I wanted to write about insecurity. I badly need to vent out my feelings with regards to insecurity. But I won’t. Why? It would be futile effort. Many have written, nothing changed, may be we are in the “new normal” as Coronaviracists tell us. Two weeks ago media reported the slaughter of a village Head by bandits in Sokoto state. That’s the end of the story.
Bandits have known territories, they don’t come from Mars in space ships. The recent attack on Abuja- Kaduna road is how many days old? Media reported that dozens are still missing. Same media reported the travail of an FCT Imam in the hands of teenage kidnappers. His properties were sold to pay N5 million naira ransom. That’s the end of the story.So when president Buhari went to Paris shopping for investors, he should have gone with a documentary prepared by his ‘French-speaking’ minister of Information, Lai Muhammad.The Hausa fans of President Buhari crowned him as ‘The Truthful One’.
The documentary of Lai Muhammad would have shown the decapitated head of the Village Head, telling would have been investors that they should factor in into their equations the possibility of being decapitated when they roam the Sokoto-Zamfara axis in search of gold.But why ashes? Hausa people have a proverb which can be translated like this: whoever burns down his barn knows where ashes are fetching high prices. Metaphorically Nigeria has been burnt down.Whether President Buhari is responsible for the insecurity ravaging Nigeria or not, he is guilty not by association, but by his inability to find a solution, at least a solution that ensures people are safe on the roads, on their farms, in their houses. Aso Rock is vast, but I doubt if it is large enough to accommodate entire residents of FCT, talk less the whole of Nigeria. My inference being that it is the only safe place left in Nigeria ( it’s equivalent in state capitals are these far also impregnable).Buhari was also at CoP 26 Glasgow.
There the issue was climate change mitigation. Countries had to commit themselves to zero emission target. Buhari was reported as committing Nigeria to 2060. But in Paris, he was inviting investors to invest in Nigeria’s petroleum industry because he signed the Petroleum Industry Act! We need no reminder that fossil fuels have been identified as the main culprits contributing to global warming. I am not clairvoyant. But I believe the disruption suffered in the supply of petroleum products in UK and China some time back must have been contrived in order to prepare the minds of their citizens to make the necessary sacrifices to meet the climate change goals.I do not know why, but I am inclined to believe the people do not count in Buhari’s developmental strides. I may sound foolish, after all there are CBN Anchor Borrowers program, Conditional Cash Transfers and the likes. But if they were well thought-out, why is CBN complaining of mass default by Borrowers? And there is a great difference between transformation of citizens and consumption via stomach infrastructure.Were the investors in Paris to ask Buhari: do you have regular supply of electricity, what would have been his reply?
Vintage Buhari would have replied: Fashola was in charge. Another took over, and I was advised to sack him, and I did. Before going to Paris, Buhari should have planned how many GW of electricity Nigeria needs, the sources of renewable energy to use, and the incentives he is offering.Buhari has no idea how to run Nigeria’s universities. He is always in cat and mouse game with ASUU, defaulting on agreements with them till they threaten to strike. And you can trust ASUU members. They have no wherewithal in producing the manpower Nigeria needs to harness it’s resources. It therefore suits them to engage in mutual self-deception with politicians.Ordinary Nigerians can and do live without development. But what they can’t live with is insecurity.
May be millions are farmers. They need peace to work on their farms, to bring their produce home. Yet we learned from media that terrorists in Niger state ordered some farmers not to return to their farms to harvest their crops. The farmers said they had to comply. Since then I have not read of governments’ response.Buhari’s military background misled voters into believing he has the magic wand to end insecurity. Now theirs is a very painful disillusionment.When the British recruited illiterate, non-English speaking Nigerians into army, they overcame their inability to respond to left, right command by tying a rag to one of their legs, with the command to put the wrapped leg first, the free leg second.Being an old soldier, it is possible Buhari came from that era. He might therefore be seen as a dinosaur with regards to current security and economic challenges.
Re: Jailbreaks: Existential threats to a nation in distress
Right from the onset you placed the locus of the problem: the past six years, when Buhari took over the reins of power.In saner climates, if a successful jailbreak takes place during which more than three thousand inmates escaped, the minister, the Comptroller General would have resigned or be sacked.In 2019 I read one news item on Romania: Police Chief sacked after teen was killed by kidnappers.
How many have been killed by kidnappers in Nigeria? Who got sacked?Aregbesola left mountain of debt in unpaid salaries and pensions in the state he (mis) ruled. Buhari rewarded him….that he has political value.So if it is such type of politicians who ruin the system that people love, then we are getting our just dessert.As a well-placed journalist may be you know where Magu and the report on him are.
Left to me alone Magu was removed primarily to give Malami control over EFCC. Each minister wants to control the cash cow parastatal under his or her ministry. Where is Hadiza Bala Usman, where is the report on her?What has all this got to do with jailbreak?Buhari found a broken system, and he has no plan to rectify it. His highest priority is political survival.If Igbo Elders can reach an understanding with him on how to apcinise South East, Nnamdi Kanu can jet out of Nigeria in a presidential jet if he so wishes.
Meanwhile the widows, children of murdered security personnel in South East would spend years without getting what their breadwinners slaved for.In Sudan, 15 were killed while demonstrating for reinstatement of Prime minister. Now an agreement has been reached between the Prime minister and the killers. The dead fifteen must have been buried, surely to be forgotten.Is any worthy cause remaining for which one would donate his or her life?
Abdullah Musa, Lead Consultant, KIGON GABAS INVESTMENT NIGERIA LIMITED, KANO