Many Nigerians, including well-educated and enlightened ones, have been shouting themselves hoarse on what they perceived to be either inaction of, or weakness on the part of the Muhammadu Buhari led Federal Government in the face of festering crises across the country.
The crises so far, are of different dimensions, modes and directions.
There is the Boko Haram insurgency which is essentially waging war against Nigeria as a nation, with an international dimension.
There is the Niger Delta militancy, which threatens the economy of the country, in addition to the destruction or pollution of the environment.
There was, and should we say, is still the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), a secessionist group attempting to form a new country by taking the Southeast out of the Nigerian nation.
There is, as it is now, Fulani herdsmen that have gone berserk, killing people, especially in Benue, Taraba and other North Central states of the country.
In between these series of crises, had been the input from the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), otherwise known as Shiite, led by Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky of Zaria in Kaduna State. The group allegedly formed its own kind of government around Zaria and challenged the authority of the Nigerian government.
At every point in the rise of each of these crises, Nigerians have shouted against, or for the federal government, depending on which side the opposition groups belong.
Like we in Greenbarge Reporters noticed earlier, the educated and enlightened ones among Nigerians who ordinarily should analyse the situations and explain them professionally for the rest to understand, have joined in the shouting, so much that the country has been turned into a huge confusionist conglomerate.
Indeed, the educated and enlightened ones as well as not so educated ones have taken refuge in turning every crisis into a huge political discourse, burying the constitutional reality, against the background of the federalism we are practicing.
[quote]Indeed, the educated and enlightened ones as well as not so educated ones have taken refuge in turning every crisis into a huge political discourse, burying the constitutional reality, against the background of the federalism we are practicing.[/quote]
In the first place, the federalism confers some kind of independency on state governments/governors. It is in such a way that governors are chief security officers in their respective states, though, with a flawed structure that makes the security foot-soldiers to be controlled by the centre.
With a situation such as this, where the governors assume the role of chief security officers but have to rely on the federal security apparatus to operate, the centre would always have to decide, carefully or otherwise, which security situation in which state requires the deployment of its wholly-owned security agents. And this, perhaps, is where the confusion comes in.
Many Nigerians have blamed President Buhari for deploying heavy security to repel the IPOB, Niger Delta militants, El-Zakzaky group and even Boko Haram, but has refused to do the same in the case of Fulani killings in parts of the country.
Either out of ignorance or as a deliberate action, ensconced in the usual political garb, most of the educated Nigerians ignore the fact that IPOB, Boko Haram and Shiite group have the same thing in common – secessionist tendencies – which no nation would take lightly. The modus operandis of secession is, indeed, grounded on total confrontation against the sovereignty of Nigeria and therefore, a matter that requires the federal might: it is not an issue for any part (state) of the country. The same thing can be said of the Niger Delta militancy, whose operatives sought to run the country down economically and, to, ostensibly, carve a new nation for themselves.
[quote]Either out of ignorance or as a deliberate action, ensconced in the usual political garb, most of the educated Nigerians ignore the fact that IPOB, Boko Haram and Shiite group have the same thing in common – secessionist tendencies – which no nation would take lightly.[/quote]
But, we must not run away from the truth, the issue of Fulani is clearly about the way and manner their hosts treat them. As a matter of fact, it is a truism that no confirmed mad man would display his madness to a person that shows him love, even in his madness.
[quote]But, we must not run away from the truth, the issue of Fulani is clearly about the way and manner their hosts treat them[/quote]
It is, of course, always convenience for people with bias mind to look at one sided part of the issue, but fact remains that if the hosts of Fulani herdsmen have shown some form of compassion, accommodation and understanding towards them, even when they display their ‘madness,’ there would have been no cause for them to go haywire. After all, they say, it takes two to tango.
Having said that, we believe that if there is anything that needs to be restructured in the Nigerian structure as a nation, it is the issue of allowing state governments to have their own police, though with its obvious danger of being abused by overzealous governors.
We consider it as unfortunate, a situation where we all shout about restructure and none of us has been forthcoming on pushing it to the point it would be practically realised.
For more than a decade, the nation’s educated elites have been shouting themselves hoarse about restructuring, but none has actually defined the specific things to be restructured, much more, the way to go about it.
For more than a decade, the nation’s educated elites have been shouting themselves hoarse about restructuring, but none has actually defined the specific things to be restructured, much more, the way to go about it.
[quote]For more than a decade, the nation’s educated elites have been shouting themselves hoarse about restructuring, but none has actually defined the specific things to be restructured, much more, the way to go about it.[/quote]
All we think is politics in the context of restructuring, using the term to hit at the leader or leaders that we don’t like, which has never solved our fundamental problem as people.
And, in any case, are our elites expecting or saying that the President should wake up one day and begin to roll out restructuring model for Nigeria?
On whose authority? Only him? Simply because he is President? When he is not a dictator?
[myad]
