Nigeria Times

By Philip Agbese

Like Chinese revered war veteran, strategist and tactician, Sun Tzu, once asked the world albeit rhetorically; “Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?” Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari is also asking Nigerians whether they have any inkling about what his Government can do with the resurgence of Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorism?

The President is stylistically questioning the reason for the anxiety in people who seems to have gleefully forgotten the deadly blow the Nigerian Military handed down to insurgents under his administration. And why they think it is impossible to treat renewed insurgency with same dosage.

Mr. President is searching to know exactly the mindset of some Nigerians who are canvassing and campaigning for the removal of his appointed current Service Chiefs for mundane excuses. The most dominant of such excuses anchored are either resurged terrorism or death of troops in the frontlines.

Losing troops in battle is such a bad experience. But the sad experience cannot obviate reality in war situations. Its simple wisdom that no military chief, with all his acclaimed best expertise will insulate any troop from death in the battlefield, except God.

Except those with faint memories, or else, they ought to know that aside troops combating Boko Haram terrorism in the Northeast and other parts of Nigeria, even the Police and the Department of State Security Service (DSS) have so many times lost officers and personnel in the course of maintaining national security. Assuming it were possible, this could be avoided; but it is a fate only God determines.

Several Police personnel have lost precious lives in encounters with armed robbers or protesters and so forth. And likewise, the DSS. The incident of Ombatse cult killings of security operatives in Nasarawa state and scores of others are handy examples of such unfortunate incidents, which are unavertable in security operations. But the solution does not reside in sacking the Heads of such security units.

But most times, undue pressures from some Nigerians as done now do compel the President to prematurely terminate the appointment of brilliant officers who came with a clear mind to usher in the necessary reforms. But the persistent clamor and excuses bordering on age, retirement and high-wired politics have compelled kicking out of such priced personnel and all their ideas just to bow to political correctness.

Sun Tzu said; “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

So, experience has taught the country regrettable lessons in this direction, but people crave for a repeat of same mistakes. The present campaigners for the sack of Service Chiefs have chosen to ignore or downplay the incontestable fact that President Buhari himself a hero and venerated retired Army General.

In his military career while in active service, he fought a dozen battles and also commanded Battalions and troops at the warfronts. It implies that he knows the intricacies and psyche of commanders and their mutuality with the troops under control at special times like war.

Like other war heroes of his status have resonated elsewhere, the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces knows when to effect a change in the hierarchy of Military leadership. And he knows when crisis or emergencies make such contemplation abominable, unnecessary and absolutely detrimental to the pursuit of victory.

President Buhari is aware like repeatedly thundered by Sun Tzu, globally acknowledged as the oracle of war that; “If there is disturbance in the camp, the general’s authority is weak. If the banners and flags are shifted about, sedition is afoot. If the officers are angry, it means that the men are weary.”

As the then a serving Army General who earned his ranks by dint of hard work, Buhari does not require the counsel of people on the right and beneficial decisions to adopt on military leadership; much less, from non-experts, who have never been privileged to fire a shot from the war trench. It explains why he silenced the campaigners gunning for the sack of Service Chiefs with a presidential declaration that he meticulously and diligently searched before appointing the Military leaders to superintend on the termination of insurgencies and insurrections in the country.

The Commander-In-Chief was unambiguous that he accepts full responsibility for whatever is the actions of the Service Chiefs. But he will not succumb to external and overtly malicious and instigative persuasions for their sack because outside the commendable performance of the Service Chiefs, such a hasty step, from his experience can ricochet dangerously in emergency situations particularly in the Nigerian context.

But the emergency advocators for the removal of Service Chiefs should also not forget that the Commander-In-Chief, as an ex- General came on board and inherited a disheveled military personnel and polarized Armed Forces. Everyone knows that it provoked displeasure and anger in President Buhari as a Nigerian statesman and former Army General.

It is unthinkable for any Nigerian to expect that he would have served as the democratic leader of Nigeria and still left the Nigerian Military in such a disfigured shape. It is unpatriotic and an inclination to impatience for those clamouring for the sack of the Service Chiefs who are anchoring these reforms and innovations in the Military mid-way.

