The Nation Newspaper

Category: Monday

  • Why Imo?

    Why Imo?

    By Emeka OMEIHE

     

    With heightened insecurity across the country, it would seem inappropriate to single out a state for special interrogation. Such inquisition could also be faulted by the desperate outcries of three governors last week on the degenerate security situations in their states.

    Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, his Niger State counterpart, Sani Bello and Samuel Ortom of Benue State had independently raised serious alarms on the degenerating security situation in their states. While Zulum was piqued by the increasing momentum and dexterity of Boko Haram attacks with huge casualties in military and civilian population, Bello is scared stiff by the sacking of about 42 communities and hoisting of flags by the Boko Haram insurgents. He painted a pathetic picture of how the insurgents kidnapped many indigenes, their wives seized from them and forcefully attached to Boko Haram members.

    Ortom spoke pathetically and emotionally on the killing of seven Internally Displaced Persons IDPs in their camp by herdsmen militia. He painted a gory and moving picture of how the IDPs fled their ancestral homes for refuge on account of the insurgency of the herdsmen only for the same herdsmen to attack and kill them at their camps.

    Elsewhere, it has been a tale of attacks, ambushing and killing of security personnel for no just cause, kidnapping for ransom, burning down of police stations and sundry criminalities. With the catalogue of complex criminalities across the country, what makes Imo a special case and does it make sense singling events there out for special investigation?

    Yes.  Imo stands out not only in terms of texture and nature but the weight and momentum of violent attacks that have taken place there.  The character of security infraction in the state since the beginning of this year stands it out among its counterparts from the zone. In those infractions can be located, the imprimatur of a state primed by acts of omission or commission for some form of cataclysm. If anything, emerging allegations from the Department of State Services DSS that the IPOB/ESN has acquired bombs and explosives to destabilize the state further supports the peculiarity of the Imo situation.

    Reports quoting a letter from the DSS to the Brigade Commander, 34 Artillery Brigade Obinze, credited the secret police to have alleged that bombs and explosives were being moved in articulated trucks from Lagos to a hide-out in Orlu, Imo State ostensibly to attack security and government installations in the state. Though IPOB has dismissed the allegation as baseless, it adds to the puzzles on the precise nature and texture of the insecurity in a state that before now, ranked among the most peaceful in the country.

    So, what really went wrong? How did Imo get to the current situation? Is the state now the headquarters of the IPOB/ESN or are we contending with the verity of a choreographed simulation of violent attacks with the aim of achieving pre-determined ends? What really are the issues behind the sudden prominence of Imo in the insecurity matrix? Or do events there have a link with the way the leadership of the state emerged after the last elections?

    Before the ENDSARS protests turned awry across the country, Imo had no known history of violent attacks on security operatives and government installations. It also harbored no organized violence of the magnitude that could attract serious national attention. But the state suddenly came under national focus early this year, when Governor Hope Uzodinma imposed a dusk to dawn curfew in 10 local government areas of Orlu senatorial zone citing the activities of a “group of militants who unleashed a shooting spree in the Orlu area killing and maiming innocent citizens”.

    The governor said he was appalled by what appeared as a breakdown of law and order in Orlu and admitted inviting the military to quell the attacks which he claimed were beyond the capacity of the local arrangement. Before then, his Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Cyprian Akaolisa had said the state government invited the military to Orlu after members of the IPOB/ESN killed several policemen and innocent citizens alleging attempts by the group to attack Orlu people and the government in the guise of looking for herdsmen.

    Imo people were taken aback when military helicopters entered the scene firing sporadically in a manner reminiscent of war situations. But the military deployment and the reasons for it did not go down well with the people. They did not see anything in the security situation in Orlu that could not be managed by the regular security agencies.

    Uzodinma was deemed to have over-reacted and his invitation of the military seen as an escalation of whatever security challenges that hitherto existed in the area. There were others who imputed a dubious agenda to the matter. It is not surprising that Imo has since that controversial outing remained on national focus albeit, for the wrong reason. Whether that misadventure was a harbinger of events that had since unfolded is a matter of conjecture.

    As if that was not enough, Imo was thrown into serious confusion when the state police command headquarters and the correctional facility in Owerri were attacked by unidentified gunmen without resistance from the array of security agencies that maintain serious presence around there. The bravado of the gunmen, the ease with which they overran both facilities, freed prisoners and detainees without challenge, gave vent to all manner of conspiracy theories.

    Immediate past Inspector-General of police Mohammed Adamu was quick to attribute the attack to the IPOB/ESN and the state government easily bought into the narrative. But the governor later said he had information on where, how and when the attacks were planned and the brains behind them. He fingered aggrieved politicians for sponsoring the attacks. Curiously, the description of the aggrieved politician and sponsor of the attacks the state government gave fitted into the profile of a well-known former governor. Yet, he walks the streets free. Uzodinma’s disclosure that 40 to 50 suspects from both the state and outside had been arrested for the attacks further widens speculations on the motive of the attacks.

    Another dimension to the security challenges emerged when a combined team of security agents ambushed and killed a man identified as Ikonso with about six of his men. The security agents claimed Ikonso was an ESN commander and was shot dead in an exchange of gun fire. Curiously, IPOB admitted that Ikonso was their ESN commander but denied he was killed in a shootout.

    Few hours after Ikonso’s death, a group of gunmen set the country home of Uzodinma on fire in what appeared a reprisal attack. They burnt some vehicles in the premises and left in their trail human casualties. It is worthy of note that Awomama where Ikonso was killed and Omuma, the country home of the governor are in the same local government. This proximity perhaps, accounts for why the attack at the governor’s house happened around 9am in the morning in full glare of villagers.

    Again, Uzodinma has blamed the attack on aggrieved politicians. The consistency with which he points accusing fingers at aggrieved politicians, suggests he may have his facts. Why they have not been turned in to security agencies and if he has, their inability to arrest the suspects is behind the suspicion that some unseen hands are behind the orgy of violence in Imo state possibly to justify invasion of the state. The sophistication and clinical execution of the attacks seem beyond what ragtag operators could do.

    This suspicion is amplified by DSS allegation on ferrying of bombs and explosives to destabilize Imo State. Why Imo and why Orlu? Since the DSS knows the source of the bombs and their destination, what prevented them from arresting those behind it? The allegation reinforces the suspicion of a hidden agenda to escalate insecurity in Imo in particular and the southeast to provide grounds to attack its peoples. With the difficulty in differentiating IPOB/ ESN operatives from the ordinary residents, the outcome of such invasion could be dire. That is the potent and present danger as signs of anarchy loom all over Imo state.

  • Message and messenger

    Message and messenger

    By Femi Macaulay

     

    When the message reflects reality, it is unrealistic to discredit the messenger. Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu, well known for his combativeness, missed the point by throwing wild punches at the messenger and failing to pay attention to the message.

    There is no doubt that Nigeria is facing a security crisis that has exposed state incapacity. The House of Representatives recently set up an ad-hoc committee to organise a securityconference and passed a resolution asking President Buhari to declare a state of emergency in response to the country’s security crisis. In addition, difficult socio-economic conditions in the country demand urgent solutions from the authorities. This context prompted critical remarks by a controversial Catholic priest who called for effective action from President Buhari.

