By Tunde Abatan,tunde2013abatan@gmail.com, 08165660217
One of the incontestable facts of the Nigerian confusing governance style is the recognisable double standard and preferential treatment meted out to those who run foul of law’s and established rules of conduct.
In other words,there are different application of law’s governing certain parts of the country.
To the average Nigerian, one unwritten law is made for the North while the other written law is made for the South.
While enforcement of law’s are often done to the letters in the South, the North have since the counter coup of July 29,1966 often been treated as sacred cows when issues of Nigerias administration and running of institutions are concerned.
It is an incontestible fact that the abolishment of Provinces by late Major General Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi regime via the Decree 34 of 1966 and the introduction of Unitary system of governance was one of the remote causes of the counter- coup executed and led by officers of Northern extraction of July 29, 1966 which foisted then Lt Col Yakubu Gowon as head of state.
It is an irony that the Unitary system which the North loathed with passion have since then been used under the guise of federalism in all the three constitutions promulgated by the various military government in the subsequent second,third and fourth republics.
But the fault lines in this strange process and bedrock of injustice in the country have manifested more in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari with his deliberate loapsided appointments into the commanding heights of the nations security,administrative and governance architecture.
Furthermore,use of religious bigotry has never been as pronounced as it is today.
Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina state declaration of policy of arming citizens of the state to defend themselves against terrorist cloaked in banditry form has thus become a strange but true turning point in the deep seated hypocrisy of Northern Nigeria. It has also reflected more on issues and style of taming insecurity which has consumed the region and disrupted the hitherto peaceful atmosphere in the South West and South eastern parts of the country.
The Katsina governor declares matter of fact that since the various efforts to pacify, accommodate and gratify the terrorists have failed since 2019,when he publicly met it’s leaders,he has no option to use resources of the state to procure amunitions for it’s vigilante groups. Strangely, most of this resources are allocations from the monthly federation account to procure amunitions to the agencies like Vigilante ,hunters and other groups.
This time around,Masari declared December 16 last year of his readiness to deploy same resources to help citizens defend themselves against terrorists. It is quite obvious that the terrorists though are non state actors have become stronger than the state security forces.
Masaris call to arms in effect is a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the nations Armed forces on which tax payers money is expended and those controlling it.
This action by inference is an encouragement to Southern governors who have been compromised not to do same to defend their citizens.
Masaris call after he has initiated a failed dialogue which commenced in 2019 with known bandits assembled in the state house, is a direct insult on South West governors who were denied such luxury in 2020 when ideas for regional security outfit, Amotekun was conceived and launched.
To the Federal government, creating and empowering Amotekun to stop banditry, kidnapping and activities of ravaging Fulani herdsmen in South West forests is a direct threat to Nigerias corporate existence while Masaris arming of vigilantes, hunters and other non state actors is a praiseworthy and in tandem with it’s strange preferential treatment of different sections of the country.
At least till date,no federal officers or any of President Buharis minders have cautioned or faulted Masari who clearly has created an alternate army in his state which is also the Presidents home state.
To the cabals who have formed a ring round the Presidency; Northern Elite and the Presidency any foul law is justified even when it runs contrary to provisions of the constitution so far it is meant to protect the Presidency. It is so because the ruling government of today represents Northern hegemonic interests.
It will be recalled that mere mentioning of Amotekun in 2020 enraged Northern leaders,cabals in the Presidency, Nigerian Armed forces which mandated it’s National Security Adviser to ‘stop’ Amotekuns march to defend it’s people and or regulate it’s arms to mere walking sticks. Weapons Amotekun are able to use is far from the sophisticated weaponry of the murderous Fulani terrorists who kill,maim, destroy at will.That the Amotekun is able to attain reasonable efficiency in it’s war against insecurity induced by murderous herdsmen and terrorist is due to ingenuity of it’s men and commandant’s.
Thank God ,the murderous bandits as they are dishostely called have extended their activities to the elite in the traditional institutions in the North who now sleep with one eyes closed.
Today,because of Northern elite hypocrisy,all the evils in the country like banditry,cow rustling,maiming,
wanton killings of defenceless Northeners and it’s extension to the South, are now unarguably placed at the doorstep of the North which leaders have been protected and pampered over the years by its stranglehold on the country’s institutions.
That the North now views decision by the 17 Southern states to defend themselves against activities of local and foreign terrorists is akin to surreptitiously encouraging the South to also self destruct.
This is obviously to balance the equation of underdevelopment,grinding poverty and by inference make the country a huge failed state that could only be ruled by mafias,murderous gangs and blood thirsty marauders who detest modernity of the 21st century in the cloak of religious evangelism.
Had any state governor in the South made similar declaration, done by an apparently frustrated Masari,threats,
intimidations and reprimand from the Area Consultative Council , Northern Elders Forum,etc would’ve incurred official response from the Presidency with it’s authoritative decisions in checkmating and calling the governor to order using both official and political channels.
But then, the North forget so easily that while deaths and wanton destruction of lives and properties now a daily occurrence across the nineteen northern states with filtering impact in the South, has become an accepted norm of daily living,it could not be tolerated in the South where most citizens spent their hard earned resources to educate their children . Coupled with their cosmopolitan nature,the South could not abhor disruption of their daily activities with free movement within or without the region , an issue which has now become a luxury in the North now reeling under the pains inflicted by visionless and selfish leaders over the years.
As for the Southern governors who are still playing to the gallery, they should be told that Governor Masaris Gun policy is a call on terrorists in the North to shift base to the South where the ‘cowardice’of the governors playing to the gallery for political reasons could not deter them and give them a free reign..
Refusal of the Southern governors to create a counter measure as a result of Masaris arms call is akin to committing grave errors of discretion to protect the region already reeling under various socio economic policies of the present federal government.
Without necessarily making public their subtle approval of Masaris reasonable policy, reawakening people to defend themselves is not necessarily failure of their part but a confirmation that the Unitary system in place in the country could not guarantee defence of their own people to which they swore on assumption of office to uphold and defend.
Trying times indeed await Nigerians who are tired of sloppiness and inept leadership of the day.
