The columnist sometimes faces a bewildering array of issues playing in the public space. He is not always able to choose a particular topic in a given week. If he picks one, by the time his time comes around seven days thence, the other topics either become stale or are over taken by some more serious issues. What to do?
A few years ago, my good friend, the erudite scholar and newspaper columnist, Professor Olatunji Dare, came up with a charming solution. Treat all the issues in an omnibus column under matters miscellaneous. It is a lesson I have infrequently applied in my columns. Like this one.
Bandits And Boko Haram
Listen to this. “It is the lives of people that we are talking about, not position. We are there because there are lives. If there are no lives, what is the essence of leadership?”
That was the governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, speaking to state house correspondents after his meeting with President Buhari on January 3. He was there to press it on the president to declare a state of emergency in his state at his own request. This may not rate as a cascade of candour but it certainly qualifies as a responsible take on leadership. You have to have the people before you can lead or rule them. Makes eminent common sense.
You are hearing the voice of a leader in despair and distress. You are hearing the voice of a leader who places the lives of his people over and above his pretence to being in charge. You are hearing the voice of a man doing what no governor in this country has done before.
It is not a voice crying for sympathy. It is a voice crying for the federal might to save his people, the people who voted him into office. I think his conscience troubles him because he is finding it increasingly difficult to protect them. I find it difficult to hear that voice without my heart going out to the governor and his people. It should affect you the same way too.
Zamfara is hostage to criminals operating in the state with near impunity. In official lingo they are called bandits. But they operate like killer squads. They kill more than they steal. And they have been at it for more than two years now, without let up. No one knows for sure how many people they have killed so far in the state. Senator Dansandau, a respected politician in the state, once put the unofficial figure at 3,000.
In asking for the declaration of a state of emergency to save his people, Yari has honestly admitted that the situation passes his power. He complains that the state is inadequately policed. So, why has the president not risen to the challenge? Why is Yari made to beg for the protection of his people in a country whose supreme law, the constitution, places a high premium on the security of the lives and property of the people on the government?
I suppose only Buhari can answer those and similar questions. The security situation has gone virtually out of hand in the northern parts of the country. On Monday, January 7, the governor of Borno State, Kashima Shettima, led some elders in his state to Buhari to plead with him to end the Boko Haram insurgency. The Punch of January 8 reported that the governor broke down before the president in the course of his speech. He told the president: “…we rushed here because of the recent upsurge in the activities of the demented monster called Boko Haram, especially in Borno North Senatorial District. We are here because we thought Allah will use you to fully reclaim Borno traditional glory of being the home of peace. We are here as a people who worked, prayed and waited for your presidency in the firm belief that with you as the commander-in-chief, Boko Haram will become history in Borno.”
Sadly, that has not happened – so far. Into the growing cocktail of challenges, we must now add Katsina State. What is happening there right now is similar to that of Zamfara. The state governor, Bello Masari, has honestly confessed that despite the battery of security men around him, he no longer feels all that safe in his home state. The Nigerian state has never had it so bad.
Yari’s words bear repeating. Governance is about the people; it is not about power. Without the people, no politician gets elected into office. Security is the number one constitutional assignment for our rulers at all levels of government. I feel silly repeating that. As the politicians strut the stage making fantastic promises of a rosy tomorrow, they need to be reminded that there can be no tomorrow without today.
Nigerian politics 101
This is Nigerian politics 101. We begin the lesson with the lead story on the front page of the Daily Trust of January 4. The newspaper reported that “the federal government will spend over three billion Naira on fuel, generators and plants across 602 ministries, departments and agencies this year. This huge figure for generators and fuel is coming at (a) time the minister of power, works and housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, is saying that power supply had improved and that there was more power coming to the grid this year.”
Let us ignore for the moment the minister’s atrocious claim that the government had fulfilled its promise it made in 2015 to incrementally increase power generation and distribution. It is enough that our country men and women who still depend on candles and bush lamps in our towns and cities would murmur some unprintable words directed at the minister. You may try but you cannot stop politicians who live right here on earth believing that they live on the moon and look kindly down below on the suffering masses.
Here is what I do during the budget season of the federal and state governments. I read the lips of our leaders. Here is how to do this. In the new budget proposals, look for those items that have become the stuff of repeated annual promises. If, for instance, the federal government promised last year to say to darkness, be thou banished to the inner recesses of hell, trust me it would forget to make its word its bond and slip it in budget allocations for new year. You are likely to find in the new budget provisions for generators and fuel to power them. This is the most refreshing way to interrogate promises and fulfilments by federal and state governments.
If you go back to the Daily Trust story under reference, it should be easy for you to establish these elementary facts beyond argument. One, if the federal government promised improved power supply last year, it did not happen. Two, this leads to the only logical conclusion, to wit, it could only get worse this year, power-wise. Therefore, three, the government needed no one to tell it to be prepared so it would not suffer like we, suffering and smiling the masses contending with erratic power supply.
I am willing to bet that nothing shocks us any more about the promises on improved power supply. The last time we heard about such promises, the Nigerian state was some $15-25 billion poorer on account of what it spent to improve our power supply. And still, our power generation is still below 3,000 megawatts as you read this. No, I do not think it is a shame. It is just the way the cookies choose to crumble. My advice is, be prepared. If the federal government is prepared to spend a cool three billion Naira on generators and fuel this year, do not bet on improved power supply. Our agony is the pleasure of the generator merchants here and the manufacturers in Japan, South Korea and India. Lack and suffering are exploitable business opportunities.
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