Nigeria Times

By Leonard Aluor

Too many Nigerians speciously think, Government business is as simplistic as opening the gates of their houses, as masters, whenever they come back to the house after late nights. But Government is peculiarly different in this clime.

The uninfringeable truth in this country is that getting off the ground, a newly created ministry, with maximum functional impact and a very sensitive one which oversees the welfare of the distressed or poorest of the masses in Nigeria is not an easy task. In Nigeria, the problem is even more complex; a complexity induced by the “normalized” red-tapism of democratic bureaucracy.

Whoever emerges the Minister of a new ministry has the challenge and a burden hung on the neck more than the ancient Greek Sisyphus imposed on him by the gods. The very first assignment is to grasp, domesticate and functionalize the vision and mission in consonance with the overall agenda of Mr. President and his administration propelling the creation of the Ministry.

There are also other issues, such as office accommodation, internal re-organization of departments and sections and struggling for the release of budgetary votes for the new ministry in an economy stressed by paucity of resources to meet all Government demands. Those who have traversed this path before or privy to it know the workload and frightening experiences.

This was the situation, the Minister of one of Nigeria’s newest ministries’, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq found herself in 2019, when President Muhammadu Buhari created the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (MHADM& SD) in 2019. But the extensively acclaimed administrative amazon faced the challenges fearlessly and with the nimbleness of a knowledgeable public servant aligned to her fame in public service.

It never escaped the attention and awareness of Minister Sadiya that President Buhari attached great premium on issues affecting poor Nigerians, the distressed, the less privileged and the vulnerable citizens. She knew, these cumulatively defined the core mandates of the new ministry in the #NextLevel.

Therefore, the minister hit the ground running and matched on with the force of administrative tornado; concretized and operationalized the new ministry in less than two months on assumption of office. Since then, Minister Sadiya has continued to blaze the trail in various aspects of the mandates of the ministry. She has combed and dusted even forgotten matters and given them fully official attention.

The scope of the new ministry is unarguably large. There is the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), North-East Development Commission (NEDC) , National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons ((NCFRMI), and, National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), with extended branches like the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), and a legion of other agencies incorporated under the supervision of the ministry.

The signposts of Sadiya’s operations in the ministry, which by every interpretation are very demanding and tedious justifies her appointment by President Buhari to nurture the nascent ministry to maturity. And by every indication, she is innately horned for the manifold jobs on her hands with the easiness and near perfection. The day, anyone knows, she is in the Northeast to supervise disbursement of relief materials to IDPs; the next day, Minister Sadiya is sighted in Lagos personally and her team attending to distraught Nigerians, who are victims of natural disasters or Nigerians whom society/fate has not been kind to them from Septuagenarian ages.

Known for the traits of a compassionate mother, with an enduring passion to come to the aid of distressed humanity and render assistance to the less privileged, they have been her potent weapons, making the very difficult jobs easier for her.

Her efficacy on the job is further enhanced by the enriching experience she gathered while serving as federal commissioner, National Commission For Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons ((NCFRMIDPs) and as a Senior staff of the National Assembly Service Commission, Abuja. These experiences have observably strengthened her over the years.

Famously, Minister Sadiya assigned to herself the task of ensuring NEMA launched the abandoned National Emergency Management Policy document in compliance with the United Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction declaration in the very few months in office. She goaded NEMA into this necessary action because of the realization of the policy as accelerating a wide range of proactive capacity-building measures on disaster risks reduction and humanitarian disaster management in synergy with government and communities prone to such catastrophes.

Minister Sadiya is the first government official to reposition the N-Power scheme under the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) window, in accordance with guidelines and directives for the programme, as issued by the FGN. She has disengaged Batches A and B, enrolled between 2016 and 2017 which have overstayed their terminal period of two years for almost same period and depriving others.

She just did an audit of the beneficiaries in batches A and B, only to discover that by the statistics on her table, more than 16, 000 of them had other pensionable Government paid jobs. Yet, they enrolled and collected stipends for the N-Power jobs these number of years in shameless deprivation of other Nigerians. No thanks to FGN’s IPPIS payment system by those caught in the act.

But the central philosophy and motivation for stamping her foot on implementing the government guidelines is to ensure fairness, equity and justice. Her decision will allow the special FGN social poverty alleviation programmes spread to other Nigerians.

