Those who expected South East governors to rise to the occasion over the recent killing of unspecified number of Igbo youths in Enugu by security operatives do not know these men or are forgetting the stuff they are made of. We have been with this breed long enough to know that they cannot risk their comfort zone in the name of the people. Rather, they are a complacent lot who will stop at nothing to please the powers that be at Aso Rock.
Since the killing took place, there has been not even a whimper from those who were elected by the people to serve their interests. They have not asked why. Instead, they are playing safe. As always, they are either looking the other way or taking the back seat in a matter in which they are supposed to be front runners. Left with no collective support of his fellow governors, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has finally spoken. He has promised to get to the root of the killings.
While we await how Ugwuanyi will handle the incident, we must take cognizance of the fact that the recent massacre in Enugu is the new Achilles’ heel of South East governors. It has, like similar incidents before it, exposed their fragile underbelly. Since the incident took place, those who did not know the stuff the governors are made of are beginning to come to terms with their lily-livered disposition. The watching publics do not seem to understand why that concert of blood should be treated by the governors as a non-event. They are wondering what could be wrong with this breed strutting the eastern landscape in the name of governors. But those of us who know them for who they are are hardly surprised.
A little recap will help to tell us why things are what they are. We must recall that it was this breed that displayed the most unimaginable form of insensitivity when troops of the Nigerian Army, on September 10, 2017, invaded Umuahia in search of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu. Whereas empathy and sympathy flowed freely over the killing of scores of unarmed youths, the governors stepped forward with a strange declaration. They announced that IPOB had been proscribed. The authorities in Abuja had blackmailed them into making that pronouncement. They must have been told that their jobs depended on it. They were intimidated into submission. They fell for it and, therefore, said nothing about the killings. They treated it as if it never took place. By their action, the governors made the dead youths orphans in their own land.
Let us also recall that, in June last year, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN) told South East governors that it planned to set up vigilance groups in the zone to support whatever security effort the zone had. If you expected the governors to reject the vexatious proposal there and then, you were mistaken. They absorbed the open air assault and dispersed. It took the angry reactions of some South East leaders for Dave Umahi, governor of Ebonyi State and chairman of South East Governors’ Forum, to say, rather belatedly, that the zone would not accept the MACBAN proposal.
Now, can someone stop to ask why South East governors have been unable to set up a regional security outfit for their zone? Let us recall that when South West governors set up what they called Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN), code-named Amotekun, South East governors quickly jumped into the fray. They said they would set up their own version of WNSN. Weeks later, our governors revisited the issue and promised their people that they would soon come up with a name for the security initiative. We have been waiting. Our governors never came up with anything. Then, suddenly, we heard that the Inspector-General of Police was proposing community policing for the entire country. Our governors have not told us where they stand on this matter. Have they abandoned the idea of regional security network as it obtains in the South West in favour of community policing? The entire zone is in the dark on this matter.
We were still groping in the dark over this until a few weeks ago when Prof. Uzodinma Nwala, president of Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF), burst the bubble. He resigned from the South East Security Committee, which was jointly set up by South East Governors Forum, Ohan’eze Ndigbo and ADF in February this year, citing sell-out and lack of progress. According to Prof. Nwala, the zonal security committee, headed by Gen. Obi Abel Umahi (rtd.), who is said to be Governor Umahi’s brother, has asked the committee to adopt community policing because that is what South East governors want. The gist here is that the governors have abandoned the idea of regional security in favour of the federal government’s community policing initiative. That is the news. That is the story from the East. What a volte face!
But it is interesting that the dramatic turnaround from the East is happening at the same time South West governors have rejected the suggestion from the Presidency that Amotekun will be subsumed under the community policing architecture. The chairman of South West Governors’ Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu, has told the Federal Government that the zone will not subsume Amotekun under community policy. The other governors from the zone have spoken in like manner. Their position is unequivocal. Amotekun must operate independently of any federal arrangement. The governors have since received the full backing of who is who in the zone. That is leadership. That is how to stand up to be counted.
The clear-cut position of South West governors on regional security and community policing contrasts sharply with the position of their South East counterparts. In the South West, Akeredolu’s position was amplified by other South West governors as well as Yoruba leaders. In the South East, the lone voice is that of Governor Umahi. The impression we get here is that the other South East governors have no opinion of their own. Umahi is thinking for them all. Igbo leaders of thought are not left out here. What have they made of Prof. Nwala’s protestation? Is he alone in this matter? Have they surrendered to the self-serving intrusions of Governor Umahi? Ohan’eze Ndigbo owes the people an explanation on this matter.
Even the community policing arrangement, which our governors are sheepishly pursuing, has an angle that further endangers our collective existence. The Inspector-General of Police is saying that regional security outfits such as Amotekun and Miyetti Allah will be incorporated into the community policing order. Assuming this arrangement comes to stay, what is the South East bringing to the table? Where is its own security outfit that will be incorporated into the community policing arrangement? The governance gap in the zone is simply there for all to see.
Then you ask: why did the South East governors suddenly develop a cold feet over regional security? The answer is here with us. They are not ready for any disagreement with the centre. Having seen that the Federal Government is not very comfortable with Amotekun, our governors quickly beat a retreat. They ate their words over regional security but, in doing this, they forgot very conveniently that they owe the people an explanation. If you promised the people you lead anything, it is incumbent on you to return to them to explain if you have a change of plan. But not so with our governors. They do not think that the opinion of the people matter.