.
…Says since Jonathan era, every Nigeria’s president has become chief mourner
Â
Prof. Olawale Albert is a former Director of the Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies, University of Ibadan. He is a Professor of African History, Peace and Conflict Studies. The security scholar is a specialist in security analysis, early warning system, peace process planning, peace education, monitoring and evaluation.
In this interview with ROTIMI AGBOLUAJE, the security scholar said President Bola Tinubu is yet to show that he is different from former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The university teacher said Killings on the Plateau and other places would continue as long as the political will to deal with the problem is lacking, adding that lack of political will to identify the enemy remains number one problem. He also lamented that since the Goodluck Jonathan era, every Nigerian president has become a chief mourner.
Albert asserted that state and community policing is the best solution to address perennial carnage in Plateau and other places.
By Rotimi Agboluaje
Can you draw a comparison between the way President Bola Tinubu is handling security and the way former President Muhammadu Buhari handled it?
Â
President Bola Tinubu has yet to come out with his security management policy. He is yet to make any serious pronouncement on how he is going to secure this country beyond the campaign promises of making Nigeria safer and secure but we are yet to have a clear policy. What I mean by clear policy is an articulation of how he understands the security problems of the country and how he intends to use the knowledge to develop strategies that are actionable and focusing on his understanding of the problem. This is because part of the key security challenges in this country is that our leaders have never demonstrated any good understanding of security problems. Let’s take Plateau for an example, the issues in the state have been happening since 1990s but you find every government saying these are unknown criminals and  herdsmen; recently they said they are political opponents. When you find a political leadership that is not able to do what is called framing, then that political leadership can’t solve your problems. Framing is when real problems happen, the leader will come out in a very clear term to explain what has happened, identify those people responsible and marshal out what will be done to address the challenge. Let me use the September 11 attack as an example. In a few hours it happened , the President of America came up to say al Qaeda was responsible. Al Qaeda has a network in Afghanistan. The president came out clearly to say who caused the problem, where they could likely be found and said that those harbouring these people should surrender them on time. The president declared that the campaign against those who were responsible for September 11 would be global. He emphasised that there was no sitting on the fence. You are either for us or against us. So, he declared a global war against terrorism.
Now, these people went to Plateau State and they killed as many as they wanted to kill. They went to Kaduna State, killed as many as they wanted to kill as well as other places and killed as many as they wanted to kill. But Nigeria is yet to come out with a clear statement on who is responsible for this problem and what they are looking for. Are they looking for land? Is it a religious conflict? Is it an ethnic conflict? Are the attackers from outside? When Buhari was in government, he went to Benue State he said the terrorists were their neighbours. Then, he came out again and said these are foreigners. Then, he came out again to say they are people from Libya. Buhari left office unable to tell us who were attacking Nigerians. Unfortunately, Tinubu has started his own on Buhari’s trajectory. So, what we have discovered in this nation is that, since the time of Goodluck Jonathan, every president we have produced is the chief mourner of the nation. You only hear them saying they have declared seven days of mourning; the president, the minister would go there to visit them and then some colourless characters would say they are donating N100 million and all those. We have not been able to know what is wrong with us security-wise. This is because we are responsible for the problem. If you are responsible for a problem, you won’t  point fingers at anyone to accuse him or her of being responsible.