And in line with Minister Sadiya’s promise to Nigerians, she has long commenced the process of the enrolment and onboarding of N-Power beneficiaries Batch C. And millions of Nigerians have applied on the official online portal of N-Power to also participate for the skills acquisition and job creation initiative And in accordance with her compassionate nature, she is talking to “private sector bodies to absorb some of the beneficiaries after the completion of psychometric assessment to determine competency and placement into various opportunities.” Though the N-Power baches disengaged have already known the duration of the scheme and aware that they are overdue, but Minister Sadiya has perceived the sudden disengagement as a personal nightmare and therefore scouting for their placements. Its commendable, to say the least!

Therefore, within a year alone, Minister Sadiya initiated the Road Map and Action Plan that will descend and enhance cooperation framework with the ministry, civil organizations and security agencies interactions in Nigeria’s Northeast, where the volume of humanitarian crisis is appalling because of years of a devastating insurgency. The essence is to foster a seamless and collective confrontation and management of disasters and humanitarian crises throughout Nigeria to give immediate succour to troubled Nigerians.

The ministry under Sadiya’s leadership has extended its partnership with international bodies on improving civil-security cooperation (CISEC) in Humanitarian interventions in Maiduguri, Northeast and other parts of Nigeria under the siege of disasters. In the South-South, her binoculars are permanently fixed on the resettlement of the displaced and helpless peoples of Bakassi Peninsula abandoned to their fate over a decade.

In her time, she was in America to also anchor a dialogue with the US-Nigeria Bi-national Commission in Washington DC. The discussions renewed the expectation of partnership with USAID and the World Bank to fund an empowerment programme for persons with disabilities and women in Nigeria.

And in the year, 2020, the ministry is vigorously pursuing the pledge of the United States Government on humanitarian assistance to Nigeria in 2020 worth US$40million. These are novel manifestations which the relevant agencies now fused into the ministry never had the strength and thoughts to pursue.

And in the last 10 years, it’s the first time, Nigeria has contemplated and working towards the comprehensive resettlement of IDPs in the Northeast in 2020. In the pursuit of this agenda for the comfort of IDPs, Minister Sadiya has seen to the foundation laying ceremony for 10, 000 units of housing projects in Ngom, Mafa LGA of Borno state. It is one of the series of President Buhari’s special intervention projects under the North East Development Commission (NEDC). It is spread across the most severe nine LGAs of Borno state with huge numbers of IDPs. While no one prays for these conditions, to affect any Nigerian, but it is exciting that Minister Sadiya has shown care and focus to exit the aftermath of the humanitarian problems.

In addition, the ministry has acquired lands in Abuja and environs for the relocation and reintegration of some IDPs in the FCT and Nasarawa States, targeting several families. Furthermore, it is also new that the management of personal health of IDPs is not abandoned to their devastated lives and circumstantially, wretched souls anymore. Minister Sadiya is aggressively working on their enrolment into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) across Nigeria and also, the provision of basic amenities in their resettled abodes.

It also astounded many Nigerians that Minister Sadiya, devised a dexterous method of feeding school children during lockdown at homes at the initial strict period of Covid-19. The ministry also provided other palliatives to the less privileged and vulnerable Nigerians, including cash payments to cushion the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. The formula she adopted reached out to the targeted Nigerians right at their doorsteps and vicinities without hitches.

The workhorse Minister Sadiya inaugurated the Federal Government National Steering Committee for the restructured Multi-sectoral Crisis Recovery Project (MCRP) designated for Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States about two months ago. It’s a foundation for the effective implementation of the Lake Chad Region Recovery and Development Project (PROLAC), sponsored by the World Bank for the cost of $200 million dollars to support the recovery of the Northeast region devastated by Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. These are not only laudable initiatives or steps forward, but breath-taking indiscriminate reliefs to all distraught Nigerians all over the country. #

Aluor is a public affairs commentator and wrote this from Oduduwa University, Ile Ife.

By Philip Agbese

Around the world, many people find it unacceptable the decisions political leaders take at their convenience. So, they kick and protest against it. It is more common in democracies around the world and Nigeria is no exemption. Here, the assertion of citizen-rights is penetrative, except that on any matter, hardly do one sight national coherence and objective. Everyone appears to approach national issues and problems from ethnic, religious or political point of view.

Most times, the protests are not spurred by altruistic reasons. What ignites the resentments for decisions of leaders, tagged “unpopular” by these elements is basically because some personal interests are injured somewhere and it instigates massive resistance, with an influenced clan of minions goaded into it. And they always seem louder.

