Opinion: Government’s insensitivity and the need for collective re-strategy in the North-East

by Abubakar Musa

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we must realize that Mr President (GEJ), who has all the security apparatchiks and buoyant resources under his control, isn’t a southern President but nigeria’s. Unless the North East, for him and them, isn’t part of Nigeria, he must act the same way and with the same vigour with which he would’ve acted if it were in Abuja or the Niger Delta region.

If ever there’s another meaning to insensitivity, the act perpetrated recently by the wanton Boko Haram members adequately fits that bill. However, when confronted with such act as well as insincere and uncommitted leadership at all fronts, the closest to describe it will be “a tragedy”. February 2014, so far, can be regarded as a bloody month. At least if by no one, those from the North East region.

No thanks to the devilish activities of the Boko Haram group. In a country synonymous with perennial ethno-religious violence and at a cross road of a delicate elections year, one would have expected nothing short of adequate security system.

Alas, the continuous attack on innocent citizens by the Boko Haram group exposes the vacuum of strengths within the Nigerian security set up. The BH crisis, for me, is a hoodoo that has reached a particular spellbinding proportions that I can genuinely refer to as a “National curse”. The complexity of their operations and the sophistication of their weapons are a true definition of a ‘professional conventional warfare’. Add to such highly professionalism the issue of conspiracy theories that surround the emergence and sustainability of the killer group, you’ll have in your hands a complex situation that exceeds all your transpositions.

But beyond that, the insincerity and lack of political will and/or motivation demonstrated by the government are the greatest underscores to curbing the insurgency. For example, it took the President almost three years after assuming office to laced his foot on the embattled North East region despite a number of bloodletting happenings.

A visit many believed was a response to the opposition governors’ earlier solidarity visit to the same region. And just recently, while scores of dozens were rendered lifeless by the carnage unleashed upon them and their villages as well as young girls abducted to only God knows where, our unperturbed President was busy massaging the pettiness and seeking the support, politically, of the now irrelevant and sold out traditional leaders across the country. If that’s not a distasteful virtue of leadership, then I know no other.

We are talking of a whole village wiped out and others disintegrated into dysfunctional units occupied by shattered souls mourning their loved ones killed by several successive organized attacks. We are talking of 20 young and promising girls abducted out of no where into the blue sky. And just before we soothe, in our usual way, those fatalistic acts, our ears were fed with yet other terrifying attacks in Gombi LG of Adamawa state and Bama of Borno state. Yet, someone out of the existence of ghost is telling whoever cares to listen that they’re winning the war on terror. What a disrespect to human souls!

What I expected, least, from the President and his team was a visit to the state to identify with the people of the region. We’ve seen in the past where President Obama had to canceled his last hour campaigns to visit Boston and identify with its victims of bomb blasts.

That, alone, describes trust, sincerity, compassion, motivation, and will. Virtues all lacking in Nigeria’s leadership in its quest to ending the menace of BH. As Noam Chomsky depicts in his recently published book titled  “On Western Terrorism — From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare” where he used the term “selective blindness” to picture a vicious cycle occurrence where some crimes are discussed with due moral outrage while, at the same time, others are being hushed up. Nigeria’s situation is exactly the same! Our government and some media outfits are, literally, romancing similar terrain with their act of underreporting and selective coverages. A practice we need to cut off for the good of all.

Many had argued that the state government has the primary responsibility of providing security to its citizens and as such, the governor, being the state chief security officer, should ensure the security rights of the governed. Much as I do not want to take off government’s and individuals’ responsibilities toward ensuring adequate security for all, I need to made a particular point clear. Under any state of emergency, the governor, automatically, seizes to be the chief security officer. The JTF, in the case of Nigeria’s North East, receives orders directly from the defense headquarters, albeit the Service Chiefs, National Security Adviser and the President.

We’ve witnessed, in same North East, an instance where some governors were not consulted before imposing or extending state of emergency across their states and deductions made directly without their due convictions. Besides, the governors are always on ground to sympathize, which is the best they could do under the present circumstance, with the affected victims and/or the villages. Even though visits aren’t enough in dealing with issues of terrorism, at least, it creates a kind of mutual trust between the government and the governed and, perhaps, shows government’s motivation in dealing with people’s core problems.

But my major worry, of course, is the blithe unconcern being continuously expressed by the acclaimed northern leaders with regards to the crisis. The Borno state government and the affected villages leaders’ aside, I’m yet to know, as a group or union, any northern voice that seems concerned on what is becoming a war in the region. The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), and the recently formed Northern Elders Council (NEC) are all, suddenly, voiceless on a matter of not only regional but national importance. This and many of their seemingly unimpressive and jolt-less activities call into question their claimed regional interests and representations as the face of the region.

