[size=17pt]Panadol for another person’s headache![/size]

Posted by: Mike Kebonkwu in Columnists, Tuesday 8 days ago

Tackling insecurity in Nigeria has become like a relentless migraine headache to both the Federal Government and the security services. The more we are told that the security forces will soon defeat the Boko Haram insurgents, the more grounds and territory the sect takes with trails of tears and blood. To put things in the right perspective, it is pertinent to ask ourselves some basic fundamental questions.

Are we truly winning the war against the Boko Haram insurgents? It does not seem so. The security forces from evidence have lost more grounds and equipment to the group in the recent past than any other time and have turned the weapons so seized against the military. Do we have the capacity to fight the war? Perhaps yes; but the military has not shown any appetite and commitment as troops are reported to be abandoning and fleeing their locations at the rumoured or real approach of the Boko Haram. Do we have the political will? No evidence. All we have is the political class playing politics with not just insecurity but every other thing that matters in the life of the masses of people and the nation at large. Do we have the right leadership? What we have across board and political divides do not reflect right leadership.

We have the misfortune of a leadership that is in power and government but not in charge and control of anything. Leaders that cannot put their ministers and Special Advisers (SAs) in check even when they cross the red line of law and morality. We have leaders who are incapable of fighting the monster called corruption but rather perceived attacks on official corruption as a personal attack on them and their offices by the opposition. Indeed, under the present dispensation, corruption has become a lifestyle just as the anti graft agencies have become comatose and dazed. The fugitives who were cleared of corruption charges by the judiciary in Nigeria perhaps on the evidence available to them have been convicted in Europe on the same allegations with copious evidence. The police till date and indeed the authorities concerned are still not able to prosecute the bribe taking members of the National Assembly in the Femi Otedola petroleum subsidy scandal. What we see is unnecessary inter-agencies rivalry and competition for attention on the tube and print media giving mere impressions of performance to justify their budgetary allocation. This is why till date, the alleged mastermind of the Nyanya bomb blast has not be arraigned, no thanks to the conflict between the Directorate of State Security and the Police on who should undertake the prosecution.

Is the situation hopeless? Methinks with the right mentality and patriotic fervour, we could change the tide and create new consciousness and new value system that will make us begin to appreciate democratic ethos and respect for law and order as well as the rule of law. For now, we are mired in a state of anomie and sinking deeper in despondency as security of life and property are slipping out of the hands of the state while the Boko Haram insurgents inch closer to a statehood. Rather than confront the problem and fight the cause with patriotic zeal to regain our national pride and territorial integrity, we are blaming our so-called ‘international partners.” Why would the United States or Britain for that matter take Panadol for our own headache?

It does not make any common sense that our leaders could find it convenient to tell the whole world that we are losing the fight against the Boko Haram terrorists because America refuses to sell arms to us or provide intelligence to our security forces in our soil and territory. Our grouse against the so-called international partners for not coming to our aid in the fight against insurgency is a misguided display of infantile reasoning akin to a lazy workman blaming his tool for his failure. What kind of people are we that we appear so sedated and dazed as not to know how to use our head and common sense in the face of challenges? It is not now that we should be talking about equipping our military? What has happened to the huge budgetary allocations to the Defence Ministry over the years?

Look at the show of shame in the premises of the National Assembly where the Nigerian Police and other security agents refused the Speaker entry into the National Assembly Complex. It is a despicable act of unparallel dimension and a gross violation of the sanctity of any known democratic norm. It has become obvious from the theatre of absurd that we have watched in the past five or so years that our political leaders of today under whatever guise or disguise and under whatever political apparition and platform have chosen to revel on the grave and misfortune of the Nigerian people. We should not be looking for enemies from outside, these crop of politicians are working towards breaking up the country from their actions and inactions, from what they have done and what they have failed to do.

In less than 24 hours after the Nyanya bomb blast, we saw our leaders and politicians celebrating at a political rally in Kano. In less than 24 hours after the killing of over 45 students in Potiskum, our politicians in their blind quest for power gathered at the Eagle Square Abuja in a political carnival subjecting residents of Abuja and environs to a most harrowing and gruesome torture flocking virtually every road that leads to the FCT.
Just as we are worrying about the unrelenting insecurity in the North-east and the expiration of the state of emergency and what next to do, our politicians are at it again scheming to impeach the Speaker of the House of Representatives who has defected to the opposition party. Look at the imbecility displayed by the Nigerian Police and some other security agencies. Which court orders were they enforcing? What has happened to those who had defected to other parties in the past; what kind of puerile selective justice are we applying in this country? In all this, we want America and Britain to come and carry our cross. Every public analyst and even our revered clerics that you would ascribe some modicum of knowledge of morality have sunk into that infantile logic that we are not able to defeat insurgency because America has refused to give us weapons and supply us with intelligence. It is a shame indeed that this could be the defence of our government even through diplomatic channel of our envoy to America.

It is a truism that the Nigerian military has been battle tested at home and abroad in International Peacekeeping engagements to the admiration and pride of every Nigerian and our international partners. However, the story coming from the theatre of operation in containing the insurgency about local hunters reclaiming towns and cities abandoned by fleeing soldiers should be a source of worry to any Nigerian that has the interest of the nation at heart. How did we get to this level of total and complete loss of sense of commitment to our land? The fractious nature of our army today and reversal of fortune in gallantry is due mainly to meddlesomeness by the political class who prefer to promote ethno-religious sentiments to serve their interest. In addition, there appears to be a paucity of critical leadership at the top echelon of Military High Command who care little about quality of personnel.

If at all we have a sensible leadership, it should occur to us that America is not the only known market for arms and weaponry. Syria today, does not rely on the weapons from America and Britain and the country has held out against formidable foes. Sudan has held out against rebel groups in Darfur and the Republic of South Sudan not with the weapons from America and Britain. Lately, Egypt has decided to look elsewhere for weapons and armament when threatened by America and Britain on charges of human rights abuses. We should stop chasing shadows and face our problems as a nation; nobody takes panadol for someone else’s headache; Americans have their own problem.

• Kebonkwu Esq writes from Abuja

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