Governor Shettima’s crocodile tears

In the ding over the accusations against the high priest in our country’s temple of justice, one could be pardoned for forgetting a governor’s theatrical performance last week. Governor Kashim Shettima wept publicly while visiting President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, January 7, in the company of others from the state. This newspaper, like others, reported the encounter and it is instructive that journalists were asked to excuse the gathering because of the governor’s tears.

It will soon be five years on April 14 when Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped some secondary school students in Chibok, Borno State. While some were recovered at different times after ransom was paid, 112 still remain in captivity; only God knows how many are alive still. In a month’s time, it will be one year too that Leah Sharibu, the only girl still held captive because of her Christian faith among those kidnapped by the Islamic State West Africa Province ISWAP), a faction of Boko Haram, from Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State on February 19, 2018 has been in captivity. While the Federal Government negotiated and secured the release of others, Sharibu refused to renounce her faith and her reward is continuing captivity. I recalled this to show that the horrors of Boko Haram have been with us for a while just as I can imagine the pain and trauma of the parents of these students.

Just as the House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, lampooned the northern elders – read politicians – who continually threw jabs at President Goodluck Jonathan but who suddenly have lost their voices over the continuing Boko Haram onslaught, Shettima too ought to examine his own roles critically in what, sadly, might define his eight year in office as governor over his people. Two colleagues whose work I’ve come to admire and respect, speak glowingly of Shettima’s good heart in solving the Boko Haram menace but his perpetual enmity with Jonathan must surely have clouded his desire to see his people rid of the terrorists. His latest needless spat with the former president over the latter’s account of his stewardship in his autobigraphy as regards the Chibok girls’ abduction says much about what ought to be his priority.

Now the chickens have come home to roost for Shettima and others of his ilk who thought Jonathan was the problem. For whatever he did or not do, and his initial handling of the kidnap left much to be desired, we could all see now that the problem goes beyond the former president. Even when folks invested President Buhari with the superpowers he does not possess, we’ve discovered, sadly, that more ought to be done to combat the terrorists. Good enough that our soldiers are pushing back to reclaim the territories under the control of Boko Haram, we must not deny any longer that things are still grim and we have ceded some territories to these devilish elements. That might not be entirely correct, we have lost seemed more appropriate as we never relinquished any territory.

Denials notwithstanding, our efforts are still inadequate in the war and we can see the results. Our soldiers are still waging war without the necessary equipment just as we still have saboteurs who are bent on sabotaging the military efforts. Journalists continue to be demonized and arrested for doing their legitimate duties as seen in the latest episode involving Daily Trust. A wonderful newspaper but which must take the blame for what happened to it even though it was a continuation of our soldiers’ refusal to accept that they are subordinates to civil authority, the newspaper’s management must remember that one does not dine with the devil and then turn around to exorcise his agents. Here is a newspaper that acquiesced to the demand of the authorities to let go of some columnists who were becoming too critical of the Buhari administration thereby silencing critical voices relevant to the good of the people of the area where the paper is based. By the way, Uthman Abubakar, the Maiduguri Bureau Chief of the newspaper, is a colleague I worked with before and he is a true professional.

While the information the newspaper published was available in other sites, especially those dedicated to global defence issues; you can’t have a cosy relationship with the government on the one hand and then turn around to write critical reports on the other. We remember also how our military repeatedly denied that Boko Haram was controlling any part of Borno State but we all know better now especially with the increasing number of our internally displaced people. The fact remains that we must all do more than we’ve been doing including journalists who continually censor themselves from bringing home the horrors of this war. The insurgency ongoing in Zamfara, Katsina and Sokoto States which we keep calling “bandits attack” is a pointer to what we might be dealing with in future if we failed to act decisively now.

To Governor Shettima, tears alone will not solve the problem we have in Borno and we must all know that we are dealing with a terrible enemy than you’ve always acknowledged, also that proverb which says that the pest destroying the vegetable is on the vegetable should speak eloquently more to you now.