    “By now, with what is happening, President Buhari should honourably resign… If you can’t do it, either you resign or you be changed…  Either Buhari resigns by himself or he will be impeached,” said Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, the Spiritual Director of the Adoration Ministry, Enugu.

    The message was meant to wake a sleeping president. Buhari’s presidency has been characterised by inaction in the face of challenges that demand decisive action. He earned the nickname ‘Baba Go-Slow’ right from his first term from 2015 to 2019, and has continued to demonstrate the aptness of the characterisation. He remains slow to act, and slow to speak, when his office demands undelayed action and reaction.

    Shehu’s reaction to Mbaka’s message was characteristically combative. His job to speak for the presidency, in his understanding, is a job to fight on behalf of the president.  Shehu said, in a statement, “after supporting the President two times to win the Presidency, Father Mbaka has made a complete U-turn, preposterously asking President Buhari to resign or be impeached.” Is it true Mbaka had supported Buhari in both 2015 and 2019?

    Indeed Mbaka, who was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in 1995, had controversially prophesied victory for Buhari over then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. When the prophecy happened, the prophet became the one to watch.

    But in 2018 he told President Buhari to forget about reelection. Mbaka had said: “As I was waiting on the Lord, I’m asked to advise you, don’t come out for a second tenure; after this, retire peacefully. Come back to yourself or you will cry by the time you will be sent out of office. Those who are encouraging you to come out and run again want to disgrace you shamefully and publicly.” Buhari was reelected. It is unclear if there were happenings behind the scenes that amounted to Mbaka supporting Buhari’s reelection effort.

    Shehu’s thinking that Mbaka’s support for Buhari’s presidential ambition, whether once or twice, should make him an uncritical supporter of the administration, is an unthinking line of thought. When Mbaka demanded active governance from the administration, Shehu didn’t understand.

    The presidential mouthpiece introduced a thought-provoking narrative, attributing the priest’s position to a grudge.  He said:  ”Here is the point of departure: Father Mbaka asked for a meeting, and to the shock of Presidential Aides, he came accompanied by three contractors. The President graciously allowed them in, and to everyone’s surprise, Father Mbaka asked for contracts as compensation for his support.

    “Anyone familiar with President Buhari knows that he doesn’t break the laid down rules in dealing with contracts or any other government business for that matter. He requested the appropriate authorities to deal with the matter in accordance with laid down rules.

    “Inside the Villa, discretion prevailed, that if those pictures and requests were made public, the followers would turn against the religious leader. None of it was released. Now, this is what is eating Father.”

    Shehu didn’t say when this happened. Since he decided to publicise the story, he should have supplied further clarifying details. Mbaka has not reacted.  Even if he doesn’t respond, the spokesman’s story doesn’t invalidate the priest’s position that Buhari should deal with the country’s overwhelming challenges or admit he can’t and leave; or be removed because he can’t.

    National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno, in a statement at the end of a security-related meeting at the Presidential Villa, last week, said President Buhari “is very prepared to take profound measures in the wider interest of the people and the Nigerian nation.”  It remains to be seen what the administration means by “profound measures,” and whether the measures will solve the problems.

    According to a Mass Atrocities Casualties Tracking Report by the Global Rights Nigeria Country Office, about 4,556 persons died in 2020 from insecurity-related killings, a rise of about 43 percent from 3,188 persons in 2019. Also, the US-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) said Nigeria recorded 2,860 kidnappings in 2020, up from 1,386 in 2019, an increase of over 100 percent.

    These tragic figures not only show the gravity of the country’s security crisis, but also why the authorities should acknowledge the scale of insecurity, and tackle the problem, rather than attack courageous voices that call for change. There are justifiable fears that violent crimes will reach new heights this year as cases of terrorism, banditry and kidnapping escalate across the country.  For instance, the Kaduna State government, last week, announced that bandits killed 323 residents and kidnapped 949 others across the state in the last three months.

    Shehu notably has a record of downplaying insecurity under the Buhari administration, which may explain his inattention to Mbaka’s message.  In November 2020, for instance, when Boko Haram terrorists killed 66 people, mainly farmers and fishermen at Koshobe village in Borno State, he insensitively said in a media interview that the victims didn’t get military clearance to farm.

    A month later, when bandits abducted more than 300 students from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, Shehu initially contradicted the figure given by the state government and the media, insisting that only 10 students were kidnapped.

    As Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to President Buhari, he can be described as a messenger who delivers the administration’s messages to the people. When he delivers a message, he expects the people to focus on the message and not the messenger. This is what he should have done concerning Mbaka’s message.

  • Pantami’s legacy

    Pantami’s legacy

    By Sam Omatseye

    The tragedy is not just that Isa Pantami did it. It is that he will get away with it, and with Buhari at the helm. It is not that he will get away with it. He has already. The bigot with fantasies of blood and death is our minister. Live with it.

    He decides the lives of good Muslims and Christians as a steward of the constitution. Whereas the good Muslims and Christians don’t regard him as belonging to civilization, he will stand atop the dais and point the way.

    Surely, rather than bring a coalition of both faiths against the man, even this matter is separating Muslims and Christians. It is bifurcating faith and tribe. The Muslims (even in the south) are, at their best, mute. The ones in the north, at their worst, are repackaging him. Even as we caught Pantami with his pants down, we are covering him from the eyes of shame.

    Here facts do not matter. It does not matter that he wants unbelievers dead and gloats over it. It does not matter that he lionises Osama Bin Laden as a superior Muslim over him. Osama is the radical of his dreams. That means he might have wanted to stage a feast of human blood, a feat of pious massacre, to stand as vanguard with Ak47 and his troops behind, ramming triumphant into Christian and other non-Muslim yards and taking persons down, slaughter after slaughter. That makes the Sunday Achi incident a puny experiment.

    That is why we say he is a sympathiser? But he is not a sympathiser. How can we call him a sympathiser when he hates to be a bystander? He was an imam when he and his mosque issued a Fatwa on Sunday Achi at the Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi. To issue a fatwa is not an act of impulse, but calculation. Like that on writer Salman Rushdie. Between the fatwa and the execution takes, at least, hours. So he violated our law as a co-existent nation, capsized the constitution and ordered a lynch mob on a fellow citizen. Was he not grinning for fulfilling his vision of a sanitized theocracy? In any society, Isa Pantami would not be attending a meeting of the Federal Executive Council but languish in the court answering to charges of murder in the first and second degrees. Achi’s ghost, like Shakespeare’s Banquo’s, woke up a few weeks ago. It will walk the night and day beside Pantami whispering in his ears. But he thinks he is immune.

    Read Also: Pantami: Senate must be more careful in future, says Dogara

    He is not only in the scented tyranny of an exalted office, he is part of the governing elite. He is sitting under the aegis of the presidency in the federal executive council whose minutes are anointed by the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He will take a seat among administrators and politicians, when he should keep company with Bin Laden’s dregs. He will wear babaringa or western suits, when he should don the tunics of apocalyptic daydreamers. He is invoking language registers like development and unity in a lie since his comfort zone consists of words like “kill” and “eliminate” and “burn”.

