Benue is in the news again. Our governor has officially called on President Mohammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency on security in Nigeria.
It is unclear whether this idea emanates from a resolution of the Benue state security council, comprising experts, a body which the governor presides over. But irrespective of his being a layman in the area, he is like any other Nigerian affected one way or the other by insecurity and has the constitutional right to speak his mind.
I think Governor Ortom should be taken seriously. He has been governor over a state that has been ravaged by insecurity for six years, during which he was said to have won an international award from the United Nations on account of his Amnesty program, a novel security policy that got instant international acclaim. Never mind that the amnesty itself collapsed in a most embarrassing manner and its protagonist was murdered in cold blood. Gov Ortom’s scorecard in Benue resonates more in the area of security of lives and property, and has earned for himself a resounding re-election in 2019 and the fond name of Defender of the Benue valley.
In this regard, I have this feeling that our country is missing a potential minister of Defense here. He really thinks outside the box in this area. The other day, he called on the Federal Government to declare free ownership of guns and ammunition by all citizens. He and his security council also placed a ban on the use of motorcycles in the militia-infested Sankera region of his state, and for about two weeks publicly made a bon-fire of all captured motorcycles. Never mind that he had no alternative transportation arrangements for the innocent poor people of the area. You should not think about cushioning the suffering of people in a state of emergency, I guess.
Now, Gov Ortom comes up with a big one. He calls on President Buhari to declare a state of emergency on security in the country. What is a state of emergency? The word “emergency” is suggestive of immediacy, suddenness and urgency of action. It’s application here would mean that insecurity has all of a sudden, assumed a proportion that would require taking measures outside the conventional approach. I certainly agree with the governor here. For us in Benue, we even crossed the Rubicon three years ago when we all assembled to conduct a mass burial of 72 victims of herdsmen massacre. Consequently, another deadly trajectory was introduced in the Sankera area following the the collapse of the amnesty, which has nothing to do with the fulani herdsmen. The economy of the state has collapsed. Social life has declined. Schools have closed and our people are living under the nightmarish orgy of kidnappings, armed robbery, cultism and hired assassinations.
But, let’s face it. Which security problem is not an emergency? Criminals thrive on the element of surprise. Isn’t it the reason why Nigeria and indeed all nations have the police, the armed forces, investigative, intelligence and prosecutorial agencies? A nation’s security formation is wired to work under emergency conditions.
To formally call for the declaration of the state of emergency of security is to suggest that the National Assembly vests on the office the President more powers than it currently has in dealing with security matters as commander in chief of the armed forces and the police. I guess such powers could include shoving aside incompetent state chief security officers (governors) and appointing no nonsense military administrators to take charge of states with intractable security challenges. Emergency powers could also entitle the president to authorize extra-judicial killings or any other high handed approach imagined in a human community.
But, I’m not sure, that is what Gov Ortom wants. As a democratically elected governor, he should not be suggesting the the shoving aside of political, bureaucratic and military conventions, to enable one man to have emergency powers to tackle insecurity. I think that the governor wants Mr President to rejig the country’s security architecture with the view to sensitizing security agencies to respond promptly to cases of insecurity.
But more importantly, the governor as a politician should make more sense to me discussing the political or social perspective of insecurity than discussing military strategy he knows nothing about. Why do we have so many idle hands, unemployed graduates, political thugs and school dropouts amongst us and still expect to live in a secure society? What emergency actions are the governors taking to prevent people from getting into criminality? Why can’t someone suggest that a state of emergency be introduced in a fundamental way to save us from the causes of insecurity?
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