It was nine days ago, specifically Wednesday last week. My wife called me on phone crying profusely, saying that her brother and sister, accompanied by two others, were kidnapped somewhere in Kogi State. Confused, I asked whether it was a kind of expensive joke, but it was clear it was not. So, I asked her to forward to me the phone number used by the kidnappers to call her, which she did.
I called the number immediately, and the person who picked asked in clear English who I wanted to speak to. I politely explained to him that my relations have been abducted by them and I wanted to speak to at least one of the victims. Then without any provocation, the man started raining all kinds of curses at me, promising to deal with me. I was seriously tempted to give it back to him, but knew the implication of doing so. Once you respond in kind to their unprovoked insults, chances are the kidnappers will simply kill or seriously torture the victim you are working to save from their wicked hands.
And so I calmed myself down and took all the relentless insults in my stride. This continued for the next three days, during which I felt the need to somehow involve the security services. I knew their hands were full with kidnap cases, but I had no choice than to add to that challenge upon them. And so I contacted Major General S.A. Adebayo, the Chief of Defence Intelligence, who moved into action immediately. By the following day, the heat was too much on the wicked souls, and they were forced to release all four of those kidnapped last weekend.
Mahmoud, the immediate older brother to my wife, had lost his wife and was going to her village, near Ankpa, in Kogi State, for the 40th day Fidda’u prayers. He took along his sister and two childhood friends. It was on their way back that they were attacked. Eleven of them, including a professor, a lawyer and medical doctor were shepherded into the forest not far from the Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mills. The kidnappers used the phone of the professor to reach out to families of all those that they abducted.
In reality, I am not new to difficult encounters with kidnappers. In a space of one year, my daughter and son were victims at separate times, starting with my daughter in March 2020. It was General Tukur Yusufu Buratai that I contacted for a help out at that time. He was then the Chief of Army Staff and wasted no time in ensuring she was rescued unharmed, and without us paying a dime in ransom.
It was courtesy of that rescue operation that I started paying close attention to the activities of our security and intelligence services, and somehow most of my writings were on national security matters. I got to know a lot of things only a few Nigerians know, and could easily tell whether a report on any aspect of national security was true or not.
So, when early last week I read a report on Sahara Reporters alleging that almost N2 billion was discovered in the residence and office of General (now Ambassador) Tukur) Buratai, I knew the report in its entirety was concocted. I wondered what Sahara Reporters, a medium I hold in esteem, stands to gain by needlessly maligning innocent persons. Is it all about attracting traffic of readers to its website, for the financial gain, or is there someone somewhere funding that kind of publication to get even with General Buratai?
It was a day later that the respected Human Rights Writers Association issued a statement, signed by no less a personality than its head, Mr. Emmanuel Onwubiko, saying a serving adviser to the President on national security was behind it all. They did not categorically mention the person’s name, but in my engagement with the nation’s security services I know for a fact that even though Ambassador Buratai had left the Nigerian Army on a note of glory a year and a half ago, there is definitely at least one top official doing all he can to entangle the former Army Chief.
Those who are surprised as to why the insecurity in the country has become perennial and somewhat intractable could see that someone who is supposed to coordinate our security and intelligence services and get them to work optimally together is rather busy fighting imaginary enemies even though they left the military service and are serving the nation in some other fora.
But I asked myself the question: where lies the ethics of the journalism profession that says where you are in doubt, leave the story? The judicial system, which the ethics of journalism support, is predicated in the maxim that rather than implicate an innocent person, it is better to set hundreds free. So, I wondered why a respected medium like Sahara Reporters could publish a story that it knew was false. Clearly, no due diligence was carried out, and because in Nigeria victims always leave things to God when they are maligned, some news mediums have no scruples damaging the image of innocent individuals for no offense other than that they held a big post in government.
Definitely, no one is saying General Buratai is an angel. He definitely made a number of mistakes. But why won’t any medium that insists in painting him with a tar brush base its allegations on assured and credible facts?
Ever since the National Security Adviser Major General Monguno made a spurious allegation 15 months ago that the $1 billion meant for weapons procurement was missing, some lazy media establishments and social media influencers have taken it upon themselves to make the news go viral, with most of them suggesting the money was misappropriated by General Buratai.
My heart bleeds whenever I read such false news, and my genuine fear is that by the time Nigerians who trust us realize we in the media at times concoct falsehood to malign innocent individuals, we may be pushed out of job because the readers, who are our patrons, will one after the other run away and leave us to read the news we concocted.
And indeed that is one sad reality already facing us. Even credible newspapers are now printing fewer and fewer copies because buyers keep getting fewer. They are affected by unscrupulous activities of discredited platforms whose stock in trade is peddling falsehood for financial gain.
When I featured on the popular Security Watch Africa programme of the AIT last week Saturday, the Anchor, Mr. Patrick Agbambu, asked whether we the editors are failing in our responsibility by allowing false news to thrive, and I responded by saying that God so kind, those in the business of peddling falsehood are far in the minority, and that more and more newspapers are now establishing the ombudsman dest to handle complains of unethical conduct, from readers.