    For those who say he has repented, let them look for someone lame to convince. He first denied and attacked a newspaper. A man of repentance would show remorse, not aggression. He should show proof and not take us for fools. He seemed to recant in his statement, but he did not seem to have regretted it. He did not condemn what he said. He merely excused them, even justified them. The statement was written with the cunning of zealot and the artifice of a Pharisee.  He was caught, and said he was too young. Too young when he was past voting age? Young when he was old enough to be a senator or minister or CEO of a company? He was not 18. He was in his 30’s, older than when Gowon became head of state.

    It was even alleged that he beamed a programme of his ministry on a dedicated Islamic channel. Is that true? It is like Osinbajo beaming the Anchor Borrowers programme on Dove TV.

    Between when he grinned over a lynch mob and roared his will to attack Shendam, and now, what has he done to show a change of heart? No evidence. We cannot trust leadership on speculation. But facts have meant nothing in this matter.

    It has meant nothing to the presidency, hence Garba Shehu’s glib remarks. He wrote to praise him, not to upbraid him. He wrote to accuse critics, rather than face the facts. He wrote to defend a bigot, not calm a bewildered nation. He wrote to tell Nigerians to go to hell.

    Some have said the security agents knew about the facts but shielded him. The senate, at the time of writing, has not said it had any facts. That is why we must worry. The senators are paid to research, and dig. The security agents are paid to do same, and the man fell through the cracks? Some said he did not. Garba Shehu did not address this. But as for the secret service, they have failed too many times to track bandits and militants, and allowed them to roam the country with their human loot without information. So, there is no incompetence they cannot exhibit.

    Persons like Pantami will continue to erupt and defy, and get away with murder. Men like Pantami are the most dangerous bigots. They go to school, speak like the highbrow, learn a lot of western theories about liberalism, put on a veneer of urbane society. They embrace the ideas of democrats like Locke and Rousseau and parrot the grand theories of civilization. But their acts mock their learning. Some of the great theories of racism came from men who learned and traveled. Trump has a master’s degree. Such men read to reinforce their prejudices.

    Pantami has been to the UK, and has lived and enjoyed the trappings of western civilization. He might even enjoyed their movies. But these beauties are the seed bed of his hate. He loathes himself for loving them. After all, he has a PHD, and he learned a technology steeped in western inventiveness. Like in Romeo and Juliet, he says in his heart, “my only love sprung from my only hate.”

    Pantami is afraid of modernity, a zealot with fear in his eyes. Hence he loves Bin Laden. But he is the hypocrite. He feeds on modernity so he could suffocate it. Sane societies heal themselves by providing a reckoning for them with public disgrace. They resign, or are fired. They slouch out of sight, end up in jail or out of the limelight. Younger ones imbibe from the public ignominy the lesson that actions have consequences. But with Pantami off the hook, his legacy is clear: Inspire hate, grin over a lynch mob and you can become a minister of Nigeria.

    From being a model zealot, this administration is making him into a role model for future leaders.

     

    Keeping schools safe

    The kidnap tales from Kaduna schools show that the state is showing naivety in the face of danger. Why are schools still left open for the marauders? Is it not time to change the model of security? When the matter was hitting its fatal stride, Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal developed a strategy. For public schools he first merged them, so the ones close to borders were properly monitored and guarded. Then he decided later that boarding was out of sync with reality. Now they have day schools, redesigned to make students attend schools close to their homes. It is better to be safe than sorry. Any school that is vulnerable should not be open.

    This is no time for risk taking. Lives are more important than policy.

  • Pantami as a contradiction

    Pantami as a contradiction

    By Emeka Omeihe

    Controversy involving the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami presents a paradox of some sort. This is not only evident from the force and potency of its dialectical outcome but a consequence of the sensitive office the minister occupies.

    The dynamics of this contradiction accounts for calls on Pantami to resign his appointment or have it terminated by President Buhari. But the presidency has pitched tents with the embattled minister thus, reinforcing the uncanny irony in the emerging situation. What are the issues? A news site, (which has since retracted), had reported that Pantami was on the terrorism watch list of the American Intelligence Service.

    According to the report, Pantami, a former student of Salafist ideologies was trained in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East with other top Islamic jihadists. It also claimed that before his appointment as minister, Pantami was a known Islamic preacher who held dangerous views against the American government.

    But the minister denied nursing extremist views claiming that criminal and ‘entrenched interests’ were behind the attacks on him. He heaped the blame on forces purportedly opposed to federal government’s policy on the National Identification Number NIN registration which his ministry is carrying out.

    Issues turned sour for the minister when video and audio clips surfaced in the social media corroborating some of the extremist views he held in the past. In those clips, Pantami was heard voicing support for terror groups like Al Qaeda and the Taliban. His views clearly showed obvious support for the killing of certain group of people who do not share his religious faith.

    Rattled by the sheer weight of evidence against him, the minister changed his position. In admitting some of those radical and extremist views, he said they were based on his understanding of religious issues at that time and that he had since changed several positions he held in the past based on new evidence and maturity. “I was young when I made some of those statements; I was in the university, some of the comments were made when I was a teenager” he pleaded.

    Even with his owning up to these views, the Nigerian factor has miserably weighed in heavily. Instead of seeing the issue for what it is, comments tainted with religious and ethnic sentiments have begun to blur perceptions.

    One of such disingenuous views came from Prof. Ishaq Akintola, director of the Muslim Rights Concern MURIC, who claimed that the campaign against Pantami was “being pushed by forces against the federal government’s NIN policy, Boko Haram terrorists, bandits and criminals. How Akintola got his facts remains largely curious. But the man at the centre of the storm has admitted some of the extremist views attributed to him. Akntola also claimed the allegations were malicious and frivolous. How?

    But that is beside the issue. The matter to consider is whether really the minister has changed his extremist world view as claimed and when? Can we then absolve him of the incalculable harm such weird views may have wrought on society in the past and in his present job?  What of the plea of teenage age and does religious extremism wane with age?

    The presidency was hasty and wrong in absolving Pantami on the touted grounds that he had repented and apologized. Its fingering of the opposition and unnamed ICT companies for being behind the campaigns did not capture all there is to the matter.  Genuine grounds exist for contradicting his occupation of his current office. There is no evidence on ground to prove he has come off his extremist tendencies as the government would want us to believe. Yes, he could have enemies; those who want him out of office. But to seek the cancellation of the genuine concerns of Nigerians on account of these and the purported good job he is doing by virtue of his office is patently ludicrous. The issue at stake is clear. It has nothing to do with his qualifications for his office or performance.

    As the presidency was busy inventing all manner excuses to defend Pantami, more evidences of his extreme ideological leaning in his present office and while in the university are emerging. Last month, he was said to have contracted just an Islamic television station (to the exclusion of all others) to cover a federal government’s event which his ministry hosted. That station broadcasts mainly religious matters. Is that the evidence of a changed man? When Pantami was the Chief Imam of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University ABTU, Bauchi his preaching was linked to some religious uprisings in that university. Of particular note was the strangling in 2004 of a student of ABTU and member of the ECWA Church, Sunday Nache Achi for allegedly distributing a Christian tract some people considered offensive to their faith.

    The father of the late student, Prof Samuel Achi in an interview since the Pantami controversy resonated said there was nothing in the tract that should warrant a death sentence on his poor son. He gave a chilling account of how his son was strangulated in the university mosque and thrown out of the window when Pantami held sway as the Imam of that mosque.

