Avram Noam Chomsky, public intellectual, prolific author(of one hundred and fifty books) and acclaimed “father of modern linguistics”, once wrote:”The role of the intellectual is to challenge authority, not to serve it”.
Some of us, including the brilliant journalist, Walter Lippmann, subscribe to this notion. Lippmann once wrote of Franklin Delano Roosevelt as he sought the American presidency:” Franklin D. Roosevelt is no crusader. He is no tribune of the people. He is no enemy of entrenched privilege. He is a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be President.” In spite of Roosevelt’s later achievements, Lippmann refused to recant. His reason:”The fact that the New Deal was wholly improvised after Roosevelt was elected”.
But in spite of his obduracy, Lippmann who wrote the classic, PUBLIC OPINION, and who was hailed as “the most influential journalist of the 20th century”, argued that a columnist must be a statesman. Anyone who writes an opinion must therefore exude or demonstrate some balance. He must be gracious enough to give credit where and when it is due.
It is against this injunction that one must laud, with some qualifications, three salient actions President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took in the past few days.
The actions are: 1)the dissolution of the Governing Council of UNIABUJA, recently christened Yakubu Gowon University, and the sack of its Vice Chancellor, Professor Aisha Maikudi; 2)the sack of three Resident Electoral Commissioners(RECs), Messrs Hudu Yunusa-Ari, Ike Uzochukwu and Nura Ali, who perpetrated irregularities during the conduct of the 2023 General Elections; and 3)the marching orders given to the military by President Tinubu to end banditry and general insecurity by the end of 2025.
Permit me to discuss these actions at seriatim. The dissolution of UNIABUJA’s Governing Council and the sack of its Vice Chancellor are a ringing vindication of the forty three professors in that institution who earlier alleged that the former Vice Chancellor’s appointment did not follow due process and that she was favored by the defunct Governing Council.
That the President, as the University’s Visitor, hearkened to the petition of these professors shows that their petition had merit and that the President is concerned about restoring this beleaguered institution to the path of academic glory and excellence. Our universities should be centers of excellence and they should brim and shine with unimpeachable integrity. To brook a situation where corners are capriciously cut in favor of some person is to undermine these values and to court disaster for the university.
Thankfully, this misfortune was averted. One hopes that the interim Vice Chancellor, Professor Lar Patricia Manko, will urgently bring healing to this university. Before now the university community was sundered down the middle. For while a section rose stoutly against Professor Maikudi’s appointment, another staunchly defended her. Professor Manko has her tasks cut out for her. One of them is to bring these factions together and to focus them on laying premium on projecting and giving muscular expression to the university’s ideals and core values.
As regards the sack of the RECs, nothing could be more apt. Coming two years to the conduct of the 2027 General Elections, this sack sends a message, loud and clear, that such misconduct will henceforth not be tolerated.
Though it serves as a deterrent to other electoral officials, the ugly performances of the sacked RECs could have been averted if partisans and persons of dubious character were not appointed to serve in this exalted position. Often, due diligence is not carried out to identify persons of character, persons who are non-partisan and persons who possess the right disposition to do the job. The upshot is the kind of roguish partisanship and cavalier attitude which these RECs displayed to the detriment of transparent and credible elections.
As some of us have often argued, the appointment of Commissioners(National and Resident) for INEC should not be under the purview of the presidency.
This is because the President is a partisan, and he/she is an interested party. He/She is therefore tempted to appoint persons who are sympathetic, or at worse, pliant to his/her designs/interests.
The President deserves commendation for issuing our security agencies marching orders. For good measure, he gave them a deadline. This is how it ought to be. The war on insurgency cannot be interminable or without end. It must be ended and the mission of decimating these terrorists accomplished in good time for it to birth gains.
First of all, if the insurgency and banditry are brought to an end, and on time, they will save precious lives. They will end the mindless killing spree by these insurgents. Their decimation will arrest the expenditure of billions of Naira across several war theaters and billions of others paid as ransom. It will halt the attrition and losses suffered by our military. It will end the trauma and sorrow occasioned by these terrorists. It will facilitate the return of IDPs to their homes.
More importantly, when these insurgents are neutralized, food security will be engendered. Swathes of land hitherto abandoned by farmers across the country will be cultivated again. With such farms being cultivated, more foodstuffs will flood our markets. And in deference to the time-honored law of demand and supply, the prices of foodstuffs will come down.
But for our security agencies to accomplish this mission within the timeframe given by the President, we should see more co-operation and harmonization among the services.
They should work in concert. Premium should be laid on credible and actionable intelligence. Morale of our security personnel should be heightened and buoyed. Requisite and state-of-the art military gear or equipment should be provided. An elaborate study should be done on the modus operandi of these terrorists and strategies should be fashioned out as to how to counter and defeat them.
We look forward to similar uplifting actions. It is such actions that can take us to a better place.
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