Surely, there are, unfortunately, otherwise respected newspapers still repeating the false claim made by NSA Monguno that the one billion dollars meant for weapons procurement went missing. Interestingly, all the newspapers in Nigeria are either operating in Abuja or have their bureau chiefs in the nation’s capital. To get to the root of this very matter, what stops these papers from tasking their representatives to unearth the truth regarding the serious matter.
Any newspaper that cares to know will find out that the Nigerian Army under the leadership of General Buratai did not handle even one naira or dollar of that one billion dollars. The entirety of that transaction was handled by the Ministry of Defence, at that time being headed by retired Brigadier General Dan Ali, with General Magashi now the incumbent.
Perhaps it serves the interest of both men to simply keep quite, rather than taking the decent approach of clearing the air by letting Nigerians know the truth, that neither Buratai nor any of the remaining generals that served alongside him as chiefs of different segments of the Nigerian military had a hand in that money.
A very simple check will reveal that the Nigerian Army, at least at that time, was not responsible for weapons procurement. That is the job of the Defence Ministry. But till today no one in that ministry has been mentioned or accused of any malfeasance. And strangely, the ministry has also chosen to selfishly keep quite.
It was Malam Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, who issued a rebuttal shortly after Monguno made that spurious claim about disappearance of the money, saying the entire money was applied in purchase of Tucano jets and other vital weapons, and that none of the former service chiefs, including Buratai, had a hand in it.
And even though Monguno himself later issued a clarification that he never meant to say a kobo was stolen by Buratai and co, the damage had been done. Many Nigerians choose, till today, to go with the first false accusation, making innocent readers of their platforms see these retired military persons as thieves.
But the good thing about life is that what goes around, comes around. In a matter of eleven months, Monguno, Minister Magashi and all the people that have refused to clarify this weighty matter will be out of office. How will they feel if someone, or their successors, also make a similar damaging allegations against them?
I have always emphasized that national security is everyone’s business. Indeed, the standard globally is that sixty percent of role should be played by the citizens, who are expected to drive intelligence from our various localities. But in Nigeria, we behave as if the security services are our enemies, keeping quite when they attain giant strides but propagating their human failings.
Just two months to Buratai’s retirement from the Nigerian Army, Borno, the state that has been mostly affected by Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorism, enjoyed so much peace that it successfully conducted a local government election in all its local government areas. Governor Zulum publicly directed all the winners of that election to leave Maiduguri, the state capital, for their respective local government secretariats to govern from there. Just imagine for a moment whether that was possible before the advent of Buratai as Army Chief.
Definitely mistakes were made, but then, that is what makes us human beings. Only God is perfect and beyond mistakes. But definitely it is not the task of the media to only say the negative around individuals whose only offense is holding public office. A carrot and stick approach that reprimands those who truly err and applaud those who do their best should be the ideal way to go. And it is to the credit of many credible news outlets that every year, they organize events bestowing awards of excellence to those who distinguish themselves in credible governance at various levels in the country.
Security is still very much of a problem in Nigeria mainly because we the citizens are not exactly playing the role expected of us, by cooperating with the intelligence services and supplying them with credible information. Rather, there are still uncountable cases where villagers serve as informants to bandits and terrorists, all for a pot of porridge.
A few months ago, there was the reported case of a mother that was taking her own daughters to bandits in the forests, to have sexual intercourse with them for a fee. There are also tens of cases of other women whose job is hiring sex partners for the terrorists, as well as those who supply them with foodstuffs, weapons and ammunitions. All these people live around us. But there are hardly credible cases of their neighbours reporting their nefarious acitivifes to the intelligence services, especially the defence intelligence agency now headed by Major General SA Adebayo, a thoroughly credible and diligent patriot.
In conclusion, this column wishes to remind Nigerians engaged in blackmail to always know that those who must destroy others in order to succeed, should await destruction at the post of their success. Those who are ordinary today may one day attain such positions of greatness. How would they feel if they end up being maliciously attacked for no reason than they hold public office?
Definitely the media has to hold those in positions of responsibility accountable. But the constitution that gives us this power does not charge us to concoct falsehood against anyone. And when organisations concerned have the decency to clarify the air by stating the true position of things, like the ICPC has done in the case of the false allegations against General Buratai, we all have a responsibility to not only publish it, but also give it as much prominence as the first story that was maliciously concocted.
It is time the Nigerian media starts doing comparative analysis especially on matters to do with military and defence funding. Sahara Reporters operate from New York,and it is in the best position to buttress the fact that the entire annual budget of the Nigerian defence sector, including the intelligence services, was up to one year’s budget of the New York Fire Service.
The MQ-9 Reaper Drone that was used by America to kill Iranian General Qassim Suleimani costs on the average fifty million dollars per unit. That is the kind of weapon the Nigerian military need to finish this war against terror. But their budget cannot accommodate such essentials, largely because lots of politicians have stolen the nation blind, and some of us in the media are mostly only interested in maligning the military and leaving those politicians to continue mortgaging our future and that of our unborn children.