The Service Chiefs are operating in the counter-insurgency operations in Nigeria with a savvy only akin to what Sun Tzu’s wisdom echoes as “What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.”

Therefore, the hired crusaders for the sacking of the incumbent Military leadership must not forget that the decision of President Buhari to retain the Service Chiefs is beyond combating Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorism alone. It has much ado about the healthiness and professionalism of the nation’s Armed Forces. But from the cocoons and narrow-mindedness of these politicians, even if given 30 years ahead, they will neither sight nor understand the need for a good institutional foundation for the Nigerian Military.

However, unarguably, that President Buhari has seen the laughable state of the Nigerian Armed Forces which he inherited; he is not ready to leave it in shambles anymore. And retaining the Service Chiefs to complete one of the assigned assignments is something that Nigerians will appreciate, behold and cherish so much in the future.

It is needless to flog the unwilling horse. The Nigerian laws are clear as to the tenure of Service Chiefs and the President has acted within his prerogative as Commander in-Chief. Sun Tzu again says, “The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage, and strictness.” President Buhari has such traits in abundance. And Nigerians owe him the obligation of support to bequeath to the nation, an Armed Forces that will be the pride of all citizens and the envy of the world.

Agbese is an author, publisher and human rights activist in the United Kingdom.

By Ali Kyari

Positions of public trust anyone holds for the people has a tempting spirit. Any leader who is not careful can easily become a pawn on the chess board for some of the ruled. I have realized that it takes a lot of self-discipline and a focused mindset for a leader to navigate the ship of leadership ashore successfully.

A leader is susceptible to vexatious emotions, anger and provocations. It takes a divine grace for him to exculpate himself from deliberate actions of opponents which stir him to furiousness to divert his attention from purposeful leadership.

In Nigeria, we know that those who are calling for President Muhammadu Buhari’s neck are Nigerians whose dubious interests were guillotined or terminated by his administration. So, in a pretentious veil of patriotism, they most unreasonably disparage everything his Government has achieved in his dogged efforts to re-fix Nigeria.

These perpetual leeches of power think any other Nigerian should hate and despise President Buhari. They want the world to crucify him on Golgotha. In powerplay, such games are predicted and we have decoded them translucently. The antics are too infantile and too familiar to blur our senses anymore.

That’s why we are still with President Buhari. We want to pass a clear message to his detractors that we have seen the President’s commitment and honesty towards public good. And millions of us are still with him regardless of the conspiratorial attempts to cloud his impressive shadows in leadership.

I have no smidgeon of doubt about the stellar leadership qualities of President Buhari. And he has baffled me and a million other very silent voices for the difference he has brought to bear on leadership. For any government, security of lives and property are the cardinal responsibilities of leaders and the progress of nations.

President Buhari has performed a lot on securing the lives of Nigerians. Whether the antagonists or rivals acknowledge it or not, the records are very bold. And some of us have personally experienced the difference.

Like thousands of other indigenes of Borno, I sneaked out of Bama in 2013 to Maiduguri, when the heat of Boko Haram insurgency became unbearable. I thought my relocation to the state capital would give me protective relieve, but I was wrong. Insurgents’ reigned more deadlier and freer in Maiduguri.

I eventually moved to Nasarawa state where I perched with a distant relation. Other members of my immediate family also abandoned our ancestral abodes in Bama and sought refuge in distant lands.

However, with the Buhari Presidency and consistent counter-insurgency campaigns, we started hearing tales of the return of peace in Borno. But I doubted it initially. Bama was one of the LGAs captured and occupied by insurgents. I decided to risk a visit to my country home for the first time in 2017 since I left the place in 2013. While home, I discovered to my excitement the restoration of normalcy in the once troubled area.

I returned back to Lafia my temporary abode after a week and prepared to go back finally. In 2018, I came back to Bama and so also, the surviving members of my family.

