The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Moral rot on steroids

    Moral rot on steroids

    There was public outrage recently when a video clip of pupils smoking and drinking what was suspected to be alcohol in a school dormitory went viral online. The video showed the pupils passing around for a puff what was believed to be Indian hemp, as they danced in the hostel. The incident was confirmed to have occurred at Excel College, Ejigbo on the outskirts of Lagos way back in April 2025, and only resurfaced online early last week.

    Both the Lagos government and police command deplored the occurrence and vowed measures to protect societal morality. State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Jamiu Alli-Balogun, described the behaviour as unacceptable within the state’s education system, saying in a statement: “The state government views this incident with utmost seriousness, as it goes against the values and moral discipline we seek to instill in our students.” He added that the ministry, through the Office of Education Quality Assurance, had dispatched a monitoring team to authenticate the video, identify the students involved and determine the level of negligence on the part of school authorities. Institutions found culpable, he warned, would face sanctions in line with state policies.

    Read Also: Nigeria’s external reserves hit $42bn, highest since 2019

    The Lagos police command said it had opened full-scale investigation of the occurrence and Commissioner of Police Olohundare Jimoh had ordered the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, to take over the probe from the Ejigbo police division that had earlier invited the school principal for questioning. Command spokesperson Abimbola Adebisi (a Superintendent of Police), said in a statement: “The principal, who is also the proprietor of the school, was invited, and he clarified that the students in the viral video had already graduated. Nonetheless, the school is cooperating fully with investigators to ensure that the circumstances surrounding this incident are properly addressed.”

    According to the spokesperson, the command is treating the matter seriously because of its implications for discipline and morality in schools. “The command calls on all secondary school authorities, public and private as well as parents and guardians, to take proactive steps in properly supervising and guiding their children and wards,” she stated, warning school operators against disciplinary lapses that could degenerate into criminal activities. “Misconducts of this nature, if left unchecked, can snowball into bigger problems that disrupt the peace of society,” she added.

    Student hostels ordinarily are a closely supervised environment, and you wonder how illicit substances seen with the errant pupils got into base unintercepted. Besides, dormitories used to have resident housemasters/matrons, and it is curious the incident went undetected by school authorities until the exposure online. It is a bad argument that those students have left the school. There’s so much that reeks of negligence on the part of the school authorities and should pose a check on other school operators. But the parents of those young lads too should be ashamed of the failure of their parenting.

  • Once beaten, twice dumb

    Once beaten, twice dumb

    Once beaten, twice shy, goes that popular English saying.  But for Joe Ajaero, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) president, who seems to first commit NLC to partisan political battles, then think after, it would appear it is once beaten, twice dumb.

    The last time Ajaero tried to misuse NLC for a political cause was the last governorship election in Imo State.  Even moving against the local Imo NLC, he tried to force a strike to shore up the electoral chances of Samuel Anyanwu, the sitting PDP national secretary but the party’s Imo gubernatorial candidate.

    Anyanwu got drubbed: an electoral version of being beaten black and blue — and cleanly so, as incumbent, Hope Uzodinma of the APC, coasted home in a landslide.

    But much before then, Ajaero himself got whipped into a virtual pulp, which left him with a bad eye.  His nemeses were surely not ghosts.  But that hardly anyone has been apprehended is proof that when bad faith begets bad faith, the victim hardly has any remedy. 

    After much fire and tempest, the heady Ajaero must have admitted that he went too far  — just as he tried to put NLC at the service of Peter Obi: an abuse he even continued after the presidential election 2023 had been won and lost. 

    Read Also: CJN to inaugurate 57 new SANs September 29

    Well, whatever bound them had surely split them, with the ongoing split and endless schism in Labour Party (LP), Obi’s special electoral hire in 2023; with the ace political perambulator set for another platform in the 2027 sweepstakes, leaving LP in chaos.

    Once beaten, twice shy?  No!  For Ajaero, it’s once beaten, twice dumb.  As he did with Obi and Anyanwu, he’s committing NLC to the senatorial battle of Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, a long-running legal gambit, in which Natasha  appears to have trapped herself.

    To be clear: Ajaero can push his right to support or oppose anyone.  It’s his democratic right.  What he cannot do is committing organized Labour to his personal whims and caprices.  The NLC — which members are workers who hold diverse political sympathies and affiliations — has no dog in the Natasha fight.

    As many of them can personally support or oppose Natasha — but certainly not as a collective as NLC members.  The simple logic is that it’s not a Labour matter.  Besides, it could be a recipe for bickering and disaster.  If many support as many of their members oppose, then on what basis are they getting involved as a band?

