President Goodluck Jonathan, his handlers and cabinet as well as the PDP are desperate to hold on to power. The empirical evidence to support this claim is not farfetched. He has doled out billions of naira in cash and contracts to all sorts of interest groups (read threat to National security) in order to secure a second term in office which he is legitimately entitled to. My grievance is not with the fact that he is trying hard to win a second term in office but in the process of trying hard, POTFRON is creating a short and long term threat to National security.
PIPELINE CONTRACTS TO EKPUMOPOLO, ASARI and the likes – I do not understand why the constitutional duty of the Nigerian Navy should be outsourced to this touts in the name of placating them from carrying out a second round of guerrilla warfare against the Nigeria state. This is a short and long term threat to National unity and Security and no one in the Jonathan’s Presidency sees the danger ahead. The last I checked, these ex-militants do not have a track record in pipeline security by training or professional experience. The only track record they have is the title ex-Militants and the contracts being doled out to them will only enable them to have a considerable war chest to acquire more ammunition. The irony is that this ammunition will be used to fight the Nigerian Army when the contracts stop. Oh trust me it will stop at some point and it will be a sorry case of funded by the Nigerian state, against the Nigerian Army.
This is a dangerous trend. These ex – militants are buoyed by this sort of arrangement sanctioned by the Leader of the most populous black nation on earth. Governors are even scared of them, or how else would you describe the sudden withdrawal of Emmanuel Uduaghan’s from the senatorial race on the eve of the PDP’s primary because one ekpumopolo does not support his senate ambition. In order not to be seen as a scared of the almighty tompolo created and funded by the Nigerian government, the governor claimed his decision to withdraw was in the interest of peace and security in the state. Imagine, the CSO of the state claiming he withdrew from a race in the interest of peace and security which he is the de ju-re custodian.
President Olusegun Obasanjo is his recent Memoir – The Watch – alluded to the fact that the disarmament exercise of the Yaradua administration had a 50% success rate. The implication of this is that the ex-militants still have 50% of the arms they used during the ‘Emancipation war’ in the Niger Delta in their possession hiding away somewhere. Obviously, POTFRON and the NSA do not see the danger ahead by giving contract out to criminal elements which will enable them acquire even more ammunition; this trend portends a greater threat to our National Security.
The president would not be dealing with the unpopular and damaging perception of being an Ijaw President rather than the President of the Federal Republic if during his five years as substantive President he made a concerted effort to mop up the remaining arms and ammunition in the Niger-Delta or at the very minimal if he at least tied the contract he has given to these ex-militants to a comprehensive and absolute disarmament. Prosperity would have remembered him as an advocate of a peaceful and united Nigeria. He did neither rather he has given them money funded by the Nigerian state to potentially rearm. If this is not a greater threat to National security, I don’t know what is.
The Jonathan administration has been a reactionary presidency and this has crept into all other institutions of state. If not, you will expect that a portion of the Nigerian state’s intelligence and security apparatus is dedicated to monitoring the threats coming out of the Niger Delta should the president lose. The top echelon of the Nigerian security apparatus which should be neutral and professional but has covertly (even though it is visible to every discerning eye) taken sides in the first ‘too-close-to-call’ presidential election in the history of Nigeria leaving the rank and file of their respective security agency vulnerable should another round of conflict break out.
THE OPC SHOW OF SHAME – Tears rolled down my eyes when I saw the picture of an OPC member with a pump action in broad day light during the show of shame in Lagos on Monday, March 16th. The OPC led by Gani Adams went on rampage in Lagos and that show of shame shows that our dear country is on the brink and needs to be rescued. Institutions of the state such as the Nigerian Police and Nigerian Army witnessed a pump action wielding OPC member and did nothing about it. I am all for peaceful demonstration, we are in a democracy after all, but what happened in Lagos in the presence of security apparatus of the Nigerian state is a gory tale waiting to be told. The irony of this is when violence breaks out, that same pump action will be used against the very security personnel that turned a blind eye during that show of shame.
I am not against President Jonathan doing all he can to win reelection it is in the very nature of politics and electioneering. However, I am against his actions especially in the past couple of weeks because they portend a great threat to the homeland’s national security.
I am a student of history and I have not seen any President, most of whom are generally regarded as the custodian of their respective country’s sovereignty also double as the greatest threat to National Security. The only one that comes to mind is the fictional President Logan (also a former vice president that became substantive president when his boss became incapacitated) in the 24 series whose character was coined around a President that was underestimated but became very dangerous because it gave him a sort of cover.
#GODSAVENIGERIA
Ismail Lawal is a senior consultant with his CSC @ismaillawal
Views expressed are sole that of author and has nothing to do with www.omojuwa.com nor its associates