By the following year, the Shehu of Bama, Kyari Ibn Umar El-Kanemi who was deposed from his throne by insurgents also came back and occupied his stool because of the pervasive peace and security in the region. Other deposed community and traditional leaders also came back to their domains from exile.

And for the first time in five years, the people of Bama held an extravagant celebration of the Muslim feast of Eid-el-Kabir in Bama. Those who can remember the severity of terrorism in Bama and other parts of Borno state which the Nigerian Military has reduced to a scanty presence will never hesitate to appreciate Mr. President and the Service and Security Chiefs (SSCs).

Why have I taken time to recount my personal experience? I deem it necessary in view of recent developments in certain segments of our national life to assure President Buhari that Nigerians are still with him. The way I feel inside me, so also millions of other Nigerians. And countless of them can recount in diverse ways how the Buhari administration has touched their lives.

Even on the war against insurgency alone, can we recall where we were in the pre- 2015 days, and what has been achieved under the Buhari Presidency. Boko Haram terrorists were almost wiped out, before they resurfaced in 2019. Abuja residents now sleep with two eyes closed.

Worshippers in churches and mosques all over Northern Nigeria no longer live with the phobia of insurgents’ bomb blasts. Our territories are no longer annexed by terrorists, where they also held us in servitude.

Mindless abductions have ceased and our children are no longer recklessly recruited as foot soldiers of Boko Haram. So, some of us who knows where we started the journey under Buhari and his planned destination for us, we are still with him 101%. The generality of Nigerian masses are with him unshakably because we can vouch for his leadership excellence.

Nigerians are not only with Mai Geskiya, but they are prepared to defend him against ravenous wolves because he represents for us the hope and vision of the new nation that is being re-birthed. He is a leader who means well for his countrymen and women.

Those who persecute him unjustly can go on. But even President Buhari believes like the English writer, Joseph Addison says; “It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.”

And so, those quarreling at his retention of the SSCs are the same people who have refused to see his efforts on the war against insurgency. They are everywhere. These are the same people who know that the SSCs are the nightmare to Boko Haram’s factional leader, Abubakar Shekau and his men.

Terrorists have always feared even their shadows in the theatre of operations. But pride won’t allow them say it out. No wonder a demented Shekau couldn’t hold back his emotions of pain, but had to mention some names in his recent weird broadcast.

So, those calling for the sack of SSCs because they tormenting Shekau and Musab Al Barnewi or frustrated them from achieving their aims of conquering Nigeria are the real enemies of Borno State. Even two of such persons in the Senate fueling these atrocious acts of terrorists are well respected citizens of Borno State. But Nigerians are not bothered because President Buhari is with the people and the people are with him.

I was elated with Mr. President’s recent speech at Maiduguri when he spoke to Borno leaders. It struck me to the bone marrow when he rightly dissected that the Borno elders and political leadership have not done enough to encourage the end of the war against terrorism. It is a clarion call to them to accept their responsibility.

My President! That speech clearly told Nigerians and the rest of the world that Buhari is in charge of the security situation and his intelligence network is truly on top of the situation and he knows the behind the scene actors. He is just marking time to allow their conscience speak to them. The renewed insurgency either in Borno or in any other part of Nigeria is a combination of many issues which the 2019 general elections have contributed largely.

A philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once said about leaders of President Buhari’s mould; “If there is one thing I fear less than everything else, it is, I believe, persecution for my opinions. There are many good points about which I may be diffident, but when it comes to questions of truth and intellectual independence, there is no holding me – I can envisage no finer end than to sacrifice oneself for a conviction.”

I also believe that President Buhari and Nigerians have become used to the schemes of some of these dubious elements. Nigerians are either recovering their money from the looters through the EFCC or outrightly collecting same directly from the looters during elections.

That is why people are receiving their dollars to sing all manner of weird and jaded songs they have written. But President Buhari should not be bothered. He is on track and Nigerians are still with him. The Presidential spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina should please, remember to pass this message to “Mai Geskiya.”

Kyari is a patriotic citizen and wrote this article from Maiduguri.

