Nigeria: stepping to the edge?

Most unbelievable, the Emir of Mubi had lost his Kingdom, and with the advance past Uba, the Fombina Emirate was on its way to falling. And knowing the nature of the insurgents, my own Kingdom and abode was within reach.  I had suffered emotional stress from watching children we sent to schools in Mubi and […]

Most unbelievable, the Emir of Mubi had lost his Kingdom, and with the advance past Uba, the Fombina Emirate was on its way to falling. And knowing the nature of the insurgents, my own Kingdom and abode was within reach.  I had suffered emotional stress from watching children we sent to schools in Mubi and soldiers who went to war, escaping first into Cameroon before finding their ways home to Nigeria. Some of the tales they told, which had been considered as distant occurrences were now close at hand. It was dreadful especially when folks that looked up to you for encouragement call to ask whether it was time to pack belongings and flee. If I said ‘Yes it was time’, where would I run to?
The insurgents in Mubi did not spare Muslims in their resolve to Islamise Nigeria. Whereas Islam forbade all the acts they engaged in, namely, suicide bombing, abduction and enslavement of young girls as sex slaves, slaughter of humans without judgement, and acts of abuse of humanity, too numerous to recount. Then they blatantly sought non Muslims specifically Christians and targeted them murderously. Personal experiences and forensic evidences of the bloodletting is currently being collected if anything, for records only, but principally, to inform the attempt at finding a solution to the problem. I suddenly found myself preoccupied with my personal plans to fight the terror in protection of my belief and my life, my family and my hard earned possessions, since as was becoming obvious that I could no longer be protected by State. This was what it came to. I was preparing to arm the community and to take up arms as well.
This was the frustrating delive-rable from the State of Emergency given President Goodluck Jonathan when he asked for it from the National Assembly as provided for by the constitution. Was this the deliverable expected, that insurgents seize territory the size of more than three States in Nigeria? I failed to see what purpose it’s renewal for the third time, would serve.
Fortunately and in a rare lifting of their voices for the good of their constituencies, Senators from Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states opposed plans by President Goodluck Jonathan to extend the state of emergency in the three states. In doing so, the Senators argued that the State of Emergency did not help the fight against the insurgency. Instead, Boko Haram insurgents indeed captured more Nigerian territories and killed thousands of people in a heightened campaign of terror.
Senator Mohammed Jibrilla Bindo from Adamawa State, whose constituency headquarters Mubi, fell to the terrorists lamented that he no longer has a home because Boko Haram has seized his abode and declared it a caliphate. He said ruefully, “I am not in support of extension of emergency rule and my people will not support it because even right now, our people have been displaced by the insurgents.”
However, hopes that the Senate and the House of Representatives would debate and resolve the issues last Thursday as we know, were dashed and replaced by a show of shame that forced Senate President, David Mark, to formally shut down the National Assembly till yesterday. With emergency rule having expired last Thursday, it technically does not exist any longer. The advice from the House of Representatives as it forced a seating last week was for the Federal Government to use the powers conferred on it by Section 305 (3) (c) of the Nigerian Constitution and the relevant sections of the Armed Forces Act to deploy troops to the three states to defend the territorial integrity of the country.
In spite of the acrimony and the angry shouts of impeachment and even the collection of signatures, this writer and certainly majority of Nigerians believe that the move of impeachment is an empty wind. Lacking the liver, they are more likely to cause us to chase a promise that we all know, is empty from the start.  For how long has President Goodluck Jonathan merited impeachment? And they looked the other way while the damage went on? No. These are political “eunuchs”. The system has robbed them of “manhood” and spine. Two things President Goodluck Jonathan will do is to merely have Economic and Financial Crimes Commission do a fault-finding check of Constituency Project releases. Would any constituents vouch for their members? Whatever killed the desired debate on the $1bn loan request from the President? What killed the desired debate of the $10 million arms from South Africa scandal?
The incident of last Thursday is evidence of the Nigerian systemic failure. With the Legislature drawing bogus emoluments which the members blackmailed a weak Presidency to approve, with corrupt enrichment going on from the largesse of constituency project allocations and skewed oversight functions, the National Assembly is without desired integrity. It is expected that President Jonathan will have extended state of emergency as a fait accompli as of last Thursday.
Nigeria is on a dangerous precipice. The war against the insurgents has cost too much and taken too long. The armed forces are continuously being disgraced by the insurgents who add insult to injury through a media war that they are winning mainly because Nigerians are offered nothing believable on the counter insurgency. The military continues to say it is without equipment, and you wonder what happened to the over $1.5trn that the containment of the insurgency has cost Government over time. Government blames the opposition in bizarre fashion and opposition weaves a reply accusing Government of being the sponsors of the insurgency. Sadly both sides easily secure your belief.
For more than 10 years or even more, leaders in the Boko Haram infested States failed to address youth engagement. Numbers like 9 of 10 school age children were out of school. Infrastructure development where it existed was irrelevant to general public needs. Roads did not help the farmer get his produce to the nearest market. Middle men could afford evacuation of farm produce and cut the farmer short. Poverty worsened conditions. Incidentally, Borno and Yobe were APC States, and only Adamawa is PDP. For this and many more reasons, the North is to blame for its woes and it must be owned up.
On his part President Goodluck Jonathan failed to curb corruption in the war against the insurgency until it became a franchise. He chose to hobnob with suspected sponsors of the menace to the point that Nigeria, it appears, has been fighting the war in protection of many whose acts of omission or commission caused the insurgency. Failing security and military chiefs were being given National Honours without shame. It has failed to make sense.
It is instructive that prominent citizens including battle tested officers like the Sultan of Sokoto His Eminence Sa’ad Abubakar III and Col. Abubakar Umar are coming out openly and publicly with advice they must have given President Jonathan in confidence. Now that it is public, one hopes the President will hear and act. For now Nigeria could be seconds away from tipping over the edge.