Abia state has been trending in the news in the last twelve months, largely for good reasons. Alex Otti, governor of the state, has successfully arrested the attention of the country and beyond, presenting himself as a hands-on administrator, in a hurry to change the narrative of Abia as a sleeping tiger.
Since coming to office May 2023, Otti has been making, not just the right noise, but also the right moves. Roads in the state are reportedly improving. Electricity supply is said to be substantially stable in parts of the state, courtesy of Geometric Power’s supply. Peace reigns in the state too, as investors are said to be embracing the state in good numbers. In all, Abia state seems to be enjoying a new lease of life, in spite of the overwhelming malfunctioning of Nigeria, at the moment.
Instructively, the chief grouse of most critics of the governor, at home, seems to be, not that he is not doing anything, but that he tends to exaggerate his output in office. That does not seem to be such unbearable load of criticism to contend with. From all indications and reports, Abia state has been better, for whatever Otti is doing, or claiming.
Then bang! Suddenly, last week, the peace and positive aura which Abia state has been wrapped in for the last one year, was punctured. A dastardly act of daring murderous strike was launched in the outskirts of the commercial city of Aba, killing five soldiers from the 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, at the Obikabia junction area. The government promptly blamed the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra [IPOB] for the crime. The organisation, which has been having a running battle with the government, vehemently denied the charge, through its lawyer, Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, calling for a thorough investigation, to unravel the actual culprits.
Slightly over two months back, on March 14 2024, 17 soldiers were also brutally killed in Okuama, in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State. The horrendous attack marked another round of heavy loss of personnel by the military in peace time. Now, Obikabia.
What, it must be asked, has happened to Nigeria, to trigger off villainy, to the current level of frightening, frequent, unrestrained spiling of blood in the society? There may be different explanations, quite alright, but there is no doubt, that eight years of Muhammed Buhari’s presidency left Nigeria grossly impaired.
Through acts of commission and omission, the Buhari presidency bequeathed Nigeria a legacy of blood. Sorrow and mourning seem to dog the country ever so often, since Buhari passed this way. He may have left office a year ago, but death has been stalking the country since his time. The fear is that evil and lawlessness will haunt this society for a long time, all because a regime made life so cheap. There is an urgent need for a change of disposition by government.
So, who or what will save Nigeria? Make no mistakes about it, force will not do it. Force is a necessary tool that may not always be avoided in statecraft, but much more than that will be needed to redeem Nigeria. Buhari did not have the capacity to appreciate that. Whether Tinubu has, is to be seen.
One of the most awkward spectres of Buhari as president was that of an advanced septuagenarian straining for eight years to show that he had the matching chutzpah to play the bull in a farm entrusted to his care. The absence of the inclinations of statesmanship in Buhari as president, did no small harm to Nigeria.
The country already had serious terrorism problem, especially in the North Eastern flank, when Buhari mounted the presidency in 2015. That was a huge challenge by all means, especially as acts of terror had also started rearing their scary heads in the adjoining zones in the North, as well. How the heck did a leader with such a scorching problem at hand, decide to expand the theatres of insurgency and criminality in the country? Only Buhari and his close lieutenants can explain what he thought he was doing?
A major testament of who Buhari is, or was, can be found in the disturbing fact that 30 years after he was toppled as military leader, fate having brought him up again as president, this time in a democratic dispensation, the man promptly returned to the very pages of the same manual of bellicosity and divisiveness he was separated from three decades back. A part of the insecurity the country is grappling with at the moment stems from indiscretion of Buhari’s policies.
The fixation with IPOB by the Buhari government, for instance, ended up being counterproductive. Indeed, IPOB would have been a non-issue, had Buhari not set out to open up a new frontier of insurgency in the South East. Nigeria did not need that.
