The Federal Government has continued to behave like an ostrich, burying its head in the sand rather than confronting the problem.
The Muhammadu Buhari administration appears to have shown obvious lack of understanding of the plight of his countrymen. This is manifested in his refusal to tame the Fulani herdsmen who seem to be working very hard to turn Nigeria into another Somali.
Despite the hue and cry over the continued blood-letting by the herdsmen, President Buhari has not considered it necessary to move forcefully against the murderers. He has elected to treat the matter with kid gloves regardless of the avalanche of criticism arising there from.
The decision by the government to allow herdsmen openly carry arms all over the place easily makes Abuja very complicit.
Governor Samuel Ortom pointedly told the President that allowing herdsmen to kill, maim and still walk freely without arrest was not possible in a well-governed state.
Ortom said: “Your Excellency, how can a group claim responsibility for the killings that happened and they are going about scot free? How can a group make public these inciting and criminal declarations in an organised society and are not arrested by the police?”
Recently, the Nigeria Police announced its plan to begin to mop up illegal arms across the country. As laudable as the proposal is, well-meaning Nigerians advise the police to begin with the Fulani herdsmen who openly bear their arms. The belief is that once there is a noticeable success in that area, many Nigerians would willingly surrender their illegal arms.
The defeatist acknowledgment by the Police Command in Plateau State explaining the difficulty in stopping the daily killings by herdsmen because of the so-called gorilla style being adopted by the murderers is to say the least telling the world that the police are no more useful to Nigerians.
It is saddening that since after the President’s visit to Plateau, killings have become a daily occurrence in the state. And the security agents are just watching akimbo.
The present government has shown a total disrespect for citizens’ lives. Otherwise, the level of attention being given to the fight against Boko Haram should also be extended to the fight against the Fulani herdsmen. There is nothing wrong sending soldiers to all nooks and crannies of the troubled states on a permanent basis since the police appeared overwhelmed by the size of the challenge.
It is not enough for government to pay condolence visits, what is urgently needed now is brutal action against the herdsmen who have arrogated to themselves the power of life and death.
Before the President visited Benue last week, a community in the state was sacked by the herdsmen, who reportedly announced to the people to vacate their homes for them. And this is happening in the 21st Century Nigeria and in a country that claims to be under a government.
Last Thursday, Professor Wole Soyinka pointedly told the Federal Government to declare the herdsmen as terrorists. The Nobel Laureate believed that a group that sacks people from their ancestral homes; a group as blood-thirsty as the herdsmen, who also violently destroy people’s houses cannot be anything less than terrorists and must be seen in that light by government.
During his visit to Benue, the President said he was hearing for the first time that the Inspector-General of Police did not stay more than one day in the state despite the presidential order that the police boss should relocate there. Although it was ‘unpresidential’ to make such a comment, the most shocking thing is that the IGP is still sitting comfortably in his office!
The President also visited Dapchi in Yobe State where 110 young women were stolen away in Hilux vehicles by members of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram.
The visit featured a rehash of government’s oft verse of commiserating with the bereaved and empty promises of ‘doing everything’ to bring back the girls.
The thought of the level of inefficiency of the security agencies in the country gives one migraine. It has remained a mystery how such a number of girls could be successfully driven away in earth-shaken automobiles, yet neither the army that claimed to be doing operation whatever in the area nor the police that were supposed to protect lives and property spotted the caravan!
How has it been possible for herdsmen to gain access to their targets so easily, beating security networks? How is it that Boko Haram successfully carry out their diabolical activities of stealing away people without any soldier or policeman or air force personnel spotting them? It then means that Nigeria is in trouble!
Whereas Boko Haram make their clean escape with their human cargo without anybody- no gun-wielding policeman, no solder, no vehicle inspection officers (VIO) or road safety corps stopping them to search the vehicles- speaks volume of the politics surrounding these abductions.
If you are driving in some parts of the country, south east for instance, you would be stopped at every 10 minutes interval by unfriendly-looking security men, wielding dangerous weapons. This happens both day and night.
But how come, from Dapchi to the Sambisa Forest (which has been identified as the headquarters of the Boko Haram) there was no Federal security on the road to check what was being moved in those big vehicles? This has the trapping of a well orchestrated politics which is very dangerous.
When the President went to condole the parents of the stolen school girls, he remained his usual self, even with the weeping and loud lamentation, he maintained a straight face and turned the arena into a political ground.
The visit witnessed the usual comparison between the Jonathanian administration and the Buharian administration. Abuja descended so low again, saying that its response to the Dapchi abduction was better than what happened in the last administration.
The President, who openly said that the IGP disobeyed him in matters of Benue, a serious dereliction of duty for which Nigerians are still expecting his punishment, said he had directed the Service chiefs and the IGP to brief him on a daily basis on developments.
While leaders are busy playing politics, over 200 young women of this country are being held by the enemies of the state who ceaselessly prey on them in the most bestial manner.
In an exclusive interview with BDSUNDAY recently, Ayo Opadokun, a former secretary of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), lamented the mire into which Nigeria has sunken.
“Come to think of it, I never imagined that it will come in my life time that the Nigerian security and intelligence will fail abysmally and will pretentiously not to be able to deter herdsmen from killing and exterminating communities from their land and taking over their land and the Nigerian state has failed to be able stop it and stamp it out completely inspire of the loud promises made by President Buhari,” Opadokun said.
“I even wonder why the Nigerian presidency has led itself to be so distrusted when his own minister of defence, his own interior (internal affairs) and the Inspector-General of Police claimed that the events in Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa and Adamawa were communal clashes. Ordinarily, if there is sense of justice, equity and fairness; in this age, if there was nothing behind it; if there was nothing more to it; if there were no personal interests residing in the Nigerian security and intelligence and the presidency, all those ones ought to have been retired immediately to assure Nigerians that we are still together,” the convener of the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER) said.
Opadokun further said: “But come to think of it how will that happen when you have a Nigerian security council where the president who presides over is from Katsina; the director of state security is from Katsina, and you also now have the newly appointed director-general of Nigeria Intelligence Agency also from Katsina. With all these, how can other people from other parts of the country be assured that they are safe?”
Zebulon Agomuo
