Nigerians understand that Mr. Adesina is employed and paid to run a fool’s errand for Buhari. That, notwithstanding, he does not have to trivialise the reckless killings in Benue State and other parts of the country by comparing them to what used to be under an administration Nigerians voted out to elect his principal, on the platform of a hope for better tidings.
“…Can you honestly, truly say to yourself that our country has changed for the better? (sic) Are our children safe when they go to school? Are our parents safe when we leave them at home?…” – General Muhammadu Buhari
The above three critical questions were raised by General Muhammadu Buhari in a video widely circulated on social media in the run up to 2015 presidential election.
The obvious answer to these questions then was: NO. The reason being that insecurity in the country took a frightening trajectory at that point, and the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan appeared to be too weak, confused and incompetent to curtail the Boko Haram insurgents.
Fast forward to 2018, and in spite of the laudable gains of the Buhari-led government in the war against Boko Haram insurgents in North-East, the same questions Buhari raised on insecurity in 2015 are back to haunt him as killer herdsmen continue to wreck serious havoc across the country.
Compiling a dossier on the number of persons killed and properties destroyed in the coordinated attacks of herdsmen across the country right under Buhari’s watch would humble the proudest of Buhari’s supporter. And to say that Buhari’s government has woefully failed to appropriately answer the same questions he raised in 2015 is no exaggeration.
Passing the buck or claiming that herdsmen menace predated Buhari’s administration, like Mr. Femi Adesina, the special adviser to the president on media and publicity, unfortunately did in a video he recently shared on Facebook, is not only infantile but wicked.
As a matter of fact, Boko Haram insurgency predated the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Nigerians, however, did not accept that as an excuse to justify Jonathan’s dismal performance with regard to insecurity in the country under his watch.
…if Mr. Adesina could boastfully argue that President Buhari has “technically” defeated Boko Haram, an insurgent group that predated the Buhari presidency, why does he wants us to see the herdsmen menace as a problem we must endure because it has been with us since the day Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit?
Before being invited to the suya table in Aso Rock, Mr. Adesina wrote, criticising Jonathan’s administration for failing to tackle insecurity in the country, not minding that Jonathan inherited the same problem.
Moreover, one is obliged to wonder why Mr. Adesina who once lamented how “human beings were killed like chicken” in Nigeria in one of his article titled, “This country does not give a damn”, could be so “unkind” and insensitive to moot such an infantile debate when the families of those killed by herdsmen in Benue State during the new year were still mourning their dead.
What is wrong with Mr. Adesina, a supposed gentleman I have had so much respect for?! Would he countenance the same view if Peter Aboh, the 28 year old final year student of Microbiology at the Federal University, Lafia, Nasarrawa State, who was slain by herdsmen, were his son? This is not wishing Mr. Adesina and his family evil, anyway.
However, if Mr. Adesina could boastfully argue that President Buhari has “technically” defeated Boko Haram, an insurgent group that predated the Buhari presidency, why does he wants us to see the herdsmen menace as a problem we must endure because it has been with us since the day Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit?
Dear Mr. Adesina, get it right that: President Buhari was very much aware of the various security issues in the country before he begged Nigerians to give him a chance to turn things around – for good. He was not elected to watch herdsmen morph into an insurgent group deadlier than Boko Haram. Or to supervise their slaughter of Nigerians like chicken on a daily basis.
If Mr. Adesina cannot understand why Buhari’s long silence on the herdsmen menace has frustrated many Nigerians to accuse him of tacitly siding with the killer herdsmen, then it is OK to believe that the “demons in Aso Rock” also rob people of their common sense.
Violent killings in Benue State or any where in Nigeria under Buhari’s watch should not be equal to or outnumber the killings under his predecessor, before Buhari is called to rise up to perform the primary duty of the protection of life and property that he swore to perform as Nigeria’s commander-in-chief.
We all saw how the Buhari-led government descended heavily on the hot-headed Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) rabble and swiftly declared them a terrorist group. We heard Buhari avow to deal with Niger Delta militants like Boko Haram. And to imagine that the same Buhari has failed to act decisively on the killer herdsmen who kept news headlines in blood, vividly reveal his biased and “inhuman” side.
If Mr. Adesina cannot understand why Buhari’s long silence on the herdsmen menace has frustrated many Nigerians to accuse him of tacitly siding with the killer herdsmen, then it is OK to believe that the “demons in Aso Rock” also rob people of their common sense.
Nigerians understand that Mr. Adesina is employed and paid to run a fool’s errand for Buhari. That, notwithstanding, he does not have to trivialise the reckless killings in Benue State and other parts of the country by comparing them to what used to be under an administration Nigerians voted out to elect his principal, on the platform of a hope for better tidings.
Responding to the herdsmen menace in the country goes beyond glib talk and empty promises in preparation for the 2019 presidential election. Buhari must face the killer herdsmen squarely, like he has done to Boko Haram, to tell Nigerians that he does not actually belong to the killer herdsmen.
Ahmed Oluwasanjo writes from Abuja.
Photo credit: Femi Adesina’s Facebook page.
