GUMI and WEEKLY TRUST CHAT ON SECURITY ISSUE IN NIGERIA (3) WT: Are you saying that part of the challenges facing this country has to do with the composition of the Nigerian armed forces? Gumi: Yes, it has to do with that one hundred percent because the war is fought secretly. Therefore, this war has to be fought openly. If war is fought secretly, there would be room for maneuvers. Another problem about this war is that politics has come in. Everybody knows that a government that wants to suppress its enemies or region resorts to framing people up. We have seen that in Syria and other countries. People were agitating for democratic rule but the Syrian government started killing them and said they are terrorists and those people were forced to carry arms. So, government can sometime revert to suppressing activities just to give itself the laws and powers to oppress a certain society. There were such allegations in the past. During the (late General Sani) Abacha regime there were allegations that bomb was set up in an airport for the regime to have grounds to attack its enemies. There was similar allegation in 2007 when a vehicle loaded with explosives was said to be heading to INEC headquarters, just to frame some political enemies up. Therefore, government can be behind all these insecurities just to give itself power to suppress certain people. So, who is doing an independent investigation? Let’s bring in foreigners in collaboration with Nigerian Muslims and Christians to investigate all these allegations. If we do that, Nigeria would see peace in no time. Just take the attempted attack on General (Muhammadu) Buhari and Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi as another example. The aim was to portray that Boko Haram has infiltrated the whole of northern states. But when you sit down and analyse that incident intellectually, you would find that the real Boko Haram has three degrees of enemies. They have the primary enemies, which is the government, military and other government agencies. They have secondary enemies, and these are those who are supporting the government. They have tertiary enemies who agree in principle with democracy. Then how can Boko Haram attack tertiary enemies and leave primary and secondary enemies? If Boko Haram had attacked the convoy of the GOC in Kaduna or the governor or military barracks, one would have understood. But when they attack a person who is even against the government, it became very suspicious. Therefore, attempt on Buhari is an attempt to eliminate possible opposition, while attack on Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi was an attempt to give this insurgency a religious colour. We have seen political leaders that came out to oppose this government and its fight on insurgency but ended in disgrace. Nyako is an example. Everybody can remember the role of Nyako during 2011 PDP primaries. He made sure that they voted for Jonathan against his fellow from Adamawa, but simply because he said something against the government now he is on the run. Remember what Niger State governor said about the alleged one-term agreement with Jonathan. Why has he come out to swallow that? Look at (Governor Sule) Lamido of Jigawa State, where his two children were linked with financial scandals. He had now found his level. Even the current Emir of Kano, who alleged that $20 billion were missing, had to backslide. He made the allegation at a time when we were searching for the sources of terrorists’ funding. How can Boko Haram sustain what they are doing if they don’t have money? Unfortunately, the emir had to retract because of certain interests. Therefore, those struggling to ensure the continuity of this government beyond 2015 should take lesson from Nyako, Niger State governor, emir of Kano, Jigawa governor among others.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 07:08:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015