By David Onmeje
 
When the reelection campaign train of President Muhammadu Buhari berthed in Lokoja, capital of Kogi, the confluence state, the President made a silent, but striking promise. He told the very jubilant Kogites that if the ambition of a second mandate to lead Nigeria scales through the electoral hurdle, the abandoned and lifeless Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mill in the state will bounce back to full animation. God Himself sealed President Buhari’s reelection in 2019 unquestionably

Of course, development experts have always hinged Nigeria’s stunted status on the absolute neglect of the steel industry, which is the bedrock of development. Nigeria’s dependence on the importation of steel has caused the country many setbacks for years, whereas, Nigeria has the capacity to operate its own steel plants, serviced by a properly trained indigenous workforce.
The squandered opportunities have always been a pain in the heart for President Buhari. And to rejig the narrative for a better Nigeria, in January 2020, President Buhari pleasantly shocked the people of Kogi state and Nigerians when he led the FGN to sign a bilateral agreement with the Russian Government for the resuscitation, completion and commissioning of the Ajaokuta  Steel Rolling Plant to be operated on a government-to-government relationship.
Perhaps, many Nigerians failed to discern why President Buhari summoned the boldness to make such weighty declaration on Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mill during his reelection campaigns, hence robust and functional steel plants in Nigeria requires indigenous skilled manpower to keep it afloat.
 
Unknown to some Nigerians, the President had laid the proverbial golden eggs for a revival and blossoming steel industry and other similar sectors a long time ago. His appointment in 2015 of  Mr. Olabode Fakuade, as the  Director/Chief Executive (Dir/CEO) of the three-decade old, Metallurgical Training Institute (MTI) Onitsha, the industrial hub of Southeast Nigeria was to set the stage for Nigeria’s  grooming of quality manpower in steel, oil and gas as well as  allied industries. 
MTI was conceptualized on a promising template. But years of consistent ineptitude, leprous and degenerative leadership crumbled the otherwise priced institution. Therefore, MTI could no longer churn out students or execute its mandate of vacating Nigeria’s thirst for technological/ skilled manpower in Industrial Electrical Engineering, Steel Fabrication and Welding Engineering; Mechanical Maintenance Engineering, Instrumentation and Control Systems Engineering, Heavy Mobile Equipment Maintenance Engineering and Industrial Metallurgy and Foundry Engineering among others.
For a federal institution like MTI which had guzzled billions of naira over the years, without corresponding results to justify sinking of tax payers money, it was a difficult on multiple fronts for Mr. Fakuade to turn around the fortunes of the despised school. The portrait of MTI when Mr. Fakuade took over the institution was that of a desolate enclave which lacked everything, but consumed millions of annual national budgets and like Oliver Twist in Charles Dickens’ novel; “ kept  asking for more.”
But before 2015 and the present management, MTI failed pathetically to discharge its mandate of erecting an indigenous and certified pool of technical workforce to sustain the Nigeria’s steel and allied industries workforce. Greed, corruption and avarice permeated MTI like a bug, compelling Nigeria’s relapse back to dependence on the expensive foreign technical training of low- and middle-class workforce for the industry.  
MTI reduced its mandate, which ought to smolder with regional impact to a siphoning pipe for its administrators’. It was under such frustrating circumstances, Fakuade stepped in on a rescue mission in a challenging environment.
Widely acclaimed as a consummate academic, an astute administrator and knowledgeable engineer, Mr. Fakaude’s first target was to resolve the problem of unaccredited courses in MTI. His administration immediately secured approvals from the National Board for technical Education (NBTE) and course in MTI were accredited. 
Famed for transparency and accountability, a due process crusader, both staff and students of MTI soon also realized his passion as stickler for standards and excellence.  His innovations and purposefulness, earned him celebration as a leader who torments problems rather than have the problems unsettle and rankle him.
And encounter with Mr. Fakuade leaves the impression of a leader, who is very unassuming and humble, but a confounding workaholic with uncommon zeal for excellence. Its easy to steal his heart on excellence, but impossible to fascinate him to your personality, once he establishes your penchant official fraudulent acts.  
Therefore, Mr. Fakuade directed focus to the dilapidated infrastructure on the campus and changed the narrative of an uninhabitable institution to the rhythms of a conducive atmosphere for learning. The Dir/CEO dealt a heavy blow on the years of menacing floods and erosion which were at the verge of sinking the campus of MTI by constructing a 600 meters drainage.   
It is not surprising that under his leadership, MTI channeled every budgetary vote into productive and visible use. He looked inwards and judiciously utilized meagre funds to upgrade other facilities such as training equipment/ facilities, constructed intra-campus road network, and renovated decrepit students’ hostels.
With eyes fixated on prudence, MTI’s present management   installed   solar power system as an alternative source of energy supply. Through it, MTI is servicing  its  workshops centers, ICT laboratories, and the administrative building. The administration of Mr. Fakuade has also illuminated MTI campus with solar-powered street lights.
Therefore, when a band of self-seeking detractors, numbering three, under the auspices of alumni of the National Metallurgical Training Institute (NMTI), Onitsha, recently penciled down criticisms and frivolous allegations against Mr. Fakuade’s leadership of MTI, it attracted the ire of an old student of the institution. The student who pleaded anonymity recently graduated from MTI  under Fakaude’s administration.
 
