BREAKING NEWS: Matawalle Must Resign

The protracted nature of in­security in the country can be traced to a great extent to the indifference or lack of the will power or political will to address the problem dispassionately and de­cisively.... CLICK TO READ THE FULL NEWS HERE▶▶

There is no gain saying that the ris­ing insecurity, especially in the north, was powered by the fact that some po­litical elite in the north were not just involved and funding them but also the masterminds of the crises. They are in government.

When President Goodlick Jona­than told the world that Boko Haram were even in government, lots of cyn­ics who had fallen for the ploy to dis­lodge Jonathan at any cost placed the blame squarely on his alleged incom­petence. Jonathan said this because he knew Boko Haram was an SPV cre­ated by the elite in the north to return power to that region because they felt shortchanged by the fact that power had left the north with the unfortu­nate demise of Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua.

Then came President Muhamma­du Buhari, one of their own, and all hell was let loose.

Buhari simply watched while the crises gained national spread and showed so much bias in his feeble ap­proach to addressing the problems. He kept giving excuses and alibi on behalf of known sympathisers of these criminals. Even when some in his government were identified as having links with these people, Buhari left these individuals for the whole of his stay in office.

Under Buhari, rather than punish arrested murderers he was granting pardons under a spurious rehabilita­tion, deradicalisation and reintegra­tion exercise that was only interested in the wellbeing of these felons at the expense of their unfortunate victims and their families.

Therefore, any serious govern­ment that wants to address this problem must be decisive and dis­passionate in its approach. It must be deliberate and intentional and devoid of sentiments.

Again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the reason these conflicts have remained protracted is because their moles and promot­ers are within government and the government of Bola Tinubu must not shy away from this reality if he is sincere about putting an end to these conflagration across the country.

Do we need to tell President Tinu­bu why this is important? Okay, he should know that the greatest chal­lenge that is fueling the discontent among the populace is growing cases of poverty, hunger and despair. The solution to hunger and high cost of food can majorly be traced to the ac­tivities of these marauders who have succeeded in chasing our farmers from their farmland. We cannot say this enough.

Even before the withdrawal of sub­sidies on petroleum in this regime, Ni­gerians were already grappling with the rising cost of food items in the market. The sudden withdrawal of subsidy only escalated an already bad situation. If our farmers are allowed access to their farms, and return to their normal lives, it will significantly help to address the growing food cri­ses across the country.

From the north of the country where Boko Haram and bandits hold sway to the south where gunmen and killer herders have chased out our farmers, there is an urgent need to begin to return our farmers and law-abiding citizens to their settle­ments and homelands.

Unfortunately, as we have said ear­lier, politics and political interests of politicians would not allow for proper resolution of these crises through a holistic kinetics and non-kinetics ap­proach that is free of politics, tribe and religious colouration. As it was with Jonathan and Buhari so it appears to also be with Tinubu.

Last week, Muhammad Bello, aka BelloTurji, a terrorism kingpin, was seen in a viral video where he nar­rated how the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, allegedly empowered terrorists when he was governor of Zamfara State.

Recall that Matawalle as governor between 2019 and 2023, was the chief promoter and initiator of a spurious amnesty scheme that provided finan­cial rewards and protection for ban­dits who allegedly surrendered their arms and abandoned criminality.

It was also in Matawalle’s Zam­fara that Yandoto Emirate Council turbaned a bandit kingpin, Adamu Aleru, as Sarkin Fulani by the Emir of Birnin Yandoto, Alhaji Aliyu Gar­ba Marafa, in spite of public outcry. Aleru was declared wanted by Katsi­na Police Command, which alleged that he killed 100 persons in the state.

It took at least one week of public condemnation for the state govern­ment via a public announcement signed by the secretary to the state government, Kabiru Balarabe, to dis­sociate itself from the turbaning of the bandit. After which Governor Bel­lo Mohammed Matawalle suspended the emir and set up a committee to in­vestigate the circumstances leading to his action.

