OPINION BY BENEDICT ODINAKA writing for ODOGWU MEDIA.
The handling of the agitations by the
Indigenous People of Biafra and the incendiary rhetoric of its leader,
Nnamdi Kanu, have no doubt led some critics to conclude that President
Muhammadu Buhari’s celebrated leadership qualities exist more in myth
than in reality. With the possible exception of the military operation
against Boko Haram, indecisiveness has been the distinctive quality of
Buhari’s leadership style and the hallmark of his administration.
His indecision on several matters of
national importance has been demonstrated time and again. It is
illustrated sometimes by slow or delayed action and sometimes by no
action at all. Matters which would have been dealt with promptly and
decisively once and for all are dragged on and on until they become
almost unmanageable.
We witnessed Buhari’s slow machine at
work in the election of legislative leaders with alleged forged
documents; the delayed appointments to his cabinet and boards of
parastatals; the protracted and still inconclusive confirmation process
of the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission; the
delayed suspension and possible ousting of the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation on allegations of corruption; the delayed,
and still unclear, response to the nationwide call for restructuring the
country; and the slippery handling of various terrorist activities by
kidnappers, Fulani herdsmen, armed robbers, and separatist agitators.
It is not surprising, therefore, that
the nation is reeling today from the consequences of the President’s
indecision on Kanu and IPOB. No wonder his latest attempt to silence
them with military force has led to negative reactions from various
quarters.
Operation Python Dance has been
widely criticised for two major reasons. One, such military operations
in public glare and in residential areas are incongruous with democratic
governance. While there is validity in such a criticism, it is also
possible to argue that it sidesteps two realities of our brand of
democracy. For one thing, with soldiers in civilian garments as top
political office holders, including Buhari himself, we have hardly grown
out of the military era. Moreover, consequently, there are soldiers
everywhere in our lives, as evidenced, for example, by military
roadblocks across the country. If we could tolerate the military’s
crime-fighting role on the roadways and welcome its presence during
herdsmen-farmers’ clashes, why not tolerate them on city streets, where
necessary?
Two, the above devil’s advocacy
notwithstanding, the initial attempt by the military to allow the
“python” to dance on Kanu’s street and in front of his family compound
came with a falsifying effect on the reasons given by the military for
the operation, genuine as they are, namely, to combat all kinds of crime
in the South-East zone. The incident also further emboldened Kanu and
his supporters to escalate IPOB’s propaganda machine.
The truth is that the President had
earlier missed several opportunities to contain Kanu and IPOB. First,
Kanu’s treason trial, if indeed there were provable allegations against
him, should have proceeded full swing, when he was initially arrested,
instead of keeping him in prison custody for far too long without
charges. It was the prolonged incarceration without charges that led to
national and international outcry, which, in turn, further emboldened
Kanu, IPOB, and similar groups to taunt the Federal Government with
their shenanigans.
Second, while Kanu’s trial was going on,
Buhari should have taken advantage of necessary legal and
constitutional channels to proscribe IPOB before it was emboldened
enough to develop the paraphernalia of statehood, including a flag, an
anthem, and secret service. In other words, what Southeastern governors
did last week in proscribing IPOB should have been done by the Federal
Government long ago.
In fairness to Buhari, he bent over
backwards to hearken to the demand for Kanu’s bail. He surely must have
done so out of respect for the constitution he swore to defend. After
all, ours is a democracy that valourises free speech and freedom of
association.
However, the truth is that no Federal
Government would have tolerated Kanu and IPOB’s secessionist agenda,
which has been in the forefront of its mission from the onset. A clique
from the same region touting secession is an insulting affront to
Buhari, a soldier, who fought in the civil war to liberate Biafra,
participated in several military coups, and was himself the victim of a
military coup. You could say that he is now a democratic president. But
we knew his background before we voted him to power.
There’s no denying the fact that Kanu’s
excesses know no bounds, and that his wings grew much wider even while
on bail. Just consider images of Kanu on TV and social media. His
regalia ranges from that of a Jewish rabbi to that of an Igbo monarch,
while his persona ranges from that of the leader of a separatist group
to that of a deity to be worshipped by his followers.
Apart from denigrating remarks about
Nigeria, which he labels as a “zoo”, and the country’s leadership,
Kanu’s public rhetoric is full of bellicosity, despite his claim of
non-violence. That’s why it is difficult not to link the large cache of
“ownerless” weapons seized by the Nigeria Customs Service with him and
IPOB, especially in view of his public request that “We need guns and we
need bullets”, which he allegedly made as a guest speaker at the World
Igbo Congress in Los Angeles, California, USA, on September 5, 2015.
Third, once it was determined that Kanu
had broken the bail conditions set for him, he should promptly have been
re-arrested without fanfare and only by the police. Why the Attorney
General handled Kanu’s re-arrest like a dog fight—charging and then
retreating—remains a big question. Had Kanu been re-arrested for
contravening his bail conditions, the military’s Operation Python Dance could have gone on, without attracting the negative reactions and (mis)interpretations it now does.
Fourth, the President should have set in
motion long before now the processes of responding to the call for
restructuring the country, which would have taken care of the agitations
for self-determination by various groups, including IPOB. Had it been
clear to everyone that restructuring was fully on the table, the idea of
“looters” using IPOB to destabilize the country, as alleged by the
Federal Government, would not have arisen.
It is heartening, of course, that the
Federal Government is showing signs of acceding to the call for
restructuring, by setting up a committee to look into the matter. If the
ongoing attempt to accommodate the call for restructuring turns out to
be a ruse, it will have dire electoral consequences on the APC
nationwide, especially in the South. Besides, one can only hope that,
after reviewing his committee’s report, the President would cover the
necessary bases, including discussing the issue with the governors
across the country and enlisting the cooperation of the leaders and key
members of the National Assembly.
All too often, the President has been
known to have left gaps in the communication chain, which led to serious
governance problems. We saw it in the handling of the EFCC Acting
Chairman’s confirmation and, recently, in the management of the ongoing
IPOB saga, which led the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to invite
the President to “do the needful by initiating the right process”.
Saraki had faulted both the proscription of IPOB by South-East governors
and its categorization as a terrorist organization by the military as
unconstitutional, because due process was not followed.
That this Senate President could so
publicly fault the President’s approach is part of the price Buhari has
been paying for indecisiveness.
IPOB AND THE PRICE OF INDECISIVENESS.
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
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