Chatham-House Declaration, Forked Tongues and our Security Catastrophe -Ik Muo, PhD.

 

One of the things we should be VERY careful about is making promises, declaring what would be in future, threatening actions, and all that. Most often, these words and declarations stand in judgement against us when things do not turn out as we had said, especially, when this happens due to our faults. In this circumstance, we wish we could ‘go back yesterday’ to unsay what we had said. Some will just maintain boldfaces and carry on as if nothing is wrong. Others would deny what they had said, claim they were quoted out of context or deliberately misinterpreted by mischief makers or make efforts to alter the narratives. In 2015, the then presidential aspirant, GMB spoke to the whole world from the mountain-top of Chatham House and said inter alia: ‘Boko Haram has sadly put Nigeria on the terrorism map, killing more than 13,000 of our nationals, displacing millions internally and externally, and at a time holding on to portions of our territory the size of Belgium. What has been consistently lacking is the required leadership in our battle against insurgency… our soldiers have neither received the necessary support nor the required incentives to tackle this problem... Let me assure you that if I am elected president… no inch of Nigerian territory will ever be lost to the enemy because… we will give them( soldiers) adequate and modern arms and ammunitions to work with, improve intelligence gathering and border controls to choke Boko Haram’s financial and equipment channels, we will be tough on terrorism and tough on its root causes…and I, Muhammadu Buhari, will always lead from the front and return Nigeria to its leadership role in regional and international efforts to combat terrorism. These were EMPHATIC statements by one who had sought power for years and appeared to know where he was headed to. Thanks to the unforgiving and unforgetting internet.

Before then, GMB, the politician had asked GEJ to vacate office for competent hands since he had failed in the security front while Prof Osinbajo had professorially and ‘SANically’ declared that failure to secure the citizenry was an impeachable offence. Now, that PMB has been the ‘oga at the very top’ for 7years, the overall security situation has degenerated and become catastrophic and there are  excuses and  blame-trading all over the place; victims are being blamed and we are being told by body language that our security does not matter or does not matter as much of that of cows and their herders. As I write this, soldiers are being ordered to recover Marte from Boko Haram and the issue of adequate arms, and low morale of our soldiers still resonates (despite humongous sums expended without budgetary approval).  In the recent past, Borno-based soldiers still lamented poor feeding, accusing their superiors of embezzlement. The Government has not followed the lead provided by the United Arab Emirate, which convicted 6 Nigerians for financing  BH nor learnt from Kenya, which froze the accounts of 9, publicly named, terrorist financiers. ( But the CBN speedily identified EndSARS financiers!) Check our mainstream and online media daily and see how Nigerians are being decimated, dehumanized and pauperized (through the ransom-economy), with embarrassing impunity by BH, bandits, herdsmen and kidnappers (Are they not the same? The Sultan has just affirmed that!). The most worrisome is not what these vicious bands of terrorists do to us; it is the ‘forked-tongue’( ile-abuo, in Igbo) tendencies by the government in these matters, and  the  vigor with which our security forces deal with  EndSARs & Revolution-Now protesters, IPOBians and other ‘trouble makers’.

The records are uncountable and as such, I will just mention the major recent cases. November 2020 was a very bad one for the nation in terms of security. The blood-thirsty BH terrorists, who some of us defended when they were ‘on the other side’, boldly sauntered  into our territory and beheaded 43, 78 or 110  hardworking farmers( no one is sure of the figures), who were driven by the urge to fend for themselves and contribute to National food security. The renegades were celebrating, contesting the figures given by the government, which as always, was shocked. 

Before long, they were at Kankara, where they successfully kidnapped 333 students (with motorcycles!). From Kankara, they moved on to Kagara where they seized our students and tied them (as human luggage) on their motorcycles, in pairs, and drove away unhindered and from there to Shiroro. One can imagine the number of motorcycles deployed in these operations and yet they came they saw and they conquered and now, Gumi, and helpless governors are genuflecting, massaging their egos  and begging them!

I am not a security person but I know that appeasement, as a strategy, is NOT sustainable. Of course, they have taken over Kastina, Zamfara, Niger and Southern Kaduna (where the women had to take the extreme step of nude-protesting), and the Abuja-Kaduna highway, (which has become their ‘recreation ground)’,

where they slaughter, maim, burn and kidnap at their pleasure. They have attacked bullion vans, monarchs, footballers, reverends, IDPs, wedding guests, mourners, aid workers, professors, farmers, judges, churches  and mosques   and even corpses. Just the other day, Buratai’s LGA was attacked, where many were abducted in addition to their usual scorched-earth practice. The Global Rights has just reported that 4552 of our compatriots were murdered in ‘mass atrocities’ in 2020 while  another report has given 4900 as the number slaughtered in the North-West. We are not talking of the amount amassed as individual and government ransoms (N420m paid as ransoms in Southern Kaduna in 2019), houses burnt and farms laid desolate, those maimed and those who have joined the clubs of refugees, widows, orphans and economic destitute.

