with

Ben C. Abraham.

IBB AND HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Recently, President Tinubu gave marching orders to the military to end insecurity in Nigeria by December 2025. The minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru who relayed the deadline stated that with what had been going on in the different theatres, the target would be achieved. While welcoming the new target set by Mr President in this intractable area, one will not forget in a hurry similar deadlines issued in the past which never materialized, instead insecurity waxed stronger and stronger. Sometime in September 2022, the Buhari-led Federal Government held a press briefing to declare that insecurity would end by December of that year. By the end of 2022, the problem had metastasized, spreading to hitherto unaffected areas. Before the current target-setting exercise, the present Government had in December of 2023 declared that it would extract the deadly toxin by the end of 2024. Well, here we are. This is 2025 and we hear of yet another target for the end of the year. Lest I be dubbed an unpatriotic pessimistic naysayer, let me quickly clarify that I desire an end to the mind boggling bloodletting which has become our symbol in Nigeria. I pay my sincere respects and mourn the thousands of victims of this evil both civilians and law enforcement. An integral part of my musing is going beyond regular politically motivated thinking as many would desire to ask valid even if unpopular questions. As a people Nigerians deserve the best, judging from the humongous resources God has granted them. Safety of lives and property is a key outcome Nigerians deserve. Unfortunately, just like almost every other asset which Nigerians provide for themselves instead of the Government, like good roads, power and portable water, Nigerians also provide security for themselves. One is pained that despite enormous resources at the disposal of the military, insecurity is still waxing big. Even as troops are making some gain, the recent spate of killings involving Nigerian forces further interrogates the strategies employed in the war against terror. Two weeks ago, about 27 Nigerian soldiers were killed in Borno State by forces related to ISWAP. This massacre came on the heels of the killing of about 40 farmers in the same State. Much earlier in 2025, about 16 soldiers were killed in 2 separate attacks by the Islamic State-related elements. At this rate, our troops will be decimated before the end of the year, the set target for the end to insurgency and insecurity. Meeting this target requires more than just marching orders or a press statement.

NOW IT IS THE TURN OF OSUN STATE;

Nigerians experienced their worst years under Muhammadu Buhari, the near-brainless Army General from Daura in Katsina State. Under him, the vilest of human beings, Fulani herdsmen, held sway in Nigeria, killing, maiming, pillaging and cleansing. The herdsmen who shared the same filial roots with the inept six-footer loomed large everywhere sparing nothing and fearing no one. Aided and indeed buoyed on by their familial connections with Buhari, the herdsmen transmuted from herding cattle to kidnapping for ransom and displacing entire villages. The Army provided them escort, the police did their bidding and their fear was the beginning of wisdom. Under Buhari they were so untouchable that their umbrella Union issued press statements, took up political positions on national issues and even provided a leverage for legislative lobbying. Victims of their vicious campaign were not compensated and for fear of falling into Buhari’s bad book, the herdsmen’s gut-wrenching actions were dubbed farmer-herder clashes. Political correctness at its best. One had expected that under Tinubu this audacity will be rapidly checked and contained. How wrong we are. Almost two years into the presidency of Ahmed Tinubu, herdsmen continue to strut about laying claim to every farm land and expanding their territorial space while maiming and raping. From Nassarawa to Taraba and Delta to Enugu and lately Ebonyi, herdsmen visit and leave behind tales of horror and tears. In Ebonyi state, scores were killed two weeks ago by these accursed beings in one of the most horrifying attacks on defenceless villagers. As usual nothing will come out of it in terms of arrest and prosecution. The security forces are too timid to work. The doomsday is always postponed on the altar of political correctness. Villages and communities in the northern part of Benue State have cried themselves hoarse waiting for Government intervention; waiting for Godot as they say. Their communities have been sacked, their women raped and abused and their children emotionally assaulted even with soldiers deployed to the communities. So what next? Well not much is in sight because one recalls that Tinubu promised to continue from where Buhari stopped. And that is just what the current president is doing. Instead of tackling headlong the criminality disguised as herding, he chose to spit on the graves of victims by setting up a livestock ministry to take care of the issues arising from herding. During the just ended budget defence by MDAs, not a few northern bigwigs and parliamentarians voiced their displeasure with the ‘inadequate’ funds allocated to the ministry. What exactly is the remit of the livestock development ministry, I ask? To act as a money funnel to assuage northern power levers? Or to provide slush funds to protect the herdsmen while they go on rampaging? Exactly what? Well today it’s Ebonyi, tomorrow it will be somewhere else, just somewhere.

……AND ONE OTHER THING:

 POLICE AND MOTOR THIRD PARTY INSURANCE;

In Nigeria, small wins are celebrated like a jackpot success. Well, it’s in our DNA. We are loud and intense and we love noise, just any noise. And so it was that Government spokesmen made all the noise on the conviction of Professor Ignatius Uduk for publishing false election results and perjury by a High court in Akwa Ibom State. Uduk played a part in the 2019 Akwa Ibom North-west State House of Assembly election where he served as the collation and returning officer. During his time as INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini initiated the case and after several delays, the prof was finally found guilty as charged and sentenced to 3 years in prison. Good job you will say. The conviction has been hailed as a breakthrough in the fight against electoral malpractice and many people take it as a signpost of a new dawn. Government apologists have even linked the conviction to reforms under president Tinubu. While celebrating the ‘win’, we go further to ask who the professor’s acolytes were. Who benefitted from the falsification? Who did Uduk act for? As expected, the political big fishes are spared and shielded while others bear the brunt. While in Uyo custodial facility, Professor Uduk will learn a thing or two about loyalty, politics and the dog-eat-dog terrain of Nigeria’s electoral space. Government defenders can’t own this feat as theirs. The 2023 elections threw up some of the worst incongruities in Nigeria’s electoral map, yet we haven’t heard of any major arrests, trials and convictions therefrom, meanwhile strategizations are already on for 2027. Until we go beyond the Prof Uduks of this world and extend the conviction to their sponsors and financiers, we should not make noise about the Prof’s conviction. Meanwhile Prof should take his sabbatical at the prisons for the next 3 years.