Service chiefs as scapegoats

SECURITY of lives and properties as embedded in the rights of individuals appears to be the main focus of many political philosophers in time past as the panacea for peace, tranquility and progress in any society. To them, it is the one singular factor justifying the existence of any form of organized government anywhere in the world. This explains why the issue is a major point of emphasis by the United Nations and also in the constitutions guiding the affairs of nations all over the world. It is therefore the government that is saddled with the arduous responsibility of safeguarding the rights of individuals within a given polity. In fact, the Philosophers saw a kind of contract between those controlling the reins of power and the citizens within the society over whom they preside. As part of the unwritten agreement, the citizens choose to obey the leaders while the leaders on the other hand do everything possible to guarantee the rights of the people, especially their rights to life and property. To the philosophers, good governance steers the polity off anarchy. It is therefore not a child’s play because the rights of every individual within the polity should be sacrosanct.

For instance, John Locke, a renowned social contract theorist, was particularly harsh on political leaders who failed to guarantee the rights of the citizens, especially the rights to life and property. To Locke, any political leader who failed to guarantee these rights of the people had lost legitimacy to power. In other words, such leaders had failed to fulfill their own part of the unwritten agreement hence they do not deserve obedience and cooperation of the citizens. The security situation in Nigeria today has reached a pathetic level, apparently the opposite of the expectations of the political philosophers and to the dismay of the citizens. The rights of Nigerians to life and property appear to have disappeared. In the last five years, the actual number of the hapless victims of the BokoHaram terrorists/jihadists; the victims of the ubiquitous Fulani terrorists/jihadists wearing the garb of herdsmen; kidnappers; armed robbers and other heartless murderous bandits will be difficult to know, given the nature of Nigeria where the issue of accurate data is a rarity.

But no doubt, the figure of the victims will be in many thousands if still short of million. This is apart from the destroyed properties still beyond quantification and the psychological torment many Nigerians are contending with daily. And we are still counting daily. These agents of death and destruction appear to be operating in such a way as to defy whatever security measures in place in the country. It is as if there is a different law unknown to most Nigerians for their operations. The situation today in terms security of lives and property, is glaringly worse than the period of the nation’s civil war between July 1967 and January 1970. During the civil war, apart from those at the battle front, Nigerians were not feeling as unsafe as they are today.

The above sorry picture of the nation’s security architecture appears to be prompting many Nigerians to be asking for the wholesale sack of the nation’s security chiefs saddled with the responsibility of maintaining peace and stability of the country. Many Nigerians perceive them as grossly incompetent. To the people calling for the dismissal of the security chiefs, they are being held responsible for the degeneration of the security situation in Nigeria to the present pathetic level. Not only this, they see them as hitherto demonstrating their inability to handle the pathetic situation. But how justified are people calling for the heads of the security chiefs as the necessary sacrifice to overcome the prevailing elusive security in the country?

A cursory analysis of the workings of security in any organized society will show that the call for the heads of the Nigerian security chiefs is misplaced. It is tantamount to reducing the security chiefs to mere scapegoats. In the first instance, we have to take cognizance of the fact that the security chiefs are the appointees of somebody who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces based on his trust in their competence and ability to carry out any given security assignment. Their background and training usually count in their appointments. They had undergone special trainings and had garnered a lot of experience before their appointments into such high office. There is therefore no doubt that the present service chiefs in Nigeria are highly competent. So if it appears they are not performing, the issue of their seeming incompetence must be viewed holistically.

The questions Nigerians must ask themselves, especially those calling for the dismissal of the service chiefs include: “On the performance of the service chiefs so far, what is the assessment of the Commander-in-Chief who appointed them? Is he gauging their performance with the same lenses that the ordinary Nigerians are using? If they are not performing to his expectation or moving to his expected goal, does he need anyone to tell him to replace them?” After all, their appointments were accompanied with specific goal. We should not forget also that their Commander-in-Chief was a retired Army General who knows what it means to achieve a military target.  A logical assumption therefore is that in the fight against Boko Haram and other related security issues, the service chiefs are doing exactly what their Commander-in-Chief wants them to do. In other words, viewed logically, the situation is exactly how the Commander-in-Chief wants it to be. If he should appoint replacements for them, this would change the prevailing situation and therefore tantamount to working against his own goal. The service chiefs must be spared of being made undeserved scapegoats.

• Adesua is a former MD/Editor-in-Chief of Nigerian Tribune

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