That more than anything else tells how much of importance he at­tached to the problem of insecurity in the state as governor. You can argue that he was not directly linked with the action of the Emir, but that he, as chief security officer of the state, had to wait for public outcry and total con­demnation from across the country before he acted, spoke volume of his person.

Mr. Turji stated in the video that the so-called repentant terrorists did not surrender their arms as stipulat­ed in the deal but continued to carry out attacks through their boys.

Mr. Turji claimed that the policy of the former governor was the reason insecurity escalated in Zamfara and other North-western states.

Mr Turji said he killed one of the bandits’ leaders in his Shinkafi Local Government Area for peace to reign, but the governor later allegedly sabo­taged his efforts.

“Any person living in Shinkafi, Zurmi, and Isa (Sokoto State) cannot deny this claim. There is a particular group of bandits whom the former governor pampered. I chased the group from Shinkafi, I killed their leader, Dudu, for peace to reign in Shinkafi. The group had 200 arms, but the governor later hosted them (Du­du’s boys) at the Government House.

“But the government failed to ask the group to surrender their weapons. Another group led by Bashari Mani­ya has over 300 guns. I seized 30 from them. Where are the remaining? And they never surrendered their weapons to the government,” Mr. Turji claimed.

He alleged that some of the bandit leaders involved in the peace truce moved to the Sokoto metropolis after giving their arms to their boys kid­napping for ransom. He said the boys were making returns to their leaders living in Sokoto town.

He named some of them as Bashari Maniya, Kabiru, and Buhari

“Dan Maigari is the younger broth­er to Bashari Maniya; he has 150 guns, his hideout is in the Maradun riverine area, and he is responsible for attacks in the Maradun axis.

“Ali is a boy to Kabiru Maniya, and he is responsible for attacks in the Tangaza axis. Both Bashiri and Kabiru are residing in the Sokoto metropolis, enjoying their lives. One other person, Buhari, is also in Sokoto town enjoying himself.

“Three weeks ago, a younger brother of Buhari was apprehended with guns in the Sokoto metropolis. Let anyone come out and deny this. I can come forward with video evi­dence where Kabiru is seen firing machine guns.

“The question now is, where are the machine guns after they claimed that they have embraced peace and settled in Sokoto town? Who did he give the machine guns to? Let the government explain this to Nigerians, who are killing the people. Let them stop blaming Bello Turji for the kill­ings and kidnapping.

“People that are being kidnapped in the Sokoto metropolis and taken to the back of Achida and Goronyo, who is responsible for the kidnapping? Is that also Bello Turji? Who is living in peace in Shinkafi?” Mr. Turji asked.

Matawalle has since denied the allegations claiming that Turji was being sponsored by his political ene­mies and opponents. Familiar line of defence, is it not?

Matawalle blamed some elements within the Zamfara State government of skewing the narrative of insecurity challenges in the state against him.

Of course, Turji’s claims remain mere allegations, but the truth is that Matawalle either by error of omis­sion or commission should be the last person to hold the office he currently presides over.

Since our brand of politics and democracy must reward investors or stakeholders, irrespective of whether they are fit to hold such positions or not, the least we expect of President Tinubu is not to retain Matawalle in an office as sensitive as that of the ministry of defence.

It is unacceptable for a nation that is on the verge of disintegration, eco­nomic and political turmoil to be pro­jecting individuals with questionable antecedents as its leaders.

This is the same reason Buhari failed as president. He was too quick to put up defence for men whose past were traced to bandits and marauders all because of his tendency for crony­ism, nepotism, ethnic and religious bigotry.

Matawalle should be sacked if he refuses to resign. The issue here is not whether he is guilty or not because the optics would not be good for a gov­ernment that claims it would fight in­security and a country that is in dire need of a break from the vice-grip of bandits, secessionists, killer-herders etc. He has to be out of government to prove his innocence. That is how it is done in saner climes and jurisdictions across the globe.