by Michael Orodare

What attracted me most in that report was this phrase where you said: “I HAVE GOT THE TELEPHONE NUMBERS AND CONTACTS OF KEY BOKO HARAM MEMBERS AND I WILL MEET WITH THEM.”

Dear National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), when in 2012 you were appointed as an NSA, we saw in you a burning passion to put an end to the insurgency in the Northern part of this nation because your moves then gave us hope.

Many doubted your capacity to function effectively as NSA, but some of us kept hope alive with the fact that you hail from the Northern part of the country where the insurgents carry out their nefarious acts. We believe ‘the son of the soil’ should know better and should be better connected to solve the problem in his neighbourhood.

On assumption of office in 2012, you demonstrated some commendable concerns to tackle the Boko Haram onslaught, with the stakeholders meetings you promised to hold with State Governments, religious and traditional leaders from the volatile areas. This gave us a sigh of relief and we were more convinced that you were indeed ‘on point’.

If you’ve not forgotten sir, shortly after your assumption of office, you were quoted in July 2012 to have told the media that; “I was in Yobe and Borno States last week and I have got the telephone numbers and contacts of key Boko Haram members and I will meet with them. I saw the dangerous effect of Boko Haram in these states and what I saw was pathetic. But I have the mandate to put heads together with religious and traditional leaders as well as the state governments to ensure an immediate ceasefire.”

You even told us that the “cogent message in all the meetings held so far with some stakeholders is the need for leaders to reach out and prevail on Boko Haram members to cease fire so as to create room for dialogue.”

What attracted me most in that report was this phrase where you said: “I HAVE GOT THE TELEPHONE NUMBERS AND CONTACTS OF KEY BOKO HARAM MEMBERS AND I WILL MEET WITH THEM.”

But we are so much concerned and worried that after about 20-months of making these pronouncements and boasted of having the strategy to solve the insurgency, we are yet to feel the impact of your strategies. The insurgency keeps escalating every day. We’ve recorded more dreaded attacks in the last 20-months when you assured us of a cease fire.

Saying we’ve not felt your impact since assumption of office as an NSA, must be an understatement. While the killings are taking a notorious dimension, your descent into oblivion has also taking a drastic turn.

Of course as an NSA, we don’t expect to see you addressing the media every day, but we expect to see the result of your strategies in the media. Your works should speak for you.

We are not prisoners to the fact that you are not Jesus Christ and we ain’t expecting from you, the kind of miracle Jesus performed on the sea when He commanded the storm to be still. Solving security challenge is a gradual process, but it’s been 20-months of waiting and we’re losing our patience.

We have begun to wonder, what has happened to all those stakeholders meetings you held when you assumed office? What has become of the phone numbers of Boko Haram leaders you told us you have, which will speed up the solution process.

Sir, with all sense of humility, it seems your strategies are not working or you are simply not applying them. Could it be that you are afraid of stepping on toes?

I think you will be doing yourself a lot of good than bad if you step on toes and if possible on heads to put an end to this bloody rampage by the extremist Boko Haram group. Sir, that young ‘Musa’ who died in the Yobe FGC killing could have been your son, the young ‘Mohammed’ could have been your cousin’s son and your daughter could have been one of those 20 young girls abducted by the Boko Haram sect. It could have been a close relative sir and still could be any of them tomorrow, if it doesn’t stop now.

If you can’t apply those your touted strategies now and curtail the insurgency after your many years experience in the Nigerian Army and as a former Aide-de-camp (ADC) to a former military Head of State, I wonder when you are going to apply them, or is it when the whole of the North is wiped out by a tiny insurgent group?

Sir, I conclude by saying that if you fail to stand up and act now at this perilous time that this nation needs you, history has its own record for you and will surely place you where you belong. I believe you know that you were appointed for such a time as this, so make it count!

Sincerely

Michael Orodare.

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Michael Olanrewaju Orodare has worked in the Office of the Chief Press Secretary to the Ondo State Governor as a Media Assistant. He has garnered experience writing in the The Nation Newspaper working with the paper’s Sunday Desk. He leans towards the Labour Party. He blogs at www.michaelorodare.blogspot.com and tweets from @MichaelOrodare

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.