Why has this government not resigned?

A cook who can’t cook, a doctor who can’t heal, a teacher who teaches nonsense all could easily be fired. With governance we may have to wait until the next election. Even then, if the politician has enough excuses, or can blame someone else successfully, he or she can be “re-elected” with a landslide. Or […]

A cook who can’t cook, a doctor who can’t heal, a teacher who teaches nonsense all could easily be fired. With governance we may have to wait until the next election. Even then, if the politician has enough excuses, or can blame someone else successfully, he or she can be “re-elected” with a landslide. Or so it would seem.
How else does one explain the stay-put attitude of this government or our penchant to “siddon-look”? Is our capacity to absorb government nonsense really limitless? Why are we not telling this inept, clueless, divisive and lying lot to just go now? Why do we even have to wait till 2015 elections? Sorry, I take that back. At least some have started calling for the resignation of a few officials after the false, and apparently 2015 Elections-inspired, “good news” of a “ceasefire” with Boko Haram, even if from a wrapped and distorted perspective.
Yes, it is good that we are starting to demand accountability from those charged with running our affairs. The Christian Association of Nigeria is quite justified in demanding for the resignation of Lt. General Aliyu Gusau  and Col Sambo Dasuki, the Minister of Defence and National Security Adviser, respectively, for their “lacklustre performance” in carrying out “the mandate to reign-in the (Boko Haram) insurgents.”  The trouble is that CAN is not being totally honest and indeed seem to have crafted its’ Press Release in a patently partisan manner.CAN seems bent on shifting  the blame conveniently away from President Jonathan, and those much more guilty than these two,  especially away from the Service Chiefs. In any case, were these two not selected by the President himself out of many other equally, or indeed more, competent retired and serving army officers?
Indeed, in a signed press statement that must have gladden the heart of Areijesafor, Musa Asake, CAN Secretary-General, attempted to divert our attention by painting the whole matter of the shamefully incompetent handling of the counterinsurgency as a Muslim plot to Islamise Nigeria and even eliminate Christians, a theme we often hear from those charged with selling the Jonathan 2015 agenda.
Frankly I have no idea what Aliyu Gusau is doing in the Defence Ministry or why he accepted the job in the first place. Sambo Dasuki, I learnt, was recommended by his friend, and course-mate, Gen. Owoeye Azazi and I have very little knowledge regarding his preparedness for the job but he was clearly acceptable to the President. The Constitution provides that a president, as the Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief, selects those who would help him carry out his mandate, and is ultimately responsible for the aptness or otherwise of his choice. So why President Jonathan “summarily dismissed” Azazi as NSA and appointed Sambo Dasuki to replace him, and whether Sambo and Aliyu Gusau failed in the assignments given to them by Jonathan, CAN should know that both these claims have nothing to do with their being Muslims, and Nigerian Muslims owe nobody any apology or explanation as to why they have not been fired nor why Jonathan selected them in the first place. Jonathan, and the clique around him selected them and he can fire them. That is his prerogative. Given his love for making policy statements in churches, the Secretary of CAN may even get to know of this before the rest of us.
But all Nigerians (Muslims, Christians, animists, agnostics, or whatever) know that the President is responsible for ultimately guaranteeing peace and security, and for defending our territorial integrity as a nation. That is his main job. We know he alone is responsible for selecting those to help him with these tasks, subject to recommendations of his trusted lieutenants. We also know that trillions have been budgeted (and spent) for defence and security with very little to show for it. That they have failed is a collective failure of the government for which Jonathan cannot but be held ultimately responsible. The killings and abductions continue, the economy of the North is collapsing, especially farming and animal husbandry, oil theft has reached scandalous proportions even as we pay billions to warlords to protect our maritime borders and oil fields. Boko Haram has taken over a large chunk of the North East and seems still unscathed, while we are forced to watch or listen to his supporters’ re-election, and often cheeky, in-your-face, songs, dances, posters and jingles.
More revealing is the fact that the CAN General-Secretary was silent on the failings of those actually in charge of the fighting, totally refusing to admit that the Chiefs of both the Army and the Air Force, and even the Chief of Defence Staff, are all Christians; an inconvenient truth that would negate his anti-Muslim obsessions. He preferred, instead, to focus on RETIRED chaps who control no troops. Equally disturbing is the claim that Boko Haram only targets Christians, as if their bullets and bombs have ways of discriminating. Smart Bombs indeed! The Reverend wants the Federal Government, or so he said, to “explain to the nation the sins committed by Azazi who was summarily dismissed in June 2012” asking “Was he sacked because of his Christian religion and to satisfy the cravings of his Muslim counterparts.” We are thus invited to despise these Muslims with their “cravings” (for blood?) and to assume that a National Security Adviser has counterparts! Why such arrant nonsense? We were not told why Azazi had to go but, that even Jonathan, not known for firing of incompetent and ineffective aides, found it necessary to do so, that alone should caution us to let sleeping dogs well alone.
The real grudges, however, were in the following statement by the CAN Secretary: “The question on the lips of every Nigerian Christian today is: what changes have these two military tacticians (Dasuki and Gusau) brought to bear since they were appointed? What is the wisdom of entrusting the nation’s security in the hands of two relations from the North West? Why have these two relations from Sokoto and Zamfara not changed their tactics in accordance with the presidential mandate given to them to root out the insurgents in the North East geo-political zone? Is this a game plan to eliminate people in that region and put them in perpetual subjugation?” He concluded by wondering why these two individuals are still in Jonathan’s cabinet. All these are for the government to answer if it so wishes. How Jonathan can even be part of a “game plan” to eliminate Christians and Islamise Nigeria is so ludicrous that even his media warriors may pause before answering.
Let me in turn pose my own set of questions. Did Nigerian Muslims give Jonathan the names of these people to appoint as those they deemed most competent to carry out the task? Who told the Reverend that every retired soldier is a “military tacticians? Yes, the two are related by marriage, but does it matter, and was Jonathan not aware of that before he appointed them? Or should they be disqualified just because they are from the North West? Did Badeh not promise to end the insurgency by April? Is Badeh’s home presently not under Abubakar Shekau’s rule? Why is CAN not demanding that he resigns or be fired? Does Jonathan or anyone in his government appear to have any idea how to end the insurgency? If so, why is the strategy so well hidden even from those charged with the actual fighting? Why are the losses of lives and limbs of Muslims conveniently down-played by some people who we used to consider serious?  Is it to create a political divide in preparation for 2015? Indeed, why has the government not collectively resigned after all the funny lies, massive corruption and endless scandals?
Crude propaganda, false claims and outright lies- and mischievous press statements – would simply prolong our agonies. They only help the Boko Haram insurgents.