    This case brings to the fore some of the lethal consequences of the extremist positions held by Pantami in the past. Who knows the number of other innocent people led astray by his rabid posturing or exposed to mortal harm by the excesses of such dispositions?

    Even then, the circumstance that made him plead immaturity and now a changed man was forced on him through superior evidence on his sordid past. It was not a product of repentance. He had denied links with extremist views accusing imaginary enemies for attacks on him only to retract in the face of superior evidence. His excuses strike as an afterthought propelled by the vaulting desire to remain in office by all means possible. Unfortunately, the presidency is unable to reason beyond these narrow confines.

    There is neither any record nor evidence that Pantami had become a changed man before he was embroiled in this controversy. He could not have changed in the midst of the crisis. At any rate, security experts are reluctant to buy into the idea that an extremist can be de-radicalized. If anything, experience with the so-called repentant Boko Haram fighters bear this out most poignantly.

    Mounting concerns on possible compromises on account of his access to sensitive government documents, information and data of all individuals in public and private places are very genuine. The risk of a religious extremist warehousing the date base of Nigerians including traditional and faith-based organizations is very grave.

    In saner climes, Pantami would have by now thrown in the towel or forced out by those that appointed him. But not here! Not when those in the corridors of power have consistently shown clear dispositions and comfort with such biases. Blames being heaped at the door steps of security agencies and the senate for lack of due diligence in the screening of political appointees may not be quite right. Pantami’s past is so conspicuous that he could not have escaped the prying eyes of the security agencies.

    We crossed this path before. It happened in the case of the former acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu. The DSS wrote a damning report advising he should not be confirmed on account of his double personality as a no-nonsense anti-corruption helmsman while discretely hobnobbing with corrupt people. The senate promptly rejected him twice as President Buhari pushed to have him confirmed.

    Magu continued in acting capacity for years until the prediction of the DSS came through. The rest is now history. Maybe the social dynamics of history will resolve the Pantami entanglement and once more, prove wrong the presidency that seeks to absolve him of extreme ideological incubation. But in all, the image of this country, confidence in the fairness and impartiality of the regime is seriously weakened.

  • Faceless saboteurs

    Faceless saboteurs

    By  Femi Macaulay

     

    As the country’s security crisis worsens, people in power continue to attribute it largely to alleged sponsors of terrorism, banditry and kidnapping who are engineering evil behind the scenes. This is a convenient narrative that blames saboteurs for the failures of the authorities.

    The Buhari administration should not focus on alleged saboteurs to the extent that it loses focus on the difficult socio-economic conditions that possibly fuel insecurity. It is noteworthy that the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Kayode Fayemi, recently attributed the country’s security challenges partly to its 33 percent unemployment rate. This shows why the authorities should urgently pursue improved socio-economic conditions to discourage activities that encourage insecurity.

    Those who spread the sabotage narrative claim that politicians and government officials are involved. Two governors,   Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom and Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma, recently attracted attention by circulating the allegation. It is interesting that both governors are on the same page on this claim.  Uzodinma is a member of the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), and Ortom is a member of the main opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Ortom, on April 15, in Abuja, spoke on “Insecurity in Nigeria: Restoring Peace, Unity and Progress,” at an event organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Correspondents Chapel. He said bandits were operating in at least 24 of the country’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. This is an alarming figure, but it is unclear how he got the figure.

    Predictably, he made remarks about kidnapping for ransom, which has become a big issue. “There is another lucrative business in Nigeria with strong suspicion of connivance with government officials,” the governor said.  He added:  “The rise in kidnappings of all categories of people across the country is a dangerous trend. We don’t know who is telling the truth. But as it stands, there is a strong allegation that desperate politicians brought into the country foreign mercenaries to help them win elections. Unfortunately, after the elections were lost and won, the mercenaries were abandoned leading to worsening security in the country.”

    It is disturbing that kidnapping is regarded as a “growth industry” in Nigeria, based on the observation that it seems to have become a business, particularly for unemployed youths in many parts of the country.

    A study indicated that more than $18 million was paid as ransom to kidnappers in the country from 2011 to 2020, and the greater part of the payment was from 2016 to 2020 when about $11 million was paid. This implies growing profitability.

    Indeed, some analysts forecast that kidnap cases will increase in the country as a result of increased unemployment. This is a worrying scenario, considering that Nigeria already has one of the world’s highest rates of kidnap-for-ransom cases.

    Uzodinma, on April 23, in Abuja, told journalists that politicians were funding banditry to sabotage the Buhari administration. He made the allegation shortly after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House in Abuja.

    “What people are doing is to sponsor crisis to the extent that those funding banditry are politicians…A situation where you will leave the ethical way of playing politics to sponsor banditry to bring down a government, we should rise up and condemn it – all of us,” the governor said. If this allegation is true, it is condemnable that politicians are sponsoring banditry.

    The case of a former chairman of Jibia local government caretaker committee in Katsina State, Haruna Musa Mota, who was arrested in February and arraigned for conspiracy, aiding and abetting and terrorism, shows why law enforcement agents need to pay attention to claims that politicians are involved in activities that fuel insecurity. According to a report, “Before his arrest, an audio recording in Hausa language went viral on the social media where the culprit was heard discussing with one of the bandits’ leaders over the abduction of Kankara students.”

    Notably, the mass abduction of students from Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, by suspected bandits, in December 2020, had generated a striking story about who is responsible for heightened banditry in the Northwest region.

    All Progressives Congress (APC) acting Deputy National Publicity Secretary Yekini Nabena had said in a statement: “Our security agencies have intelligence reports linking one of the Northwest governors to collusion and sponsorship of violent and criminal activities of bandits. I won’t give details because of the sensitive and security nature of the issue.”

    Five of the seven states in the Northwest are controlled by APC.  The governors are: Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna); Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano); Aminu Masari (Katsina); Badaru Abubakar (Jigawa) and Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi). The two other states in the geo-political region are controlled by PDP. The governors are Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara).

    Though the APC spokesman did not name the governor allegedly sponsoring bandits in the region, he said enough to suggest the governor’s identity.  He listed PDP among “enemies of the country who seek political gains from issues of insecurity.” It is understandable that he pointed in the direction of his party’s main rival. It is also understandable that he seemed to have ruled out the possibility that the alleged evil sponsor could be from his own party.

    Is the allegation true?  The claim that a Northwest governor is to blame for the increasing cases of banditry in the region remains an allegation until proven.

    The question is: Where is the evidence? It is not enough to accuse politicians of sabotage without providing proof. The alleged involvement of politicians and government officials in fuelling insecurity would be scandalous, if proven. But it needs to be proved first.

    The problem with spreading unsubstantiated claims is the lack of concrete details, which is ultimately unhelpful. Facts are needed to prove the allegations of sabotage. Law enforcement agencies should not only investigate such allegations but also expose and prosecute the saboteurs in proven cases. The authorities should not give the impression that the alleged saboteurs are faceless or untouchable.

    In the final analysis, claims of sabotage, or even evidence of sabotage, cannot excuse the failure of the authorities to find a solution to insecurity.

  • Ebubeagu vigilante

    Ebubeagu vigilante

    By Emeka Omeihe

    Criticisms trailing the formation by Southeast governors of the Ebubeagu security outfit are not indications of the undesirability of a common platform to secure the region. Far from it!

