…Says the President, not Service Chiefs will end killings
…Advises APC on Presidential candidate
By Chioma Gabriel, Editor, Special Features
Colonel Tony Nyiam, retired army Colonel, a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee, PAC that packaged the national conference but resigned midway following his altercation with the Edo Governor, Adams Oshiomhole during the committee’s public hearing in Benin in this encounter looks at the Nigerian state and expresses worries with the Buhari regime and the killings around Nigeria. He thinks the problem is not with the All Progressives Congress as a party but with Buhari and therefore urged the party to change its presidential candidate and go for a younger person.
He also urged the party to change its logo which he says is similar to the logo of witches and wizards which spiritual effect he believes is affecting the country and responsible for so much blood-letting in the country.
There is a security question in Nigeria. Strange things are happening around Nigeria; killings everywhere. Nigerians are troubled. No place is safe. What do you think is the problem with Nigeria?
With all respect and since you have asked a very important question on the issue of existential threats we face as a people in Nigeria, I cannot but answer it much more truthful. I will begin by asking the question, is it not daily becoming obvious that the President , the Commander in Chief, that is, the chief protector of Nigerians has, by his own repeated commissions and omissions, become the most disturbing national security risk, that the All Progressives Congress, APC, in particular and Nigerians as a whole are presently taking?
President Buhari’s administration is undoubtedly the most incompetent, nepotic, underminer of the rule of law that Nigeria has ever had. As if this jeopardy is not bad enough, the clear double standards in the tackling of the invasion of innocent Nigerian farming communities by Fulani herdsmen, foreign militia makes this administration complicit in the undermining of our national security, especially when the President himself, publicly said in the United Kingdom that those invaders were foreigners and yet nothing is being done about it. And to show you the double-standard, as publicly brought out by Columnist Olusegun Adeniyi, in his column on that Thursday, he said: “In April this year, while receiving in London, the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who raised the issue of killings in Benue State at that time, President Buhari said, the problem is even older than us; it has always been there but now made worse by the influx of gunmen from the Sahara region to different parts of West African sub-region. They were trained and armed by President Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. When he was killed, the gunmen escaped with their arms and are part of Boko Haram and herdsmen. Now, why are they not declared terrorists if they are foreigners? They are foreigners and armed. Why then are IPOB members declared terrorists? Secondly, the same President Buhari had said earlier in a statement about the killings when he was receiving a delegation from Benue led by Governor Ortom, this was what Buhari said and I’m quoting Segun Adeniyi: Your Excellency, the governor and all the leaders here, I’m appealing to you to try to restrain your people. I assure you that the Police, the Department of State Services and other security forces have been directed to ensure that all those behind the mayhem get punished. I ask you in the name of God to accommodate your countrymen. Be assured I’m also worried about the situation.
So, you can see the double standard and the pretense clearly. These countrymen are the Fulani/herdsmen militia. And this pretense by a Commander-in-Chief who holds the button and can press the button but who is condoning these things obviously makes him a national security risk and that is why it is not surprising that the Zamfara governor came out openly when his people were attacked to say that he is not the chief security officer.
Now, PMB’s obvious ignorance of the inadequacy of the organogram or structure of Nigeria’s higher national security management and rigidity in his refusal to consider the restructuring of the fractured foundation which is the political economic system which in itself is a key determinant of the national security architecture. His rigidity to change is in itself a risk. There are many examples of his administration’s incompetence. The recent example is the security failure in the management of the APC national convention. There were two security breaches in Delta and Imo camps and when even the president was speaking. Lessons were not learnt in an earlier security failure in the APC Ekiti primaries.
Doing nothing to the Inspector General of Police for disobeying executive orders is another example of incompetence or pretense. Just before President Buhari’s recent visit to Cross River State to commission the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospital, some naval personnel, acting in accordance to orders from above demolished the fence that demarcates my land in Calabar from the Navy to intimidate me. It was an attempt to intimidate me but I will not be intimidated from being part of those who want the Middle Beltans who are being killed in their thousands to have a voice. And by the way, Naval personnel being used to intimidate me or other security personnel being used to intimidate Obasanjo or TY Danjuma should realise that their people are the ones who are being killed in Adamawa, Taraba, Benue, Bauchi, Kaduna, Plateau and parts of Kaduna North, Birmin Gwari and the Hausa being killed in Zamfara by a small group that is bent on colonising land they don’t own. Particularly, in Bacham land in Adamawa, General TY Danjuma’s Junkun people in Taraba, Plateau, Nasarawa; General Zamani Lekwot and Martin Agwai people in in Southern Kaduna, Benue , Kogi, Enugu, Edo, Ekiti and IBB’s mother ‘s Gwari people whose land extend from Niger State through Federal Capital Territory, FCT to the new zone Birnin Gwari and Hausa original land owners of Zamfara are being threatened by foreign militia.
For the President as Commander-in-Chief who gets daily intelligence report to be demonstrating his not being sure of those behind the unprecedented killings of Nigerians in their farms is not acceptable. All these make armed militia invasion of Nigeria’s farming communities an attempt to distract attention from the land grabbing going on in Nigeria. PMB’s varied accounts of the killers, begging the Benue Governor for Tiv, Idoma and Igede people to accommodate those the people say are the ones killing them , to the version of Libyan soldiers; to the new one of politicians who he did not name are not helping out. And we do hope that is not another attempt to frame opponents. Let me tell you, PMB’s government officials tactics is consistent with the logo of APC, under Buhari’s watch. Broomsticks which the ruling party uses as logo share similarity with covens of witches and wizards. What do Nigerians expect from a scare-crow-like figure carrying the symbol of witch craft as the symbol of APC party? PMB should know he is a former head of state and a retired general and all these things happening under him make him incredible. They make his administration a security risk.Click to continue reading.
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