RE: NOW WE CAN’T EVEN GO TO ABUJA!

First Things First: Bala Ibrahim who reacted (apparently on behalf of the Police) to my last Saturday’s Column in his “We can always go to Abuja” published Thursday in this newspaper’s Opinion Section) is a very good friend of mine and for several years my colleague at the BBC in London. And, to nail the […]

First Things First: Bala Ibrahim who reacted (apparently on behalf of the Police) to my last Saturday’s Column in his “We can always go to Abuja” published Thursday in this newspaper’s Opinion Section) is a very good friend of mine and for several years my colleague at the BBC in London. And, to nail the hammer home, he was my student.

So as his teacher, I am very happy he has turned out so brilliantly, and his output is generally commendable though he doesn’t write on his own behalf like many of us ‘opinionated’ commentators. I thank him very much for his – actually the Police’s – reaction to my “Now we can’t even go to Abuja”. Sadly, Bala did not originally copy his reaction to me (claiming he doesn’t have my email address); had he done so, I could have given his piece my whole page as Right of Reply. Alas! He didn’t have my email!

In the spirit of Hausa-Fulani Pulaaku, a teacher should not be seen publicly engaging his student in the marketplace, even if the student does not feel so restrained. So in that spirit, I shall here allow Alhaji M. T. Usman ([email protected]), a very good friend of this Column and this newspaper, and a tireless commentator (on his own right and on his own behalf) to, as it were, “tare min fadan”.

“It’s difficult to make sense of the hysterical drivel presented as a response or critique of the original article ‘Now we can’t even go to Abuja’ written by Daily Trust columnist Bala Muhammad and published in the issue of Saturday July 22, 2017. The piece was a lament on the insecurity that has gripped the Kaduna-Abuja highway in the last year and-a-half or so, and a satire directed at the authorities for failure to eliminate the dastardly threat. If the article published in the Daily Trust of July 27, 2017 was PR job on behalf of the Nigeria Police Force or its helmsman IGP Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, it was an appalling failure because he wasn’t targeted for criticism, even tangentially.

“There are a couple of things about the Kaduna-Abuja highway that are not in doubt. It is a prime kidnapping corridor – this activity was curtailed by the massive security operation mounted during the closure of the Abuja airport. The end of that operation saw an immediate spike in kidnapping, which the IG’s recent recce of the troubled area was meant to address. And it had instant effect because he caused immediate deployment of personnel to get to grips with this crime. His interaction with the local communities must have informed the wholesale redeployment of officers and men that were stationed there – evidence is in the testimony of a representative of the Rijana community to the Minister of the Interior (who also visited) that they feared volunteering information to security agents because those public-spirited individuals often wind up dead. 

“Nobody belittles the exertions of the police in the battle against kidnapping across the country, but the saying ‘Ruwan da ya dake ka shi ne ruwa’ is incontrovertible here; no matter the success elsewhere those under threat in this axis will bemoan their situation until it’s relieved. Poor and under-funding of MDAs is the bane of governmental affairs in Nigeria. The only arm or agency of government that is free of this is the National Assembly – and the Presidency! It’s a good thing that state governors extend material help to the Police in large doses, the military isn’t so favoured. No government staff, civil or security, get the pay they deserve, except, once again, the political class.

“The Police, like the military, is under-strength given population of the country. The thing to do is to make strong case to both the Executive and the Legislature for sustained recruitment – a recent announcement showed approval has been given to recruit 15,000 new policemen in the next 2-3 years. Why not make a stronger case for accelerated recruitment? Discourse at certain levels should not be peppered with glib conclusions whose effect is to close further interrogation of issues – a charge of ‘unpatriotic sectional tendencies’ attempts to do that. It isn’t unpatriotic to critise authorities if there’s indeed cause to do so. 

The travelling public across the country are the first to pray for the success of any initiative to safeguard the highways”

Alhaji M. T. Usman’s earlier reference to “The Testimony of Rijana Community to the Interior Minister” was carried by this very newspaper on July 26 (a day before Bala Ibrahim’s Opinion was published) and was reported by Daily Trust Kaduna correspondent Angdrew Agbese and titled “We lost 18 People Who Gave Information on Kidnappers – Rijana Community”.It will help the context here to re-narrate the story at some length, per chance my Reactor Namesake will Re-React:

“Villagers in Rijana, a community along the Kaduna-Abuja highway, yesterday told the Minister of Interior, Lt-Gen Abdulrahman Danbazzau (rtd), that they lost 18 people at different times to suspected kidnappers for revealing facts about them to security agencies. The villagers said information divulged to security agents had not been treated with secrecy and had thus often led to the killing of informants.

“The minister was in Rijana, near Kaduna city, on a fact finding mission. A former special assistant to former Governor Ahmed Makarfi on rural development, Abdulsalam Abubakar, who spoke on behalf of the community, detailed the problems associated with kidnapping in the area, saying, ‘We members of the communities around live in fear, specifically we in Rijana. It’s not that we don’t have information to give but we are scared. We can’t see reason 600 security personnel deployed along the highway can’t enter the bush and flush out the criminals. Our youths have mixed with criminals and they have been corrupted by them. But our major problem is the fear of death. Our people are now scared to give information.’

“Speaking of specific instances of volunteering information and paying the ultimate prize, he said, ‘There was one of us who was seen as a very brave man. He gave list of suspects to the security people and he was macheted into pieces three days after in the presence of his wife. Also, there was a gentleman, Mallam Abdulrahman who also gave information; he was also macheted to death. Same with Yakubu, Sani and Solomon. They all died through information given to the security agents. Wallahi Tallahi, there are bad eggs among the security personnel especially the police. Whoever tells you Honourable Minister that this does not exist in the police is telling you lies.’

“He commended the Inspector General of Police for stepping up patrol on the highway, but said robberies and kidnappings were still going on because ‘if you tell a policeman that robbery or kidnapping is ongoing somewhere close by, he will tell you point blank that he will not go because he does not carry the weapon criminals carry.’”

So, should my good friend Bala Ibrahim get hold of my email address any time in the future, I would oblige him a Right of Reply right on this very space in sha Allah. Meanwhile, if any of the victims of kidnapping on Abuja-Kaduna Road are ready to share their stories – Engr. Muhammad Lawal Maidoki and Dr. Nuruddeen Lawal for example – they are welcome to use this this same space.

And thank you very much Abbati Dankanti, Prof. Jacob Kwaga, Brother Kach Sama and others – I apologise I could not carry your reactions.

Once again, ‘Now We Still Can’t Even Go To Abuja!’…HasbunalLahu Wa Ni’imal Wakil, and may Allah protect us and the police who genuinely try to protect us.