IT IS profoundly sad and frightening that bandits/terrorists are winning the war against the Nigerian State and people while our leaders and security personnel watch helplessly. Clearly, there is no Sheriff in town. At the level of symbols, particular notice should be taken of the armed attack and killing of security personnel at the top elite institution for the training of the cream of the security and state governing cadres of Nigeria, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru (NIPSS).
On Monday night, there was a gun battle between the bandits/terrorists and security personnel stationed at the institute. NIPSS is Nigeria’s foremost policy institute. Senior government officials, including those in the military, the police, and the public service, are required to undergo a summit-preparing leadership course at the institute. The attack was a political statement proclaiming that: ‘we bandit/terrorists can do anything we want and nothing can be done to stop us.’
A small percentage of the resources currently being used to destabilise opposition forces would have made a difference in increasing the size of the armed forces and providing state of the art equipment and weapons to defeat the bandits/terrorists. The insurgents are not stronger than the Nigerian State. The stark reality is that the State is not investing sufficient resources to defeat them. We have a ruling class that does not have sufficient sense of enlightened self-interest to save the goose that is laying the golden eggs they are consuming.
The other symbol this week was the kidnap and killing of General Rabe Abubakar (Rtd). He was laid to rest in Katsina this week. The retired General was abducted by bandits alongside his wife, along the Marabar Musawa-Kafinsoli road in Matazu Local Government Area of Katsina State, on May 30.
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It was painful because the bandits had circulated video content showing him and his wife at their mercy and suffering from their actions as if to tell the Nigerian State the taunting message that he is in our custody and you cannot save him. He had served the country but the country could not save him when he needed their help.
It was another moment of shame for Nigerians who, once again, lost a very senior officer, a reality that has been happening so many times in recent years. Maybe pushed by the anger of Nigerians against them and the shame they felt, the military made a supreme effort and liberated his wife. That action posed the question we all ask on a daily basis: why did they not act earlier to save him?
It was painful reading the statement issued last Saturday by the Defence Headquarters describing late Rabe as a committed officer who contributed immensely to counter-insurgency operations in the country, saying his commitment to duty and unity of Nigeria would continue to remain a shining example for all personnel of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. Precisely for these reasons, they should have saved his life.
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The real problem is that insecurity has been left to grow, to spread and to deepen all over the country and the emerging realty is that the bandit/terrorists are now so strong that they are overwhelming the forces of the Nigerian State. The reason we are confronted with this challenge is that we have a self-serving ruling class that is more focused on looting the Nigerian treasury than providing resources to intensify the war against the bandits/terrorists.
A small percentage of the resources currently being used to destabilise opposition forces would have made a difference in increasing the size of the armed forces and providing state of the art equipment and weapons to defeat the bandits/terrorists. The insurgents are not stronger than the Nigerian State. The stark reality is that the State is not investing sufficient resources to defeat them. We have a ruling class that does not have sufficient sense of enlightened self-interest to save the goose that is laying the golden eggs they are consuming.
Over the last three years, enormous financial resources have been deployed by the Nigerian State to attract, bribe, cajole and, even more serious, to threaten opposition politicians to abandon their parties and join the ruling party. The Government is laser-focused on providing a second tenure for President Tinubu rather than to provide security and safety for the Nigerian people. That is our core problem.
If President Tinubu had kept his inauguration-day promise that he would focus on providing security for Nigerians, we would not be where we are today. Precisely because there is no Sheriff in town, bandits/terrorists are emboldened and are killing and maiming Nigerians as they please. This tendency must be reversed.
The latest twist in this run of play was the judgment by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, in a suit filed by the Incorporated Trustees of the National Forum of Former Legislators, seeking to compel INEC to deregister key opposition parties for alleged failure to meet constitutional performance thresholds under section 225A of the Constitution. The legal basis is not absurd in itself because section 225A gives INEC power to deregister parties that fail to meet specified thresholds, and the Supreme Court has previously upheld INEC’s power to deregister non-performing parties under that provision.
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The political and legal problem was that the judgement was not based on the facts of the case as some of the parties targeted had clear evidence of electoral performance. The key target, the major opposition coalition, ADC, had, for example, won the Yagba Federal Constituency House of Representatives election in 2023. APP also reportedly won 22 chairmanship seats in the 2024 Rivers local government elections, and ZLP won 15 of 17 local government areas in Abia’s 2024 local elections.
Justice Lifu’s judgement was declared to be essentially a case of judicial rascality because the Court of Appeal had already stayed proceedings in this deregistration suit and that the Federal High Court had no powers to declare the judgement it made.
INEC had been obliged to appeal the judgement because of the implications the case had for the reputation of the election in which key opposition political parties are prevented from participation. Following the Court of Appeal’s decision to reverse the deregistration of the African Democratic Congress and four other parties on Monday, ADC National Chairman, Senator David Mark, was right in stating that it was the judiciary that was on trial as it was essentially an abuse of the powers of incumbency to apparently get judges to pressure judges into making illegal judgements that would favour the ruling party.
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It was good that the Court of Appeal in Abuja ordered a stay of execution of the judgement that directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to deregister the ADC, Action Peoples Party, Action Alliance, Accord Party and Zenith Labour Party, while delivering a stinging rebuke to Justice Lifu for flouting a May 22 appellate court order restraining him from delivering the ruling. They stated clearly that: “The decision of the lower court to proceed with the judgement despite the express order of this court is a brazen violation of the hierarchy of the court and the 1999 Constitution.”
If President Tinubu had kept his inauguration-day promise that he would focus on providing security for Nigerians, we would not be where we are today. Precisely because there is no Sheriff in town, bandits/terrorists are emboldened and are killing and maiming Nigerians as they please. This tendency must be reversed.
Ibrahim is a professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, and Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development. He is also the Chair of the Editorial Board of Abuja-based online newspaper, PREMIUM TIMES.
