Herdsmen Attacks: A National Security Failure

By Abiodun Ladepo

As the National Security Adviser, you have to be grossly incompetent to not know how the Fulani herdsmen (yes, they are herdsmen and they are Fulani) conduct their raids. If you knew and just refused to do something about it, anything that would stop these mindless, gory massacres of unarmed innocent Nigerians, then you are just asinine or unpatriotic or both. And if you have laid everything out for your boss, in this case, the President, and he does not have the political cojones to do what he is required by law to do – that is, the protection of the lives and properties of Nigerians, the President has failed.

It must amaze and confound anybody with a scintilla of security awareness – how much more, national security awareness – that there are people roaming around the entire country with illegal weapons, even if they are not killing people with it. No serious security-conscious person, how much more, one with statutory responsibility and obligation to prevent such acquisition in the first place; and the confiscation of such weapons and prosecution of culprits, will sleep well at night knowing that the country is awash with such weapons. But what is even more galling is that the culprits are killing people in dozens, almost daily, and everybody who is getting paid to act is wringing their hands and praying to God to help them. Come on! 

Python Dance, David Dance And What Have You!

By Fred Doc Nwaozor  

The last time I checked, Imo and South-East at large was dominated by operation this and that. Initially, it was only ‘Operation Python Dance’ until ‘Operation David Dance’ followed suit. The former – a military exercise – which is targeted at wiping out all forms of social ills lingering in the region including armed robbery, kidnapping, abduction, herdsmen/farmers clashes, and violent secessionist movements, was recently launched by the Nigerian Army (NA).

In various quarters, the residents of the affected area – particularly members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) – have strongly kicked against the military exercise, saying that it was not for the good interest of the entire people of the Igbo nation. To this end, the IPOB equally launched a parallel exercise code-named Operation David Dance. According to them, the ‘David’ signifies the one in the Holy Bible who defeated Goliath in a battlefield with a mere stone. It suffices to say: they were trying to insinuate that the military exercise represents ‘Goliath.’

As some groups within the South-East zone have continued to condemn the new military operation, which is meant to last between November 27 and December 27, 2016, the Army has explained extensively that the exercise did not mean any harm except to criminals, hence, would be in the overall interest of the good people of the area contrary to the views making the rounds. In a press statement released by the Deputy Director of the Army Public Relations – 82 Division Enugu – Colonel Sagir Musa, the initiative reportedly aimed towards achieving a hitch-free yuletide in the entire South-East would help the people of the region in the areas of healthcare and security, among others.

Col. Musa, however, categorically stated that the exercise wasn’t peculiar to the South-East. According to him, having painstakingly examined the myriad of security challenges across the country, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai directed the setting up of the conduct of both Command Post and Field Training exercises, as a way of enhancing troops preparedness toward combating the spectrum of the contemporary challenges. In view of this directive, the Army Headquarters instructed the immediate commencement of the request in different regions across the federation.

 He further highlighted those operations Ex Shirin Harbi, Ex Harbin Kunama, Ex Crocodile Smile, and Ex Python Dance were instituted for the North-East, North-West, Niger Delta, and South-East regions, respectively, in regard to their individual security plights. The information personnel equally disclosed that an elaborate Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) would be maintained throughout the exercise. Thus, he urged the people of the South-East to support rather than despise it, since it means well for them.

Pres Buhari, Take A Hard Look At Nigeria’s Map

By Okey Ndibe

I recently surveyed President Muhammadu Buhari’s top appointments recently and was left wondering when last he took a long, hard look at Nigeria’s map. Before the president makes another important political appointment, he would do well to spend some time looking at the map of the country that’s under his charge.

*President Buhari

President Buhari’s disdain for geopolitical spread and religious diversity in his appointments is so stark as to constitute a scandal. As far as appointments go, it’s as if the man believes that Nigeria is reducible to one half of its geography, the north, and one major religion, Islam.

As a presidential candidate, Mr. Buhari was frequently characterized as a man given to excessive clannishness. Some critics alleged that his fealty to the northern half of Nigeria and partiality to fellow adherents of the Islamic faith trumped his belief in Nigeria and commitment to treat people of other faiths with fairness.

Since his presidential ambition aroused such anxiety, Mr. Buhari might have taken care to reassure Nigerians—as he stated in his inaugural speech—that he belonged to all of them. Instead, he seems to have gone out of his way to validate his critics’ worst fears. His personnel decisions as president have suggested a man whose mindset is as sectional as his political instincts are terrible. In one year as president, his appointments have deeply disappointed many Nigerians’ expectations of equity. He has operated as if unaware of the longstanding requirement that important political appointments ought to reflect the country’s federal character.

I believe every section of Nigeria has a pool of talented people. Therefore, the president’s default stance, choosing candidates for major positions from his own geographic area and religious group, is troubling. Is Mr. Buhari’s vision so blinkered that, each time he looks at Nigeria, he sees (mostly) Muslims and Northerners? And has he no handlers and advisers willing to speak honestly to him, to save him from his parochial instincts, to tell him, quite simply, that his appointments don’t tell a flattering story about him?

During Mr. Buhari’s first few months in office, some excused his lopsided appointments on the ground that he needed to surround himself with people he knew closely, whose loyalty he could count on. But even that apologia was untenable. Here was a man who ran for the Nigerian Presidency four times before he got elected. I don’t recall him professing that, if elected, he would fashion himself primarily into a Northern president. Surely, we should expect that a man who spent so much time and energy seeking to govern his country would have made some effort to broaden his base of loyalists.