By Sunday Ani
Following the recent attacks in Bassa and Bokkos in Plateau State, as well as Benue and Borno states, which led to the death of hundreds of people, Nigerians have been speaking, principally because it has become a regular occurrence.
While some people have attributed the development to a well calculated and orchestrated plan by the Fulani ethnic nationality to dispossess the indigenous people of their ancestral lands under the guise of farmers-herders clashes, there are those who believe that it is simply a failure of leadership at the national level.
One of the proponents of the latter philosophy is the leader of the Social Democratic Party, SDP Prince Adewole Adebayo.
For Adebayo, what happened recently in Benue and Plateau states, which is also happening in other states across the country, though in isolated forms, is simply a failure of leadership.
He blamed President Bola Tinubu for lacking the required knowledge to tackle the menace which he said was already there before he became president. So, for Adebayo, Tinubu cannot say he was not aware of the enormity of insecurity in the country before he became president. “It is a case of somebody who is bereft of ideas on how to tackle the situation,” he added.
He noted that his party, the SDP, campaigned on two fronts – poverty and insecurity. He said: “I run on the platform of farewell to poverty and insecurity, so we’ve always known that poverty and insecurity go together. Insecurity has taken a negative dimension, and now, we are producing children and graduates from the university who grew up in an environment with no safety. We started with the problems of Chibok girls. If any of those girls was 10 years old then, how old would she be now?
“So, insecurity is not new. Nobody can say, ‘Oh, when I was running for election in 2023, I didn’t know there was insecurity.’ Any insecurity we have now is a sign of poor governance,” he stated.
He lamented that despite the quantum of material and financial resources that had been deployed to fight insecurity; the problem remains a talking point. He noted that if Nigeria were to be a country without enormous resources, maybe, it could have gone cap in hand begging and calling on foreign countries to come to its assistance.
He placed the blame squarely at the door-step of the government, saying, “I think the government of the day should be held responsible for failure of intelligence, for not servicing large swathes of the country, and for not responding when intelligence comes.
“The persistent communal tensions across the country show how frustrated everyone is. Reprisal and revenge now seem like the only way people feel they can even out when they feel injured.”
On what he thinks the government can do differently to stem the tide or even arrest the situation out-rightly, he said: “The government should go to the root causes by creating a well thought out policy around how herders move with their cattle. And in case that policy fails, and someone mischievously or accidentally loses cattle, there should be insurance.
“I’m a cattle herder myself. Just the other day, I lost two cows but I’m not going to die over it, because I’m self-insured. I raise cattle in ranches. Go to Adamawa, you’ll see my ranches. Even in the South West, I have ranches. I have a plan to accommodate the loss of any cattle. If there’s a national insurance programme, I will subscribe. Investigate the loss, I get compensation.
“Just like third-party car insurance; you hit my car, you give me your insurance, and I go for a claim. No need to slap anybody. We need something similar for herders and crop farmers.”
But apart from farmers-herders clashes, the activities of Boko Haram terrorists, bandits and kidnappers have also heightened in recent time.
Adebayo noted that from the intelligence information within his disposal those are pure criminal activities that have nothing to do with communal clashes. “It’s not about communal clashes; these are just criminal cells trying to make a statement. In a place like Bassa, it might look like reprisal rooted in an incident that happened two years ago. I’m not excusing anything, but maybe, two years is enough time for the government to have reached out. They didn’t.
“So, I’m directly saying that the worsening security situation in Nigeria is a failure of leadership. The late Nigerian literary icon, Professor Chinua Achebe said it four decades ago, and he was right; leadership is Nigeria’s problem. And I don’t need to tell you that President Bola Tinubu is a full-fledged mascot of leadership failure. A living example of how leaders fail while still alive,” he stated.
He, however, advised the president to sit up and face governance which he said is a serious business. He charged the president to live up to his oath of office, which includes the welfare and security of lives and property of citizens.
He reminded President Tinubu that leadership is not just about wearing agbada, partying and celebrating while his country burns. “The office of the Commander-in-Chief isn’t just about wearing agbada. The president is the head of state, the father of the country, whom we can be proud of, the comforter of the bereaved. His position requires compassion and presence. Even if the problem is outside his jurisdiction, as the President, he must show empathy. When a boat capsizes, when people die, he must be a comforter of the bereaved. He should always be a co-celebrant in joy and a co-mourner in pain,” he stated.
When reminded that it is always easier to find fault from outside than when one is inside, he disagreed, saying that Tinubu would have resigned a long time ago having seen that the job is more than what he envisaged. He used the analogy of weightlifters to dismiss the claim, Saying, “Have you seen weightlifters? When they can’t lift a weight, they drop it. Try again and train more, but if, after everything, you still can’t lift it, what do you do? You resign. That’s why the Constitution provides for voluntary resignation.
“The fact that I am bereft of ideas doesn’t mean the whole country is. That’s why you choose a capable vice president. If anything happens to you, or if you quit, the person steps in. But, in Tinubu’s case, he hasn’t even lifted the weight. He’s just sitting there, enjoying himself, doing fashion; not doing the job, but holding the trophy and calling himself champion.”
However, on the calls by some prominent Nigerians, including the former Chief of Army Staff, Gen T.Y Danjuma, that it’s high time Nigerians bore arms to defend themselves, he said even though self defence was enshrined in the country’s constitution, he would plead for caution since such a situation could lead to anybody killing somebody under that guise. He noted that as a president, he would not allow the security situation to degenerate to a level where people would resort to self defence. He said: “Self-defence is a right under the Constitution, but to resort to self-defence as a government policy is abdication of duty because what you need to do is to articulate the security justice and align them with community effort and to essentially gather intelligence; advanced intelligence.
“Self-defence can lead to recklessness because everybody can kill somebody. Even terrorists will kill somebody and say they are acting in self defence. I’m not saying that Gen Danjuwai is not a good soldier, but I think that’s not a policy that I would adopt.”
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