How to end insecurity in the North

Why do we love to deceive ourselves in Nigeria? Politicians have destroyed the North. They are good at paying solidarity visits after people have been killed, to commiserate with “our brother governor,” in his trying moments. Solidarity visits for symbolism sake cannot change the tide of insecurity bothering the North. Religious leaders that should speak truth to power call on God to help Nigerians instead of asking man to help man.

They have helped politicians to not be accountable to man; politics and democracy are both creations of man and not God and all (politics and democracy) have failed Nigerians.

Purpose matters in politics and all of these people have lost sight of the reasons for which they entered politics, if it isn’t to make money; they bother more about pay cheque more than looking at context, there is a special responsibility placed on leaders when it comes to security of lives and properties.

The challenges of security in Nigeria need insights from many perspectives and not from perspectives of solidarity visits, dialogue, collaborative approaches but also from the approach of using the bully pulpit which has helped man since the beginning of civilization.

That is what is missing in Nigeria and the North. People get away with all manner of depraved behavior because of the absence of big-men on the bully pulpit. I don’t mean using the bully pulpit to deal with political enemies.

The acceptable numbers of deaths of soldiers on war front, I gather, shouldn’t exceed thirty per cent; if more than thirty per cent of soldiers on the war front die in battle, commanding officers must give justifiable reasons or face the military music.

Why shouldn’t politicians face political music and police face police music for the harrowing numbers of deaths in Nigeria?

The president need to stop junketing around the world for needless reasons when people are dying everyday in Nigeria. He has lost traction. He should instruct the Inspector General of Police to dismiss commissioners of police in states where there have been repeated cases of senseless killings in a country not at war with a foreign nation. He should also empower commissioners of police to dismiss divisional police officers in regions where killings go on unabated above a particular threshold.

Sit back and watch the effect. These killings would stop within days. No one loves losing plum job with no pension. These people have held us by the jugular for too long. If these go on, the president should dismiss the Inspector General of Police even if it means recruiting an IG every other month.

Next stop; ask the governors in the North to be governors in deed with love for the duties of governor and not in love with roles only. Failure to do this should lead him to declare a state of emergency for months as the constitution permits. Would these lots love to be out of office for one day? Bring in well trained soldierly administrators to deal with these senseless bandits.

If all of these efforts fail, the president does not have any moral right to remain on the peacock throne but to resign the office of president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

 Simon Abah,

Abuja