christian, and when the killings became focused and targeted and would not stop, and more so when the invaders were taking their land, the people labelled it “Christian genocide.” That invited United States President Donald Trump, who warned President Bola Tinubu and thereafter rained down Tomahawk bombs on an area of Sokoto State where the terrorists were said to have their weapons stored.
There were further threats of mayhem if Tinubu did not move quickly to stop the wanton killings. Some panicky moves by the government include propaganda and a dispatch of the first lady, Oluremi Tinubu, to attend Donald Trump’s Prayer Breakfast to soften the heart of Trump. The first lady is a pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, a big Pentecostal church in Nigeria. A contract said to be about $7 million was put together to lobby the American legislators to counter the genocide story. It was also alleged that Nigeria’s junior defense minister, Bello Matawalle, whom Tinubu refused to remove when he removed the defense minister, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, and replaced him with former Chief of Defence Staff Christopher Musa, had bribed American legislators with some millions of dollars. If the story is true, it won’t certainly be without the knowledge of his boss, Bola Tinubu, who is no stranger to such deals. Tinubu knows how to use money to get his way in anything.
Bola Tinubu throttled out at the top of his voice to his Plateau State audience, “My presidency will not be terminated by insecurity. My enemies will not end my presidency through insecurity. I’m going to campaign and work hard.” The president was speaking for the second time to the leaders of Plateau State over wanton killings in their state. A few weeks back, Tinubu, who had hurriedly and in an unfriendly manner visited their state and met with them at the Yakubu Gowon Airport, Jos, for a brief meeting that barely lasted for an hour, promised them that killings such as has happened in Dadinkowa in Jos will not repeat itself. But it did, and not one time, not two times, but many times. This time in Aso Rock, in one of the president’s offices, the president had nothing to say again other than to blame his enemies who don’t want him to return for a second term. The Senate president, Godswill Akpabio, whom people call a rubber stamp of Tinubu’s policies, had said the same thing a few weeks before. Godswill Akpabio, on the floor of the Senate, said Nigerians should wait till the end of the elections, and they will not see the banditry and insurgents again. By that, he meant that the impending 2027 election was the reason for the spike in terrorism in Nigeria. He may be right, but terrorism has been ravaging Nigeria since the time of former president Goodluck Jonathan, who ruled from 2010 to 2015, and who succeeded his boss, Umaru Yar’Adua, who died in office. Insecurity is therefore not caused by the impending election.
Just as Goodluck Jonathan did not know what to do about the insurgency then and was labelled “clueless” by the emerging All Progressives Congress (APC) of late President Muhammadu Buhari, President Tinubu now has run out of steam and doesn’t know what to do with the insurgency, terrorism, and banditry. Nigerians are yet to give him a label because Tinubu has been deceiving them with one political gimmick or another to give an impression of strategy.
In 2023, President Tinubu appointed Nuhu Ribadu, an Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) of police, who was retired when he did not see eye-to-eye with the then-President Yar’Adua. Up to that point, Nigeria had picked its security advisers from the ranks of retired military generals. But Tinubu picked a retired police AIG. What was the president up to? Bola Tinubu is well reputed as a great headhunter. He did that as governor of Lagos. Will Ribadu be able to cope with the generals, more so because the military in Nigeria feels superior to the police?
Nigerians do not need to be told that Nuhu Ribadu is not finding his job easy. The Director General of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) became a victim when he published statistics that banditry and kidnapping have spiked in Nigeria since Tinubu assumed office. He was quickly arrested, and the website of the NBS was taken down. The arrest of the DG and the removal of the website were the work of Nuhu Ribadu, who obviously was fidgety. Ribadu had given himself as dealing heavy blows to the insecurity situation in Nigeria. But the experience of Nigerians does not confirm that, and the figures of NBS confirmed the experience of Nigerians.
Now Bola Tinubu has pulled another trick from his political bag of tricks. He has appointed Adeyinka Famadewa, a retired major general who is said to be well decorated. Famadewa is said to be experienced in security matters, and he will be the Homeland Security Adviser to the president. What exactly Homeland Security is has yet to be explained. Nuhu Ribadu is the National Security Adviser, and nobody knows who will report to whom or how the functions will be delineated. There is a Ministry of Interior, and how the new Homeland Security will differ from the Interior Ministry is not known.
Famadewa is not new to government; he was in the security network of ex-president Muhammadu Buhari. An article he published in Premium Times in 2023 revealed his mindset on security. He quoted Robert McNamara, former American security adviser, who defined security as development and development as security. If security is development, then issues of insecurity in Nigeria are caused by the nation’s underdevelopment.
The north of Nigeria, where terrorism, insurgency, and banditry are rife, is the least developed in the country. The most unserious leaders in Nigeria are in the north. Rather than spend money on education and health, they sponsor their people to holy pilgrimages in Mecca, Saudi Arabia and build digital Islamic centers, things that have nothing to do with meaningful development. Therefore, the citizens are denied education and wallow in ignorance, procreating unchecked. The leaders in the north distribute money to the clerics and consult these clerics for future direction by occultic means rather than implement sound economic policies.
For example, the coup planners who are being tried are said to have consulted an imam, Sani Abdukadir, to help them pray for their coup to succeed. Until the north is developed nobody should expect any end to insecurity. Just as Famadewa and General Christopher Musa before him have said, security is not just the business of the Armed Forces alone but that of the whole society. Who then will enlist the Nigerian society to combat insecurity? The Nigerians who will do that will be Nigerians who are sure of three square meals daily, Nigerians who will by merit attain their heights by hard work and not by nepotism, religion, or tribalism. Nigeria is still what Chief Obafemi Awolowo called it before independence: a mere geographical expression. Until it builds a home for its over 350 ethnicities, it will always have insecurity. If thousands of Famadewas can be appointed by hundreds of Tinubus, nothing will happen. The appointment of Famadewa may have been a function of Tinubu’s frustration with the raging insecurity which has hobbled Nuhu Ribadu.
First Published in METRO
***********************
Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos.
No comments:
Post a Comment