By Andy Asemota
Salimu Lawal Boyi is the Chairman of the Katsina State chapter of the Accord Party and the Secretary of the Inter-Party Consultative forum (IPAC) in the state. In this interview with ThisNigeria, he bares his mind on the rising spate of security challenges and the lessons from the protracted fight against banditry in the country.
Excerpts:
What is your take on the insurgency and insecurity across the country?
We have learned that some people are allegedly behind this insecurity. So, the government should find these people. How long has this state of insecurity been bedeviling Nigeria? Do security personnel want to tell Nigerians that they don’t have clue as to the people who are sponsoring the insecurity? How many people have been tried for sponsoring insecurity? We have not heard of anyone being tried; let the government fish out the sponsors of this insecurity and give them appropriate punishment to the knowledge of all.
Government should not hide anything from Nigerians because this insecurity issue is not a political issue: It affects everybody; we want to see the end of this insecurity, we are tired. The security architecture of Nigerian Army personnel should be re-organized because I don’t see the need for a situation where an army officer in a remote village has to wait for an order from the Chief of Army Staff in Abuja before he could execute his action.
Can you imagine a situation where even a unit commander has to contact a battalion commanding officer who has to contact brigade commander who also has to contact the General Officer Commanding (GOC) before he can take an action in a remote village while the villagers are being killed, maimed or raped in front of the soldiers and they can’t do anything because they have not been given the order? So, I am advising the military to change its command architecture.
The accusation leveled against the military by Sheikh Ahmad Gumi that some soldiers were colluding with bandits is still a matter of debate. What is your position on this?
The Nigeria Armed Forces and security agencies are doing their best, more especially this time around to ensure that the prevailing insecurity comes to an end. For anyone who is not recognized security personnel to interfere in the situation even to the extent of leveling accusations that would ginger up insurgency and bring down the morale of military and security personnel is not a welcomed development.
Gumi is not supposed to be point accusing fingers. If he has something to say as a respected senior citizen, he can go and meet the military or Mr. President to discuss the issue. If he can accuse soldiers of colluding with insurgents and bandits, he too can be accused of the same because, in the opinion of many Nigerians, nobody has the power or right to go and meet the insurgents freely in the bush without any connection with the criminal elements but his man had been going in and out of the bush to meet them.
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How are we sure that he doesn’t have a hand in the current situation confronting the nation? He can’t be accusing the military as an elder statesman; he ought to be giving them advice, especially as a scholar. When the military and security agencies are doing their jobs, everyone should give his contribution to tackling insecurity.
Should the military or security agencies go to the cleric or invite him?
It is only when he declines to honor his invitation that government officials should go and meet him and ask for his contribution towards tackling insecurity in Nigeria. He is not supposed to be pointing accusing fingers at the forces doing their best.
