If you judge me as an opposition writer you are
not being fair to me. I supported Buhari when he needed support. As a
non-political person I never joined his party or any other political party. But
since the time he joined politics in 2003 I made sure I voted for him and mobilized
those I could mobilize to vote for him. My hopes, like majority of Nigerians,
were thus high when he won the 2015 election. My prayer along with others who
went on hajj the previous year was answered. Jonathan was defeated. The killing
of innocent Muslim Northerners was thus over.
However, just before the inauguration of Buhari
administration in 2015 something happened. I had a discussion with a more
experienced colleague which like you may be dismissing this write-up, I
dismissed as a hate observation from a PDP supporter. Of course I knew that colleague
was not a PDP member and in fact, like yours sincerely he was never in
politics. However, my love for Buhari beclouded my sense of reasoning. The
person asked how Buhari could provide security for Nigerians while it was the
same person who, as a military leader was toppled and arrested from his house
with no iota of resistance. The point here is that if Buhari could not deal
with saboteurs as a military leader with full autocratic powers how could he
possibly do so as a civilian president? Whether my colleague’s observation made
sense or not is left for you to say now that my choice president has spent four
full years in office.
But I m not here to discuss sabotage. Sabotage
or not, Buhari as the president of this country is responsible for the protection
of lives and property of all Nigerians. He is answerable before God and then
before Nigerians for any innocent blood dropped on the Nigerian territory. This
is even more so because Nigerians voted for him for his promise that their
security will be his top priority.
But Buhari is not alone in it. Along with him
are 36 state Governors each of whom is roughly called the Chief security
officer of his state. Let me not take you far. My state of origin is Katsina
and I m talking about His Excellency Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, the executive
governor of the state. Both Masari and Buhari are citizens of Katsina who took
over power when there was relative peace in their state compared to its
immediate neighbour, Zamfara. There were however rampant cases of cattle
rustling and banditry especially in local government areas neighbouring
Zamfara. That those cases will be over in a matter of a very short time was the
belief of people like me who had confidence that APC shall be better than PDP
notwithstanding that Masari himself was a full blown PDP member who only joined
the Buhari political train after falling out with his best friend, the late
President Yaradua.
Not long after the inauguration of Masari
administration, he set up a security committee under the SSG, Alhaji Mustapha
Inuwa. Mustapha Inuwa was a Commissioner of Education and later SSG when
Yaradua was the state Governor. His committee was what could be described as a
colossal failure. Inuwa’s committee did not prevent cattle rustling from taking
place in any parts of Katsina state. A good number of villages were sacked and
Inuwa’s security teams only arrived the scenes, when they did, many hours after
the incidents took place. Perhaps they realized that the Government itself was
not serious and they decided to stay in the cities and enjoyed their
allowances, after all many of them had no families in the state. It was in this
period, for example, that I lost an uncle of mine to the rifles of bandits. If
you expect me to stop talking about my dear who was the religious leader of his
people and the patriarch of my mother’s family so as to cover the failure of
Katsina and Federal Governments you are in for a disappointment.
Somehow, sometime in 2016 Governor Yari of
Zamfara state decided to grant amnesty to bandits and cattle rustlers in
Zamfara state. That came as a relief to Katsina State Governor who was said to
be spending a lot of money to pay security people ‘on patrol’. Thus, like a
copycat, Katsina state Government also announced an amnesty for criminals. A
15-man amnesty committee was set up under our Mustapha Inuwa which was mandated
by the state Governor to “meet with various gangs of cattle rustlers
operating in the state with a view to identifying their grievances, and advice
the government, accordingly”. Yes, those were the words of Governor Masari on
the 12th of November, 2016, unfortunately. The implication was that
the Government had identified ‘gangs’ of cattle rustlers who had been
responsible for the murder of innocent Nigerians and it did know their
locations. But instead of applying the might of Government to bring them to
justice, it was going to meet them and even listen to their reasons for
murdering Nigerians.
That was not all. The governor
continued, “The government decides to employ dialogue after it had used force
by about 80 per cent and yielded no much positive results”. In other words, the
Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with all its Police, Army, Navy,
Air force, DSS, NIA, etc. had no strength to subdue bunches of criminals
terrorizing villagers in one part of the country. Haba! This was said when the
challenges were by far less serious than what we have now. Do we have any hope
now?
After the inauguration of that
committee, the lies began. Two months after the inauguration of the committee,
the SSG announced that 28,000 cattle were surrendered by the cattle rustlers
who had now repented. Out of that number, according to him, 24,567 had been
returned to their rightful owners and 3513 died before they could be
surrendered with some 99 still available. Here, one would be tempted to ask
questions. Where is the list of those who repented and where are they now? Had
the cattle rustlers been keeping the animals they rustled somewhere safely in
expectation of this amnesty programme? This is only possible if there is complicity
by some people close to Government. Who are ‘the rightful owners’ who reclaimed
their cattle and which method did the committee use to ascertain ownership? I
am yet to see their list. The villager victims of cattle rustling could not ask
these questions for fear of being with-hunt by Government. After all, they saw
some of the suspected cattle rustlers moving with Government protection after
the amnesty declaration.
The meaning of all these is that
the security of lives and property of the people of Katsina state was allowed
to deteriorate by the Government (this Government) by not solving the problem
when it was still at the infancy stage. Now that it has become much worse the
Governor is running up and down and is sometimes seen shading tears. A friend of
mine called them crocodile tears and many people may have reasons to agree with
him. For example, on visiting the Jibia flood site last year the Governor
openly shed those tears and promised to tackle the root cause of the flood. One
year after, the problem has not been solved and if there is another rain
similar to last year’s only the special grace of God will prevent another
flood. Somehow, my darling President Buhari has shed tears on a number of
occasions and his people in his home state are still being killed on a daily
basis.
Did you say I am insulting Buhari
and Masari? That may be your opinion. It is, however, the kind of opinion that
has made Nigerians in leadership position to see every constructive criticism
as an insult. But like the famous Caliph Umar b. Alkhattab said, “There is no
good in you if you do not tell us the truth, and there is no good in us if we
do not accept”.