    Well, common sense is not usually common.  Which is why those passionate about workers’ interests should warn Ajaero to cease using NLC as battling ram for personal whims.  It’s a horrendous abuse of forum.

    Still, talking abuses: the personal “villain”, against who Ajaero turned NLC  into a partisan tool — Governor Uzodinma — has turned the near-biblical stone that the builders refused, yet became the critical cornerstone of workers’ welfare.

    Ajaero — not the best of introspective guys, obviously — hailed Uzodinma, jacking up the Imo minimum wage: now the highest in Nigeria.  Ajaero praised the governor — and rightly so, embarking on the usual Labour cant that NLC would use it as tool to pressure other states to do much better.

    But in his Imo serenade, did it ever occur to Ajaero that, if his scheming had worked, Uzodinma wouldn’t have earned re-election?  That irony was clearly lost on him!

  • Season of trekkers

    Season of trekkers

    If it rained trekkers, Ebonyi State recently had a downpour. An indigene, Emmanuel Obasi, trekked from Ilorin, Kwara State, to Abakaliki, Ebonyi capital, avowedly to appreciate a federal lawmaker, Nkemkanmma Kama, for his service. Kama represents Ohaozara/Onicha/Ivo federal constituency in the House of Representatives, and Obasi who hails from that constituency said he staged the marathon trek “to honour (him) in a most uncommon way due to his infrastructural and human development strides in the constituency.” He was rewarded by the lawmaker with two million naira.

    But that gesture wasn’t exactly uncommon. Barely a week earlier, another Ebonyi indigene, Jeremiah Obaji, trekked from Lagos State to Abakaliki to appreciate Governor Francis Nwifuru for restoring peace in his community, Alaoma in Ohaukwu council area, which was plagued by communal conflict. According to Obaji, the trek from Ikorodu took him 17 days, and he got rewarded by the Ebonyi governor with ten million naira.

    Obasi said the journey from the Kwara capital began on 25th August and covered 670 kilometres, on a route laced with grave security challenges. “Due to security challenges along the Ilorin-Ekiti-Okene route, I had to resort to the Bida-Minna-Suleija-Zuba-Lokoja route for the trek,” he explained, noting that people advised him to give up on the journey due to the stress involved but he was determined to go through with it. Having been warned not to trek during the night, he broke the journey wherever he found himself by 7p.m. “I received favours and support during the trek as people accommodated me freely wherever night fell,” he added.

    Read Also: NNL abolishes Super 8 as new season begins Nov. 8th

    At his own reception on 7th September in Abakaliki, Obaji said he trekked from Lagos to appreciate Governor Nwifuru for restoring peace in troubled Effium community of Ohaukwu council area. He added that the trek began on 21st August and spanned over 600 kilometres. Speaking with journalists in the Ebonyi capital, he noted that the trek was his way of thanking Nwifuru for brokering peace in the Ezza-Effium conflict through his creation of five autonomous communities. He recalled how the crisis had displaced his family and others, causing untold hardship. “I faced hunger, fatigue and insect bites, and at some point had to abandon my jeans due to blisters. At a point I also became afraid of being kidnapped,” he said.

    These long haulers recall to mind  Suleiman Hashimu, who walked from Lagos to Abuja in 18 days to celebrate the victory of the late President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 in the 2015 general election. Nothing is being heard of him anymore, and you wonder if these adventurers can’t be useful in efforts by government to tackle insecurity challenges across the country. Besides their ruggedness, their survival skills could come handy in the proposed forest guards if there is sufficient motivation. They could be harnessed for national service, not to just use their endowments to prospect for ‘golden handshakes.’

  • Obi goes to Obasanjo, Ladoja

    Obi goes to Obasanjo, Ladoja

    Hooray!  Peter Obi just visited former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Olubadan-elect Oba Rashidi Ladoja, former elected governor of Oyo State (2003-2007)!

    But what do these visits add to his political profile — the penetration of a key demographic, en route to 2017?

    Well, not an illegitimate prospect, though a tad dreamy.  Obi’s clatter on X has been a regular fare now: joy to his Obidient zealots — who unflattering Obi foes call zombies. But plain irritation to the Obi-sceptic, who wince at his many infantile hyperboles and sweeping generalizations: to project his personal distemper, and keep droning about his preferred bad news!