The pain and shame meted out on Nigerians and Nigeria is embarrassing enough but the most worrisome and ominous, has been the ‘communication house of commotion’ that the presidency or the federal government has become.  It is a forked tongue scenario!  For instance, after the Borno Massacre, the great Lai said that Nigeria was at the mercy of terrorists because ‘they’ refused to sell arm to us while his principal, the President said that they had given the military all they needed to fight BH( with N238bn committed  to the war in 2018/19).

Femi Adesina said the military was well equipped while Garba Shehu said that the farmers did not obtain clearance to go to the farm; the military  took time to investigate and later accused the  villagers and international community of complicity. Eventually, Lai said that BH had been badly decimated and that they only attacked the defenseless (to whom the government should provide defense). But these decimated dastards had attacked Governor Zulum as many times as they wanted, attacked army formations, (they just attacked one last week) waylaid our soldiers, kidnapped policemen and in one instance, our soldiers were rescued by policemen! Finally, Buratai told us that it would last for at least, 20 years, after he had told us that it would end if we wanted and that we are safer now than in 2015, a position taken by PMB who boasted that he had done better than GEJ on the security front and that he had fulfilled his promise on security to Nigerians!!!  Of course, Buratai had the peace of mind to go golfing  and play with his snakes while Nigeria was (and is) on fire!

The IGP later told us that these bandits were from outside Nigeria just as PMB informed the devasted victims that Bokoharamites, who have wrought such death and destruction, and have killed 13 District heads and several ward heads in Borno, are just scavengers desperately searching for food.  Of course,  as in other instances, he strongly condemned the Kankara fiasco!

It is interesting that the APC ( through itspokesperson, Mr Nabena) told us that a governor was( andprobably still is) responsible for the killings and banditry! Nothing happened and there was no evidence that he was invited for a chat. However, when Mailafia made a similar allegation, quoting a repentant BH source,  the whole DSS apparatus went after him and the media house which anchored the interview was fined

On the Southern Kaduna killings, the presidency had  blamed it on an “evil combination of politically-motivated banditry, revenge killings and mutual violence by criminal gangs acting on ethnic and religious grounds’. Yes; they know the causes and the reasons but they are yet to give us results. The commander of Operation Safe Heavens had told the world that they have limited manpower to tackle the Southern Kaduna fiasco and the DSS later would reveal to us that some people were planning to destabilise Nigeria (fear-mongering,  publicity stunts, rather than action). And now, the Minister of Defence is accusing us of cowardice and that is when those who dared defend themselves are being mowed down or terrorized( Ask Igboho & Co; IPOBians and the Yoruba kings flogged for standing up against herdsmen)! And then, the great Lai told us that it would hurt the ecosystem to destroy the bandit hideouts (thus confirming the assertion by Gumi that the Government knew their hideouts) and that school kidnapping occurs even in the advanced world. Sure, it occurs everywhere; but the kidnappers there never went in convoys of hundreds of motorcycles; they never tied their human cargoes  on motorcycles in pairs as they drove off; the government neither negotiated nor paid ransoms and do not give the people a cocktail of excuses. He should also have noted the high teacher-student ratio, infrastructure, favourable policies and modern curriculum in those climes.

The President, beyond the Chatham House declaration, had directed the service chiefs to ‘finish’ BH within three months. He had occasions to tell them that their best was not enough, gave them several marching others in that regard, refused to sack them when the demand for their sack became a national anthem and when he reluctantly fired them, rewarded them with juicy diplomatic nominations!

Meanwhile the new service chiefs had promised that our insecurity challenges would end ‘soon’ while the Senate President had given a deadline of 2 months

 A man from your village said that what pained him was not that another man was ‘plundering’ his wife’s ‘holy of holies’; it was what they were saying when they were doing the thing that drove him to tears. That the bandits, kidnapers, herdsmen and BH are having field day at our expense is bad enough. But then, they boast about it, show us videos where our people are being slaughtered, taunt our soldiers and choose when they would receive money or their captured colleagues in exchange. The most painful is the forked-tongue approach by the government, giving excuses and at times making insensitive statements that infuriate! And now, the herdsmen are back on the front burner and ethnic and clannish sentiments have taken over in a situation when rational and inclusive paradigms should be the order… some other time.

- Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business Administration, OOU. 08033026625