Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge
“Better late than never” are some other words to console yourself that delay is not denial. That keeps hope alive, as we say in Nigeria. The saying also shows how people can afford to wait long for an expected solution.
Since 2015, Nigerians have been waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari to surprise them and act decisively on the nation’s security challenges.
Presidential aide Garba Shehu reportedly told BBC, “The President has ordered security forces to go into the bushes and shoot whoever they see with sophisticated weapons like AK-47. He ordered that whoever is seen with terrible weapons at all should be shot immediately.”
Such a major policy statement, a welcome deviation from the president’s usual indifference and inaction, would have come in a more formal way to give it a bite, rather than the aide telling a foreign station.
If the president was not ready to do it himself the way he angrily did during the outlawing of IPOB in 2016 or reacted to the second #Endsars protest last year, he would have directed the National Security Adviser or the Chief of Defence Staff to make the pronouncement for effect. For Sure, Shehu was not window-dressing to appease troubled Nigerians. Nobody doubts the authenticity of his statement, especially considering the international status of the BBC platform.
As a media manager who also oversees the president’s image and reputation, Shehu would have seen the positives such a revelation would generate, especially against the backdrop of the public outcry over his deafening silence on lingering critical issues like security of lives and property.
The security technocrats would not have seen it that way, especially given the questions that could arise. But even as the president enjoys some accolades for such a rare commander-in-chief-like posture, the question still arises. Why now, who or what woke up the hitherto perceived sleeping president?
The people of southern Nigeria and the Middle Belt, particularly Benue State, have shouted themselves hoarse about Fulani herdsmen terrorizing farmers and innocent travelers with AK-47. Rather than these voices prompt swift action, it led to subtle protection of the herdsmen who grew in psyche and confidence. Their umbrella body Miyetti Allah also grew in power and influence, defending the nefarious activities of their members.
In all that, the federal government did nothing, only looking the other way even as some top political leaders including governors attempted to defend the carrying of AK-47 by Fulani herdsmen to protect their cattle from rustlers. Such facilities were not available to farmers to protect their lives and farms. Instead, they got raped and maimed besides the destruction of their crops.
As AK-47 found its way from southern forests to the deserts where nefarious elements were called bandits by the media but nicknamed “militant freedom fighters” by Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, President Buhari suddenly found his voice for the shoot-at-sight order. It is still unclear why the order came. Could it be because the target and victims of AK-47 have changed?
Nigerians knew all along that the president had teeth to bite and voted for him in 2015 in the belief that, true to character, he would tackle headlong the nation’s security challenges.
Buhari had entered the positive book in the war against religious extremism in the 1980s when he was said to have led the operation against the dreaded Maitatsine sect that burst forth in the Jimeta area of Yola. Yola was overseen by the third division of the Nigerian Army in Jos, where then-young Buhari was the GOC.
It is also on record that this same Buhari finally decimated the dangerous sect when he became military Head of State (1983-1985). With these alluring credentials, he came asking for the presidency in 2015 which raised the hope of the people that a security messiah had come.
During the electioneering, then-candidate Buhari had even bragged about he nipped the violent sect, a supposed senior brother of Boko Haram and would easily do the same to the far more junior sect if elected. Six years down the line, here we are engaging not just Boko Haram but their offspring in the form of herdsmen and bandits. Nigerians and indeed the global community have since realized that in Boko Haram the country is dealing with a far more dangerous and internationalized terrorist group.
When in 2015 the president directed the service chiefs to shift base to the North East, not a few thought that a Daniel had come to judgment. Not long afterwards, Nigerians began to see a steady decline in both ideas flow and execution. The regime produced one of the most underperforming service chiefs in history that had to be pressurized out of office even though they strangely got ambassadorial slots, a kind of pat on the back. What an irony!
Right in the face of the no-nonsense general, Boko Haram grew wings, seamlessly enlarging and linking up to the feared Islamic State of West Africa and giving birth to other splinter groups.
For 68 months under the watch of Buhari, insecurity has overwhelmed the country. Nigerians have waited in vain to see Buhari bare his fangs. No way! Nothing was forthcoming, the conspicuous inertia from the seat of power led to various permutations as to whether the once dreaded C-in-C is still in charge.
The lamentations, fears, and anxieties from all quarters–Northern elders, Ohanaeze, Afenifere, bishops, the Sultan, National Assembly, governors, students, name it–were deafening. Yet, nothing happened.
Even when the bandits dared the President by going right in his backyard when he was in his home state of Katsina to kidnap students from Kankara, all that could be seen or heard around the corridor of power was negotiation and an image of helplessness. No arrest, no reprimand for anybody and from any quarters. Then came follow-up kidnaps in Kagara in Niger State and Jangebe in Zamfara State with the negotiations extending to accommodate an Islamic cleric who after meeting with the bandits demanded amnesty for them as by his reckoning they are no criminals but freedom fighters akin to Niger Delta militants. It was clear to all discerning minds that the nation was in a deep mess and the leadership was comatose.
Having gotten the barrage of attacks of creating an enabling environment for the bandits and kidnappers instead of treating them as common criminals which they are, the President was forced to wake up his other-self. Whatever sympathy he had for the terrorists, herdsmen or bandits needed to go as they appeared to have exceeded the designated boundaries.
In addition to the shoot at sight directive, the President came out smoking, declaring no more negotiations, no amnesty for kidnappers. It was, therefore, clear to everybody that the President was ready to bark and bite. Though incalculable damage was already done, it was better than the previous style of cushioning criminals to take over space. Should we have gotten to this level if the government had been responsive? The answer is anybody’s guess. We got here because we allowed primordial sentiments to cloud our rational thinking. Not until our leaders allow national and patriotic reasoning to overshadow their ethnic and religious bias, this country might just be wallowing, who knows for how long before a messiah arrives.
It may be too late for this regime but it’s still better for President Buhari and his team to realize that leadership is not a mere position or title but action and example. That, perhaps, is why American businessman and former President of ITT Corporations, Harold S. Geneen said, “Leadership is practised not so much in words as in attitude and actions.”
God, help us.
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