*Photo:Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin*
Nigeria, like most countries in this our contentious world, faces a lot of challenges. Most of these challenges were not created today or even recently but through acts of omission and commission way back in our history.
It is amazing that we have failed to realise that the root cause of BOKO HARAM (BH) and the BANDITRY we are experiencing is one and the same: the lack of opportunities for a large number of our youths.
What has created this lack of opportunity? These youths simply lack the skills to fit into a Nigeria that is modernising at an exponential rate.
They have no education and, consequently, they find it difficult to aquire any appropriate skill.
Governments and individuals can create jobs but these youths are not employable because they lack the skills to take advantage of any created job.
In effect, they are powerless. A powerless man will automatically gravitate to anything or anybody that seems to empower him.
There is therefore a ready pool of youths who will gladly accept to carry an AK47 and cause mayhem on behalf of the sponsor or sponsors. An AK47 can be very empowering, especially when it allows you to feed yourself without begging anybody.
A former Service Chief told me about his encounter with a captured Boko Haram operative. When the officer asked him why he would allow himself to be used to destabilise his community, the Boko Haram member countered by asking the senior officer what he wants him to do to make a living. He was not trained in anything and has never been to any educational institution. The officer said well, now your life has come to an end. The Boko Haram said, yes he knows and he is ready to go.
It is fashionable to blame Fulani cattle herders for all sorts of crime these days. While I agree that there are occasional skirmishes between herders and farmers, what we have on our hands is vastly more complicated than farmer/herder clashes. A Fulani herder is a very busy man. He must take the cattle to graze as early as 7am and comes back to rest by 10am. He must go back with his cows for another grazing session by 1pm and does not come back until 6pm. This happens every day all year round. If a herder misses the time for grazing, the cows will remind him by becoming very noisy and unruly. I have seen it happen. At night, the same herder must sleep close to the cows to discourage cow rustlers. Where is the time for the herder to leave his cows and join a group of bandits? There may be Fulanis in a group of bandits but they must be the jobless ones, not herders.
The truth of the matter is, even if free and compulsory education is declared in Nigeria today by all States in the Federation, there is already a large pool of youths that can be recruited either as Boko Haram members or bandits. Who are the sponsors and recruiters? All those who have an axe to grind with Nigeria such as Trump’s USA and those who are ready to sell their country for one silly reason or the other are in this group. Some people who are directly affected by the nefarious activities of these criminals such as the Bishop of Makurdi who rushed to the USA to report to people who cannot remedy the situation, are also inadvertently in this group. Those who are bent on destabilising Nigeria because they have had no success in breaking away from Nigeria or because they lost an election are of course in this group.
Those sounding the alarm about Trump’s sudden unwholesome interest in Nigeria are doing so out of knowledge of the vast capabilities of the predator who never shows its true intentions until it is too late for the victim. The reasons for this sudden interest have been enunciated by various individuals and groups but one thing is certain, Western powers do not want a truly independent and self assured African country (and this is what PBAT is aiming for) because they feed off the resources of Africa. Any half intelligent observer can see this.
Anybody who thinks that a government will be happy to see large parts of a country it is governing remain perpetually insecure must be a joker. The problem at hand can only be managed, not eliminated because the fundamental causes are still there and will remain even if the most concerned State governments, which are mostly in the North of Nigeria, take decisive remedial action today. Free and compulsory education must be introduced by most of the northern state governments because they are responsible for primary and secondary education of their citizens. They should have declared an emergency on education yesterday, not to carry on as if all is well and normal. The free training in vocational and technical schools recently announced by the Federal government is a big step in the right direction and State governments should take advantage of it.
The Federal Government is already doing what it should do and that is funding the military as well as other security agencies and ensuring more money goes to the State governments.
The only recommendation I would like to make is that the National Assembly should expeditiously allow States to establish State Police after ensuring appropriate safeguards are put in place.
Alternatively, all NPF personnel in any State, from the COMPOL to the most junior constable, should come under the operational control of the governor. Of course, this will also require appropriate safeguards.
The actions and inactions of past leaders is what we are now suffering from. We can ameliorate the consequences but those consequences will not disappear overnight. Hoping that fire and brimstone will fall on the present government is short sighted and stupid. Trump will not invade Nigeria; he is smarter than that. He will use the ready pool of the disgruntled to cause mayhem and mark my words, all of us and our children would continue to suffer from it long after PBAT must have finished his tenure as President.
* Air Chief Marshal (rtd) Petinrin is ex-Chief of Defence Staff, CDS.