    They rather denote the disenchantment of the people with the tardiness of their governors in floating such outfit in the face of security challenges that have set the zone on edge. Before now, the Ime-Obi of the Ohaneze Ndigbo had advised the governors on the imperative of regional protection but nothing came out of it except nebulous sympathy with the touted community policing agenda of the federal government.

    Sadly, as this prevarication persisted, criminal activities of all manners came to an all-time high in the zone which hitherto stood low in the rungs of the ladder of insecurity in the country. Gaps were created and a serious vacuum emerged. The people watched helplessly as kidnapping, armed robbery, attacks and despoliation of communities by herdsmen and sundry criminalities rendered life a miserable lot.

    Apparently capitalizing on this gap and the yearnings for some form of self-defense, the proscribed IPOB had announced through its propaganda machinery, the setting up of a security outfit known as the Eastern Security Network ESN. The aim they claimed is to fight insecurity in the southeast with special attention to the insurgency of herdsmen.

    Opinions are divided as to whether ESN actually exists on ground or part of the trademark propaganda of the IPOB. One man in the vanguard for self-determination, who subscribes to the view that ESN is social media hype, is Ralph Uwazuruike, leader of MASSOB. But governments (federal and state) had through statements attributed some of the criminal activities in the southeast to ESN.

    The implication is that these governments believe ESN operatives exist on ground. IPOB has somewhat been reinforcing the existence of ESN through regular statements claiming they maintain serious presence in the bushes and forests ridding them of the menace of the herdsmen. But they had serially denied the burning down of police stations, killing of security personnel and sundry acts of banditry that of late resurged in the southeast. The situation remained confused with governments and the IPOB trading blames in the face of the inability of the security agencies to be of reasonable help.

    The prevailing circumstance must have pushed the governors to a joint security meeting in which they announced the setting up of the Ebubeagu security platform. Coming a few days after the attacks at the Imo State Police Command headquarters and the correctional facility in Owerri, it was not surprising that the Ebubeagu project showed signs of an enterprise put together in a hurry.

    The haste with which they announced the outfit and many policy issues left unaddressed, combined to fuel the controversy the exercise has been embroiled. Public skepticism on the governors’ seriousness was further fuelled by the casual manner they announced the ban on open grazing which they asked security agencies to implement. It is little surprising that questions have been raised regarding the absence of an enabling law by the state assemblies to give legal backing to both the Ebubeagu outfit and the purported banning of open grazing.

    There are also issues regarding the relevant equipment, manpower and structures to give quick operational effect to the outfit. You do not just announce such a sensitive security platform without the men and material to give effect to its goals. But the governors’ answer to this is that they will draw from the pool of vigilante services already in existence in the states. What seems to have emerged is that the security outfit is still on the drawing board.

    Parallels have been drawn with the clinical efficiency and operational readiness southwest governors launched the operation Amotekun outfit to underscore the point that Ebubeagu was set up with an indecent haste. Some others have raised issues on the nomenclature (Ebubeagu, meaning the aura or reputation of the lion)

    This school contends that the aura or reputation of a lion is not the same as the lion and therefore incapable of doing what a lion is known for. They see a weakening of the whole idea of a strong regional security unit through the nomenclature. But what is that reputation or aura for which a lion is known? It lies in its awesome strength and prowess as the king of the jungle. That reputation frightens other lesser animals. And as it is put in Igbo- (Ebubeagu na-eche agu, meaning the reputation of the lion protects the lion)

    That reputation can as well protect the southeast through the instrumentality of the new security unit. So we should proceed beyond semantics to the substantive issue of the action plans put in place by the governors to halt the degenerate security situation in the zone. That is the real issue than what a name connotes. Yes, the governors could be accused of solving a mathematical puzzle from the answer.

    Yet, that is not to suggest the outfit cannot live up to its mandate. It can if the governors move with speed and put in place all that is required for it to function optimally. It is better late than the late. We find some comfort in Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State’s assurance that: “Ebubeagu would be a security outfit both in name, purpose and action. It will be properly equipped, rural based and intelligence-driven”.

    The governors should in liaison with their respective state assemblies, quickly enact laws to ban open grazing and give legal teeth to the Ebubeagu project. With the law in place, operatives of the security unit will be better equipped to live up to their mandate especially in the enforcement of the ban on open grazing. That will also be of immense help to the law enforcement agencies that are now being asked to implement the touted ban.

    Without an enabling law, nothing is likely to change in the current attitude of the security agencies on the insurgency of the herdsmen in the zone.  Ebonyi State which has been having a raw deal in the hands of the herdsmen in the last one month is a serious case in point. Unfortunately, the leadership of that state had been in the habit of playing down the potent danger such criminalities portend for the zone until lately. But it appears events have woken them up from the deep slumber into which they had sunk.

    Thus, when Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State and chairman of Southeast Governors’ Forum raised the alarm of a plot to incite war in the region; the gravity of the situation began to dawn on us all. Hear him, “of late we have bandits that are now doing a lot of evil and saying that they are of Eastern Security Network ESN. They commit a lot of crimes and say they are IPOB members and most of the time, IPOB would say we have no hands in this, we have no hands in that”.

    Coming from a man who hitherto downplayed the precarious security situation of the region, we have every reason to take him seriously. In both his positions as the governor and chairman of Southeast Governors’ Forum, he is in a better stead to access vital security information. So when he said bandits carry out a lot of evil attacks and claim they are members of the ESN, he was drawing serious attention to the other angle of insecurity in the region. And it is damn serious.

    It is not clear who these bandits are or where they are coming from. But it is good Umahi is thinking outside the hallmark stereotypes and hasty assumptions typical of governors from that region. Some of his counterparts often rush to attribute security infractions in the zone to the so-called ESN even when their actual existence is still a matter of speculation. Recent deployment of the military in Orlu, Imo State ostensibly to flush out the IPOB and ESN is a case of reference. The same biased mindset also featured during the attacks on the states’ police command headquarters and the correctional facility.

    The new lead linking fifth columnists to the insecurity in the zone reinforces the imperative for a strong security outfit. It is instructive governors are beginning to see other dimensions to the rising insecurity in the region as Ebubeagu prepares to take-off.

  • Bad bosses

    Bad bosses

    By Femi Macaulay

    At least three former army chiefs have a lot of explaining to do on the federal government’s purchase of weaponry since the country’s security crisis began about a decade ago. That was the takeaway when the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, on April 12, finally honoured the invitation of the ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives investigating the government’s procurement of arms and ammunition from 2011 to date.

    He had failed to honour its invitation on three occasions.  According to a report, the army boss “explained to the lawmakers that his inability to honour several invitations of the committee was due to other engagements on internal security.”  The report said:  ”He, however, refused to apologise to the committee, noting that his explanation was sufficient.”

    Lamentably, he exhibited a lack of respect for the committee.  He should have acted with a sense of courtesy. He is expected to concentrate on tackling worsening insecurity in the country, and should have understood that the legislative investigation was also aimed at dealing with mounting insecurity.

    Notably, the committee was mandated to review the purchase, use and control of arms, ammunition and related hardware by the military, paramilitary and other law enforcement agencies. Its chairman, Olaide Akinremi, was reported saying Nigeria spent about $47.387 million on arms in 2019.