He countered; “This is absolutely rubbish from the pit of hell. Pastor Olabode Fakuade is a Director you can hardly find his match since the inception of MTI. An administrative guru, an honest and humble leader, a man of integrity and eloquence. A great achiever who can build a mansion with nothing. An ever focused and innovative leader who always sees great opportunity out of any problem.  A prudent leader who manages the scarce resources he receives from federal government to build infrastructure and buy equipment for teaching of the students. “
He voiced it all on Fakuade. Sadly, the campaign of calumny on Mr. Fakuade symbolizes the leadership dilemma in Nigeria. Most people prefer to see a public system strangulated to death and its eventual extinction than see its resuscitation. The few who have taken the gauntlet to render genuine, patriotic and incorruptible leadership which bows to the tenets of honesty are often vilified. Fakuade is not the lone victim in this era.
For the over two decades when MTI lost its glory; nobody or a so-called alumni association remembered to attract public and national attention to its neglected status. It is now that the fact of its repositioning by the administration of Mr. Fakaude, under the Buhari Presidency which has renewed interest in it, that sponsored protests and fabricated lies have been crafted and marketed to susceptible minds.  
The distracting merchants who have undignified themselves with such poor outing failed to reminisce that before Fakuade came on board, MTI was an institution, where reptiles and rats became tenants of its facilities, much as  floods and erosions  threatened its surviving buildings. No one dared to recollect that MTI shadowed as an institution; where staff draw salaries and allowances for merely being classified as federal civil servants.
Or that MTI was  a learning center, where parents loathed with passion, the idea of their children trained in such an institution. This was attested by the massive withdrawal of students and dropped enrolment figures which characterized its unenviable memories and sealed its retrogressive fate.
Today, Mr. Fakuade faces malicious, but overtly faint campaigns from the same clan of people he is rendering truthful and honest leadership, because of his insistence on public good and  blocking of  loopholes in exploiting MTI. It has strangely courted for him a handful of enemies for inexplicable reasons. But his traducers lack the nerve to influence him negatively.
 
Mr. Fakaude remains a celebrated uncompromising and transparent leader among students, staff and parents. It explains why enrolment at MTI has appreciated in the last four years with public eulogies of his administration echoing everywhere in Anambra state and beyond.
Apparently, a few are incensed by Fakuade’s strict and uncompromising nature. It is because he does not connive with dubious fellows to consent to the frivolous waste of any penny of government budgeted for MTI’s development.  Those crafting mischief and poor subterranean plots to undermine a performing administrator have a long road ahead to trek.  Mr. Fakuade’s track records of purposeful service delivery at MTI  in the last four years have been unsurpassed in the history of the institution.

Onmeje wrote this piece from the United Kingdom.