Please, bear with me concerning the way the column title is captioned in our adulterated English. It’s just to aptly pass the message across.
However, in the national security arrangement, there is a conspicuous triangle used in intelligence collation and evaluation before synthesis for final approval and operational order, once it is based on national security. This depends on the President, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
The two base points of the triangle consist political and economic activities on the one end, and every component of security and foreign activities on the other side of the triangle. Interestingly, all the intelligence reports collated are channelled through various constituted corridors to the apex of the triangle, which is the Presidency.
These reports are for the President to act upon, either for his approval or for further consultation and advisers’ input. Oftentimes, some advice could have traits of personal bias, with unfortunate religious, political or ethnic colouration. It is such biased advice, when forced on the President, that manifests in policy somersault. Examples of such biases abound in our chequered history.
For example, the miltary reprisal and sacking of communities in Odi, Kolokuma/Opokuma Local Government Area of Bayelsa Statem and Zaki-biam, in Benue State, were offshoots of advice that was considered good because the fear of God and national unity was uppermost in the mind of the advisers. There was also the calculated advice of the amnesty programme in the Niger Delta, which brought peace and hastened the end militancy in the region.
It was therefore very disheartening and demoralizing when the news filtered out last Thursday at the palace of Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto, a retired Brigadier-General now occupying the throne of the Caliphate and as the custodian of the legacies of Usman Dan Fodio, the great Islamic warrior.
That was where President Muhammadu Buhari, as Commander-in-Chief, was quoted as saying that he was overwhelmed by the security situation in the North-West region. Said he: “Every day, we are worried about what is happening in the North-West. When we came, if Nigerians are to be fair to us, they knew the condition in the North-East and the South-South, but what is happening now in the North-West is what has honestly overwhelmed me,” Buhari said.
“The same people, the same culture, killing each other, stealing each other’s property. We are going to do our best and the military and law enforcement agencies have been given a clear order that they shouldn’t spare any bandit or terrorist.
“We are going to hand over a secure country better than we inherited it.” He added, “Nigeria shall win the battle over evil.”
The direct import of what the President was saying, if a local Warri boy in the Niger Delta was to relay the statement to his uneducated mother, he would simply say, “Mama, President don agree say water don pass garri for North.”
It is not easy for a military general to capitulated at the war front. Reason being that he is trained to tactically surmount every difficult situation that comes his way, especially at the war front. In fact, a general, especially one that has experienced war, is revered and believed to be rugged, masculine and intelligently endowed to know what exactly to do when confronted with a tough situation or at a crossroads.
Then you would know the taste of the pudding is in the eating. That is when you extract the chaff from the real thing. A general is supposed to be a general in all circumstances. Once a Nigerian general was said to be able to effectively dribble out of every political and military situation and he was described as the legendary footballer Diego Maradona, who was an expert in dribbling his opponents in very tight circumstances and still scored goals.
He imbibed the maradonic system in every political situation as the leader. It was also disclosed that he used the same maradonic style all through his military days and even during the Nigerian civil war.
Oven-baked generals in the military are respected in any country and society because of what they are endowed with. To attain the rank of a general speaks volumes and he becomes the cynosure of every eyes where ever he finds himself. A general is a good strategist, for so his trading depicts. Nigeria has experienced the leadership of military generals during military era and in the democratic era. Historians have different ways to chronicle and evaluate each military leader’s administration. That is not my concern here, but the unabated insecurity that is systematically ravaging Nigeria.
To evaluate the situation, it is observed that insecurity started rearing its ugly head from the a northeastern zone, pointedly from Borno State, and it gradually extended into the North-West and, today, the fire of insecurity has engulfed virtually every state and the Federal Capital Territory. Like the coronavirus, it has muted into other variants like banditry, kidnapping and other forms of criminality. These are the problems facing the country that President Buhari was lamenting before the Sultan of Sokoto.
The host, being a former general himelf, would have felt the pains and frustration of his august guest. His guest was baring his mind based on what he witnessed and the intelligence report at his disposal.
The President might have recalled part of his inaugural address when he promised Nigerians that he would end insurgency in a given time. Unfortunately, as his tenure is winding up in a few months, it dawned on him that an unfulfilled campaign promise may eventually be left hanging around his neck.
No wonder he was quick to inform the eminent traditional ruler that “When we came, if Nigerians are to be fair to us, they know the condition in the North-East and the South-South, but what is happening now in the North-West is what has honestly overwhelmed me.”
(To be continued)