    On the investigation, Lt. Gen. Attahiru told the committee to focus on his predecessors, saying he “took over the mantle of leadership barely two months ago.” According to him, “Issues of procurement that you so demand to know were done by specific individuals. I will rather you call these individuals to come and explain to you very specific issues.”

    His predecessors, relevant to the legislative investigation, were lieutenant generals Azubuike Ihejirika, Kenneth Minimah and Tukur Buratai. Ihejirika was army boss from September 2010 to January 2014, three years and four months; Minimah from January 2014 to July 2015, one year and six months; and Buratai from July 2015 to January 2021, five years and six months.

    Interestingly, in August 2014, Ihejirika had faced an allegation that he was a major Boko Haram sponsor. It was an incredible allegation, considering that he had been the head of an army fighting against the Islamic terror group. It was baffling that the allegation came from Dr Stephen Davis, the Australian negotiator who had worked with Nigerian security agencies in connection with the rescue of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram in April 2014.  The State Security Service (SSS) said the ex-army chief was innocent.

    Also, in January 2016, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) seized an Abuja estate said to be owned by Ihejirika, who was among ex-military top brass probed concerning a $2.1 billion arms scandal involving a former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.

    Increasing insecurity fuelled by terrorism, banditry and kidnapping, continues to expose the incapacity of Nigeria’s military. National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno was thought to have given clues as to the cause of the military’s ineffectiveness when he was recently reported saying that “huge sums of money” approved for the purchase of weapons were “missing” and the weapons “were not bought.” He later claimed he had been “quoted out of context.”

    The import of the remarks he disclaimed is that the military is ill-equipped to tackle the escalating insecurity.  It is understandable that federal lawmakers are investigating the government’s procurement of weaponry in the face of an alarming security crisis.

    Claims that the armed forces are poorly equipped to fight insecurity are not new.  For instance, Lance Corporal Martins Idakpini of the 8 Division, Sokoto, of the Nigerian Army, dared to speak truth to power in a 12-minute video that went viral in June 2020. He had criticised the military leadership for failing to provide adequate weapons to fight terrorism.

    Also, in two other videos, soldiers involved in the war against terrorism had claimed that the army was ill-equipped to defeat the terrorists. In one video, a former theatre commander, Maj. Gen. Olusegun Adeniyi, was seen and heard telling troops that “it appears the people we are fighting have more firepower than us.” He was court-martialled for embarrassing and ridiculing the armed forces.

    It is obvious that an ill-equipped military is a non-starter. But President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, has failed to address the issue decisively.

    Lt. Gen. Attahiru has indirectly stated that his predecessors should be held responsible for the ill-equipped armed forces the new service chiefs inherited. It was a subtle attack.  It remains to be seen if those concerned will be questioned in order to get to the bottom of the matter.

    Apart from the ex-army chiefs, other ex-service chiefs are relevant to the investigation by federal lawmakers. The chiefs of air staff in the period were air marshals Mohammed Dikko Umar, Alex Badeh, Adesola Amosu and Sadique Abubakar. The chiefs of naval staff were vice admirals O.S. Ibrahim, D.J. Ezeoba, U.O. Jibrin and Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas.

    Also, the chiefs of defence staff were Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Peterin, Admiral Ola Ibrahim, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh and General Abayomi Olonisakin.

    Beyond finding out why the military is ill-equipped, despite billions of naira approved for procurement of weapons over the years, and punishing those who shortchanged the military, there is an urgent need to make the military better equipped.

    In particular, the war on terror has gone on for too long. It is more than a decade since the military launched its counter-insurgency operation, and Boko Haram continues to terrorise the country. Tragically, it looks like a war without end.

    There are disturbing allegations that the war on terror has become an inspiration for corruption in the military and political leadership; and those benefiting materially from it do not want the war to end. This may explain the situation in which the fighters are poorly equipped.

    The failure of the military leadership to adequately equip the military, in the period under investigation, is indefensible. It suggests bad leadership by bad bosses.

  • Who says Baba now

    Who says Baba now

    By Sam Omatseye

    We did not see moments of national empathy for President Muhammadu Buhari when he fled Nigeria for his routine medical checkup. After all, it was not like in 2016 when the morbid hour threatened, or Yar’Adua 2.0. Nothing startled in our presidential comfort zone.

    The thing was the president was well. But what of the country? The president has a jet to fly out, but what of its citizens? The president has a doctor, but what of Nigerian doctors? The president’s doctor was not on strike, but wore his frock and wielded his scalpel. At that time, the Nigerian doctor was striking a match of protest so he can wear a frock and wield a scalpel. London was cold, our president was warm, but Nigeria was boiling hot.

    Garba Shehu, ever making a wrong leap, said the president had a physician in the United Kingdom, long before he became president. He demystified his principal’s image of the common touch. The talakawa captain ate with the poor but healed with the rich. When they chanted sai baba, they returned to their huts when hurt. He hurtled to the Queen’s bosom.

    We have no record how many Nigerians slumped and expired here while his doctors doted over him. How many kidney’s failed, hearts arrested, wounds bled without stop, tumours that halted humours at home. Or how many died from malaria or routine birth pangs.

    Yet, we cannot say the president does not deserve the best medical care. He is the leader of the country. He should be in the best health to decide on education, the infrastructure deficit, the herdsmen forays and the thieves on official prowl.

    He had the benefit in 2016. He was a baby president, apologies to Ayo Fayose. He still needed to put things in place for medical care. He had to thresh the floor for policy, to turn Nigerian hospitals from mere consulting clinics to full-fledged clinics and hospitals, to reengineer personnel recruitment and training to make our hospital on the march to the 21st century. We have not seen this, and when he decided in the sixth year of his stewardship to travel for mere checkup, we can understand why many Nigerians are not asking whether our president is doing well. He did not speak to Nigerians but he made himself an epistolary poet, a man of letters. He wrote a letter to another leader about his welfare. Not to us who pay the bills, but to some fellow elite enjoying the same perquisite.

    There are some members of the elite who feel Buhari’s pain. They can afford the thousands of pounds it must cost for a day at the hospital. They spend it without apology. They can afford it, and why not. They don’t run our healthcare system. They have no say. They just consume. And if they must consume, why should they wait and die in consulting clinics. They put their dollars where their health is.

    But that elite self-justification has been purloined by their political elite. They set up a few clinics with a few drugs, and hail themselves as the John The Baptist of good governance. Years after year, our health indices fall. OBJ’s centres of excellence became excellence in cretinism.

    Six years after he was sworn in, Buhari has no reason to seek empathy. He did not need to have brought us to healing pond or Pool of Siloam. But we should see it in the works. No one forced him to proclaim that no public servant should seek medical attention abroad. He is seeking it. That does not make him a hero. It does not make him Sai Baba but “Baba say”. Many say baba does not say anything these days.

    In 2016, many thought he would go. His great foes were his associates. Some of them were in the frenzy of permutations.  Who would replace him? Underhand plots unearthed and cracked like pots of clay. Colleagues jousted in furtive places. Meetings and counter-meetings. On the streets, some prayed in the spirit. Some prayed against his spirit. Churches and mosques were vessels of heavenly invocations. Prophets mumbled his apocalypse. Imams saw the new successors. Newspaper editors were imagining headlines. Talakawa beggars triumphed who raised their hands in divine pleas.

