Amid Existential Dilemma, Nigerians Look to Leadership

IN THE ARENA

Seared by unimaginably cruel daily killings, abductions and desolation, Nigerians continue to look up to a footloose leadership, Louis Achi writes

At press time, President Muhammadu Buhari was away to the Republic of Turkey to attend the third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit, hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He was accompanied by his wife, six ministers, the National Security Adviser (NSA) and Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).

Before the current Turkey trip, the President had visited at least eight cities outside the country in the last 13 weeks. These include Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, on December 1, 2021, where he attended the EXPO 2020 Dubai; Durban, Paris, Scotland, New York, Riyadh, Mecca and Addis Ababa.

In conventional statecraft, these diplomatic-cum-business tours are widely accepted, legitimate governance exertions. But linkages must necessarily be made to the existing socio-political stability, economic and security scenario of the president’s home country. In Nigeria’s case, the big picture is emphatically not ideal and calls attention to the multi-hued disintegrative stress within the patchy fabric of the nation state.

Between January and December 2021, no less than 3,125 people were extra-judicially slaughtered with some 2,703 kidnapped by bandits – currently rebranded as terrorists.

These figures were gleaned from the Nigeria Security Tracker (NST), a project of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa programme, an American think tank. The think tank catalogues and maps political violence based on a weekly survey of Nigerian and international press.

The data presented includes violent incidents related to political, economic and social grievances directed at the state or other affiliated groups. Also data from quarterly reports released by the Kaduna State Government from January to September complemented information on the human tragedy currently prevalent in the country.

Kaduna, Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Niger and Borno made the list of the most affected states with Kaduna being the only state releasing figures of casualties every quarter while reports for other states are gleaned from media coverage.

A January/February/March breakdown showed that no less than 902 folks were massacred while 1,308 were kidnapped by terrorists-bandits and herdsmen in different parts of Northern Nigeria including 317 schoolchildren of Jangebe, Zamfara State, 39 students in Kaduna and 100 miners in Zamfara.

In April and May, 775 people were killed in the same Northern region with 586 abducted. The abductees included students of Greenfield University numbering 23 and 208 Niger State students with about 40 Muslim worshipers. 444 persons were abducted in June/July with 675 persons cavalierly murdered while in August, 215 people were killed and 169 kidnapped.

While 54 were abducted in September, 220 were reportedly killed. In October 64 folks were abducted while in November 41 were kidnapped and 148 killed. In December, at press time, no fewer than 50 have been slaughtered while over 100 kidnapped.

In all these bloody infamy, states which lack constitutional powers to deploy armed force have been trying various measures to pushback and protect its citizens. While the federal government imposed a no-fly-zone on Zamfara State in March, the state in September closed base telecommunications stations, cutting off communication across all local governments in order to curtail criminals’ activities. Sokoto, Kaduna, and Katsina later cloned the measure, closing down borders and transportation in selected local government areas.

The sheer cruelty of this bloody infamy is perhaps now matched by their frequency. Killings in the Northern and Southern Nigeria and especially in the North-West are now a daily occurrence and media reportage fatigue is setting in. Worse, the seeming unwillingness and or strange disinterest of the highest political authority in the country is highly bothersome.

To successfully confront and defeat the growing miasma, an intimate understanding of the key drivers of the crises is needed – beyond conventional kinetic force. The so-called banditry is a mix of complex dimensions. Climate change, pervasive poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, strong feelings of dispossession and exclusion, the dearth of moral order and lack of genuine governance vision are unquestionable enablers of the growing tragedy.

A very important dimension to the current bloody disruption of society which many may miss is that the women, youths and children are most affected and this bodes ill for survival of society.

Notes Chidi Odinkalu, lawyer and teacher: “A country in which young people cannot expect to grow up nor to live cannot offer its mature generations rest or respite in their old age. That is what General Buhari’s Nigeria has become: a country without a past, bereft of a future and unable to describe its present.”

For the Vice President of Northern Christian Association of Nigeria which includes 19 northern States and Abuja, John Hayab, it was obvious that Buhari cared more about travelling abroad than caring for his citizens.

His words: “The people and communities under siege by bandits do not have any contribution to make for and in Buhari’s government. That is why he has not deemed it fit to visit those communities.”

Last week also, the Middle Belt Forum criticised Buhari over “lack of sympathy for victims of attacks in the country” alleging that the president had abdicated his responsibility to the nation.

Stung by mounting criticism by diverse stakeholders, the Presidency had attempted to state its own case and clarify efforts deployed to defeat the extant infamy. According to Mallam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity, the growing instability in the North is unacceptable.

His words: “The growing instability and violence in the North of Nigeria and elsewhere is unacceptable. No one, not least the Presidency underestimates the seriousness of the situation. Every day, the President holds the victims and their families in his thoughts and prayers. Above all, he wishes to reassure them – and all Nigerians – that tackling the scourge of banditry and terrorism remains this government’s first priority.

“Alongside military force, this government is seeking to address the violence at its economic source. Massive infrastructure projects like the coastal rail and new train from the southern coast through the north-east to our neighbour Niger, aim to expand employment and opportunity across the country, bringing hope to our more remote and poorer regions where bandits and terrorists thrive.”

Beyond rhetoric, when will the nation’s political leadership muster the will to cage the rapidly spiralling human tragedy? Time will tell.