In Nigeria, the game is played very dangerously and most times unconscionably. The reigning singsong in the country now are the gospels about the resignation of Service Chiefs or their sack by President Muhammadu Buhari. No one cares to know why Mr. President and the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces has decided to retain the security chiefs beyond times some Nigerians consider abnormal.

It is not ironic that in Nigeria, the heads of the various arms of the Armed Forces are called “Service Chiefs in military terms. It is the general world order anywhere. These are patriots who have given out their lives in defence of fatherland. So, their death in the line of duty does not attract whining from the citizens, but heroic songs.

The laws of Nigeria have vested the final authority on determining the fate of Service Chiefs in the hands of the Commander-in-Chief and in this case, President Buhari. These Service Chiefs value their lives no less than the rest of Nigerians to risk it in the battlefield every minute. They are human beings with lives, which can also be brutally terminated by terrorists, armed bandits and the rest. They have families too and cherish them infinitely.

On a lighter note and within the African context, a chief is someone who is like a King; who issues directives and wait for the results. His only most authentic role is supervision. And it trickles down the ladder. A chief sits in the comfort of his palace to reel out orders and directives to subordinates even in wartimes because his death or even injury at such times is symbolic of victory for the enemy.

Anytime, a chief deems it fit to adjust his team in war, he does with a few trusted members of council of elders. He does not call out or seek the advice or opinions of the entire community, on whose throne he presides to teach him fresh wisdom, enact new philosophies and laws to navigate the path of their leadership.

A dedicated followership prefers to sink or swim with their king in hard or good times for reasons that if he succeeds and leads perfectly or fails, the history books are there to record the period of his reign. Its sardonic that subjects should constitute themselves into a clan of differing cacophonic noises and very dictatorially in the case of President Buhari.

Lumped together, the wisdom, luxury and protective shield of a king is not something prone to the inquisitiveness of every subject. Even in the borrowed and modernized western concept of kings or chiefs modified as democracy, the laws permit some leverage to the king in leadership or the President to act or take certain independent decisions based on his discretion. So, it is very unlawful and unwise to stampede the President into decisions he has exclusive rights to determine in the guise of the liberties of democracy.

Unfortunately, this is not a reflection of what happens in Nigeria in the case of President Buhari and his Service Chiefs. Hence Nigeria practices democracy, the a few disgruntled citizens think these appointees are dunces and are not capable of any thought of their own.

It pains infinitely that the present Service Chiefs are mere unlucky servants and victims of circumstances who bear the baggage and fallouts of societal failures to address its own varied social contracts with the citizenry. But the tantrums are hurled at them from all angles disparagingly by selfish elements . No one spares a minute to look at the sacrifices they have made for the country, including paying the supreme price.

And each time, one hears the utterances of some Nigerians, it is simple to discern the concealed voices of these unpatriotic citizens and sabs pushed by external forces to torment their own country and the leaders. Truly, these Nigeria’s serving Service Chiefs are very unfortunate in the hands of paid activists and political jobbers whom they have stopped from truncating our democracy !

The Service Chiefs should not be depressed because overwhelming majority of Nigerians believe in their sacrifices to the nation. The greedy hunters for favourites in the Military to be anointed Chiefs in order to reverse the gains President Buhari has recorded against insurgencies and insurrections in the country under the Service Chiefs, should proceed with the seemingly sponsored and senseless campaigns.

The anti-Service Chiefs campaigners and activists and sponsors of violence and killings, including their protegees in the National Assembly are free to intensify their evangelism against the security chiefs. They are at liberty to contrive more devilish plots, cause greater degrees of destructions, killings and thereafter, embark on the familiar blame games of “Buhari is not doing anything on insecurities,” or “the Service Chiefs have overstayed in office,” and so forth.

And the excuses by these debased souls and their conspirators are in abundance. They spurn them anytime and play on national psyche gleefully. Therefore, when any government fails to pay salaries; does not engage youths in endeavors that support decent livelihood, but sustained violence and bloodshed, it is the fault of the President and he must sack the Service Chiefs or Nigeria will continue smouldering with flames of killings and blood shed.

When these supposed political leaders fail to provide jobs for the teeming unemployed graduates and job seekers in their domains; corner every presidential poverty alleviation intervention package to themselves and families, thereby triggering anger, violently expressed in widespread killings, communal clashes, terrorism, armed banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery and other assorted criminalities, it is the fault of Mr. President and his Service Chiefs. Leaders with such mindsets and their acolytes hardly see whatever efforts our patriotic Service Chiefs are making in quelling the conflagrations they have ignited.

