The missing 100,000 people in Borno State and related issues surrounding the general insecurity in the country, especially in the North has been a matter of grave concern to the government and all of us. For me, the sadness which the grim picture deposits in the human psyche has been burning in my mind since the state governor spoke. Imagine if the missing 100,000 people were to be people of a tribe? Think about the 100,000 people as a local government of more than one tribe or even a town. Imagine what demography could be packed into 100,000 people. The figure given by the governor of the state, Professor Babagana Zulum, did not state the number of men, women and children (girls, boys) in the missing chunk of the Borno State population.
What we have in our hands is a semblance of the disappearance of an entire geographic entity; the wiping out of a significant part of us. Governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Zulum, did not speak about the dead during his lamentations in Zamfara. Of what use would that helpless case be? As humans, we cannot do anything about all-powerful death, but we can at least speak up for the internally displaced and the injured. The governor might have thought about the sudden destitute, poor Nigerians who have turned beggars despite all their bequest and hard work.
The Borno governor gave figures that should elicit an emergency action by the presidency and the defence headquarters. Among other things, the state has to grapple with 50,000 widows he lamented. There are 900,000 houses (could mean homes too); 5,000 classrooms; 800 municipal buildings which he said included police stations, local government secretariats and traditional rulers’ abodes that have all been destroyed by the terrorists. Zulum has also sent a dangerous postcard with the message: ‘The terrorists are not done yet’. He who feels it knows it and he has hinted that the terrorists were growing in all ramifications – population, education and sophistication. The picture is grim and from his vantage position, he has given us a glimpse. The government might be doing a lot of things, but the figures from Zulum should not melt into.
Governor Zulum, who was in Gusau, shared his pains with his equally beleaguered counterpart, Alhaji Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State. They shared the figures of gloom and compared the heart-throbbing statistics. Matawalle said in his own homestead, he is faced with o fewer than 25,000 orphans; 27,000 widows, 3,000 homes destroyed and 400,000 livestock rustled. These figures are not for pity but can lead to opprobrium. However, it would be in the best interest for the relevant authorities to step up action and bring the violence under control.
They comparison of grim, disturbing figures by the governors of Borno and Zamfara states is unlike sitting in cozy offices to ruminate over plans and heart worries. If it is anything like it, their tales would leave the citizenry in deep worry and to their feelings. Thus, the story of Borno and Zamfara are bad enough as a testimony for a federal government that came with a gamut of promises, chief among which is to secure Nigeria and drive away Boko Haram. We can all infer from Zamfara and Borno the extent to which the government has gone in keeping its promise of defeating Boko haram and securing the country, “Leading from the front.”
Katsina, the home state of the president is another kettle of fish. Masari and one of the Emirs there said they don’t sleep with their two eyes closed. They told the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, when he visited the state that they are being decimated, that they are helpless. The people of Katsina were, before now lamenting their own situation in a kind of smoulder, like the inaudible grumble. They have increased the cry to a whimper. One only hopes that the people would stop trying to tell of their worries without speaking up. Interestingly, all of us the helpless are indeed helpless indeed because we have not been able to speak up. We are tongue-tied.
Kaduna is another kettle of fish.
The issues in security are one of the many ugly facets of the current jaggedness of the Buhari Nigeria. One of the other issues that concern nearly all in the nooks and crannies of the country is the pending and precariously dangling amended Electoral Act. As written in this space before, the president’s disposition and body language are not looking like he is favourably disposed to signing the amended bill. This, as noted earlier would surely pass as a spite of the people of the country as represented by their representatives in the National Assembly.
The country waited patiently the last time to have President Buhari fulfill his promise of bequeathing an electoral system that would stand as a legacy for Nigeria. Stakeholders in the Nigerian election system and indeed concerned Nigerians had to tarry in heavy suspense till the last minute before the president eventually returned the bill unsigned. He had asked that some amendments be made, and that it needed some twitching here and there as regards some of its provisions. He thereby piled pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the National Assembly. But the members of the legislature, against all expectations responded and acted expeditiously on the requests of the president. Now, to have a fresher, more comprehensive electoral law, the waiting has begun again for the president’s assent.
Now the country awaits the fulfillment of the president’s promise to sign the electoral act amendment bill if his observations were taken care of by the lawmakers. The amendment of the act is at the heart of the coming elections and the president now holds all the aces. If President Buhari does not sign the amended electoral act as he promised, then we should question his integrity and his intentions for an egalitarian Nigeria. We worry about disturbing figures from Borno, Zamfara, Kaduna and other states, we should not have the president as a source of worry because he is not listening to us.
and then