Insecurity: A plethora of statesmanly admonitions, govt languid, unmoved, impervious

“The frustration of many stakeholders with the approach of the languid, almost offhand approach of the government to the security crisis is exemplified by the recent position of the Northern Elders Forum. The group was miffed to the point that it condemned the government for its feeble response to the daily slaughter of Nigerians, just as it called for the impeachment of the President on the grounds that he can no longer guarantee the safety of the lives and property of citizens.”

THE current season of anomie n Nigeria, which is exemplified by the total collapse of security, has forced many statesmen and women to put on their thinking caps. The grotesque reality of Nigeria as a killing field, where the safety of life and limb can no longer be guaranteed, is a pill too bitter to swallow for many proud Nigerians.

Nigerians at home and in the diaspora have had to watch in horror as the country degenerates into a vast killing field, where men, women and children are routinely mowed down by blood thirsty gangs, while the government busies itself issuing lame messages of condolence.

The anomaly of a government watching in utmost impotence, as citizens are daily slaughtered or abducted across the country, is currently one of the many humiliations most Nigerians have had to live with it. A coterie of former leaders has been voicing their concerns about the situation. Many of them have drawn attention to the fact that since the advent of the current democratic dispensation in 1999, the security and corporate existence of the globe’s most populous black nation has never been so undermined.

With an understanding of the implications, if Nigeria were to implode, elites across ethnic, religious, and political divides have been trying to put forward ideas to pull the country back from the brink.

One of such interventions came recently from former Senate President and past Secretary to the Government of the Federation Anyim Pius Anyim. The former lawmaker and government scribe recently penned a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on how to urgently address the challenges of insecurity and the credible threats to the unity of the country. Anyim’s statesmanlike admonition to the President was contained in an open letter, in which he made the case for urgent measures to de-escalate the tension in the land. Anyim said he chose the option of an open letter because previous suggestions he made in writing after he visited the President in 2018 appeared not to have reached him.

Going down memory lane, Anyim called on the government to consider setting up a body in the mould of the Willink’s Commission of 1957, which looked into the fears of minority groups, and what to do to allay them. The former Senate President recalled that the recommendations of the Willink’s Commission were so far reaching that they became basis for drafting the constitution that ushered Nigeria into independence. The former Senate President who was instrumental to the convening of the 2014 Confab called on President Muhammadu Buhari to consider empanelling a similar Commission.

He said: “The most outstanding recommendation of the Willink’s Commission as a long time solution is the inclusion of a Fundamental Human Rights chapter in the Constitution. It was recommended that the inclusion of the Fundamental Human Rights Chapter in the Constitution will protect all citizens including minority stock from any governmental or majority bloc abuses. I must say at this point that it was the recommendation of the Willink’s Commission that gave all the component groups in Nigeria the comfort to go into the union at independence.”

Anyim sounded an ominous note of warning to President Buhari, noting that the comfort, which was enjoyed by many ethnic nationalities as a result of the assurances provided by the Willink’s Commission, is no longer working.

Anyim, therefore, recommended that President Buhari should make history by setting up a similar body to douse the current tension and agitation across the land.

“I make bold to recommend that Mr. President should make history by empaneling another Commission of Inquiry to inquire into the violent and non-violent agitations in Nigeria and make recommendations on the immediate, short and long term solutions as a way of first de-escalating the tension in the land and a process for the renewal of our march to nationhood.”

The former Senate President noted that apart from de-escalating the tension in the country, such a Commission would provide a platform for interest groups across the country to share ideas on the best ways out of the current situation. The former top official in the Goodluck Jonathan government expressed optimism that if the government sets up such a body, citizens would use it as a platform to air their views with respect to the immediate and remote causes of the violent agitations currently rocking the land. He enthused that the document derived from the proceedings of such a commission could become critical for the foundation of a new Nigeria anchored on the legitimacy derived from the inputs of citizens.

APART from the former Senate helmsman, other top political figures in the country had weighed in with practical strategies, which could stem the wave of insecurity, and calm the tempers of separatist agitators, whose activities have undermined peaceful co-existence and social harmony.

Much earlier, for instance, Buhari’s staunch political ally and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu called on the President to recruit more men and women for the armed forces. Tinubu who has apparently been busy shuttling the country for consultations with respect to his presidential ambition first called on Buhari to recruit 50million youths into the military. He later clarified that he misspoke and that the figure he meant to give was that five million youths should be recruited into the armed services to take the fight against criminals terrorising the country. 

On its part, the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP), was recently on hand to offer its perspectives to the government on how to end the bloodletting all over the country. On April 30, PDP Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus called on the President to urgently convene a national dialogue to deliberate and proffer solutions to the persisting security challenges. The opposition helmsman said the spate of killings all around the country was getting out of hand. The situation he noted required robust consultation to generate ideas on the way out of the situation.

NOTWITHSTANDING the plethora of admonition, advice, and statesmanlike counsel, the government has largely ignored them.

Many close watchers of developments in the polity have been miffed that instead of exploring channels for consultations with citizens to harness ideas to stem the wave of insecurity, the government has been carrying on as if it can do it alone.

Also, the government’s information managers have received knocks for being more interested in making their principals look good when what Nigerians need is for them to harvest ideas and strategies to end the current onslaught against lives and property in the country. For example, on May 4, Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed went on an excursion about how banditry and kidnapping are not federal offences. In the eyes of critical observers of the debate, that was a distraction, which failed to address the fundamental question of how roving band of blood-thirsty hounds attacking communities and wantonly killing and displacing people.

While the issue of prosecuting perpetrators of violent crimes is an important one to look at, the urgent issues of the moment have to do with ensuring people in communities, especially in the rural areas are safe from the heinous activities of marauders.

The frustration of many stakeholders with the approach of the languid, almost offhand approach of the government to the security crisis is exemplified by the recent position of the Northern Elders Forum. The group was miffed to the point that it condemned the government for its feeble response to the daily slaughter of Nigerians, just as it called for the impeachment of the President on the grounds that he can no longer guarantee the safety of the lives and property of citizens.