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Danjuma Musa
“Opposition can be your friend. Opposition can be the fire that tempers the better sword, as well as the ice that cools a fiery temper. Don’t ever run from it; learn from it!” – Jack R. Rose
On April 19, 2019, before the Easter Sunday bombing of some Catholic churches and luxury hotels rocked Sri Lanka, same day, some bandits stormed the famous Kajuru Castle, a holiday resort located in Kaduna State, and in the process killed Faye Mooney, a British aid worker, and a Nigerian and took some guests hostage apparently for ransom. It must be stated from the outset that every life is important, but in terms of scale and number, the two incidents are not by any standard comparable. But while the people of Sri Lanka have united in grief, even when there is concrete evidence that the government was sloppy with credible intelligence, the opposition would at the appropriate time definitely demand for answers, but for now the urgent task is to mourn the dead and to get on top of the situation, especially as there are strong indications that some of the terrorists might still be at large.
In Nigeria, everything and every issue is politicised and eventually muddled up. This is the light in which the reaction of Senator Shehu Sani, which is typical and not unexpected, should be viewed. For the benefit of those who haven’t read or heard about his reaction, it is hereby reproduced verbatim: “All those una wey wan come up here do tourism, excursion or sight seeing, make una chil. This gunmen no dey joke; life no get double.” Sani showed no empathy expected of a leader. This is a senator who has been elected to make laws for good governance, for the security of life and property. It appeared he was celebratory. His main purpose is obviously to de-market Kaduna State as an unsafe place for business, all in a bid to get at Governor Nasir El-Rufai, who has dealt him serious political blows from which he is yet to recover.
Unfortunately for mankind, the world today has become unsafe due to the activities of several militant groups and individuals who want to force their narrow and misguided agenda on the world by intimidation. No country, including the superpowers – the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia and France – has escaped the war being waged by these terrorists on all fronts. The unfortunate thing about the new war is that it has no boundary and is exceedingly very difficult to foresee and stop, because the terrorists hold all the aces, the targets, which are usually human beings, and the mode of attack. For instance, how can anyone stop a terrorist from driving a car into a crowd, like it has happened in France and Germany? So, the only reasonable option is the “minimisation” of their actions.
The terrorists of Sri Lanka and the kidnappers of Kajuru Castle are two sides of same coin. The only difference is that the kidnappers are common criminals who engage in their enterprise for money, while those of Sri Lanka want to “correct” a fundamental mistake the Almighty God made by creating some people white and some black, some Christians, some Muslims, some atheists and some Buddhists. This explains their strident efforts to right the “mistake” by embarking on “religious cleansing.” The question is, how can anyone dialogue with such characters with their warped ideology? Sadly, this is the reality of our world today.
The problem with the likes of Shehu Sani is the painful fact that they are not serious. A leader, like Jack Welch, the former chief executive of General Electric, argued, has “the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls,” a point Rosalyn Carter further buttressed when she differentiated between being just a leader and a greater leader. The summary of her position is that “a great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to.” Were Shehu Sani a leader he would have first shown empathy to the victims and condemned the bandits, rather than use the ugly incident to run down Kaduna State as unsafe.
People should not play dirty politics with every issue solely for their advantage and in furtherance of their politics that benefits them only. It is obvious Sani hasn’t learnt much in his political career. He has not learnt that one can’t eat his cake and have it. You can’t want to be seen as the only good guy by those opposed to your party and expect your party to reward you with a return ticket. Elected on the platform the All Progressives Congress (APC), he engaged the Ward, Local, State and National chapters of his party in a war of words. He didn’t spare Muhammadu Buhari or El-Rufai, his state governor. Every policy of both the state and federal government was subjected to ridicule, in the name of being the defender of the poor. Tired of his antics, he was severally suspended and eventually expelled.
If Shehu Sani admits that the entire North is under siege and that the security agencies are in reality under the control and direction of the Federal Government, why single out Kaduna State government for demonisation? Is his judgment on all the issues he has opposed influenced by his disagreement with El-Rufai? In the typical Shehu Sani fashion of never taking responsibility, he blames northern politicians as being responsible for the problem of the North, like he blames El-Rufai for issues that he knows are clearly within the competency of the Federal Government. But is Shehu Sani not a northern politician?
Can Shehu Sani claim not to know that the security forces, as a result of the various challenges, are stretched and that preparedness against attacks is not the sole responsibility of government? It is convenient for Sani to seek to hide the truth because that would deny him the oxygen he needs to harass his opponents.
To those being misled by Sani, please, be informed that the government would always find it difficult, in the light of the nature of the new security challenges, to anticipate every conceivable attack even if the security agencies are well-funded and equipped.
• Musa writes from Kaduna
