By Mubarak Ibrahim Lawan
“At least 1,126 villagers killed by bandits from January to June 2020”, reported Amnesty International on 24th August 2020. And only God knows how many people so far killed from that time to date. JUST LAST MONTH as reported by different papers, remember that many are not reported, they killed 48 people in Danko/Wasagu Local Government area of Kebbi State; 93 people in Kadawa village of Zurmi, Zamfara State; 20 people at Zungeru, Niger State; 4 and 11 people in Southern Kaduna; 7 persons including police inspector in Zandam Village, Jibia Local Government of Katsina State; 12 people at Maikujera in Rabah Local Government of Sokoto state, etc. And, how many kidnappings and Boko Haram killings? Still, only God Knows!
So as every sensible Northerner grieves over these killings, banditry and kidnappings in Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi Niger and Borno, our leaders celebrate Governor Matawalle’s defection from PDP to APC and throw parties in Zamfara against the background of bloodbath in the State. Comparatively, great leaders mourn fewer deaths in their country, resign their position for such tragedies that outsmart them or show doubtless commitment to resolving the mystery behind the deaths, but ours turn a blind eye. I worry that their inhumane unconcernedness is diffusively affecting us as we become less and less shocked by the deaths and savagery of the human beasts around us.
Notwithstanding attacks on traditional rulers and the politicians themselves, like the attack on Ganduje’s convoy on their way back home from the Zamfara party, that particular nonchalant behaviour of the leaders is making us believe that there’s no way out of the “new normal” because of two possible reasons: (1) the ungovernability of those criminals, or, in other words, they are more powerful than the nation and, (2) the nation has decided to relinquish control of their places silently. When the army or police complain, indirectly, of being ill-equipped to win the wars with the criminals; that they are overstretched, and their number is insignificant to address the herculean task, I agree that the second hypothesis above is true, because the nation can do better.
On the inadequacy of the Nigerian army, Samuel Ogundipe of Premium Times wrote, on August 4, 2016, that “Nigeria has one of the lowest military-to-civilian ratio of nine personnel to every 10,000 people, a situation it said was alarming for the country’s security framework.” Still, as of then, Ogundipe asserted that “Nigerian military personnel can be found on active deployment in no fewer than 30 states of the federation, tackling internal security threats that ordinarily should have been left to the police and paramilitary agencies to contain.”
Then there is no need for us to know exactly how many military personnel we have today in the country. But it is good to know that from about 10,000 strong in 1966, General Yakubu Gowon then expanded Nigeria Armed Forces to about 256,000 strong before he was overthrown in 1975. So more than 40 years after, we still have a similar or less number of Armed forces strength.
After continuous retirements, deaths and below-par recruitments in years after Gowon, Buhari, in 2015, met about 205,000 strong and now expanded them to about 220,000. But, unfortunately, military politics and these years of democracy have politically bastardised the military through favouritism, nepotism, corruption, poor salary and allowances, inferior weaponry and morale. So with the spate of incessant violence from 2010 to date, the Nigeria Army has been made the scapegoat for leaders’ failures.
Nigeria police face similar or worse political bastardisation. We have 371,800 strong in a country of about 200 million people. Still, the governments waste resources on recruiting Hizba, KAROTA, KASTELIA, Amotekun, Civil Defense and the like. If these youths were to be absorbed into the police force, no bandit and kidnapper could wander freely. But, I see the accurate picture of our chaotic country these days when, on lockdown days, I encounter people on roadblocks with different uniforms working for unnecessary organisations. I pity us!
We really need thoughtfully progressive leaders who could reduce nomenclatures, harmonise, expand and sanitise ministries, commissions, boards, services and what have you! We, “the leaders of tomorrow”, should make this a measure for picking a political candidate if he presents us with sound plans, especially on security services. Most police and military personnel are left without seminars, courses, workshops and training that would bring out their best. So we need leaders who will make that possible.
Mubarak Ibrahim writes from the Department of English, Al-Qalam University Katsina.