It cannot be a thing of pride to the President Muhammadu Buhari government that, under its watch, seven years down the road, the IPOB matter and similar internal anti-Nigeria agitations remain festering wounds for the country.
To make matters worse, many who had earlier viewed sundry agitations against the state by loose anti-statusquo groups as misguided radicalism no longer think exactly the same way about the situation. Indeed, except for some persons in government quarters who still elect to grandstand, there does not seem to be much argument these days about the need for government to adopt a different disposition to these corrosive standoffs. The ones who still prefer grandstanding obviously do so either for self-serving political calculations or essentially because they believe that is what is required to prove their loyalty to the powers that be. Whatever, it is crystal clear that the best efforts have not been made in recent times in properly managing the intricacies of the Nigerian state.
For good reasons, therefore, a better official re-assessment of the prevailing crisis of the Nigerian state, with a view to enunciating alternative solution-strategies, including carrot offers, would not be out of the way. If, through confidence-building engagements and mediation, a level of understanding, if not détente, can be established between the government and the agitation leaders, Nigeria would have won. And lives, Nigerian lives, would be saved. But then, ego is a goat. And those who massage it can be worse than Janus.
The quest for possible alternative approaches to resolving the festering internal problems that have hobbled Nigeria in recent years obviously led to the suggestion of a political solution to the IPOB matter, among others. It is pertinent to note that the use of what is often referred to as kinetic means, the euphemism for raw force, to flatten the agitations has not exactly yielded full result. The reasons for these are varied. Take IPOB, for instance. How does the state deploy its military forces, be it on land or air, to fight an agitating civilian group the membership of which is fluid and indeterminate, and at the same time deeply ensconced in the same space with their kith and kin who are loyal Nigerian citizens? Interestingly, these innocent folks living peacefully in their homes do not even subscribe to the IPOB initiative in the first place. Unless the Nigerian military has acquired a unique mechanism for its guns and bullets to identify and separate IPOB members from loyal Nigerian citizens living in the same locality, innocent lives will constantly be exposed to grave risk every time military operations against IPOB are launched in the zone. Unfortunately, that has been the case.
In truth, the very existence of IPOB and the thrust of its agitation presented a serious dilemma to the Igbo elite the very moment the group came into being. The source of the dilemma is clear. Although the majority of the Igbo feel and share the pain of injustice on which IPOB anchored its essence, somehow, an overwhelming majority of the Igbo people, with the political and educated elite in the vanguard, never bought into the IPOB agenda. They preferred a diplomatic-cum-political approach to the struggle for a better Nigeria. It did not even matter that IPOB was established as a non-violent organisation, patterned after Mahatma Gandhi’s passive resistance approach in India.
Managing the conflict between IPOB and the Nigerian state has, therefore, presented a very sensitive challenge to the Igbo elite since the advent of the agitation group. Indeed, as the state, through its agents of cohesion, turned the heat on the South East, with military and paramilitary expeditions, and as IPOB dug in and became radicalized with vicious attacks that turned the otherwise peaceful region into a war zone, the Igbo elite became endangered species.
The threat by IPOB to scuttle the November 6, 2021, governorship election in Anambra State and the government’s determination to use maximum force to ensure that the election held offered an ironic opportunity for Igbo leadership groups and individuals to wade in. IPOB needed to be made to see reason. The engagements that were held yielded good results, proving that, indeed, alternative approaches in resolving the face-off are possible. But it is still a long way to restore peace in the South East.
Then three policemen were reportedly killed recently in the South East. The dastardly manner of the killing was not only condemnable, it highlighted the anguish of the South East. Such acts had never been part of the culture of the zone and its people. Something has seriously gone wrong.
Enter Lai Mohammed. The minister did not just stop at issuing a press release to protest and condemn the killing of the policemen, he moved hastily and characteristically to declare in his statement that the suggestion of any political solution to the thorny issue of the IPOB matter stands vitiated by the occurrence of the condemnable murder of three policemen by yet-to-be-identified criminals. This is sheer blackmail. Such a view exposes a mindset that thrives in crisis and does not seem to want any resolution of a thorny national problem. And to imagine that all that Lai Mohammed had on which he anchored this hasty tendentious statement was the “credible information” that told him that ESN and IPOB killed the policemen.
What is also very troubling about these types of Lai Mohammed’s incredible “credible information” claims is the damage they do to effective resolution of criminal acts in the land. Which one is more important; to painstakingly establish the perpetrators of crime and go after them or to hastily hit the air waves with press release claiming to have “credible information “on who did it?
Ahmed Gulak’s case easily comes to mind here. Gulak, a well-known politician was murdered on his way to the airport in the morning. Within about an hour of the incident, the assassins were said to have been caught and “neutralized”. The amazing quick judgment left Nigerians totally shocked at how blessed they have become with such efficient neutralizing system. Of course, that was the end of that matter. But could half “neutralizing” not have left relevant authorities an opportunity to establish if there was any motive and accomplishes in the assassination?
For Minister Lai Mohammed to also proceed to the next level in his statement by wondering why and how those who are suggesting political solution to the IPOB matter have not condemned the murder of the three policemen (within barely two days or so) further exposed his premeditated strike and his agenda. Blackmail! Garnished with double standard!
Where and at what other instance in Nigeria’s present traumatized daily living has this Minister tasked the people of a zone to either issue instant statement to condemn a case of killing in their area or lose the right to proffer suggestion on options for resolving national problems?
Interestingly, while Lai Mohammed was informed by his “credible information” of the killers of the three policemen, the governors of the South East promised to study the tape of the killing of the policemen to establish in the first place if the act occurred in the South East. According to the governors, “we were aware of sinister videos in the past which when subjected to forensic review were found to have happened outside Nigeria”.
Let the point be clearly stated here for emphasis; if there is definite evidence that IPOB or ESN masterminded the killing of the three policemen or any other soul for that matter, let the law take its course. God forbid that any person or group involved in shedding blood will be justified on this platform. However, these serious tragedies that have continued to dehumanize the Nigerian society require much more painstaking and serious response than a hasty incredible “credible information” that aim to achieve nothing more than blackmail a people, for whatever gain.
In the face of the paralyzing insecurity and crisis Nigerians presently live, Minister Lai Mohammed should be more given to initiatives that will promote security and peace in the land. Such unrestrained proclivity to blackmail as the Minister has shown in his hasty press release cannot help anybody. He will be serving the country and President Buhari better if he helps to make more friends than enemies for his principal. He has the capacity to do that.