Practically non-existing government?

I feel very strongly that the worry, which the current government and concerns it lately began to show over the Chibok disaster was mainly due to the international dimension the incidence has assumed in the last two weeks.If the ‘bring back our girls’ movement had not received the international attention that it currently does, it […]

I feel very strongly that the worry, which the current government and concerns it lately began to show over the Chibok disaster was mainly due to the international dimension the incidence has assumed in the last two weeks.
If the ‘bring back our girls’ movement had not received the international attention that it currently does, it is safe to assume that President Jonathan and the PDP train would have continued with their shameless circus show in the name of campaign towards 2015.
I’m justified to assume as such because the famous Kano rally of the PDP held a day after tens of lives were lost in a dastardly bombing of Nyanya motor park and the morning after these over two hundred girls were abducted from their hostels. This lack of concern and apparent cluelessness beats my imagination.
We commented several times since this unfortunate incidence and requested responsibility on the part of government but they thought the abduction could as well be treated like any other bomb dropped in a school or market square in the North Eastern flank of the country.
To the Jonathan administration, loss of lives and property in certain parts of the country are unnecessary distraction and as such business must continue as usual. We frowned against this un-seriousness but nobody listened. We warned against the dereliction none of those who ought to hear and heed the counsel did until the international community took upon it the agitation which a supposedly representative government in Abuja could not.
I did not hear the response of Rueben Abati or DoyinOkupe on the statement made by Senator Mc Cain as to the effect that the government they are speaking for is practically non existent. I don’t know what their views or the views of their principals are as far as this statement is concerned.
The Senator McCain statement has been said several times by concerned Nigerians but it never sank into those who ought to act. Now that their concern has more to do with the international perception of their government, and the types of comments from international states men and media, the government is restless.
I keep wondering what the thinking of those in positions of authority in Abuja is regarding governance and its essence. Why would a sensible government play toy with very sensitive strategic security issues in a country that had a history of little insurgency and terrorism? Why would anybody in a federal system imagine that certain sections could be on fire and as along as his or her section is in relative peace then the rest can go to blazes?
The leadership recruitment process in this country is faulty and as long it is not radically addressed, we may as well continue to face this and more serious challenges in the future. I am worried at the degree of concern that the government has shown as far as when this Boko Haram insurgency began.
It is safe to postulate that it is the lackadaisical manner in which the government handled the problem right at the beginning that resulted in the escalation, which unfortunately has put Nigeria in very bad light at home and internationally.
If a problem is not addressed as at when due and especially at infancy, it grows out of proportion and unmanageable. That is why an otherwise local issue had over time become infested and out of proportion. The government is very worried and seemingly clueless. This is in brief what the statement of Senator McCain was making. It is simply a mirror for those in government to see. If they like what they see; good; if they don’t, breaking the mirror will not change the look.
Categorically I submit that this government is in crisis and seem way out of the resolution of the several national malaises that afflict Nigeria and Nigerians.
There is crisis of confidence and security. Nigerians want federalism but those in authority prefers the unitary militarism that has been practiced. The insurgency has taught us several lessons among which is the helplessness of state executives as far as management of security is concerned. The constitution defines the state governors as chief security officers of their respective states but in practical sense they are not because they neither control the police, military or other intelligence agencies.
There must be some level of control as far as security apparatuses are concerned. Either the governors are made to command federal troops in their states as well as the federal police or state police forces ought to be sanctioned by the constitution.
I am of the belief that if Borno, Yobe and Adamwa states have police commands that are indigenous to their states, they would have sufficiently addressed the issue of this insurgency long before it got this endemic. The thinking that police at state level is abuse-able in my view is balderdash. Who says the federal officials can use federal police to intimidate opposition politicians at the level of unit governments and it is illegal for the state governors to have their police commands?
I am of the view that the request by the president for the extension of state of emergency in the three states must be rejected by the National Assembly because as all have seen, the declaration has done more harm than good as the insurgency has instead intensified.
How can anybody claim that the declaration of emergency has reduced the problem? We all see how insurgents in the middle of night drove into schools in Yobe and later Borno and killed tens of young people. We also saw how large convoys moved into Chibok in the night and abducted over 200 little schoolgirls.
What then is the definition of state of emergency if gun battles could hold for hours late at night and early hours of the morning when everywhere is ideally quiet and no soldier or troop anywhere in the vicinity until maximum damage has been made to innocent citizens? It really doesn’t make any sense to continue to impose state of emergency because the two earlier imposed have instead aggravated the crises rather than reduce it.
Unless of course if the political motive of keeping the three states that are not PDP in perpetual military occupation is intended at weakening the political capacities of the governors and their political parties so that after this review, if granted by the assembly would lead to another one towards the end of the year which will ensure that the states go to elections under emergency rule thus given way to the ruling party to do as it desires.
This political narrative as ordinary as it may sound speaks volume about the character of those in government today and the worst they can go if just to perpetuate in office. The singing, dancing and several rallies held before the international intervention clearly shows the picture of the Jonathan administration.
God save Nigeria.