When politicians arm youths to rig elections and unable to retrieve these weapons and same are used for killings and destruction of properties then, Nigerians turn to the Service Chiefs. Those who secretly maintain a clan of armed youths as political thugs and ethnic militias et al, and these youths turn to uncontrollable crimes, it is the fault of the President and they gladly turn to the Service or Security Chiefs for succor.

More confounding, these are not isolated cases. State governors are left without any probe of what happens to the monthly security votes. Buhari is the first and last destination because he is the President of Nigeria. Agreed that the rate of insecurity in Nigeria is appalling, the evident presence of the Nigerian soldiers in at least 33 out of the 36 states of the federation, outside Abuja, means civil security alone has been overpowered.

The efforts of the castigated Service Chiefs are underestimated by those salvaged. If Nigerians wish, let them continue until the Military on special Internal Security (IS) assignments are also overwhelmed, while those who mastermind these abominable acts blame President Muhammadu Buhari and preach the rule of law.

What is Nigeria’s collective national defining agenda for peace and peaceful co-existence? There is none! So, when Nigerians fail to mediate over mutual differences in communities, ignore amicable settlement of minor disputes, display of unfriendly , yet potential crises, embolden armed youths into violence with stipends and it generates into Boko Haram terrorism or banditry, then it is time to turn to the Service Chiefs when it becomes an uncontrollably explosive in destructions.

The Service Chiefs are the problem according to the verdict of these few criminally minded Nigerians, when parliamentarians at all levels make legislations in breach of the constitution of Nigeria, and public interest; do not support peaceful co-existence and cause violence and killings, it’s the shortcoming of the Service Chiefs and so, they must quit. When state governors pocket federal allocations for salaries, pensions, capital projects, stifle development and exacerbate the anger in the land violently, it is the fault of the Service Chiefs.

Like President Buhari proclaimed recently, anytime Nigerians are ready, insecurities will cease in the country. In any case, he will continue to do his very best and the critics should also continue chasing shadows. The current state of insecurities in the country is the creation of some Nigerians, which the military didn’t handover political leadership in May 1999. These people have expanded their nest of powerful adherents and many of them are in leadership positions at lower rungs sponsoring and fueling the bloodshed.

These blinded persons under the delusion that orchestrating violence and killings all over the country would aggravate public push for sack of Service Chiefs successfully for the appointment of minions which they can penetrate and manipulate to disrupt Nigeria’s democracy. It is a dreamy adventure.

Nigeria was a peaceful nation and the majority who believe in this country must come together to ensure a collective battle to bring violence to a standstill. Unless this is taken as a collective resolve and action, crucifying the Service Chiefs is not a panacea. #

Agbese is a public affairs analyst based in the United Kingdom.

By David Achimugu

Nigeria as a country and, Nigerians, my compatriots are wonderful or unpredictable people. There is no crisis facing us that we lack the capacity to handle. I leave the deduction of our capacity to handle the often-self-induced crises for others to decide.

But I have to say that even in the United Kingdom, (my temporary place of abode now), or America, there are real and potent threats of terrorism. Terrorism is a compelling existential threat to humanity in the 21st century and the world is astounded by its expanding influence to distant destinations.

Our beautiful world created by God is inexplicably assailed by demons called terrorists. They delight in bloodshed, know no kith or kin. In their kingdom, there is no brother or sister. Violence is their defining creed. And those who should speak loudly and act against it, bark without commensurate actions. I my lifetime, nothing has befuddled me this much!

International politics is played differently, so I don’t know why United Nations (UN) is shy to draw full attention of the world to the budding terrorism evil in the Middle East, which is fast spreading to other distant abodes. And the countries are member-states of this world body.

UN has questionably flinched in declaring a full-blown war against countries that breeding and spreading terrorism; instead of science and technology; commerce and industry. But the eggheads at the UN and its Security Council (SC) knows it better. The world body has not adopted any step to checkmate the movement of arms and ammunitions across international borders which embolden terrorists’ atrocities.

Does anybody believe, we have a reason to protest against the UN? I don’t think it would be alright, because it could be misinterpreted to mean an unpardonable insolence. Let’s assume, all our leaders are flawlessly right. At least, most of those who claim to police the world have seen nothing bizarre in terrorism to warrant expedient actions and strict monitoring of its expansion.

So, do we need to worry anymore, under the protective armour of UN, celebrated world leaders, the UN Security Council and the rest of power brokers in the world, who are more interested in supervising the spread of terrorism and its variants around the world? If they are comfortable, we should pretend to be comfortable, in spite of the pains, agonies, and sorrows inflicted on us every day by terrorists and in most parts of the world.

