August 31, (THEWILL) — The recent disclosure by the Chief of Defence Staff, Lt.Gen Christopher Musa, that politics is driving the insecurity in the country is not new, but it deserves critical appraisal and attention by the relevant authorities.
Coming on the heels of a Canadian Judgement that described Nigerian political parties as terrorist organisations, this statement by the army chief is not only an indictment of the political system but also a call to urgent action.
Indeed, similar calls have been made in the past by clerics and politicians themselves. But the calls have been treated with such levity that insecurity in the country has worsened. It is high time drastic action is taken.
According to General Musa in an interview on national television, criminals, both bandits and terrorists, work together.
“They have a common goal to make money and destabilise communities. But there is also a political angle. Some individuals don’t want peace because when there is peace, the government is seen to be doing well. When there is no peace, the government is seen to be failing, he said, adding, “last year, we recorded the lowest number of deaths. How come this year, suddenly, everything has spiked? Politics is coming, the election is coming. You cannot rule out the fact that some people are controlling these criminals to ensure there is no peace and governance is discredited. But the funny thing is, how do you kill the people you want to govern? What do you gain from it?”
On April 13, 2022, Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State spoke in the same vein. Speaking to State House Correspondents after briefing ex-President Muhammadu Buhari on the state of insecurity in his besieged state, he claimed that politicians were behind the killings in the country.
“Those funding this banditry are politicians, which I challenge and call on security agencies to make their names available to the press because what they want to do is to distract a government that is focused. If this government is not doing well, I’ll be one of those that would have declared that the government is not doing well. But a situation where you’ll leave the formal way, ethical way of doing politics and you are now sponsoring banditry to bring down a government, for Christ’s sake, we should rise up and condemn it, all of us.”
Such lamentation confirms the notion that those aspiring to govern their compatriots are willing to kill, maim and destroy lives just to achieve their ambition.
Pray, what kind of human beings behave that way? Why do we know there are such criminals in the country and only lament about them? How can the country make progress with such criminal elements gaming the system for only their often fleeting, inordinate ambition?
If they are above arrest, then we can rest assured that banditry, terrorism and associated killings would continue unabated; they would continue to hold the country to ransom until they are identified, profiled, arrested and prosecuted. That is the only way to deal with this problem that can only end up destroying the country in the long run.
We recall that Alhaji Kawu Baraje, former leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who later defected to the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, once stated that the politicians in the then opposition APC imported Fulani militia from Senegal and Mali into the country to fight the 2015 presidential election. Regrettably, the bandits, Baraje added, refused to disarm and return to where they were recruited from. What better way to define treason in a normal country?
A decade after, elected and appointed officials of government are still lamenting that politicians are fuelling banditry and terrorism in the country.
There are clear legal and constitutional provisions to deal with this matter. We urge the government to deploy them.
