Last Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari held a meeting with service and security chiefs as well as some ministers and special advisers, during which he gave a marching order to the police and security heads to rescue all kidnapped people in different parts of the country.
The National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, who briefed State House correspondents after the meeting, said, “The President has directed all the operational and intelligence elements to rescue all of these innocent people immediately and unhurt. This is the basis on which other issues were discussed.”
Ordinarily, the presidential order should have elicited hope and joy in not just the relations of the abducted people but the nation as a whole. But that has not been the case because President Buhari is given to giving orders that have little or no effect.
The day after the unfortunate attack on the Kaduna-bound train, President Muhammadu Buhari convened a meeting with his security chiefs where he received briefings from them. According to a statement issued by Mallam Garba Shehu, Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity), the President gave a marching order to the military to deal ruthlessly with the terrorists. He also directed them not to spare anyone in unlawful possession of AK 47 rifles.
But almost four weeks after, the military has not been able to do much. Over 100 of the abductees are still in captivity. None of them has been rescued, only a few people who were able to pay the huge ransom imposed by the captors have been released. Since there has been no deterrent from the government or any of its agencies, the terrorists have been emboldened and have even threatened to kill those in captivity unless their families are able to come forward with the ransom.
In August 2017, President Buhari, during a meeting with the Service Chiefs and heads of security agencies, gave a marching order to all security agencies to immediately address all security challenges confronting all parts of the country.
Former Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonishakin, who briefed journalists after the meeting said, “The President has directed on some areas we should look at so as to enhance our operations within the country. He talked about the unity of the nation, which is non-negotiable and we have been fully instructed to ensure that the directive is carried out to the letter.”
But despite the order, insecurity in the country escalated. This probably informed the decision of Mr President to issue another marching order to the security chiefs in March 2021 to take out bandits, kidnappers and their sponsors. When there was no improvement in the situation, the President, later in the year, in December, once again gave a marching order to the military, the police and their chiefs to end insurgency before the expiration of his tenure in 2023.
But all the marching orders have availed little or nothing.
Following the rising cases of killing and kidnapping in Zamfara State, President Buhari, in April 2019, issued a marching order to the nation’s security chiefs to deal ruthlessly with the bandits and kidnappers operating in the state and its environs as well as to tackle other security challenges in other parts of the country. The order was issued after the President met with heads of the nation’s security outfits at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Seeing that the marching order had no effect, President Buhari again, in January 2021, gave security chiefs a marching order to end killings and banditry in the state. According to a statement by Garba Shehu, the order was contained in a directive to the National Security Adviser, Monguno.
But over the years, and despite many marching orders, there has not been a change in the state of security in Zamfara. In one of the terrorists’ attacks in March this year, 16 persons were killed in Ganar Kiyawa village of Bukkuyum Local Government Area of the state. Then, as recently as April 13, 2022, five students of the College of Health Technology, Tsafe, in Tsafe Local Government Area of the state, were abducted.
Seeing that neither the Commander In Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces nor his security chiefs could proffer solution to its security challenges, the state government has taken its case to Allah in Mecca. Last week, the state said it had sponsored 97 clerics to Saudi Arabia to pray for an end to banditry in the state.
The major issue with the nation’s security is that President Buhari has failed to own the problem. He is always looking for someone to blame for the situation. If he is not blaming his predecessors, he is blaming the governors, the military or even traditional rulers. His service chiefs have noticed a lack of strong will to end the problem and are capitalising on that to, rather than put an end to the problem, profit from it.
The President is the nation’s Chief Security Officer. That is why he goes by the title of the Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces. But consequent on his many responsibilities as the country’s chief executive officer, he must of necessity delegate certain functions to others. But delegation does not equate abdication. The President must come to terms with the fact that his primary function as the president is to ensure the safety of every Nigerian. If he had an understanding of that, he would not have absolved himself of the blame for the country’s state of security because he had made “strategic decisions and procured ammunitions for the military.” Great leaders don’t shirk their responsibilities, neither do they surrender to problems; they either find a way or make one. That is what stands them out.
Unless President Buhari owns the security problem and finds a way round it, he may go down in history as the peacetime president on whose watch Many Nigerians unjustly lost their lives.
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