SAN FRANCISCO, December 13, (THEWILL) – The North, comprising four of the six-geopolitical zones of the Nigeria’s political structure with a sizeable number of 19 states, appears to have woken up to the dire insecurity in the region with the warning by the Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar III, that things have gone out of control.
Speaking at the fourth quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council on Thursday, November 26 in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, Sultan Abubakar III, said that the security system in the region has completely collapsed and lamented the high rate of insecurity, which has made the North the ‘worst place’ in the country to live in.
According to the Sultan, who is the spiritual head of millions of Nigeria’s Muslims; “The security situation in Northern Nigeria has assumed a worrisome situation. A few weeks ago, over 76 persons were killed in a community in Sokoto in a day. I was there with the governor to commiserate with the affected community.
“Unfortunately, you don’t hear these stories in the media because it’s in the North. We have accepted the fact that the North does not have strong media to report the atrocities of these bandits.
“People think the North is safe but that assumption is not true. In fact, it’s the worst place to be in this country because bandits go around in the villages, households, and markets with their AK 47 and nobody is challenging them. They stop at the market, buy things, pay and collect change, with their weapons openly displayed. These are facts, I know because I am at the centre of it.
“I am not only a traditional ruler, I am also a religious leader. So, I am in a better place to tell the story. I can speak for the North in this regard because I am fully aware of the security challenges there.”
On the Zabarmari incident, the Sultan- led JNI on Wednesday, Dec 2, reportedly called “on the Federal Government to rise up to its responsibility and do well beyond the traditional condemnation, as lip service on security matter should stop…”
The Sultan had been railing against the state of insecurity in the north, except that his recent statement gained much traction by the Saturday, November 28 murder of 67 farmers, according to a Senate independent investigation, at Zabarmari village in Jere Local Government of Borno State.
By July 2020, the Jama’ atu Nasril Islam, led by Sultan Abubakar, had credited the destructive violence and insecurity ravaging the country, especially the north, to the inefficiency of the country’s security architecture. This was followed by the Arewa Consultative Forum’s condemnation of the arrest of some youths of Arewa Youths Organisation, for protesting against the spate of killings in the north with a call on President Buhari to sack the service chiefs. But the recent statement by the Sultan has really triggered a wave of support and critical comments from groups in the region. The Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace and Development, CONEPD, applauded the Sultan for his courage to speak up on the worsening security situation in the northern part of the country.
In a statement, the group’s National Coordinator, Zana Goni and National Women Leader, Hajia Mario Bichi, urged President Buhari to heed the clamour for a reorganisation of the security architecture and appointment of younger officers with new set of ideas to change the situation.
Besides commending the Sultan, the Northern Elders Forum led by Professor Ango Abdullahi, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign, because, according to them, “he has failed in carrying out the chief function of a central government, which is to secure and protect the territorial integrity, live and property of the citizenry of Nigerians.”
Nonetheless, banditry driven by greed and sectarian violence driven by fundamentalism are the twin evils that have made the north the ‘worst place’ in the country to live in, in recent times.
Besides, their brigandage has accounted for the placement of Nigeria as the third most terrorized nation in the world after Afghanistan, and Iraq, and before Syria, Somalia, Yemen and Pakistan, according the Global Terrorism Index, 2020
But while the religious leaders like the Sultan and former Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II, Muslim scholars like Shiek Gumi and intellectuals like Professor Junaid Mohammed, have been crying out helplessly for the north to be freed from this criminality, the elected and appointed leaders have been playing the ostrich and acting politically correct.
“It is what happens when politicians use religion to extend the frontiers of their ambition and power,” His Lordship, Father Hassan Kukah, said on February 11, 2020 while delivering the homily for late seminarian Michael Nnadi, who was killed by kidnappers. Yet, according to him, “the north has the worst indices of poverty, squalor, insecurity and destitution.”
This thinking finds support in the view of Professor Yusuf Dankofa, Head of Department of Public Law at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Reacting to the rampaging banditry up north on the eve of the #EndSARS protest against police brutality and call for police reform, Dankofa said; “ I think the north is only interested in power and nothing more. The sweetness of power and the allure it brings is what appeals to them and not work.
“If not, how can a region be so decimated by its own internal contradictions and trudge on as if the region is not regressing.
“In the face of the calamity, what you see is eerie silence since the power is with their elite who thoroughly depend on the treasury to survive. We are happy that power is with us even though we do not know what to do with it.”
Nothing could well dramatize this lack of political will among the elected leaders in the north than the reaction by them to the 12-day #EndSARS protest.
At a meeting that was convened by the Northern Governors’ Forum in Kaduna, the region’s political capital, on Monday, November 2 and attended by the Sultan, Chiefs and Emirs, the President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu and Principal Officers of the National Assembly, every participant agreed to the view that the protest was meant to topple President Buhari’s administration.
