Plateau killings and Ezekwesili’s moral urgency

Friday Musings with Ayo Olukotun,

ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com, 07055841236

By a curious twist of history, Nigeria may be back in the terminal days of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s inept watch. At the time, as the Boko Haram insurgents triumphantly and murderously occupied one Nigerian town after another, trailed by heavy causalities, all we got from the Presidency was the squeak that ‘Boko Haram would soon be a thing of the past’. Usually, the press statements, which were cold comfort anyway, sounded flat, as if they had been written before the latest atrocity was committed. Until Jonathan was voted out of office, Boko Haram, in spite of a dying minute’s pushback motivated by electoral calculations, never became a thing of the past.

Today, we do get some action and presidential visits from the Muhammadu Buhari administration, as one Middle Belt community after another is flattened by suspected Fulani herdsmen. But the action comes after mass killings and spectral atrocities that evince the scent of war. Then, there is a swinging to action: Law enforcement is mobilised, surviving families are condoled, a few arrests are made, and then silence, until the next round of mayhem and massacres.

I don’t think President Buhari is unconcerned about the sprawling killing fields of North-Central Nigeria, of which the slaughter of over 100 people in Plateau State is the latest gruesome manifestation. Buhari himself has recently forcefully spoken out to rebut charges that he is doing nothing about the escalating disaster in the Middle Belt. However, whatever steps are being taken or contemplated, including the possible overhaul of the security agencies, are coming too little and too late to arrest the slide to serial bloodletting undergirded by allegations of ethnic cleansing and land grabbing thrown at Fulani militias.

Inertia has several cousins, such as benign neglect, feet dragging, wisdom after the event, shoving to the back burner or acting just to be politically correct. Illustratively, we can ask the question whether the deployment of a special military task force could not have occurred on the very day the news of the tragedy filtered around the country and the nation’s leaders all gathered in Abuja for the closing session of the All Progressives Congress national convention. Better still, since the widespread and intense massacres of communities in Plateau were characterised as revenge killings (revenge for stolen cows) by the Miyetti Allah, could not security institutions have got a whiff of the planning and battle rehearsals and saved the nation and humanity the illogical and bizarre conclusion of bloodshed on a scale that beggars belief?

In contrast to halting and staggered responses to humanitarian tragedies, such as the carnage in Plateau State, was the resolute action and virtually lone protest on Tuesday of former Minister of Education and convener of the Bring-Back-Our-Girls group, Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili. Defying mounting odds of possible arrest and brutalisation, Ezekwesili walked from the Eagle Square in Abuja to the gate of the Presidential Villa to deliver a message to Buhari requesting him, in the name of all that is good, “ to stop the killings”.

Ezekwesili’s courage and defiance is about moral urgency, commitment and passion for what is decent, humane and right. She could have found a thousand excuses not to act so boldly. She could have calculatingly, in the hope of being appointed to a government position, should the APC win the 2019 elections, reneged. But she edified us all by sticking out her neck for justice and voting for an orderly and well governed Nigeria. She deserves our kudos, even as she throws a challenge, impliedly, to civil society, nationwide, to rediscover its lost mission and mandate of bringing truth to the very precincts and barricaded walls of power.

 At this point, however, this writer digresses to bring in a short take. “Sadly, Nigeria evokes the paradox of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a treasure stove of minerals and precious metals that nonetheless remains desperately poor. Indeed, the Brookings Institution has recently categorised Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world”. The speaker is Dr. Olusegun Demuren, a former Director –  General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority at Wednesday’s Faculty of Social Sciences Open Lecture, held at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye. Addressing the theme, ‘Public Governance and Sustainable Development’,  Demuren, following two welcome addresses by the Dean, faculty of Social Sciences, Professor I. A Ademuluyi and the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ganiyu Olatunji, respectively, zeroed in on the obstacles to sustainable development in Nigeria. He referred to such drawbacks as the lack of access to electricity of 42 per cent of the population, the lack of innovation and data driven policymaking, the accountability and transparency deficits, as well as the low level of nationalism.

The guest lecturer argued that the more Nigeria is able to overcome the hurdles to sustainable development, the more she will cross the threshold from her present backward status to a modern and efficient sate that looks increasingly like the club of powerful nations. Regretting the rising number of Nigerians who have relocated abroad to pursue their studies or in search of fulfilling careers, Demuren submitted that it was time that Nigeria stood up to be counted. With reference to the aviation sector, which is his purview, the lecturer averred that it is possible for Nigeria to mount a national carrier similar to what the Ethiopian Airlines is doing in Africa and beyond, provided there is emphasis on the building of a professional corps, as well as efficient management which is not subject to the whims and caprices of political authorities. The bane of the aviation sector, he explained, is related to management issues made worse by political authorities that micro manage it, the shortage of adequate data on which to ground planning and the dearth of skilled professionals. Considering his track record, the nation will do well to take Demuren’s panaceas seriously.

To return to the initial discourse on the Plateau killings and its aftermath, it is important for the authorities to consider the civil trust and perceptual underpinnings of viable security institutions. Security is more than the deployment of raw force and sophisticated equipment; it includes a partnership between security institutions and stakeholders. With reference to the massacres in the Middle Belt, it is important that trust be restored and maintained between the local population and law enforcement authorities. Hopefully, the touted restructuring of the nation’s security edifice will take on board this problem of trust, to the extent that no side in the recurrent conflict suspects that it will not get fair play.

To be considered, too, is the regionalisation of the security architecture in favour of the North, in contradiction to the stipulated federal character objectives of the 1999 constitution. The projected security reform when it is eventually carried out should tackle this loop sidedness which has been mentioned often in public debate on the tragic killings. It is a paradox that notwithstanding that most of the states involved are ruled by APC governors, alienation and frustration characterise the relationship between the centre and the state.

Finally, policy, which should become more proactive than contingent, should aim to bring the issues to the front burner of national attention underwritten by a sense of emergency and compassion for the victims of these monumental disasters.

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