    Well, again, that’s hardly a crime.  Obi is in opposition.  Like many in his clan, in these climes, they haven’t developed the ability to distil problems and come out with clinical solutions.  So, all forms of bogeys and jeremiads would do to veil a lack of penetrative thinking.

    Still, what Obi wants folks to draw with visits to Obasanjo and Ladoja is not clear. Okay, perhaps he is still super-grateful to Obasanjo over services rendered in 2023?

    Didn’t Obasanjo call on the late President Muhammadu Buhari to cancel the election, just because Obi, who he backed, was losing, or had lost? 

    For the one that kids himself as the father of modern Nigeria, the irony of another annulment, after the tragedy of June 12, 1993, was totally lost on him.  PMB ignored him — and just as well!

    But that futile call showed Obasanjo’s near-absolute lack of soft power: beyond his periodic mischief to pull down others.  So, a sortie to Baba Iyabo adds nothing to Obi’s political relevance, beyond the already converted.  But from the 2023 results, those converts are still painfully short.

    Oba Ladoja?  Interesting!  If tomorrow the former president prostrates full length, in glorious “idobale” before the new Olubadan, know it’s the “Seriki monafiki” in him having a ball!  The new Oba would, of course, take that, with fulsome thanks.

    Read Also: Fubara’s return: MOSIEND calls for peace, unity, inclusive governance

    Indeed, Oba Ladoja, as Olubadan, seems one of the many spectacles the Almighty appears to have kept the former president alive to see, as divine caution to anyone never to play God!  Did President Obasanjo not reduce Governor Ladoja, elected as himself, to nothing!

    The imperial president gruffly ordered Ladoja to obey his Oyo garrison commander, the late Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu — or go jump (and get drowned) in the nearby Ogunpa River —  even if that was untrammelled political corruption! 

    For that, the garrison-commander staged one of the many Obasanjo-era “simple minority” impeachments! Of course, the judiciary would throw out that nonsense and restored Governor Ladoja — the very first in Nigerian history —  though the PDP froze him from second term.

    But it’s great the Obi visits remind us all of the bare-faced recklessness of Obasanjo’s PDP, in this day of political revisionists.  Obi too was governor then, though under APGA.  But after his Anambra tenure, it was to this same seedy PDP that Obi ran, to run for Vice President.

    So next time Obi starts his old wives’ tale that he is new, and different from the class he has striven so hard to discredit, just point to this link — a priceless umbilical cord he just gifted the polity. 

    There’s certainly a limit to being clever by half!

  • ‘Monarch’ without a kingdom

    ‘Monarch’ without a kingdom

    Ancient lore teaches that the glory of a king is in the strength of his army. In modern terms, this translates to saying the status of a leader is measured by the size of the followership he controls. In Lagos, however, there’ve be title peddlers who arrogate themselves imperial status that no one but few fellow-conspirators recognise.

    A self-styled ‘Obi of Lagos,’ Chibuike Azubike, is presently cooling his heels in police cell along with three accomplices pending their arraignment for alleged fraud and attempted disruption of public peace, according to the state police command. The 65-year-old, an indigene of Obodoukwu in Ideato North council area of Imo State, was recently arrested along with Chibuzor Ani (57), Martins Nwaodika (65) and Ikechukwu Franklin Nnadi (41) after the announcement of plans to install Azubike as ‘Obi of Lagos,’ unveil a prototype of a purported N1.5billion Palace of Obi of Lagos State and celebrate the Ofala/New Yam festival on Saturday, 13th September, at Apple Hall, Amuwo Odofin. The police said the venue was swiftly sealed off by security operatives to prevent public disturbance and protect unsuspecting members of the public from being misled.

    Read Also: 2027: PDP sets stage for Ibadan convention, vows to reclaim power

    In a statement, Commissioner of Police Olohundare Jimoh said the arrested persons’ plans were illegal under the Obas and Chiefs Law of Lagos State (2015) and capable of disrupting public peace. He urged residents to be vigilant against impostors who exploit revered cultural institutions for personal gain.

    Providing further details, Lagos command’s deputy spokesperson Babasaye Oluseyi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said preliminary investigations showed the aborted 13th September events were a ploy to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians. His statement read: “Further findings revealed that the planned unveiling of the ‘Obi of Lagos Palace’ was fraudulently designed as a ploy to swindle unsuspecting personalities and other Nigerians of their hard-earned money… It was also established that the principal suspect acted alone, without the backing or recognition of any legitimate chieftaincy authority.” The spokesperson added that investigations were ongoing and all suspects will be arraigned in court once concluded. Meanwhile, according to him, Azubike has confessed to being merely a supplier of building materials and not a certified engineer as earlier advertised.

