By Ikeddy ISIGUZO
AFTER weeks of commendations of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for doing nothing about the sweltering security situation, Senate President Obong Godswill Akpabio moved in with a vote of confidence from the Senate.
It was to be the icing on the cake of the President’s ineptitude, and his obvious clueless of management of the terrorist attacks on Nigeria, after he has rejected external assistance to fight the terrorists who hide under religion and ethnicity.
Akpabio, cocksure, sure-footed, ran into a huge storm at his Senate. How can a discussion of Nigeria’s insecurity have a first item that asks for a vote of confidence on the President?
Senator Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe’s question unsettled Akpabio. The Senate President belatedly adopted the question as if it meant anything to him.
Who gave the orders for soldiers posted to Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, to be withdrawn, moments before the abduction of its 24 students?
Has the Commander-in-Chief done anything about the suspect or culprit? Kebbi State Governor Nasir Idris first expressed his anger about the abduction. He acted on DSS intelligence to have soldiers deployed to the school.
Ordinary Nigerians have also wondered about that aspect of the operations at Maga which from the Abuja’s silence appeared to be parts of legitimate orders.
The Governor got no answer to the sabotage that cost at least two lives, the school’s Vice-Principal, and a security guard. When Senator Abaribe elevated the concern to the floor of the Senate, restraining himself from giving his anger full range, Akpabio’s antenna picked up signals that the intended vote of confidence for the President, if he got one, would be diluted, doused in controversy.
Senator Henry Seriake Dickson had barely started when Akpabio abbreviated him. Dickson used “the other side”, to describe those who supported the President without a critical view of the damages that insecurity was causing, well beyond the immediate locations of the attacks.
Akpabio flared up. “The other side”, Akpabio said, suggested that the Senate was divided. He claimed the Senate was one. Akpabio kept abridging Dickson until he finally had Dickson’s microphone switched off.
That is how Akpabio’s one Senate works. He knows what he wants said and nearly how it should be said. “The other side” referred to the members of the Senate from majority or the minority party, depending on who was speaking. Didn’t the Senate President knows this?
What was so important about a vote of confidence on the President, and for doing exactly what?
Akpabio explained that not making planned trips to South Africa and Angola to attend to the security issues at home, was enough for the Senate to commend Tinubu. Akpabio seemed upset that the interrogations of the security situation were delaying the delivery of the vote of confidence to the President which could be time-bound.
Senator Dickson issued an official statement after the rowdy Wednesday session. “I stated that It is very clear that not only our democracy is under threat, but the nation itself is being reduced, belittled, and threatened. I also disagreed with the approach and tone of the motion, and some of the comments from members of the majority party who, in my view, were unnecessarily political. That, in my view, did not match the seriousness of the issue.
“At this point, the presiding officer did not allow me to conclude my comments. But what I was saying was that, yes, as I have said several times, the entire nation is under attack, and we must all unite to address this challenge. However, I do not agree with the request in the motion, supported by majority of speakers from the majority party, that the President and the government should be commended. I disagree with it.
“I believe that the President needs to be told the truth, and that those with access to him, particularly from the majority party and others, should tell the President the true situation of things. The seriousness of the matter is such that there should be no sugarcoating, or attempts to be politically correct, as that is, in my opinion, unnecessary.
“As I said, we are the Senate of the Federal Republic with powers to oversight the President and the military, including the ministers and the security leaders. And that we must do. That is our responsibility to the nation and the people of Nigeria who are presently under attack, displaced, traumatised, killed and apprehensive. They are wondering what their leaders and their government are doing. In the prevailing circumstances I expressed on the floor a strong objection to the motion of commendation because it is ill-timed, insensitive, and even provocative.
“It is not helpful to the image of the Senate as an institution or the President who it sought to commend. If things have been so well done, we would not be where we are today.
“How will the victims, the soldiers fighting, and families of those killed feel?
“There are members of the National Assembly who spoke in support of this commendation but who cannot visit their communities or their Senatorial Districts because of insecurity and killings. There are members of the National Assembly whose Senatorial Districts are currently under the occupation of terrorists who run parallel governments and impose all manners of taxes on their constituents. How will their people feel?,” part of Dickson’s statement read.
