El-Rufai, Ortom’s Descent to Character Debate

Nigerians expected more in terms of leadership from Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State and his Benue State counterpart, Samuel Ortom, than last week’s resort to character debate, writes Tobi Soniyi

Penultimate week, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai and his Benue State counterpart, Samuel Ortom shamelessly, threw caution to the winds and chose to wash their dirty linen in public.
El-Rufai had accused Ortom of using insecurity in his state to attack President Muhammadu Buhari’sadministration as a way to cover up for his own failure.

Ortom didn’t take it lightly. He quickly fired back with sundry allegations against El-Rufai, accusing him of adopting divisible tactics and misleading the president among other weighty allegations.
Incidentally, both Benue and Kaduna states have been devastated by criminals. Evidence abound in both states to show that both governors have failed to deliver on their campaign promises.

While Benue reeled from herders-farmers’ clashes that had left hundreds dead, Kaduna is struggling to stop kidnappers from destroying the state even as its southern part remains a killing field.
Last month, an Internally Displaced Persons camp in Benue State was attacked leaving seven persons dead and many others injured.

On April 20, students of Greenfield University were kidnapped in Kaduna. Five days after their abduction, five of the students were killed by the bandits while the leader of the bandits, Sani Jalingo, said the remaining students would be killed if the government or the parents failed to provide N100 million and 10 motorcycles for the bandits.

So both governors have their hands full, battling insecurity in their respective states. No one, therefore,expects them to have time for frivolities. But this is Nigeria where politicians never cease to entertain. At a time when they should be working together to find an enduring solution to the peril the countrygenerally faces, they have chosen to go for each other’s jugular.
In February, El-Rufai delivered a speech that many considered to be a call to action for leaders irrespective of their political, ethnic or religious inclination.

A quote from the speech, which the governor delivered at the national conversation: ‘The Fierce Urgency of Now: Tactics and Strategies to Pull Nigeria from the Brink’, in Lagos on Friday, 19th February 2021 will suffice.
He said: “As leaders, our obligation is to turn Nigeria’s moment of peril into a breakthrough moment, a time to stand together and drag the Nigerian state to modernity, imbued with a capacity to exercise robust control of security, that is uncompromising in its prerogatives and has an ability to protect rights, lives and livelihoods. Let us make a rational decision that we would be defined by what we achieve in common.”

Many may choose to disagree, El-Rufai is one of the few governors, who understand the depth of the security challenges the nation faces. How, therefore, can a governor, who is expected to rally his colleagues to work with the president to confront a common enemy be picking up a fight with one of his own?

Governor Ortom is also not totally blameless. His response to the Kaduna State governor lacked discretion expected from the exalted office of a state governor. He appeared to have been nursing a grudge against El-Rufai. The remarks by the Kaduna State governor provided him with the opportunity to pour it out. He obviously overreacted and showed no restraints.

Unfortunately, while the governors bicker, criminals continue to wreak havoc across the country. Those who wanted the country destroyed had the governors where they wanted them. In disunity. Even though it continues to sound hollow in many ears, the reality is that the country is not going to surmount the security challenges except it is united. If one state is not safe, all the states cannot be safe.

These challenges are not only interrelated but are such that it would take collective efforts and synergy to resolve. Insecurity has grown this worse partly due to the absence of a coordinated response among tiers of government. When those who should work together to stem the tide of insecurity are busy quarrelling, the nation obviously faces a bleak future.

True be told, one of the reasons Nigeria is turning into a failed state is bad governance and it didn’t start yesterday or with the Buhari government. Too many children are out of school. As they grow up without any means of sustenance they are left with no choice but to resort to crimes.
Both Ortom and El Rufai should be preoccupied with how to provide education to every child in their respective states. It is by doing so that they can secure the future of their states.

Both governors need to find ways to extend governance beyond their state capital. Once you travel out of the capital, you hardly feel the presence of the government. These neglected parts are fertile ground for criminals to spring up. Large swathes of land in both Kaduna and Benue have no presence of government.

Even though governors do not control any security forces, they can fight insecurity by developing their states.
It is not too late for the warring governors to bury the hatchet and find common grounds. The Chairman of the Northern Governor’ Forum, Simon Lalong of Plateau State, should immediately initiate a peace process to reconcile them.

Governors will have to work with President Muhammadu Buhari to address the security challenges, even though the president has not shown the leadership required to galvanize state governors to join forces with him.
While the federal government keeps defending the rights of herders to move freely across the country, the Buhari-led administration has not shown similar support for the farmers, whose crops are destroyed by herders.
The time has come for both Ortom and El-Rufai to uphold their ‘obligation’ to turn Nigeria’s moment of peril into a breakthrough and stand together to drag the nation to modernity.