Nigeria’s search for credible leadership

What is debatable in Fafowara’s piece is his apportioning blame. Despite recognising that ‘the insurgency is a direct consequence of persistently bad governance in the North, characterised by the long period of grinding poverty, lack of jobs, and rampant social injustice…’ sadly, he was swayed by the penchant to ‘demonise’ the North  at the expense […]

What is debatable in Fafowara’s piece is his apportioning blame. Despite recognising that ‘the insurgency is a direct consequence of persistently bad governance in the North, characterised by the long period of grinding poverty, lack of jobs, and rampant social injustice…’ sadly, he was swayed by the penchant to ‘demonise’ the North  at the expense of the reality; which is that our national pride and our populace is being decimated.  The longer this conflict goes on, the harder it will be to salvage this country from the precipice that decades of corruption and maladministration have pushed it to.  
Unfortunately, Fafowora appears to heap all these shortcomings on the North. In reality, however, bad governance, poverty and unemployment are not the exclusive preserve of the north. They are all-pervasive. And the only redemption is a credible, caring and accountable leadership at all levels of governance. Much hope is being hinged on the 2015 elections but first, Nigeria and Nigerians have to survive up to 2015.
The two major threats to this short term goal, and by extension to democratic governance, are the insurgency and the baseless, so-called American forecast that Nigeria would disintegrate by 2015. The most annoying aspect of the latter is the belief of some Nigerians that the prediction has to come true because some American day-dreamers had said so. Such people are working assiduously, by act of commission or omission, to realize such doomsday prophecy for Nigeria.
There should be a conscious resolve to prove to all these insurgents and prophets of doom that they are a pack of liars and Nigeria shall grow in strength and grow into an exalted country among the comity of Nations.
But we cannot help but lament that if our leaders had listened and taken appropriate steps as proposed by various groups at the right time, we would have by now put this issue to rest. The embattled Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno drew the attention of the nation early enough to avert what we are in today, but the centre refused to listen. In fact he was threatened, maligned and humiliated. Now, the mewling little cub in the backyard has been allowed to grow into a formidable marauding monster that would spare no one. It has now become clear that the insurgents are after territorial conquest as evidenced by their seizure of nine local governments, which cover at least one third of Borno State, some parts of Adamawa and Yobe state, as of now.
The recent deadly encounters in Konduga demonstrates that the insurgents are not only holding on to what they have, but have the ultimate objective of over-running Borno and Yobe states, and possibly Adamawa as well. This must not happen. With nostalgia one reflects and say how impossible such a scenario would have been under Obasanjo, for instance. I will tell you why.
In the ‘70s when I was a member of the Borno State Executive Council, there was an incident on a small fishing island on the Nigerian side of Lake Chad. For reasons best known to them, Chadian soldiers overrun the little village and hoisted a Chadian flag. The information filtered into Maiduguri and the government alerted our security forces. Within 48 hours, the GOC of the Third Division routed the Chadian soldiers and re-hoisted the Nigerian flag. That is not all; within the same period of 48 hours, the then Head of State, General Obasanjo, in the company of the GOC and the Borno State Governor, flew into Ndjamena to meet President Malum of Chad to demand explanations. The Chadian leader was so rattled that he was visibly shaking like a rat facing a terrier. Since then, there hasn’t been any incursion into Nigerian territory by any force or government until now. Big chunks of our territory have been appropriated by insurgents who are hoisting flags and declaring the creation of new kingdoms.
Our soldiers, who gallantly and successfully fought in many fronts in other parts of the world, are today being embarrassed in skirmishes in our backyard. We have had over 200 Chibok girls in captivity for the last 150 days. No-one is certain of what is happening to them giving rise to speculations observing that there is a ‘shocking and striking resemblance between a dead female suicide bomber in Kano and one of the Chibok girls. Oby Ezekwesili, now practically the ‘mother’ of the Chibok girls, has virtually shouted herself hoarse on this issue, but is anybody listening? She needs to be encouraged, just like our troops. Her heroics, and that of our troops, should be lauded. There is a need to celebrate the heroes who have given their lives or shed their blood for this country and in this sense, names that have emerged.
This kind of pride for one’s country and readiness to die for it made the famous World War II British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, declare; ‘We shall fight on the land, we shall fight on the sea, we shall fight in the air! We shall never surrender.’ When confronted with logistics problems during the civil war, General Yakubu Gowon declared: “It is not the guns that fight wars, but the men behind the guns.”
Such motivation for the troops is as vital as the weapons they take into war and for them to withstand intense enemy fire, they have to learn and be encouraged to believe the age-old military dictum that says ‘it is sweet to die for one’s country.’ The leadership of the military needs to find ways of making our fighting forces internalise such beliefs. Whatever needs to be done to fully motivate our troops and take care of them should not be compromised because no battle, let alone a war, is won with disgruntled soldiers.
Badawy is a Member of the House of Reps representing Bade/Jakusko constituency