“The deliberations and resolutions of the Senate must reflect the realities that may not be open to the president. People should reduce hypocrisy: sycophancy, unnecessary blackmail, and eye service.
“Mr President must be told that the nation is at war as we are losing our security personnel, our citizens, and our territories . Our reputation is being ridiculed and our democracy and nation are endangered.
The times call for frankness, strong political will, and decisive leadership to act for the good of Nigeria.
“I support the resolutions reached by the Senate to begin an inquiry into the circumstances under which the military personnel deployed in Kebbi were withdrawn, and on whose orders, as stated by the Governor. I also support an investigation into the circumstances leading to the capture of General Uba and his subsequent killing by ISWAP, the way it happened, and how the Army handled the events and the management of his family,” Dickson added.
He suggested that the Commander-in-Chief, and the Service Chiefs could have challenges the Senate should help address rather than minimising the seriousness of the insecurity with a vote of confidence.
For days, last week, Bayo Onanuga, OON, CON, aide and confidant of the President, spoke with the emphases of his front row position about Tinubu’s commitment to ending the terrorist attacks. The President, Onanuga said, was depressed. It possibly was what Onanuga reflected in that Security Council meeting picture of Tinubu slouched on his seat.
Presidential aides insist the President was in deep thought as he listened attentively to the briefing from his Service Chiefs. The public thinks he was sleeping. Various versions of the picture have been re-produced to confirm the public position.
Onanuga was also on television to explain why our military cannot attack the terrorists. “They arrive in large numbers, fully armed, and overwhelm the numbers we have on ground,” he said.
He has joined those who say that the security agencies know “where all the bandits are”. He tends to suggest that the terrorists will not be attacked because they are using their victims and the civilians as shields.
The solution must be to negotiate with them, as Sheikh Ahmad Gumi confidently says while warning that the terrorists should be “included in the budget”.
At various times, Gumi has been firm in his demand that the government pays the terrorists, and a sort of amnesty programme for them.
We are learning the difference between “rescue” and “release” from the terrorists. They claim they were the ones who “released” the 24 Kebbi school girls and the 38 Kwara worshippers, emphasising that “they were not rescued”.
How did the victims in both cases regain their freedom? Onanuga mumbled an explanation on television.
“The security agents got in contact with the bandits to release those people unharmed, and finally on Sunday, they were able to get them out unharmed.
“They know the risk. If they keep those people there and refuse to release them, the next thing will be for the government to embark on a kinetic action and attack their base,” Onanuga said.
“Why would 12 teenagers go to the farm and just leave their security in the hands of nature? These people will not come and capture one person. They want numbers,” he said, in reference to another incident, and meaning that movements should be with approval of security agencies, the same security agencies that demobilise moments to attacks?
“They want to do maximum damage, maximum embarrassment to the military and the police,” Onanuga told Nigerians.
More vexatious is Tinubu’s attitude to the war on terrorists as he proved with his emergency measures. Are we to wait for the proposed new recruitments to be concluded before we hit the terrorists? Will more boots counter obvious intelligence leaks as seen in Brigadier-General Musa Uba’s death and the abduction of the Kebbi school girls?
From the President’s war room, Onanuga convers the belief that the “maximum damage, maximum embarrassment” these attacks cause are “to the military and the police”, not to the President, Commander-in-Chief, not to Nigeria.
The President’s ineptitude in managing insecurity crises is steeped in the importance he attaches to winning the 2027 election. He will avoid anything that will obstruct his paths to re-election. His excuses for not attacking the terrorists are out of fears that he would be branded against the North and religious fundamentalists.
Our laws are clear about what to do with criminals, based on their crimes. Terrorists should be dealt with as the criminals that they are, according to the law, not their region or religion.
Tinubu’s re-election is not as important as “the security and welfare of the people”, which according to Section 14 2 b of the Constitution, is the primary purpose of government”. Tinubu needs to snap out of his selfishness and protect Nigeria and Nigerians.
*ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues