That attack in Bauchi

As was later revealed the riot was instigated by a rumour that the newly elected President Olusegun Obasanjo ‘had died’, barely a week before being sworn into office for his first term. The area boys were reportedly  mourning the development, hence the unprovoked attack on everybody in sight who was not one of them. The […]

As was later revealed the riot was instigated by a rumour that the newly elected President Olusegun Obasanjo ‘had died’, barely a week before being sworn into office for his first term. The area boys were reportedly  mourning the development, hence the unprovoked attack on everybody in sight who was not one of them. The human damage included lost lives, broken bodies and defiled womanhood. Needless to say that such a dangerous rumour came from the pit of hell and was not true, for the man dey kampe at that time, and was even healthier than the fittest of the ‘Area Boys, in spite of the fact that the most elderly among them could have been in the age bracket of his grandchildren.
Talking about assassinations and attempts at such in Nigeria, we have the painful memories of General Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi, the country’s first military leader and General Murtala Mohammed, the third, as well as a recent one in the instance that featured General Muhammad Buhari, a former Head of State and presently the presidential candidate of the main opposition party – the All Progressives Congress (APC).He miraculously survived a bomb attack on his convoy in, of all places, Kaduna. Nobody imagined that such a sacrilegious act can even be conceived, but the enemy proved otherwise by baring his fangs in the most unlikely places to kill our joy.
When the downplayed Bauchi drama of attack on the convoy of President Goodluck Jonathan made the rounds last week, these flashes of memory came calling with a benumbing impact. Granted that  the Lagos incident was driven by a mere rumour with an unfounded premise, and which any of the mentally deranged ‘Area Boys’ could have concocted easily under the influence of wine and weed. However, the actual hits on Ironsi and Murtala, as well as the near miss on Buhari, were not flukes. They prove that assassinations in the country are not only possible but actually take place.
That is why the Bauchi incident qualifies for more attention than it is getting.This was an incident that was a real life,pre-meditated act to actually attack the president, even if all to be achieved (as we hope) was the convoy, and ostensibly the security personnel on the beat. Yet any ballistics and terrorism savvy person knows that such a scenario as played out in Bauchi, could have provided cover for an intrepid assassin to operate with catastrophic consequences.
The  book:  Learning from Catastrophies ; Strategies for Reaction and Response, edited by Professors Howard Kunreuther and Mike Useem, elaborately addresses the theme that failure to plan for extreme risks endangers survival chances.Seeing the Bauchi incident through the commonsense prism of this thesis puts the two key actors in the drama –  namely Isa Yuguda governor of the state and Bala  Mohammed, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, on the block for demonstrating poor judgement and inadequate response with respect to  the dispensation of a presidential visit to their state.
Since the unfortunate incident, much of what has come from them has been a medley of mutual recriminations and denials of alleged acts of commission and omission.Firstly Yuguda canvassed the bizzare story that the FCT minister planted some agents to provoke an assault on the president, for the purpose of ridiculing him as being incompetent to manage the president’s visit. Of course as expected, the accused Bala denied the charge, leaving Nigerians with the question of who sponsored the act unanswered. However, the question remains that ifthe extreme unthinkable had occurred,and the president came to any harm, will Nigerians accept the lame excuses that Isa and Bala have been parading as the justification for each person’s position?
The answer hangs in the air, if past events are anything to go by. In the course of such a situation, there   could be high sounding words of condemnation, social turbulence and even bloody skirmishes,in which innocent persons, who may include uninvolved security personnel,may unjustly pay for the sins of politicians. At the best a typical panel of inquiry may be set up to investigate the matter, even as its outcome may not see the light of day. Meanwhile, the culprits whose bunglings spawned the crisis, will be ensconced from the epicenters of the dividends of their misdeeds, and likely come back to resume their streak of infamy.
A typical case is the complement of factors that led to the untimely death of Mr Patrick Yakowa, former governor of Kaduna State and General Patrick Azazi, former National Security Adviser, in the course of attending the funeral ceremony of the father of Oronto Douglas the Special Adviser to the President on Research, Documentation and Strategy, in Bayelsa State. The complement of protocol lapses around that ugly chapter in the nation’s history leaves much to be desired.
Unconfirmed reports have it that the reason why the late governor was compelled to travel back to Port Harcourt after the funeral in the ill-fated helicopter which claimed his life, and was different from the one he arrived in,  was a payment dispute over hiring of the earlier chopper! Even as the nation still weeps over the development, the officers who bungled the arrangement are still in the system.
Clearly, something is wrong with the ethos of public service in Nigeria. The day is coming when public service will be run with zero tolerance for deliberate errors, deviations from expressly laid down rules  and near misses. That is the dispensation on which a new Nigeria shall be built upon.