A Flurry of Deadlines – By Arnold A. Alalibo

Posted by admin Armed Forces, Arnold Alalibo, Articles, Columnists, NNP Columnists Saturday, September 20th, 2014

By Arnold A. Alalibo | NNP | September 20, 2014 – Soon after his appointment as the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh declared April this year as deadline for the end of insurgency in parts of the country. Little did Nigerians know that the military chief only made a motivating statement aimed at galvanising his commanders into action to restore normalcy in the North Eastern part of the country.

He was simply being optimistic that given the vigor, zeal and combat-readiness of service chiefs, Nigerian military must work hard to bring the situation to an end or sufficiently put it under control. Until date, his optimism has never cured the insurgency ravaging that part of the country.

Elder Peter Godsday Orubebe, President Goodluck Jonathan’s sacked Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Ministry, in an attempt to pacify and probably win the support of the South South zone nay the Niger Deltans, once declared that the East-West Road would be completed before the end of 2014. That declaration did not see the light of the day as the erstwhile minister reneged on the deadline before his sack.

Then recently, the Council of States, at an emergency meeting in Abuja, issued a December 2014 deadline for the end of terrorism in the country. As addenda to that decision, the Council also barred states from discriminatory practices such as the registration and ‘deportation’ of non-indigenes and differential school fees for indigenes and non-indigenes in state-owned institutions.

There have been several other deadlines in the power sector, roads, provision of jobs etc. How often has one heard these importunate, constipated and self-serving deadlines? I have heard them so often that if I got one naira for each time I heard them, I would be a multi-millionaire now. Isn’t it better to remain silent than give deadlines that are unachievable?

We must get it clearly that the December deadline on insurgency will remain a far cry if concerted efforts are not made by the government and indeed all Nigerians to end the onslaught of the militants. While the security agencies need the support of all stakeholders to achieve this result, they must be committed to the war thoroughly.

Without any debate, the security of lives and property of the citizenry is the primary function of any government. This is the main reason governments exist. Section 14(2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended) states explicitly that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”.

Therefore, it is the responsibility of the president, the governors and chairmen of councils to ensure the security and welfare of all Nigerians. Security should never be an exclusive preserve of the federal government (even though it has arrogated that to itself by virtue of the lopsided federalism we practice).

We need an end to this insurgency so that Nigerians can feel safe and move freely in all nooks and crannies of our country. Nigerians must be disenthralled to live and move freely in their own country without threat or molestation. We may never achieve this dream by the mere issuance of deadlines.

I also believe that besides the obligation to curb insurgency, we are in dare need of an entirely new citizenship orientation. The absence of this concept accounts for the many absurdities we experience as a people. Corruption and unpatriotic gestures have become the inevitable corollary of the absence of a strong citizenship culture in our nation. This is why we have abdicated our duties and responsibilities as Nigerians.

It is often said that we own Nigeria. But we must understand the profound danger of claiming that we own our country rather than our country owning us. The first is that the former carries reward and profit but little or no responsibility, while the latter entails duties, service, sacrifice and a whole range of patriotism. This indeed is the time for us to let Nigeria own us.

The situation at hand requires that we realize Nigeria’s ownership of us. This entails duty, service, sacrifice and patriotism. A last-ditch effort to end the Boko Haram insurgency can only be made by demonstrating the foregoing virtues. Those are the things needed to contain the menace, not empty and unrealizable deadlines.

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