Unraveling the Zamfara conundrum

The governor’s aide, Dosara however, reminded the former lawmaker that removing officials democratically elected by people is not as easy as what Dansadau thinks it to be. He went further to accuse him as one of the people engineering the crisis in the state. That he has been sabotaging efforts geared towards ending the banditry, and should be ashamed of challenging both the federal and Zamfara state governments on the killings.

He admonished him instead to go back to his emirate and give his piece of advice. He also reminded him that the governor has set up “a committee of elders to fish out anybody involved in banditry in whatever capacity – be it informant or bandit. It is good for Dansadau.”

Meanwhile, characteristic of the recurring melodrama that often plays itself out in Nigeria’s effervescent political space, while they are busy chasing the shadows of who to blame for obvious institutional failures of governance , precious and priceless lives are being lost on daily basis. There the pain lies. It is curious for instance, that while on September 11, 2018 , Lai Muhammed, the Minister of Information and Culture was gleefully celebrating the so called drastic reduction in the number of killings in Zamfara state, the bandits were still out there preparing to wreak more havoc!

It was a good initiative that 1000-strong military force, comprising the army, air force, police and the civil defence were there to launch fierce attacks on the bandits terrorising the villages and towns of Zamfara State as Lai claimed. It was commendable effort that the police repelled attacks from armed bandits at Mahanga Forest in Birnin Mogaji LGA of Zamfara State.

That in the process they killed one hundred and four (104) bandits, destroyed over fifty (50) bandits’ hideouts in three (3) camps, recovered over five hundred (500) cattle and seventy-nine (79) sheep from the bandits.

But they could not stop the killings of not less than 12 police officers, contrary to the claim by the force spokesman, acting DCP Jimoh Moshood that the police lost only one officer and 12 persons were injured. According to Yemi Itodo, the sister to the late Sergeant Itodo this was revealed as the message she got from an eye witness account.

Whatever might have happened, who says that any Nigerian should die from largely preventable deaths? What is the statutory role of government if not to act as a protective father-figure; to ensure the security of every citizen, and provide for his welfare, irrespective of status as enshrined in Section 14(2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution as amended? Why has it been impossible to single out the mindless masterminds behind the Boko Haram insurgency which began with the Muhammed Yusuf altercation with the then government of Borno state and has since snowballed into a conflagration that claimed thousands of innocent souls? Where are the parents of these cruel youth whose voices are only heard when their people have fallen victims of their evil machination? Who are those arming these malleable and gullible youths with sophisticated arms and ammunition instead of with quality education delivery and self sustaining jobs? And why are they getting Scot-free with blue murder?

Worse still, on what moral ground does the government stand to grant amnesty to the so called ‘repentant members of Boko Haram’? Should we consider their lives more precious than the helpless others they have sent to their early graves? Would such an odious act not encourage other evil-minded youth to take up arms against the state, believing that some day they would also enjoy some spurious and unpatriotic amnesty? One cannot but also wonder what has delayed the release and judicious utilization of the One billion dollar fund to frontally tackle the rampaging monster of insurgency?