We have no reason to complain or even groan aloud. And why? It’s because our bosses in the UN assemble every year or once in a while to define our destiny in New York. They are impeachable. Therefore, we should feel very okay and pretend indifference to the plight of our next-door brethren caused by terror and allied sects of violence and killings.

It’s a paradox that even international laws are softer on terrorists than, the innocent people they hack down or the security agents, who are drafted to stop the perpetration of terrorists’ evil. We are trapped in this vicious circle back and front and our whining consistently has not attracted the attention of a hardened world.

I will cry no more! And let my other brethren caged in this affliction cry no more! The mighty too, fall sometimes. Certainly, there is no reason to feel the pains again when the world savours the pleasures. Why should we feel the pains of terrorism, they seem to ask us?

The globe is horrorstruck, very dumfounded with the spread of terrorism, whether of ISIS or its affiliates in the Middle East. But the body weak and the fingers are too cold to act decisively.

The Middle East in the epicenter of terrorism from where it spreads to the rest of the world. Are we knowing it for the first time? Certainly, no! But UN romanticizes it. No sanctions on erring member- states over violation of UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. Member countries are brazenly violating it. Yet, UN has proven a lame duck. Even countries such as Nigeria attempting to overcome terrorism are hamstrung variously.

I love America’s President Donald because he hates terrorists and has discovered the hypocrisy of UN. He doesn’t hide it. Meanwhile, all of us are under its spell. In my country, Nigeria, terrorism has transmogrified into numerous deadly sects. When we know, Boko Haram is the problem; we also hear of ISWAP. When the terrorists find it difficult to face the Army’s superior fire power, they morph into armed bandits, ethnic warlords, armed militias, violent secessionists, and religious extremists.

When I read in faraway London that some bandits have taken over the Northwest and tormenting the peace of the people, I was not surprised. And some analysts have truthfully, admitted that terrorists have emboldened the ranks of armed bandits. They have found this escape route because the COAS and leader of the counter-insurgency operations in Nigeria, Lt.Gen. TY Buratai has not given the insurgents ample operational laxity in the Northeast, where they prided in fake invincible might.

But I am consoled because we have a President matching the terrorists action for action. I knew that with a courageous leader like President Buhari, stopping the smuggling business around the borders through Sokoto, illegal mining of the nation’s gold resources by gold miners in Zamfara, one should expect retaliations and actions by these elements. Terrorists cum smugglers need the gold treasure in the Northwest more than a baby needs breast milk in order to fund their atrocious act.

But it’s not yet time for the terrorists and armed bandits to rejoice. What is clear to me is that they will always be met with not just stiff resistance from Gen. Buratai, but their evils will certainly be defeated. Almighty God has seen our afflictions, the conspiracy against Nigeria and our helplessness. Therefore, He has donated to us a rare gift of Gen. Buratai. It is one gift from God to us at this time of travails, which is preciously priceless. Gen. Buratai is a blessing to Nigeria and we do not fear the challenge of our enemies to us or their sponsors and financiers.

By His Grace, through Gen. Buratai, the Northwest shall be liberated from armed bandits and other criminals; the Northeast, shall be purged of terrorists, whether of Boko Haram or ISWAP and Nigeria must be free. If they deny us sale of weapons to battle terrorism, but allow the same weapons transit through international borders for terrorists and armed bandits to mow us down every day, Gen. Buratai and the Nigerian soldiers are ready for the worse, by using their bare hands to fight and defend their fatherland from the bloodthirsty devils incarnates.

Just a few days ago, when Gen. Buratai moved to the Northwest and commenced the Operation Sahel Sanity, we are beginning to record good postings against the terrorists and armed bandits. They shall be pounded into defeat because God is on our side, no matter the extent of the conspiracy against us.

But I plead that whilst the Operation Sahel Sanity is roaring and kicking in the Northwest, the expectation that other institutions of state should embark on aggressive thinking and actions to complement the efforts of the Nigerian Army to ensure that the armed banditry and other criminalities comes to a final end within the next few months.

I have absolute faith that the enemies of Nigeria have no conquering power over us. No matter how many Goliaths they have morphed themselves into, we have a Gen. Buratai as that little David who will bring them down by whatever means. Gen. Buratai, the people’s soldier, please, go farther afield and conquer the evil merchants and every force behind them. You are unmistakably, Nigeria’s rare gift on counter-terrorism.

Achimugu wrote this piece Abuja.