Between Mansur Dan-Ali And Lawal Daura, Who Is Saying The Truth?
The Oasis Reporters
January 27, 2018
As a pan Nigerian and a patriot, it pains me right through to my bone marrow to have to think and even pen down my feelings on the quality of governance in this country yet again. I do so on solid grounds, believing that my country Nigeria is slipping away from me.
Nature, particularly geography has been very generous and kind to this country. Some other climes on the surface of the earth have not been this lucky. Consider for example, Japan a small country, mostly mountainous without much space for agriculture but Japan which came under the nuclear bomb and other natural disasters including very recently, a tsunami has triumphed over all these. The quality of leadership is all that made this possible for the Japanese.
There are many other nations of the world that have equally successfully overcome similar predicaments.
We can no longer continue to blame the former colonial masters for our unending travails even though they left behind a rickety foundation for us to build on. Instead of building even on that rickety foundation, with our own hands, we destroyed it and in its place we have elevated ethnicity, religion, nepotism and cronyism.
How can anyone no matter how gifted explain the level of nepotism, cronyism and religious bigotry in this land?
The 1999 Constitution may have tried to ensure that all segments of this country are represented in the governance process but it did not say that the highest level of the security architecture should be a nest of Individuals from a particular ethnic grouping and practitioners of a particular faith. Given the security conundrum this nation has found itself and given our diversity as a nation how can the concerns of non practitioners of this faith be catered for? There is no need to list who is where in the security architecture, this is pedestrian knowledge.
Recall a recruitment exercise into the Department of State Security ( DSS ) about a year or 2 ago which was skewed in favour of the President’s home state of Katsina. No plausible explanation was given for this travesty. The truth however lay in the simple reason/reasons that the Director General of the DSS Lawal Daura as well as the President are from that State but it still remains a jaundiced arrangement to brazenly execute this lopsided arrangement trying to in one fell swoop even up with the past. Nigerians cried foul but you can trust that the vuvuzelas tried in every way possible to explain away this obvious travesty.
We are so short sighted most times in this country to the extent that when it favours us even if through a dubious process, that will be alright but when it is executed in a manner that does not favour us, we cry MARGINALIZATION. What informs this is simply either of the 3 evils of ethnicity, tribalism or religious interest.
It is deeply worrying that as defence minister Mansur Dan-Ali still views our present security conundrum as essentially a farmers/herdsmen affair. He equally believes or they believe that the enactment of. anti grazing laws in some States is responsible for fuelling insecurity in our nation. If Nigeria’s defence minister can be so blind to the realities of the security issues with regard to what they still prefer to call farmers/herders clashes I wonder who else could have had a better understanding. To come out from a security briefing only to inform our country men/women that the blockade of cattle routes and the enactment of anti grazing laws are responsible for what government conveniently calls farmers/herders clashes is tragic enough. If the defence minister is yet to come to terms with the fact that Fulani terrorists have invaded and are almost taking over this country, we are doomed. His Zamfara State has had a fair share of the carnage which the Fulani terrorists roaming about in the guise of herdsmen have inflicted on this country. Very clearly, the term “Farmers/herders clashes” amounts to deception.
The fact that the authorities are deliberately trying to mislead our people away from what they already know being a plan to once more entrench another phase of Fulani hegemony in Nigeria. Only the Federal government knows for what purpose it is promoting Fulani interest well and above those of other ethnic groupings.
To deny that there are issues with our internal security is to play the ostrich which is clearly Mansur Dan-Ali’s present pastime.
We know the problem with our country but are shy in taking steps to correct the areas of imbalance. We do not need experts from anywhere to solve this problem. The panacea is to undertake a RESTRUCTURING.
Why is a certain interest group so vehemently opposed to it is unclear. From my understanding, that group is ensconced with lording it over others that they would rather that the current arrangement is retained. For we the oppressed minorities in this country have had enough and are not ready to pay more than we have already paid for being part of this country.
If we are in a democracy then our views must count otherwise we are deceiving ourselves about our democratic credentials. It is begining to appear that the security of some ethnic groupings particularly those in the Middle Belt does not matter at all. If it does why then are they left at the mercy not of herdsmen but of terrorists who have invaded our country?
Between the defence minister and the Director General of the DSS given the comments attributed to some security agencies of which they are part, some agency must be playing with the truth.
As it were a myth of invincibility has been woven around the Fulani terrorists gangs but we know that they are ordinary humans as any other peoples. The advantage they enjoy for now stems from the fact that theirs is currently in charge of proceedings in the country. That aside, they have golden haired angels watching over them. Should it be like this in a country where the President swore to protect all of us without distinction?
Instead of working assiduously to obliterate the fault lines dividing us, the government will rather play the ostrich while these fault lines continue to widen. We need each other if a cataclysmic implosion is to be averted. If we cannot stay together respecting ourselves as well as our differences then it will make sense if we go our separate ways in peace instead of the violent way as was the case with former Yugoslavia. The bogus claims that this nation belongs to migrants from the Futa Djallon highlands west of us cannot stand any enquiry.
Further down the line, those making these bogus claims must know that they deceive themselves. The issue of cattle colonies is an absurdity and therefore dead on arrival. To start with, cattle colonies for who and on whose land ? I cannot comprehend why rather than seriously considering the issue of interested cattle owners acquiring ranches some people have decided to smuggle in the vexed cattle colonies while lending deaf ears to the concerns of other people.
The government has a duty to demonstrate goodwill towards all the peoples of this country. If Mansur Dan-Ali has not seen/listened to videos or audios of his Fulani kinsmen calling on other Fulani across the West African sub region to mobilize resource for what they call a jihad, we may not be living in the same country. The leadership of Miyeti Allah has been engaged in making highly incendiary pronouncements and that leadership is still walking free in a nation desperately seeking peace.
Whilst the Fulani propaganda machine is having a field making hate speeches, there is the rumour of the arrest of a Christian evangelist who was simply speaking out his mind as a bona fide citizen of this country and advising the victims of the terrorists attacks to defend themselves and their land. If this rumour is true, could justice be seen or said to have been done? The way things stand, we may be verging towards a failed State.
Written by Gora Dauda.
He writes from Kaduna, North West Nigeria.