So, lack of political will to identify the enemy of this nation is the number one problem. While there is no will to identify those who are responsible, you make the work of security management very difficult for the unfortunate people that are managing the security of this country. You know those responsible but you still send soldiers there. The soldiers themselves know that you are not ready to identify the enemy. They, too, are afraid to say these are the enemies. They’ll go there to sleep around the community to say they are going to find them. The political will to solve the problem is not there. As a scientist, I want to say the lack of political will starts, first and foremost, with our reluctance and inability to frame the problem. Who is the enemy? Who are these people killing Nigerians in their hundreds? How many arrests have you ever made? How many of these people have you ever prosecuted? Gumi went to the forest in the Northeast, he met these people, held meetings with them and he came back. Funny enough, the government is still claiming that they don’t know who these people are. One of the terrorists came out to get a chieftaincy title. He brought his friends, they danced and did all they wanted to do and sneaked back. But three or four days later, you saw some colourless characters saying they were looking for them. Who are you looking for? So, we will continue this way so long as the political will to deal with the problem is not there. Plateau will continue to be Plateau; Kaduna will continue to be Kaduna, Benue will continue to be; Zamfara State will continue to be the way it is. Katsina State will continue to remain the way it is. Now, Sokoto State has joined the league. Therefore, to me, Tinubu, is yet to show is different from Buhari. We blamed Buhari a lot when he was in government; that he was all responsible for these problems and probably, his kinsmen. We said all kinds of things. But what do we say now that the problem is even escalating? In Abuja, we are told that people are kidnapped on a daily basis. The bandits go into homes now to pick people and ask for ridiculous amounts of money as a ransom. If the person refuses to pay, he will be killed. We are in serious trouble but the solution will come, first and foremost, when there is political will to deal with the issue.
Â
It was said that the terrorists operated for 48 hours on the Plateau. What can you say about that?
Â
It isn’t about only 48 hour we should focus on. The people themselves said they sent SOS about 137 times. Let’s forget about the length of hours that the bandits were in the communities. Let’s call attention to the number of times they alerted security operatives to the impending doom that eventually befell them. That is why some of us who are scholars in this field are becoming a little bit worried about this idea of setting up an early warning system. Early warning system will say this problem is mostly likely to happen within this certain period. But when you generate the security alert and intelligence and you give it to security people and there is no response what do you do? So, what is happening to them in Plateau as claimed by the community is that they knew that the problem would happen. They alerted security agents and they never got any response until these criminals came to slaughter them. I listened to one of the survivors of the incident on the television, who said he could recognise the faces of some of the attackers as people around them. He claimed that the attackers are the people they know within the community; that they are not totally strangers and that, in fact, one of them called his name when they were attacking him. I don’t know how we are going to get out of this mess. For now, the only thing one could say is that the solution will start when we have the political will to do what is expected of us.
   I think our security operatives are afraid. They know that the political will is not there and they are protecting their career by not going too far.
Â
How would you assess the way the state governor responded?
Â
The state governor responded in bitterness. We saw him on the television. He looked helpless. You could see his agony and disappointment but there is little the governor could do. He doesn’t have the right kind of security network to deal with it. He inherited the problem. So, Simon Lalong that came before him experienced the same thing. He is experiencing a worse dimension of the problem. If you say you want to assess him, the question will be around what parameters? He doesn’t control the police and the army. The only thing the governor could do as he is doing is to feed the displaced persons from the conflict. After you have given them food, what next? These people have been expelled from their communities. How do you return them to their communities?
Â
Can state policing address this matter?
Â
State/ community policing is the best solution. However,at the altar of partisan politics, Nigeria is not ready to do the right thing. The community members know who these criminals are. Why don’t we transfer the power to them to police their communities? The example  that readily comes to mind is the kind of change that we have seen as a result of the Amotekun corps since its introduction in the Southwest. Many of these problems you see in other parts of the country are not in the region because the people now police their community. You can’t hide in their forests. You can’t exhibit your criminalities on their streets and communities. They’ll deal with you immediately. But winning the next election is what an average politician is thinking of. If there is state and community police, they won’t be allowed to steal electoral boxes. So, partisan politics is what is preventing us from solving our political problems. My prayer is that this country will not be taken over by these criminal elements freely circulating around the country. They are gaining up hands every day, killing policemen, soldiers and other security operatives. They are not just killing the ordinary citizens; and they kill anybody around. Everybody is afraid. People are running away from this country not for economic or job reasons but they are afraid of their personal safety. They have everything but they can’t walk freely on the road. They are not too sure of what will happen to them tomorrow. Therefore, they’re just selling their properties and leaving Nigeria. Who are you leaving the country for? Our politicians who are supposed to be dealing with these issues are not interested in them. They ride bulletproof cars. We are not blessed with sincere leaders. This is why our problems are escalating.
End