MIXED reactions continue to trail President Goodluck Jonathan’s Tuesday evening declaration of emergency
in three northeast states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, with most Nigerians, including politicians and at least one governor, showing support and understanding for the imposition of emergency rule in the affected states.
In Borno State, the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency for the last three years, Governor Kashim Shettima addressed his constituents on Wednesday evening, voicing his reluctant agreement with the imposition of emergency rule in the state.
The governor made the case that while he understands the need for President Jonathan to preserve the security and territorial integrity of Nigeria, he is wary of the costs of a his constituency being under emergency military situation.
“It is the constitutional responsibility of the president to take such measures,” Governor Shettima said, adding that it was “the duty of any responsible state government to support lawful efforts that would guarantee the security of lives and properties.
“It can never be the wish of any guarded democratic government to have the military directly involved in the affairs of any federating unit except for unfortunate and painful causes,” the governor said, appearing to agonize over choice of emergency rule.
Governor Shettima warned that the might of the Nigerian army should serve to defend and protect the people, and not to fight or overwhelm citizens in any way.
“A human life is sacred, more so, the life of every good Nigerian, no matter whose (life) it is. We all have moral, spiritual and social obligations to preserve and respect the lives of one another as we would want ours to be so preserved and respected,” he said.
According to the governor, the best way to fight crime in the society is through the provision of jobs and social welfare for the people. He said that poverty and unemployment often lead to high rate of crime in the society.
Shettima acknowledged the prevalence of a high rate of unemployment in Borno, alongside mass poverty. He said his government is working hard to change the trend. His administration, he said, has initiated various programs in the state to bring down unemployment and give welfare to Borno people.
The declaration of a state of emergency in the three states has however met a vocal opposition from no less than a well-known chieftain of the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria party, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, who described the decision to impose emergency rule in the affected states simply as a political ploy by the Jonathan Administration.
Tinubu, who is at the forefront of efforts to bring at least three opposition parties under the aegis of a bigger political group named All Progressives Congress, said in a long worded statement released on Wednesday that the region was already under emergency rule and therefore not in need of any declaration by the president.
“Borno and Yobe states have been literally under armies of occupation with the attendant excruciating hardship experienced daily by the indigenes and residents of these areas,” he said, adding that the federal government simply wants to “use the excuse of the security challenges faced by the governors to remove them from the states considered hostile to the 2015 PDP/Jonathan project.”
Mr. Tinubu also blamed the central government in Abuja for the state of insecurity in the country, saying “the ship of the Nigerian state is rudderless” due to ease with which the attacks are carried out in the northern states and all other parts of the country.
“Indeed, no part of the country is immune from the virulent but easy attacks, veritable indices of a failing state. Unfortunately, the tenuous and uncoordinated approach adopted by this government betrays a grossly incompetent disposition which stands at variance with current realities in the country, nay the international community where acts of terrorism are engaged and contained,” Tinubu said in his statement.
Tinubu condemned what he called the militaristic approach to tackling security challenges by the Jonathan government. He said even developed nations know enough to allow local intelligence have its way in tackling security situations which the current government has discouraged with its opposition to the idea of localized policing.
“An army which invades a community maiming, raping and killing defenseless civilians will end up radicalizing the youths whose parents and young ones have been wiped out most cowardly and recklessly,” Tinubu said.
“This government should concentrate more on encouraging the development of local intelligence which will, inexorably, lead to the practice of true federalism,” he added.
However, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, slammed the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria in a statement by its spokesperson on Wednesday, accusing the Action Congress of Nigeria directly of sponsoring the insurgency in northern Nigeria.
“The ACN, the sole repository of Solomonic wisdom, who was against Amnesty to insurgents, who indeed described the Federal Government in unprintables has today turned a proselyte of amnesty and dialogue,” PDP spokesman Oliseh Metuh said in a harsh reprimand of the Bola Tinubu-led opposition party.
Metuh also defended President Jonathan’s declaration of emergency and argued that it was not at variance with the idea of amnesty being explored by a committee formed by the president, saying the work of the committee continues regardless.
“The state of emergency does not run contra to the spirit and the assignment of the presidential committee on amnesty, he said.
“The committee will take the job to its logical, fruitful end while the deployment of more troops under the emergency is an irreducible necessity to stem a determined war on the nation.”
According to Mr. Metuh, the exploration of the idea of amnesty is to open a “window for insurgents with genuine agitations to access redress while stopping intransigent criminality from consuming the nation.”