    When he erupted through the Abuja skies, we saw bedlam on the streets. I wonder what is going on in the minds of those Nigerians who fell in a trance for him in 2016. In their delirium of joy, they carped and howled as he returned after the medical suspense. A certain joy-clad fellow poured water on the ground and drank. That person may have headed to the hospital afterwards. Dances. Claps. Songs. Sai baba. That was then. He was draped in messianic robe. This time, no éclat, no claps. We can say also, there was no stake. His health was in no danger. That exactly is the point. Since he was in no danger, he did not need to go, not when medical care was in turmoil at home.

    Not long ago, I learned of a Nigerian who lives in the United States who had a pacemaker for his heart. Former Vice President Mike Pence had a similar procedure last week. The Nigerian would love to retire home, but he said he could not. “We don’t even have the drugs I need here in this country,” he explained. “When I had the surgery, there were six doctors who spent hours in the operation. I can’t count the nurses and support staff. When they were done, the doctors said I would be up and running in six weeks. The way I was feeling, I did not believe them. But they were right. If I was living in Nigeria, I would have been history. They said they gave me presidential-style treatment.” He is a regular US citizen.

    This is why many go abroad. This is why the president did. He has the power to set such infrastructure up. That is why many are not happy, and would not as much as say, hope all is well, our dear president. The average Nigerian is like the blind Bartimaeus in the Bible crying for miracle as Jesus walked by. Many of them are not as lucky. They don’t get their miracles.

    I wonder if the president grieves over the graying of his myth, that his faithful now choke on his mantra, that baba and sai no longer occur in the same breath. I would want to enter his stream of consciousness, to know whether, like Lord Jim in Joseph Conrad’s novel, he suffers delusions about himself, or remorse. Not whether he failed his people, but whether he failed himself. That is what this essayist likes to know.

     

    Fear, glory and Ebube Agu

    •Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi

    Last week, this essayist set some English language and semiotics pundits on fire over how to define an icon, or how iconography works. I had a friendly joust with Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi over whether we could as yet call the railways headquarters an icon. While that debate raged in and outside this column, I saw that a poor definition was afoot. It was in the southeast when the governors launched Ebube Agu, the region’s answer to the Southwest’s Amotekun. I joked that Amotekun, a big cat in its own right, was as a baby jaw compared to the famed king of the jungle, the lion. The leopard will wince when it hears the territorial roar of the big cat. It will know no peace but retreat even when it sniffs its territorial piss. No matter. But when Ebube Agu was translated for the public, some called it the fear of the lion or the glory of the lion. They mean well. I don’t speak Igbo, but it shows how translation alone cannot be left in the hands of the owners of the language. They can destroy it. Remember Nkpoko Igbo, the popular TV series of yore. Fear here makes the lion strong without authority. Glory hints at accomplishment or celebration. The translator must look for a word that matches the context. In this case, it is security. Here, I suggest AWE. It encompasses both fear and glory, and lends respectability. You don’t only fear the best armies, you respect them. How about that, my Igbo friends.

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  • No phone call this Monday

    No phone call this Monday

    By Sam Omatseye

    Sometimes a column such as In Touch takes a time off for self-reckoning. It is doing so today with permitted indulgence, or I daresay not permissive indulgence. One of its followers, a man not known to many, passed on. His name was Joseph Lucky Agbro.

    He was until last week a fellow traveller with In Touch for about a decade. He was not just a reader. He kept date with me very Monday morning wherever I was. In London, In New York, In Denver, Paris, Abuja, Sokoto, Maiduguri, of course Lagos. He called in the morning. The first refrain often was, “I read you this morning.” My reply, “Thank you sir.”

    He passed on at 75 precipitously. He was old, but not tottering. His voice, a slow, methodical poise, did not reflect a man grasping for ideas or elocution. His going was a blind side. He did not belong to my ideological jacket. He grew up what many would call a conservative. He was a player in the old National Party of Nigeria. If he was in the wily water of the Umaru Dikkos of that era, he might have earned himself a ministerial slot, in that twisted portfolio of prepositional ministers of Shagari. Minister of and minister for.

    His contrarian worldview played a role in shaping my argument and poesy. I had to watch out for that polemical fine point, that phrase, that allusion. When he disagreed deeply, we could be on the phone for up to an hour, especially if it was the prickly issue of taking on Jonathan, or pushing an idea he thought was a bit radical.

    When he agreed, his favorite phrase was “Sam, there is nothing to take away, You said it all.” Sometimes he accused me of bamboozling the readers with my fancy phrases and lofty allusions. Sometimes he took exception to my use of allusions, to references to histories, myths, literary texts, philosophers, et al. Sometimes he would say he loved them so much he had to do some research like a student. Since he started to call about a decade ago, he never missed a Monday. When he travelled or had an early morning appointment, he alerted me and called later. Uncle Joe, as I called him, had become part of my early Monday ritual.

    As I mourn Uncle Joe, I also look back at some old men who were part of this column until death did them part. One of them was Chief Hope Harriman. A roly-poly of a man, bustling with humour and a great raconteur, I first met him in Denver during my American sojourn. He was attending the Itsekiri Convention, and he walked up to me and introduced himself. I had heard of him. He kept calling wherever he was. I was then writing a column for the Sun Newspaper, and he commented liberally on his thoughts.

    When I returned home to start In Touch, so impressed was he that he invited me with his wife Roli to a party in Ghana. He was the father of the day at my 50th birthday. He was used to calling from around the world, whether from his Florida home, during a business trip to India, or Port Harcourt function. Few anticipated his end. He looked eternal in his bonhomie. His daughter Temi told me they were preparing his 80th birthday bash when his earthly story ended.

    Tam David West, former oil minister and something of a cause celebre in this country, was another frequent caller. His voice declined over the years, from an argumentative brio to a wobbly blur. His first call came about 2007 when he expressed ecstasy over how I interpreted German philosopher Nietzsche’s phrase, “God is dead,” and he called often to assent, assert and encourage me. We met only once in Abuja at the Hilton. Towards the end of his life, I hardly heard what he said, except something that sounded like “fantastic.”

    Another familiar oldie was Chief J.O.S. Ayomike. He was a man of great vitality, who called to spar. I never met him, but he was not only a repository of ideas but also of history. Anytime he called, I had to abandon whatever I was doing to pay my respect. At one time, so enamoured was he of In Touch that he mailed books from his precious library to me in Lagos. It was one of the treasures I feared when some hoodlums came to burn The Nation premises. Thank God they were intact. I was trying to surprise him with a visit when I was billed to deliver a keynote address to Government College Ughelli Old Boys, Warri Branch. But he had gone. I was in Benin a few months earlier, I might have peeped in. The other visitor outstepped me.

    Pa Mosanya, a light-skinned man with a debonair air, who loved to quote the classics and was steeped in western region politics and history, walked into my office one afternoon. He was already in his 80’s. He had memories of some of my columns I could not readily recall, and he became a sort of father figure to me. When he called, he spoke like a lawyer, “Me Lord.” Once he brought copies of my old writings. When he visited, I did nothing else and he would spend hours dissecting the problems of the world.