The ACF and the NEF have recently spoken unequivocally on the proposed National Conference and, their major concern, the issue of where the next President should and shouldn’t comes from. I should’ve expected them to speak with the same rhythm and zeal on this consistent massacres going on in the North East region. To even think that the President was at the Emir of Kano’s palace a day after a tragic manslaughter at Izghe and after series of conversations, the Emir, who not long past escaped narrowly from such attacks, couldn’t mentions the horror activities of BH and tasks the President to commit more is a thought beyond my conceiving grace. What an APATHY!

The northern governors on the other hand had, until recently, care less in forming a common force and a unifying voice despite their regular presence at the state council’s meetings. Their interest is more on revenues allocation formula and future elective/appointment positions. They’ve failed to put aside their egos, political differences and personal interests for the common good of those they governed, the region, and the nation at large.

Until the recent incidents at Izghe and Konduga, I can’t remember when last the Northern governors met and came out with meaningful resolutions. I wouldn’t want to believe that their action is a day late and a dollar short, but I do hope it’ll be the beginning of an end to the terrifying bloodbath going on across the region.

There are some holding the believe that the federal government and the JTF have exhausted all the possible exploitative means in combating the BH’s nihilistic act. But wait, have they?

Dealing with terrorism is a battle of arms and ideas. The BH insurgents are typically, as rightly pointed out by the Borno state governor recently, highly motivated and possesses superior intelligence operating unit compares to the federal government’s weak operating system. No insurgency can be defeated without occupying and transforming the occupied society. This is because the strength of BH lies in their relationship with the general population. The relationship provides to them a logistic base and an intelligence apparatus to operate perfectly. It also, mostly, provides them sanctuary by allowing them to blend into the population and disappear under pressure.

Severing this relationship is highly essential in curtailing their plans and tracking their bases. A logic the Nigerian security agents consistently, deliberately or otherwise, fail to harbor. It’s as clear as crystal that the Nigerian security outfits’ understanding and interpretations of both guerilla and conventional warfare is highly handicapped.

So also their responses! Seeking the services of security experts, intelligent marshals, sociological and/or psychological personnels is something I do not think the government has exploited. May be not well enough to effects the desired results. There’s also the alternative of asymmetric warfare, where highly trained infantry units are deployed on a clearly defined mission but are not dependent on the local population. They usually avoid the general population, operating independently with informations from highly reliable and mutually trusted minimal contacts. These are all alternative strategies the government and the JTF should looked onto.

The rivalry going on among the country’s security’s high ranks is most unfortunate. Influenced by ethno-religious sentiments and enormous resources allocated to them, such crack is a serious undermining factor to ending the BH insurgency. There’s also the issue of grand corruption leading to the usage of massively worn out ammunitions despite a whopping budget of 1 trillion Naira the defense Minister and, by default, Mr President sit on annually. Rendering the stability of a region highly uncertain. Producing emergency millionaires and billionaires alike at the collective expense of innocent souls. Most of the arms being used by the JTF are as old as the region, less effective, and a cut below compare to the highly sophisticated weapons at the disposals of the insurgents.

Democracy is the antithesis of terrorist tyranny and every terrorist group can go far to denounce it. The terrorists operate based on a set of narrow beliefs with burgeoning propaganda. Unfortunately, as seen recently where the President was silent on issues of attacks and abducted young girls, the government do not promotes freedom right and human dignity as alternative to the terrorist’s version of oppression. The government do not also provides advance effective democratic platforms that will challenge the radical ideology which inspires people into joining the movement.

There’s the ill conceived thought by some amnesiac bigots that the pertinacious butchery is a northern affair and as such, they must deal with it themselves. Much as I believe the north must contributes truthfully and in an effortful manner in dealing with this issue, we must realize that Mr President (GEJ), who has all the security apparatchiks and buoyant resources under his control, isn’t a southern President but nigeria’s. Unless the North East, for him and them, isn’t part of Nigeria, he must act the same way and with the same vigour with which he would’ve acted if it were in Abuja or the Niger Delta region.

Conclusively, to borrow the words of Chris Ngwodo, “By characterizing conflicts as religious or ethnic even they are patently about resources and power, terrorists are encouraged to escalate their violence by claiming heavenly or historical motivations for their profane agendas. From being susceptible to solutions rooted in good governance, justice and social security, the hostilities mutate into generational cycles of strife and vengeance.

Because the combatants perceive not only their lives but souls and identities to be at stake, conflict becomes an existential continuum, impelling communities to seek their salvation by destroying others. We must “secularize” these conflicts by stripping them off their ethno-religious labels. This will de-legitimize warlords who rely on myths of sacred identities to forment conflict.”  The whole words above point to one basic fact — the need to come out of our obsession with denials and re-strategize by facing the reality at hand. May the souls of the departed continue to rest in peace.

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

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