IF the Kaduna State and federal governments are to properly manage the crisis in Southern Kaduna, they will need uncommon wisdom in understanding the politics and emotions of the bloodletting between herdsmen and farmers. The security agencies have not fully deployed; but already they are having their hands full. The governor, Nasir el-Rufai, told reporters in Lagos that the state spent about N200m monthly on security operations over the crisis. The state will bleed more, particularly financially, if he does not manage to rein in his emotions and bridle his tongue. In parts of the country where herdsmen frequently clash with farmers, the security agencies have not responded as firmly and evenhandedly as they should, as the Agatu, Benue State example shows. In Southern Kaduna, at last, they give indication they have learnt a thing or two. On the other hand, if the failure of his many panaceas in the unending crisis has destabilised him, Mallam el-Rufai has not quite shown why or how, nor allowed it to tether his constant and fiery umbrage.
The crisis in Southern Kaduna, as in other parts of Nigeria where herdsmen are at daggers drawn with farmers, can however be managed, if not entirely resolved, if state and national leaders will appreciate the politics underlining the problem, eschew the sentiments befuddling it, and have the courage and brilliance to apply the right and sensible measures the situation desperately needs. But they are unlikely to do that until the problem festers very badly, and until it threatens peace and stability, as indeed it is already doing. The government and security agencies’ first instinct is to deploy troops and policemen in hot spots. But in how many hot spots are they going to deploy troops? Will they not be overextended, and thus rendered ineffective? As the Niger Delta crisis illustrates vividly, Nigeria is always tempted to think that every crisis should naturally yield to the deployment of military or police firepower.
This nonsensical approach to conflict management has even spread to combating kidnapping, a crime many states have made a capital offence, despite the obvious and published refusal of nearly all governors to sign death warrants. Emotions get in the way of solutions. If this weakness is not a racial thing, then it is time Nigerian and African leaders began to think their way through the crises that confront them. The only answer the Kaduna and federal governments apparently have for the crisis in Southern Kaduna is to appeal to the sense of patriotism of the combatants, and failing that, to impose peace by force of arms. Through and with the state government, the feds are attempting to bring the combatants to the negotiating table for talks, hoping that the combatants would see reason and sign peace. How peace can be sustained in a rapidly changing society with burgeoning population and modern and complex economic and social relations remains to be seen outside of new and restructured economic and political paradigms.
Mallam el-Rufai has given indication of his ardent desire for peace in that troubled part of his state. Perhaps his wishes are genuine. But neither by his statements nor his demeanour, nor even by his appreciation of issues and loyalties, has he shown the right capacity needed to manage that increasingly worsening crisis. He has a cabinet in place, and perhaps a retinue of advisers; but does he not have a few brilliant and independently-minded men and women who can detach themselves from religious and ethnic shackles to meet minds with him over the crisis? Often, Mallam el-Rufai speaks like a sole administrator, someone afflicted by delusion of grandeur, a politician who can never dare to be wrong.
He spoke impetuously and acted unwisely on the Shiite crisis in Zaria, but still sticks to his guns. He fouled the ground over the Southern Kaduna conflict, first by celebrating his ethnic affiliation, and then by placating those who publicly and violently espoused self-help. He has needlessly sought with self-justification to regulate the minutiae of religion by swaddling their practices with a pastiche of unworkable and self-defeating regulations. And rather than seek consensual understanding with his opponents over difficult issues, he has often shown intolerance or even hardened his position. He is of course not the only politician or leader guilty of this atrocious political behaviour. The Buhari presidency flies that same chute, and there are a few governors who simply can’t find the sense of proportion to appreciate the ephemeralness of the tenured power they hold.
Mallam el-Rufai assumed office with boundless goodwill and great popular enthusiasm. He should seek to regain that lost hope. His resolve to start another round of controversy with the Catholic Archdiocese of Kafanchan over the controversial casualty figures of the Southern Kaduna killings is needless and diversionary. He has already promised to get the security agencies to interrogate Vicar General Ibrahim Yakubu who released a figure the government believes to be exaggerated. Said the governor: “…It was the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan that said 808 Christians were killed. It is false and the bishop would be interrogated, and if he fails to explain, he would pay for it.” Reminded by reporters that such an interrogation could be perceived as persecution, the governor said he didn’t care. In his words: “Let it happen, I am here, I am the governor, try it and see what I would do to him. A person that incites others to kill and not be accountable would not be under my watch. I am reporting that Bishop, I am waiting for him, if he doesn’t explain, I am personally going to write a letter to Pope so that he doesn’t make him Cardinal…”
If Mallam el-Rufai is a wise man, he should care. As governor, he has himself said many provocative things and sometimes behaved unseemly in a way that makes it difficult for him to convince a section of the state that he could be trusted to be neutral. Even the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) figures he seems to rely on are themselves tentative and sometimes unreliable, not to talk of the security agencies’ figures which he acknowledged to be at odds with one another. Mallam el-Rufai is a hard-working governor impatient to develop his state. He should be encouraged. But he is not a convinced democrat, and he has not demonstrated the wisdom, detachment and restraint a leader needs to govern a complex, multicultural and multi-religious society like Kaduna. For someone who is so eloquent but seldom right, he should talk less and spend more time acquiring the virtues and gifts needed to rule fairly and firmly.