Prompted by the nationwide- massive destruction of public and private properties that followed the protest after the alleged killings at Lekki Toll plaza on Tuesday, October 20, the meeting expectedly made this submission;
“The meeting rejects and condemns the subversive actions of the EndSARS protest. The superlative agitations and other change regime actions outside the ballot box soon take advantage of the peaceful protests to push for their separatist agenda. The meeting endorsed the indivisibility, indissolubility and oneness of the Nation.”
The meeting called for the censorship of social media, which it blamed for spreading false information; craved the authorities to give constitutional role to traditional leaders; expressed satisfaction with the actions taken by the Governors to revive the economic fortunes of the region, particularly during the post COVID-19 period; resolved to give President Buhari the maximum support as he rolls out measures to address the lingering challenges of youth unemployment, banditry and Boko Haram.
Some of the governors in attendance denied any atrocities committed by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS in the region. In fact, embattled Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State, where Boko Haram terrorists reign supreme and Ibrahim Metawalle of Zamfara state, where bandits now tax farmers during farming and before harvest, openly canvassed redeployment of SARS officials to their states
Given the caliber of personalities and dignitaries present at the meeting, it would be safe to say, no such gathering has taken place to examine, criticize and offers solutions to “subversive actions;” “change regime actions” and “separatist agenda,” in the last 10 years since Boko Haram started.
Yet, the Boko Haram terrorists have shown contempt for the Constitution and taken up arms to terminate the country through violence to fulfill their ambition to impose an Islamic state on the system. In carrying out their inordinate ambition, millions have been killed, rendered destitute and homeless.
This kind of political mindset may ultimately be the real reason for regime change.
Says Professor Dankofa. “We are happy that power is with us even though we do not know what to do with it. This mindset will definitely make others move out of the union. You cannot slow down your own progress and those of others and expect them to clap for you.’’
To put a lie to the SARS professionalism up north, President of Nigeria Institute of Public Relations, Malam Murthar Sirajo, shared a post from Mal Bashir Yusuf İbrahim, which, he said, he considered “a good food for thought,” in late November.
According to Ibrahim, for four years, from 2015 to 2019, the President, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chief of Staff to the President, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Interior, the National Security Advisor, the Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Air Staff, the IGP, the Director-General DSS, the Comptroller-General of Immigration – virtually all the highest ranking political office holders and all the people in charge of Nigeria’s security apparatus, were Northerners.
It’s only after the 2019 elections that the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Minister of Interior changed portfolios. But then, a new Ministry of Police Affairs was created and a Northerner was appointed to be its Minister.
He said; “Even if SARS has been successful in addressing insecurity in Northern Nigeria, no one can excuse their excesses in Southern Nigeria.
“But it’s not true the North is totally free of these SARS excesses. I was personally involved in a case of a young man called Gaddafi who was shot and killed in Kano in front of his family home by SARS operatives. He was not armed and he did not commit any crime. As I write, those SARS operatives have not been apprehended, let alone punished for their heinous crime. The parents of this young man, killed for not committing any crime, have been condemned to a life of grief and misery ever since.
“If SARS was so effective in containing insecurity in Northern Nigeria, as claimed by some people, why are Northerners complaining about insecurity? It’s time we accept our failures and stop blaming others.”
“Buhari got in Katsina 1.2 million votes, what do we have to show in Katsina. A third of Katsina is under bandits and the capital city is filled up as an IDP,” said Professor Usman Yusuf, former executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, in an ARISE TV news programme on Wednesday December 2.
But why is the northern political elite engaged in this sort of mind games?
Professor Jumaid Mohammed, reacting to the murder of 67 farmers in Zabarmari, Jere Local Government of Borno state on Saturday, November 28, 2020, said on December 2; “Because of the hypocritical nature of Nigeria, tribal, sectional and religious politics, everybody is pretending so that Buhari will be seen to be doing something,”
“He’s doing nothing. He cannot do anything. And any attempt to prolong his tenure indefinitely will only leave Nigeria into more and more nightmare,” Elder statesman, Malam Tanko Yakassai, sums it all up in a brief interview with THEWILL
Yakassai, who is Chairman of the Northern Elders Council, NEC, said his group did not need to speak again when before the 2019 election, he had issued a statement, widely published, “that Buhari has not got what it takes to occupy the office of President. He was not competent and capable of dealing with the problems of the country.”
On the Sultan’s intervention, he said: “Traditional rulers do not jump into a controversy until it has reached a situation when comments by others have failed to solve the problem. Their voices put a stamp on what others have spoken.”
With his recent statement, Sultan Abubakar III may have just handed the political elite the chance to claim the desired political will to act. But will they take it?
*** This piece also appeared in the print edition under the same caption.
About the Author
Amos Esele is the Deputy Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