    It isn’t that unrecognized titles are a new thing in Lagos. In April 2023, Frederick Nwajagu, a self-proclaimed Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate, was arrested and later arraigned on terrorism charges after threatening to invite members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to protect the properties of Igbo residents in Lagos. The thing with Azubike is the upscaled temerity of his impersonation. The official title of the traditional ruler of Lagos is ‘Oba of Lagos,’ and here’s an impostor assaying to be the ‘Obi of Lagos.’ Just how more daring could dare get?

  • Caught by own trap?

    Caught by own trap?

    Of course, it’s bad faith begetting bad faith.  But let no one forget who started it all.  The Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan senatorial saga just notched a new plot. 

    On the surface, the embattled senator’s six-month suspension, for breaching Senate rules, is over.  But she cannot return for now — at least, says the Senate management — because the matter is sub judice.

    Natasha had been three-quarter worsted in a suit with which she challenged her suspension.  Three-quarters, because, the court only reasoned that her six-month suspension might have been excessive — not because of any redemptive behaviour from Natasha, but because her suspension had put her constituents in jeopardy.

    Even then, the court didn’t order her recall. It only appealed to the Senate to reconsider the length.  Indeed, the court held that Natasha was validly suspended for breaching the rules — refusing to move seats when directed to do so. 

    More trouble: the court ordered her to apologize — not to the Senate, but to the court — for guilt over sub judice matters: writing a mock apology letter to the Senate President, in the social media, with the case still running before the court.

    But Natasha balked.  Instead, she appealled the matter to the Court of Appeal, with the Senate itself doing a cross-appeal.  That was the legal reality, when the six months ran out.

    So, might Natasha have snared herself in own legal trap?  It would seem so — and her nemeses in the chamber would appear savouring the perverse pleasure to see her squirm, in own self-imposed debacle.

    Unfortunately, the senator appears unable — in any case, reluctant — to learn from her unforced errors (to borrow that tennis term), as she recklessly plays in the court of social media.

    To her, there is no shortage of bad advice.  Her so-called elders and supporters seem utterly useless beyond the delusion of emotional scamming and Aluta agitations on X and sundry social media platforms. 

    Read Also: Nigeria’s FX lessons under Cardoso

    The latest ludicrous sortie is some woman senator from The Gambia, giving a peremptory order to the Nigerian Senate to recall Natasha, pretty much because she’s a woman; and if such is not checked, it could be her — in The Gambia — or other women next time!  What feminist carping!  How that helps Natasha’s case beggars belief.

    You will recall: Natasha too went on such emotive binge to a legislative gathering in New York, under the auspices of the United Nations, spewing an old wives’ tale of her suspension issuing from gender persecution, not from breaching Senate rules.  That didn’t get her far, did it?  And don’t humans learn from mistakes?

    Unfortunately, should the Senate stick to Natasha’s legalism to hang her, it could be morning yet on her suspension day!  No one would be blamed but Natasha herself.  Refusing that you’re wrong, even if you are, is no virtue.

    But maybe there’s another magnanimous way — not for the senator, but for her ill-fated constituents?  And shouldn’t Senate membership be made of more mature stuff?

  • Rice agonistes

    Rice agonistes

    For whatever reason that happens to be the case, rice is about the most popular food item on Nigerian tables. Its market price is often used to benchmark the health of the economy, with more traditional food items not getting that same reckoning. And so, however you look at it, rice is key among food staples in this country. 

    Recently, rice farmers were reported blaming the surging price of the product on activities of middlemen and cartels whose members hoard the item for profiteering motive, thereby undermining efforts by government to stabilise the market. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) cited their leaders it spoke with saying unscrupulous operators in the sector were creating artificial scarcity to fuel market price. But they also accused government of not coordinating with genuine operators in measures it applied to tame prices.

    Vice-chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Sakin Agbayewa, argued that fluctuations in the price of rice owed to human manipulation despite government’s efforts. “Few months ago, the Federal Government gave some companies a waiver to import rice into the country to crush the price. And while that was on, did they (government) mobilise local farmers? That is where the issue lies,” he said, adding: “Although government empowered a few farmers with a 75 percent reduction on cost of production while others were given fertilisers for free, the question is: those farmers who were empowered, did they really cultivate anything?”

