It was the late revered motivational speaker, Myles Monroe, who famously said,”If the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable”. In deconstructing the calls by a tiny section of the political class in the last few days for the resignation of President Muhammadu Buhari, it is safe to say, most these political elements know little or nothing about the essence of politics.
Suffice it to say that politics is only a means by which individuals and groups acquire political power. Sadly, in our clime, politicians sees politics as a do-or-die affair, in which case, their ambition is greater than the overall interest of the country and its people. If not, how can a group call for the resignation of a football coach in the middle of a game? Or a commander leading a troop, quitting in the face of a raging battle? This is what those asking the president to quit want – the president should resign so that the terriorists will be emboldened to continue to wreck havoc on Nigerians.
These gimmicks have remained a familiar pattern. Each time their gullible ego or appetite is not massaged, hell is let loosed. It is either they are accusing government of incompetence or insensitivity. Regrettably, the personalities behind this mischief are those who should ordinarily be respected but because they have sold their souls to politics of lies and deceits, they have lost their societal moral grounds. Instead of appealing to Nigerians to see reasons with the fact that the security challenges we have on our hands is surmountable and government only needs time, they are the ones fanning the ember of discontent. This is not how statesmen in other climes behave.
They have cited insecurity as the basis for calling on President Buhari to resign. If one may ask, when the World Trade Centre and Pentagon were hit on September 11, 2001, did Americans call for the resignation of President George Walker Bush Jr? Why can’t we learn from other nations with contemporary examples? Did Ukrainians call for the head of President Zelensky because Russia invaded their country? Instead, they rallied round their leader and ensure that collectively, the Russian Army were humiliated out of Ukraine.
Given Russia’s military might, it could only have taken force of unity to withstand that country’s aggression for a week. But now, the war is into its second months and Ukrainian resistance is waxing fiercer because of elite consensus. They have vowed that they won’t surrender their country to Russia. In the same way, Nigerian elites can join hands with President Buhari to say no to Terriorists who have vowed to make life difficult for Nigerians.
Gone are the days when Nigerians were misinformed and manipulated. They are wiser than that now. They can no longer be deceived. We know the reasons for the demand for President Buhari’s head. These are security contractors who see the insistence on due process by the Buhari administration as a stumbling block.
For the purpose of clarity, the current security challenges did not start with the Buhari government. It dates back to the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua era when Yusuf Mohammed, the founding leader of Boko Haram was killed. As it were, the situation got out of control during the Goodluck Jonathan Administration, with the dreaded sect holding territories and hoisting their flags. It only took a President Buhari to push back and eventually kill Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram.
Truth be told, the greatest tragedy befalling Nigeria today is the politicisation of issues of national security. Politicians and stakeholders in countries like Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, United States, Russia, including Israel, know where to draw the lines. For one, they know that they are seeking to govern because there is a country. If security is compromised and their country implodes, where will they seek to govern?
What is clear from such calls is that it is either they are driven by ignorance of the workings of national security strategies or they are suffering from collective amnesia, coupled with sheer mischief. Or better still, it is a clandestine way of destabilising the President Buhari-midwifed security architecture, which he has laboured hard to build over the last seven years. Curiously, most of the people making these calls can’t see beyond their noses and lack sound knowledge or international best practices of the workings of national security.
Needless to remind Nigerians that most of those calling for Buhari’s resignation benefited from the $2 billion arms scandal. The huge sums of money budgetted for purchase of arms that could have effectively ended insecurity was shared among themselves. The same people ar now turning around to blame an Buhari administration, which only working tirelessly to solve the problem it did not create. When the Buhari government, out of disdain for the mindless corruption that characterised the handling of the arms money, descended on the culprits, the same persons were the ones calling for the intervention of the international community, claiming that Buhari”s government was abusing human rights.
Somehow, their mind is set to do evil. To work against any good initiative. Beyond the activities of bandits and terriorists, these people are the real enemies of Nigeria because their activities is emboldening the terriorists. They do everything to sabotage Buhari’s efforts. They use the media where most of them are large share holders by proxy to misinform and cause confusion for the governmemt.
It is on record that no government, in the history of Nigeria, has upgraded the Nigerian security architecture like the Buhari government.
According to the Associated Press, under Buhari, 6.55% is the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of Nigeria’s military expenditure. Likewise, the Nigerian defence budget share of its capital expenditure had a significant increase between 2015 (9.8%) and 2019 (26.6%). As of 2019, 0.5% of Nigeria’s GDP goes to military expenditures. In 2020, 16.8% of the Nigerian total budget was earmarked for security
In a bid to upgrade the fighting capacity of our Armed Forces, the Nigerian Air Force, with Buhari’s approval, acquired 26 brand new aircraft since President Buhari assumed office in 2015, and another 12 Super Tucano jets acquired from the United States Government. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is also locally re-activating several previously unserviceable planes.
The Nigerian Navy also acquired close to 400 new platforms since 2015, including 172 Riverine Patrol Boats (RPBs), 114 Rigid- Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs), 2 Seaward Defence Boats (SDBs), 12 Manta Class/Inshore Patrol Craft (IPC), 3 Whaler Boats, 4 Barges/ Tug Boats, 22 Fast Attack Boats, 14 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), 4 Helicopters, 14 River Town Class, 14 House Boats and 4 Capital Ships.
In line with President Buhari’s directive, the Nigerian Navy has established a Naval Base Lake Chad in Baga, Borno State, as well as deployed 14 Naval Security Stations along the nation’s coastline in areas prone to criminal activity.
In 2019, President Buhari signed int
o law the Bill establishing the Police Trust Fund, which will significantly improve funding for the Nigeria Police Force. The Nigeria Police Force launched a new National Command and Control Centre in Abuja in 2019.
With the efforts President Buhari has invested in the fight against insecurity, so far, it only takes mischief makers to call for his resignation, instead of commending him. My only appeal to Nigerians is for them to disregard the divisive voices seeking to ridicule Nigeria before the rest of the world, and support the Buhari-led governmemt as it strives to secure Nigeria.
Ibrahim is director, Communications and Strategic Planning, Presidential Support Committee (PSC).
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