    I was amazed at his capacity to retain long poems in his head and he reeled them out with gusto and arresting flow, from Oliver Goldsmith to William Blake. The great thing about him was his sense of contentment. The last time I saw him he said he had outlived his father. He was about 87 years old.

    When he passed on, like the others, it was hard to take. Columns are a lonely affair without treasured communities, especially of the old. I still have quite a few of them but will not mention them. I want them around. They abound across the country. Not only the old, but quite of few young who have adopted me as mentor, a role that I confess I have not played well. Too many things on the plate. There is a fellow, who like Uncle Joe, has sent me a text every Monday for more than 10 years. I will not say his name. Or the fellow, a prominent Nigerian I would also not name, who called me and sent me a big wallet to buy “more books.” The money could build a library.  He wanted me to continue with my turns of phrases. Many more of such stories for another day.

    But I mourn Uncle Joe, and I know there will be no phone call from him this Monday or ever again. May his soul rest in peace.

    Is it an Icon?

    It was not only an inspection. It was a moment in cultural dialectics. Full of energy, Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi showed me the façade of the new railway headquarters in Lagos and remarked, “Is there any place as iconic?” A boyish glee was suppressed in his voice. I looked at the impressive façade, and I said, “Iconic?” I said when I hear the word, I think of National Theatre, not the railway headquarters. He was driving and swerved into the large sprawling compound, and we undertook a tour. It is an impressive spectacle, and I said it drew my mind to my visit to New York’s Grand Central Station, and of course the Hauptbahnhof in Berlin. The place is complete with waiting area that can sit at least 2000 persons, and transport a million passengers a month, more than all of our airports in one year. It has a mall, a suite of offices, state-of-the-art electronic boards, steps and escalators.

    •The new Railway headquarters in Lagos

    It is such a cheer to see such an edifice in Nigeria in spite of the killings and fear in the land. When we were done, the minister returned to the word. I said it was not an icon. It had not even been launched. He asked me to look up the word in the dictionary, and searched Google, and it read, “An image, emblem, idol, or hero.” He insisted he was right, along with the Nigerian Railway Corporation’s managing director and few of his team. A building, no matter how impressive, did not make an icon, until human beings turn it into a cultural experience. Humans make icons, things don’t. But I understand where Amaechi was coming from. He was eager to institutionalize the edifice. Time will shape things. I conceded though, that it is potentially iconic.

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  • Army’s Lekki burden

    Army’s Lekki burden

    By Femi Macaulay

     

    About six months after the controversial Lekki tollgate shooting in Lagos, on October 20, 2020, it is still unclear what happened.  Claims that soldiers had massacred peaceful protesters against police brutality remain unproved. But that does not disprove the massacre allegation.

    The Lekki incident continues to generate widespread interest because of its human rights and accountability angles.   A 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices, released by the US government on March 30, further drew attention to the lack of clarity, and the need for clarity, concerning the shooting.

    “Accurate information on fatalities resulting from the shooting was not available at year’s end,” the report said, adding, “Amnesty International reported 10 persons died during the event, but the government disputed Amnesty’s report, and no other organization was able to verify the claim.”

    The use of the word “massacre” by anti-government narrators to describe the alleged killings on the evening of that day has been faulted by pro-government defenders who insist that it is a tendentious exaggeration.

    According to the report, now in its 45th edition, “The government reported two deaths connected to the event. One body from the toll gate showed signs of blunt force trauma. A second body from another location in Lagos State had bullet wounds. The government acknowledged that soldiers armed with live ammunition were present at the Lekki Toll Gate.”

    The Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS-related Abuses and Other Matters, set up by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is expected to find out what actually happened.  But it remains to be seen if the panel will be able to clarify what happened.

    The panel, inaugurated in October 2020, had a deadline of April 19, 2021, to conclude its investigation. Significantly, the release of the US report coincided with the extension of the Lagos panel’s work for three months, till July 19.

    It is suspicious that the Nigerian Army, which is at the centre of the panel’s investigation into the alleged Lekki killings, stopped cooperating with the investigators under the former army boss, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, who was replaced in January.

    New Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru is expected to concentrate on tackling escalating insecurity in the country. But the Lekki incident is a hot issue that also demands his attention.  Yet again, on March 20, the army failed to honour the panel’s invitation. This was a negative beginning for Lt. Gen. Attahiru.

    Did soldiers indeed “massacre” civilians engaged in a peaceful protest against abuse of power by the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police Force, known as SARS?  The Lekki protesters were the focal point of the nationwide #EndSARS protests.

    Under Lt. Gen. Buratai, there were indications that the army was uncooperative; giving the impression that it didn’t consider the investigation important. On more than one occasion, the General Officer Commanding 81 Division, Maj. Gen. Godwin Umelo, and the Commanding Officer, 65 Battalion, Bonny Camp, Victoria Island, Lagos, Lt. Col. S.O. Bello, had shunned the panel’s invitation. In particular, Lt. Col. Bello is a person of interest because he led the battalion involved in the Lekki shooting under investigation.

    The Commander of 81 Division, Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Taiwo, had testified before the panel, denying claims that soldiers shot #EndSARS protesters with live bullets during the operation. However, the panel had summoned Maj. Gen. Umelo and Lt. Col. Bello because Brig. Gen. Taiwo’s testimony was inadequate.

    It is unclear why the two officers had failed to appear before the panel. But there is no justification for their failure to honour its invitation. They were expected to appear before the panel not only to clarify the issue but also to exculpate the army. Their non-cooperation was bad for the army’s image. The army is supposed to operate under the law in a democracy.

    There is a need for clarity. The army initially claimed its personnel were not at the toll gate when the incident happened, then later admitted it had deployed soldiers to the place with live and blank bullets, maintaining that soldiers shot into the air and did not kill any protester.

    The panel’s chairman, retired Justice Doris Okuwobi, had ordered that fresh summons be issued to the officers who had shunned its invitation. “Service shall also be made to the Office of the Chief of Army Staff…,” she had said.  Lt. Gen. Buratai was still the boss at the time.

    Lt. Gen. Attahiru should demonstrate that he truly represents a new era. He should ensure that the army cooperates with the panel. Anything less than that is suspicious.

    The army’s defenders ask: If there was a “massacre” at Lekki, where are the bodies?  They also counter the claim that the army had got rid of the bodies, arguing that there have been no announcements of missing persons by relations of those allegedly massacred and disposed of.

    Notably, in December 2015, the Nigerian Army was accused of carrying out a massacre in a clash with members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) in Zaria, Kaduna State. The army claimed members of the group had tried to assassinate Lt. Gen. Buratai, the army chief at the time.

    In response to the incident, known as the Zaria massacre, the Kaduna State government set up a judicial commission of inquiry that found out that the army had gunned down at least 348 civilians, and had secretly buried 347 bodies in a mass grave. The commission called for the prosecution of those involved in the massacre. The incident is regarded as a “notable human rights violation.”

    With this kind of damning record, the army needs to prove that nothing like the Zaria massacre happened at Lekki. In January, after the army stopped cooperating with the panel, the panel’s chairman was reported saying the army’s failure to honour lawful summonses meant that it could not justifiably complain of a denial of fair hearing after the panel had presented its findings to the government.

    The army’s refusal to further cooperate with the panel is unacceptable.  If the army has nothing to hide, it should cooperate with the investigators.