    Read Also: Meet Adamawa-born comedian Mktechnic doing wonders on social media

    The AFAN chief further argued that while the waiver was in effect, beneficiaries imported rice into the country and the price decreased. But during this same period, according to him, they warehoused much of what was imported. “Now that the importation waiver is over, the cartel is creating artificial scarcity. Some farmers also repack local rice in foreign bags to sell at high prices because they know Nigerians have a taste for foreign things,” he also said, adding: “There is a high level of insincerity and dishonesty among our people. Some unscrupulous farmers, middlemen and even retailers should be blamed for the current price hike.”

    Raphael Hunsa, chairman of Lagos State chapter of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RFAN), argued that government needs to engage with genuine local farmers if it wants to bring prices down. “What we can do to solve the issue of consistent price hikes is to support rice farmers in the right way. Though government is already trying, they should let their interventions get into right hands. They should invite local rice farmers to a roundtable for the formulation of right policies and programmes for the sector,” he said.

    Government, only a couple of days ago, restated commitment to tame prices towards ensuring food security of Nigerians. Well, it has its job cut out in the rice sector where 50kg bag of the product that sold between N45,000 and N55,000 just two months ago now sells at about N80,000.

  • Triumph of mutual respect

    Triumph of mutual respect

    Just as well: President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima serenaded each other at the Vice President’s 59th birthday.  That is good presidential breeding, away from the mutual brickbats of President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

    Again, this presidential court politeness is ode to the Muhammadu Buhari-Yemi Osinbajo partnership, which imposed a civil temper, away from the dog-eat-dog gruffness of the Obasanjo years.  Tinubu-Shettima have earned kudos for sustaining that warm civility.

    It’s another plus to the quiet institutional deepening of the APC years, away from the proud chaos of the Obasanjo years though, to be fair, the Goodluck Jonathan/Namadi Sambo partnership was much more civil than Obasanjo-Atiku.

    Tunde Rahman, a presidential aide, puts the Tinubu-Shettima harmony in perspective: “Their relationship is borne out of mutual respect and trust; and fired by patriotic zeal and the need to promote democracy, good governance, and economic development.”

    Rahman states the obvious.  But the danger here is to presume it is — or should be — routine.  It’s not: just as common sense is seldom ever common!  It’s public conduct to be applauded, entrenched and routinized in our democracy.

    Still, shove the president and deputy aside.  Bring on their spouses.  Wherever First Lady Remi Tinubu is, look no farther: Mrs. Shettima too would be there! Yes, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, the late PMB’s widow, was arguably less activist with her pet project than Mrs. Tinubu.  But Mrs. Buhari and Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo enjoyed no less camaraderie. 

    Read Also: CBN launches Nigeria payments system to drive digital financial transformation

    It’s the making of an integrated presidential family, that uses the harmony of its nuclear families, to forge policy unity, that balks at all distractions, in a rare determination to face Nigeria’s onerous challenges.  Again, Obasanjo-Atiku were a diametric opposite.

    Still, not even this clear harmony could keep political hustlers, eying 2027, from portraying the Vice President as some useless “spare tyre” that must be changed if the Tinubu machine were to smoothly purr to victory.

    That was, of course, humbug — and the fiercely loyal, dynamic and effective Borno Governor Babagana Zulum, wasted no time at shooting down that nonsense.  The Borno wing of APC North East also poured cold water on any 2027 BAT ticket without Shettima.  Just as well!  You don’t fix what’s not spoilt.

    But Hardball isn’t really bordered by errant political behaviours — politicians will be politicians, angling and hustling for posts and sinecure, at any cost.  It only pushes a constitutional deepening that inserts clauses to respect and honour the office of Vice President — and in states, Deputy Governors.

    You can’t claim a presidential or governorship ticket is incomplete without a running mate, only to win the election and demote your electoral partner as a serf, fated to the whims and caprices of others — including presidential appointees.  That’s simply not right.

    Still, the APC two presidencies so far have started building a powerful convention that gives the Vice President his due.  That should do for the long run.  Bravo!

  • Monitoring spirits

    Monitoring spirits

    To be sure, monitoring is the heart of democracy.  It’s there, touting the “people’s right to know”, that the media anchors its claim as the fourth estate of the realm, after the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.

    Still, monitoring as a healthy concept is one.  Monitoring spirits, as a sickly, cynical habit, is another.  Under the guise of the first, many media observers merrily lapse into the other.  Herein then lies the problem.

    A section of the media has of late become near-hysteric over why and how President Bola Tinubu MUST re-jig his cabinet.  Why, a few have even drawn up a list naming names of “under-performing ministers” the president must virtually hang!