It is a fact, that IPOB was, for a long time, a crop of agitating group of young citizens, whose doctrine was tailored after Mahatma Ghandi’s passive resistance. The group was largely ignored in the South East and substantially unknown out of the region. In the major cities of the South East, the group kept itself busy marching the streets and denouncing marginalization of the Igbo in the scheme of things in Nigeria. For most of the Igbo, the group could continue marching around the streets, as long as they did not interfere with people’s business. That was how it was, until Buhari, far away in Abuja, decided that IPOB marching around in Onitsha and few other locations in the South East, was his problem. The high-handedness of the state crack-down on the group, leading to the death of some of its members eventually changed the configuration of the IPOB agitation. The rest is not yet history.
While Buhari reigned, blood flowed freely in the South East. It still does. The allegation is that state operatives, state-procured mercenaries and criminals of varied shades, all took part in the orgy of killings. Innocent lives were wasted, by known and unknown gunmen. The legacy of blood is yet to be stemmed. Or expiated. The toll continues to mount, leaving grief all over.
The condemnable killing last week of five soldiers of the 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, who were on duty, by rogue elements, speaks jarringly, once more, of the tragedy of the legacy Buhari left. The extreme criminality and endangering of lives, both of servicemen and civilians, in the South East, can only be a triumph to a sick mind.
For the people of the South East, the writer of the IPOB profiling scheme surely, got one on them. IPOB has become an albatross on their neck. While they are trapped and perpetually in mortal danger, from the unpredictable predatory activities of unidentified gunmen, security agents of the state also swoop on them at will, making them suspects and victims simultaneously. Such a wicked scheme. IPOB. Whose IPOB?
The state wastes no time in holding IPOB responsible for killings in the South East, including that of last week. IPOB however, never stops proclaiming its innocence, insisting that external elements, most times with the knowledge of key state security personnel, perpetrate the crimes in the South East, only to turn round to pin it on IPOB. So, where lies the truth?
For the whole period Buhari was hounding Nnamdi Kanu, from when he was free in Nigeria, to when he was in Europe, up to his abduction in Kenya and incarceration in Abuja, the leader of what is the authentic IPOB, never wavered in opposing the shedding of blood in the South East. The essential soul of his campaign has been the protection of life and territorial integrity of the South East. His campaign repudiates shedding blood in the zone.
Yet, in the face of heinous crimes in the South East, perpetrated by not yet conclusively identified criminals, the more Nnamdi Kanu condemned the crimes and spilling of blood, even from detention, the more the Buhari government and security agencies blamed him. The absurd scenario has continued. Continued detention of Kanu plays into the hands of criminals, who use his incarceration as convenient justification for committing mayhem, ignoring his condemnation of such acts.
Buhari was clearly fighting a grudge war against Kanu. Translating this personal vendetta to a state policy, after his departure from office, is a very expensive expression of loyalty by Tinubu. With the court having earlier freed Kanu, the Tinubu government that has shown willingness to set free all other agitators hounded by Buhari, should do Nigeria good by releasing Kanu, too. Fairness can only help the situation.
In his condemnation of the killing of five soldiers in Abia state, last week, President Tinubu reminded all that the Nigerian state has the capacity to crush all non-state actors taking on the state frontally. True. He said it is only circumspection that has kept the government from going all out to decimate such groups. Good. He should go further and untangle himself and the Nigerian state from the landmines left behind by his predecessor. Buhari led without tact and statesmanship in various areas, including security. There is nothing for Tinubu to emulate there.
Nigeria needs to save its servicemen from harm’s way, especially in situations where nothing substantial seems to be at stake. Exposing servicemen to avoidable danger at the hands of shadowy criminals, lurking in bushes and sundry dark areas, claiming to be waging ill-defined struggles, when they are no more than outright criminals, needs to be curtailed.
Military personnel swooping on Aba and devastating the environment in retaliation for the killing of the soldiers, will not be a solution to the problem at hand. Let the death of the soldiers in Delta and Abia states engender a reappraisal of the security situation in various parts of the country. For the South East, the campaign against IPOB should be honesty reappraised. Criminals hiding behind IPOB flag to do damage, should be given hell, but first, let the actual criminals be established.