Isn’t the President the Commander-In-Chief?

During his visit to Kuje Medium Security Correctional Centre that was attacked by terrorists last week, President Muhammadu Buhari asked some questions that left many people wondering if he is still the Commander-In-Chief of the nation’s armed forces.

The President asked, “How did the defences at the prison fail to prevent the attack? How many inmates were in the facility? How many of them can you account for? How many personnel did you have on duty? How many of them were armed? Were there guards on the watchtower? What did they do? Does the CCTV work?”

He added, “I am disappointed with the intelligence system. How can terrorists organize, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it?”

These are questions that as the Commander-In-Chief, who gets daily security briefing, the president should have answers to. It is disconcerting that the President would come into the public to ask these questions.

Then, rather than taking immediate actions that would force those in charge to sit up and take their jobs more seriously, the President asked to be furnished with a comprehensive report on the incident. Shortly after the visit, he headed out of the country to Dakar in Senegal to attend the International Development Association for Africa Summit.

No sanction from the President and no reprimand from him despite that the country has witnessed series of terrifying jailbreaks in the last three years. Since there has not been any reprimand, the minister under whose watch jailbreaks have become notorious is still holding on to his job, the Controller General during whose tenure Nigerians have become more aware of jailbreaks is still sitting pretty in his office and the Correctional Controllers who superintended over the facilities that suffered breaches are still in charge. So, what is the deterrence? How will there be a decline in the trend?

The most worrying part of the whole scenario is that as far as the President is concerned, he has said what he has to say and has done what he has to do and has moved on. He can no longer be bothered. The next time we hear the President talk about this menace plaguing the whole nation is when there is another catastrophe that never ceases to claim lives. Rather than being the Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces, President Muhammadu Buhari has made himself the Mourner-In-Chief and Lamenter-In-Chief of the nation. He visits scenes of tragedy, mourns, laments or calls for prayers and moves on.  So sad.

Nigerians filed out on February 23, 2019 to elect a Commander-In-Chief, not a Lamenter-In-Chief. Nigerians voted for someone who they believed would live out the dictate of his responsibility of protecting life and property as enshrined in the constitution, not someone who would keep lamenting the situation or continue to blame others without doing enough to protect the citizens.

The President’s lamentation over the nation’s security challenges leaves a bitter state in the mouth because great leaders don’t act that way. In critical moments, leaders don’t show that they are either helpless or not in charge.

Leaders don’t resign to fate. As a matter of fact, the essence of leadership is to proffer solutions to the people’s challenges. Leaders are not elected to lament a situation neither are they appointed to blame others for a problem; leaders are elected or appointed to fix what is wrong in the society. Finito.

Problems persist mainly for one reason: the lack of will to find solutions to them. The unwillingness usually is either because some people profit from the problem or because the people concerned are disinclined to engage in the mental rigour required to find a solution to the problem. Whenever leaders demonstrate the will to solve a problem, nothing stops them.

When Hannibal, the legendary Carthage commander, was told by his military generals that it was impossible to cross the Alps with elephants, Hannibal’s response was simple, “I will either find a way or make one.” He did find a way.

A retreat into history:

Winston Churchill took over from Neville Chamberlain as the British Prime Minister in the first year of World War II. Though it was a difficult time for the British Empire, the new Prime Minister did not roll out any pity party; neither did he lament Chamberlain’s handling of the situation. Churchill knew that victory was dependent on what he did with the resources at his disposal. So, at his first meeting with the House of Commons, he gave an unforgettable speech. Churchill said, “We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

• Top 10 Business Ideas In Nigeria You Can Start With 100,000 Naira

• Lunatics Have Taken Over Affairs Of Nigeria ― Obi

• How To Detect Fake Bank Alerts

Churchill led his country to victory at last.

Mr President, in this battle against terrorism in Nigeria, your aim should be victory, “victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.”

Mr President, enough of the excuses, enough of the lamentations, enough of the blame game. Find a way to protect life and property in Nigeria or make one. Find a way to defeat terror in Nigeria or find one. That is not too much to ask of a President and Commander-In-Chief. Or is it?