    Others have been inconsolable, weeping and wailing, over the current “bloated” cabinet.  The Nigerian media, by the way, merrily relishes this cliche.  If it declares something is “bloated” then it must be “bloated”, not withstanding that “bloated” is just another buzz word the all-mighty analyst just parlayed — without much thinking — from a rival’s write-up.

    Every time things don’t seem to go well with governance — a low the Tinubu government currently experiences — the instinct is to go hay wire and call for heads to roll — such blood thirstiness!  It seems to point to that basic penchant to arrogantly make suggestions without first carefully thinking it through.

    If you sack a “non-performing” minister for a systemic challenge, how has that helped the administration?  Or you just declared the Federal Executive Council (FEC) “bloated” — bloated from whose perspective? 

    Read Also: South Africa hold Nigeria to 1-1 draw in crucial World Cup Qualifier

    From the president’s who has a vision and is deploying manpower to turn that vision into glorious reality?  Or of an armchair critic’s, too wrapped up in the high clouds of self-importance, to acknowledge any vision, talk less of understanding it? 

    Indeed, you can bet on two stock media reactions to any government whatsoever: first, the near-eternal clamour for “heads to roll”: are these calls earnest or are deliberately planted by job-seeking hustlers, using their colluding confederates in the media?

    Then, no government’s media team is ever good enough for some folks not to eternally pontificate, sense or nonsense.  Which explains the frenzy on the exit — temporary or permanent — of Ajuri Ngelale, the prime presidential spokesperson that just announced he was stepping aside over unnamed family health reasons.  Not a few though have bragged and barked he was sacked, in crowing and triumphant analyses.

    So, he was sacked — and so what?  How does that add value to anyone?  Just another bout of sterile reporting the media often brags about.  But again, how does that add value to governance?  Or even succour to long-suffering citizens in their leanest times?  With rabid focus on the tangential at best, is anyone surprised at falling copy sales?

    Still, with all the din, it’s clear President Bola Tinubu is too street-wise to be hustled  into taking any precipitate action on his cabinet.  Beyond the high adrenaline of hiring and firing, the media can — and must — contribute much more to good governance.

  • Governor Lawal’s lamentations

    Governor Lawal’s lamentations

    Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal recently said he had capacity to end banditry in the state within two months if given direct control of the security agencies.

    The governor spoke on a live media chat with local radio stations at Government House in Gusau, saying a major obstacle to tackling insecurity challenge in the state was that security operatives take instructions from Abuja and not the state government. “I can tell you the whereabouts of every bandit kingpin in Zamfara, even with my phone. I can point to you where they are right now. But I do not control security agencies, and that is the problem,” he lamented. Lawal argued that with his knowledge of the terrain and locations of criminal leaders, he could swiftly eradicate the menace if he had the necessary powers.

    Zamfara is a hotbed of banditry in the North-west zone, with the insecurity crisis accounting for scores of killings, abductions and desolation of rural communities from where residents have been forced to flee by bandit attacks. Since he assumed office in May 2023 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Lawal has repeatedly alleged lack of enthusiasm by security operatives under the control of federal authorities to fight the bandits. He often fingered his immediate predecessor and now Defence Minister of State Bello Matawalle, who is of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for impairing efforts to tackle down the menace. He therefore has been in the vanguard of calls for establishment of state police.

    Read Also: DSS summons Sowore over post on Tinubu

    Shredding up in tears as he recounted recent attacks, the governor cited Shinkafi council area where dozens were killed, saying security forces on ground refused to move because they lacked authorisation from Abuja. “People were under attack, and I kept calling the security agencies. They told me they were waiting for orders from Abuja. How do I save my people in such a situation?” he stated in frustration.

    But the APC in Zamfara dismissed Lawal’s comments, accusing him of harboring bandits and failing to deliver on his campaign promise to end insecurity within two months of assuming office. Spokesman Yusuf Idris said in a statement that the governor’s repeated claims of knowing the locations of bandit leaders without acting on the information amounted to complicity. “We don’t know why he is harbouring them in the state and continues to allow them to kill and abduct innocent citizens, or perhaps because he wants to use them against his political rivals,” the party alleged and accused the governor of politicising insecurity.

    Take out partisan contention, and the positions canvassed by both sides aren’t mutually exclusive. You wonder why Governor Lawal awaits when he takes over the control of security agencies before putting the vital information he allegedly possesses at their disposal. But also, it makes profound sense that the control of security agencies – at least, the police – be devolved to the states. When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.