Malami’s gaffe and FG’s insincerity 

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, unwittingly revealed the real reason behind the Federal Government’s inability to check the menace of killer herdsmen, who have been ravaging many parts of the country over the years, leaving in their trail destruction, death and dirge.

Malami, while reacting to southern governors’ ban on open grazing during a Channels Television interview programme, had opined that the governors’ decision was unconstitutional and could not be enforced.

According to him, “It is about constitutionality within the context of the freedoms expressed in our constitution. Can you deny the rights of a Nigerian?

“For example: it is as good as saying, perhaps, maybe, the northern governors coming together to say they prohibit spare parts trading in the north.

“Does it hold water? Does it hold water for a northern governor to come and state expressly that he now prohibits spare parts trading in the north?”

Two things came out clearly from Malami’s position. The first is the insincerity of the government to curb the excesses of the herdsmen and the second is the limitation of the understanding of the nation’s Chief Law Officer about the laws of the land.

Shortly after his assumption of office as the president in 2015, the herdsmen’s heinous activities escalated. So, President Muhammadu Buhari has, since 2016, been issuing directives for a clampdown on the herdsmen but rather than the de-escalation of their criminality, they have gone about it with an unprecedented ferocity that has forced many farmers to abandon their farms and many villagers to flee their homesteads.

Following a raid by herdsmen on Ukpabi Nimbo community in Enugu State, which resulted in the death of 20 people on Monday, April 25, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the security forces to crack down on the herders. The President specifically ordered soldiers and the police “to go after the groups terrorising innocent people all over the country” and “secure all communities under attack by herdsmen. This government will not allow these attacks to continue.”

But that was a mere bark without a bite. The order neither resulted in the herdsmen being arrested nor the communities becoming better secure.

The same fate befell another order issued by President Buhari while he was on a one-day working visit to Nasarawa State on February 6, 2018. The President, overwhelmed by the atrocities of the herdsmen, directed security operatives to arrest and prosecute anyone found with illegal arms in the country. The President, while lamenting the spate of reckless killings of innocent citizens across the nation, said “all attacks by suspected herdsmen will no longer be tolerated in north central and elsewhere in Nigeria.”

But the Presidential order has not changed anything with respect to the attacks. Since the order was given, more people have been killed by the herdsmen, more women have been raped and more farms have been laid waste by them.

So bad is the situation that President Buhari himself lamented recently that his orders were not being obeyed. According to a statement issued by Femi Adesina, Buhari’s Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), after the President hosted the Economic Advisory Committee (EAC) headed by Professor Doyin Salami, the President, who bemoaned that some people were mercilessly against the country said, “I said shoot anyone found illegally with AK-47, yet they haven’t stopped.”

So, why would a presidential order fail to accomplish the desired end? Why would the command of the Commander-In-Chief not be executed by the troops? The reason is not shrouded in any mystery. It is just because it was never meant to achieve its aim. As painful as this may seem, all the orders given by President Buhari to curtail the murderous and ruinous adventures of the herdsmen were nothing but a placebo; they were not meant to solve the problem but only to give a semblance of attending to the issue without actually meaning to end the problem.

The indication to this is what Malami said. The AGF does not believe that the herdsmen should be restricted to any part of the country or refrain from any part of the country. If the Chief Law Officer holds this position, how would the government under which he serves unleash its military might on those who are not considered as the enemies of the state, even if they kill thousands? So, all that the government says about ending herdsmen activities are nothing but words meant to calm the aggrieved without curing the menace.

Apart from exposing the Federal Government’s insincerity, Malami’s gaffe also exposed his shallowness and constrained capacity. While trying to rubbish the position taken by the southern governors on open grazing, the only analogy he could think of was an incongruent one.

The AGF likened spare parts business to open grazing. Pray, where is the connection? How is a registered business, which spare parts merchandising is, similar to an activity which involves killing and maiming? What is the link between a business with a known address with one that is about roaming and roving? How is a business which pays taxes and fees to government similar to one that despoils people and destroys property? Pray, where is the connection?

The tragedy of this is not that the AGF is flippant; the real tragedy is that he operates at the highest level in the land, where decisions that determine the destiny of over two hundred million citizens of the country are taken. If the AGF could not rise above tribal and ethnic sentiments over issues such as this, what would be the quality of his interventions at the Federal Executive Council? No leader is better than the quality of counsel he has access to. If President Buhari is surrounded by the likes of Mallam Abubakar Malami, is it any wonder then that our country has been going downhill since 2015? How can a country become great when those that decide its fate are minions?

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