By Ifeanyi Afuba
Is President
Muhammadu Buhari in firm grip of governance yet after thirty days in office? Despite efforts by the President’s
media office to tone down the impact of a voluntary confession, the President’s
age limitations statement in South Africa is certain to be a factor in analysis
of its leadership performance. Unsettled by the emergence of a national
assembly leadership it did not reckon with, the new regime’s faltering start
has further echoed with yet to be refuted reports that ministerial appointments are to
be delayed till September.
Nigerians are
finding the continued bemoaning of an empty treasury tiresome and a weak defense for policy freeze. In the wake of growing concern over the direction
and dynamism of the new government, the transfer, against public outcry, of 4 7
suspected Boko Haram militants to Ekwulobia Prison in Anambra State is
confounding.
Many are at a
loss deciphering the security, political, economic or social value behind the
relocation of the suspected terrorists.
Anambra State does not lie in the track of the terrorist insurgency. Why
expand the theater of conflict? What is gained in creating a situation that
presents new striking targets for the terrorists outside the traditional
conflict zone? One does not need to be an expert in counter terrorism to
appreciate that a site for the detention of these combatants is a potential
target of assault by the terrorist organization either to rescue their comrades
or to destroy the holding facility. As much premium is placed on destruction of
enemy infrastructure as on enemy combatants. The federal government is at pains
fighting the rampaging Boko Haram sect in the north – east of the country;
would it become stronger and more effective in the war fighting on additional
fronts?
Some members of
the ruling APC have tendered the defence that the relocation of the militants
to Anambra State was a policy initiative of the past Goodluck Jonathan
administration. The fact that government is a continuum does not absolve the
Buhari regime of responsibility for a programme it has chosen to implement.
This is the same Buhari regime that has pilloried the Jonathan administration
to no end. In the latest of such
bashing, we were told that the present government has been slowed considerably
by the task of cleaning the mess left behind by the outgone government. Given
this perception of the government it succeeded, it would be self - indicting of
the present government to have gone ahead with a carry - over it had sworn to
scrutinize without so doing. The burden of responsibility is emphasized by the
exceptional nature of the subject matter which daily tasks the will and
resourcefulness of Nigerians for solution.
The greater
wonder however is on the suitability of a densely populated state like Anambra
for the hosting of high profile, terrorist suspects. Nigeria cannot be the single all – knowing
country with expertise in containment strategies unknown to other nations of
the world. From dynastic early age to
the present worldwide terrorism phenomena, the standard practice is to confine
dangerous criminal suspects in maximum security prisons. Anambra State does not
host such a prison complex, so why bring the suspects to the state? It is also standard practice to site such
facilities in remote locations usually surrounded by forbidding natural features
such as rocky terrain, hills, forests and crocodile infested rivers. While the
United States’ Guantanamo Bay may be the most known and controversial in recent
time, similar detention centres exist in other places. This is observable in countries coping with
the menace of hard drug cartels and one recalls the Colombian prison fortress
from which the kingpin Pablo Escobar escaped in the early 1990s in spectacular
gangster fashion. Memories of the
windswept, cold Robben Island where the
Mandela generation was quarantined for sixteen years is still fresh in our
mind. And here in Nigeria, we recall that when the Ibrahim Babangida junta
wanted to put Gani Fawehinmi out of circulation in 1998, the activist lawyer
was not taken to any of our city prisons but to isolated Gashua prison in Borno
State.
Escobar’s
dramatic escape from his water tight detention is relevant in this discourse.
We are reminded of the high probability of counter attack by detained insurgents
either acting alone or in league with their cohorts in attempted invasion. Jail break had become a recurring incident in
our various prisons without the Boko Haram inmates. Clearly, the risk factor
would triple when the fanatical militants are kept in a medium security prison
located in densely populated, built up areas. Such a setting makes it easier
for the sect’s intelligence arm to infiltrate the larger society and launch
reconnaissance missions on the intended target.
The weird choice
of a bustling city – state like Anambra for this magnitude of security
operation is compounded by the gulf the matter has created between the federal
authorities behind the deployment and the
Anambra society. There is no gainsaying
the fact that the citizens of the state resented the transfer decision and the
manner of its execution as insensitive and disruptive of the social life of the
people. If there is anything that has
brought the elite of the state and the masses in firm solidarity in a long
time, it is their rejection of the relocation as demonstrated by public outcry.
It would appear that the federal government took an officious approach to a
matter that called for consultation and collaboration between the federal and
Anambra state governments. While it is clearly the prerogative of the federal
government to run the nation’s prisons, it nonetheless requires the cooperation
of the host communities to achieve lasting result.
Given the
political differences between the south – east and the APC – led federal government,
one would have expected Abuja to go about the exercise more cautiously and with
better tact. The matter calls for constructive engagement rather than the
assertion of authority and half hearted denials in turns that have largely
characterized response to the problem. It is not yet late for the concerned parties
to work out satisfactory alternatives in the interest of peace, fairness and national
unity. President Buhari should appreciate the urgency of the matter and indeed
take a holistic view of it.