President Buhari
By Yakubu Ahmed-BK
There is no doubt that the rigidity of President Muhammadu Buhari in matters of governance has not helped his dwindling popularity in his traditional support areas of the North.
His inability to sustain the relative successes in the war against insurgency in the North East and the apparent cluelessness of his service chiefs as well as the apparent resurgence of bloody daring attacks have played a part in his misfortune.
The terror acts elsewhere in the country especially the President’s home state of Katsina with no tangible signs of a winning strategy, coupled with the spiralling bloodletting almost everywhere in the country have all pointed to a nation in a merciless grip of lawless gun men.
The boos and jeers directed at the President in Maiduguri today as he detoured to sympathize with the people and government of Borno state, over the recent deadly insurgents attack on Auno testify to a rude reawakening of a peoole that have lost hope in the capacity of the Buhari administration to protect them.
WAR IN THE HANDS OF SONS OF THE SOIL
One joker that no one will deny PMB was his decision to appoint sons of the North East to be in charge of the prosecution of the war against terror. The Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Air Staff and the National Security Adviser came from the zone and were expected to be driven by, not just their professional training but by the love of their people. To add to it, the Chief of Staff to the President -another important position was given to a technocrat from Borno. We should be mindful that since PMB came to power in 2015, every Defence Minister and every Police IG has come from the North.
We should not forget that PMB has provided all that these people required in terms of armament and soldiers welfare to win. The President once said that no file on the war against terror spends a day on his table without prompt approval.
If these guys failed to win this war, who else will? I mean if sons of the soil can bungle it, with all the men and armament at their disposal, what right have we, in the North got to castigate any other chief, from other parts of the country who monkeys with it?
Has PMB not done all that needs to be done to win this war? Is it fair for us to expect him to go fight this war himself? Even as an old soldier, what else, other than trusting war Commanders to strategise, using sufficient men and resources to win this war, should we expect?
I accept that the service chiefs have overstayed and are out of touch. But my fear is that if these guys cannot do it, despite huge reasons that they should have, can we reasonably expect others from the same institutions to change the narratives of the war?
What was it that former President Jonathan did, at the end of his stay in office, that brought about the strategic successes recorded which led to the liberation of the many local government areas that were in the hands of the insurgents? PMB met a war strategy that was working and instead of building on it, he jettisoned it on the altar of patriotism.
He felt that the Nigerian soldiers who won accolades in Burma and other hot war zones across the globe cannot hand over that element of surprise to foreign mercenaries.
But it has since become inescapable that this war must be externalised for us to win it. PMB must swallow that pride to save Nigeria from being overrun by gun men from all corners of the country. The South African war mercenaries who tilted the pendulum during Jonathan’s era still have an important role to play. If you ask me, the fluidity of the Chadians soldiers too, will become handy, ultimately.
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