Who are Tinubu’s true friends?

For some two weeks now, a well-crafted piece on what was called Nigeria’s true enemy circulated briefly across some digital platforms of the social media. The title was “It’s about time Nigerians know their true enemy. Listen attentively and understand that we must unite and overpower our common enemy. God bless Nigeria.”

The narrative the piece sought to plant was that some covetous foreign interests had become envious of Nigeria’s growing influence. The narrative referred specifically to the emergence of Dangote Refinery as the largest in the world as clear evidence that Nigeria was heading towards becoming a super power which the foreign interests detest.

Those who see the recent statement by US President Donald Trump that his country would no longer accept what he called the killing of Nigerian Christians as an excuse to distort Nigeria’s potentials may have their point but the argument is a waste of time. History tells us that all big nations do everything to exploit the natural resources of developing societies, especially where such resources are either under-utilized or misappropriated. It makes little sense that we spend so much energy searching for those after our resources but we ourselves do nothing meaningful about those resources. Why is Nigeria relying on only oil when she has other similarly lucrative mineral resources?

If America or any other world power is accused of deceitfully bullying Nigeria under the guise of issues such as the potentials of Dangote’s Refinery, how do we explain Nigerian elites and institutions that have done so much to frustrate the same Dangote? Why did the Refinery have problems with obtaining crude thereby importing crude to Nigeria which has it? It can be argued that if insiders were also not envious of the facility, cooperation with its owners would have led to a reduction in the price of petroleum products and huge plus for the government of the day. The other day, the same Refinery had issues with Labour which would have returned the nation to the days of the NNPC in which fuel queues were the order of the day in Nigeria. When these insider challenges are aggregated, can we actually say that Nigeria’s enemies are foreigners?

Some analysts believe that the truth in Trump’s real interest in Nigeria would have been easily exposed if Nigeria had been earnestly tackling insecurity. Before Trump’s explosive statement, our government was wrongly following the pattern of its predecessor’s assurances without action. There were more troops in other parts than areas under insurgency. The nation kept hearing about moles in the military with no efforts made to stamp them out. Internally displaced persons were increasing while nothing was done about those who took over the homes of the victims. With President Tinubu, we expected that to end but it did not because of entrenched interests of some capitalists.

Based on the threat from the US especially the congressional endorsements, is not surprising that insecurity was still in vogue? Many citizens are disappointed that abductions are not only continuing, there appears to be evidence that the old order of insider abuses have not waned. The emergency orders of President Tinubu can thus not be faulted. But one issue which the President needs to handle to the satisfaction of all has to do with moles who influence the ambush of troops. According to media reports, the authorities in Kebbi state raised a red flag that ought not to be swept under the carpet. Their allegation was that troops attached to a school where some students were recently abducted were withdrawn a few minutes before the attack. True?

We did not expect anyone to oppose President Tinubu’s move to face the insurgents or anything which suggests genuine efforts to solve the problems on ground. It is therefore disheartening to see opposition to the decision to redirect the attention of the Nigeria Police to its core mandate. Speaking on a nationwide television programme a few days ago, a retired Assistant Inspector General Police (AIG) Abutu Yaro mildly but bluntly said “we must emphasise strongly that we implement the withdrawal of police from VIPs with serious caution, if not, the fallout of a hasty implementation of the directive will be regrettable in many respects…”

Although Yaro went into history to identify VIPs who died after police protection was withdrawn from them, he did not help Tinubu by telling him how lack of police protection has been a major gain to communities across Nigeria. Why are the elites never bothered about the masses but only about themselves. If lack of police protection leads to killings, who are those not entitled to protection in a country whose constitution specifically describes government’s primary purpose as the security and welfare of the citizenry? Is anyone who tells President Tinubu to focus on protecting VIPs instead of all citizens one of his true friends? Is it not painful that one of the highest bosses of the police is the one who sees nothing wrong with returning the police to its core mandate? What image does an organization hope to get if it moves away from its core mandate into ancillary duties?

To be fair to Yaro and his colleagues of like minds, many were shocked that Kayode Egbetokun current Inspector General of Police earnestly followed the presidential directive. It has never happened before. Even the decision to dissuade the police from menial jobs which was made by previous IGPs themselves was never implemented. The only thing that always happened was that a new IGP would make the same order again. The same is true with the issue of road blocks. Each IGP on assumption of office cancels it making it hard for the rest of us to know who resurrected what a new boss was cancelling. Now that we are in an emergency, the order to restore police to their proper jobs ought not to be opposed by well-meaning citizens who want the success of the current government.

Anyone looking for Tinubu’s friends should not search for them among his appointees whose loyalty is merely a sign of reciprocity. As President, the true friends of Tinubu are persons who are anxious for his government to succeed so that the verdict of history can be kind to him. One of my expectations from every friend of the President is to openly embrace the effort to better police Nigeria. Senator Ali Ndume from Borno state may or may not be one of those regarded as the president’s friends but let the so-called friends emulate him. According to Ndume, legislators’ remunerations should be slashed to raise revenue to meet the cost of a larger numerical strength of our security agencies.

Again, legislators and other top office holders should on their own come forward to suggest how best to implement the current presidential orders on security. It was sad to hear from Ndume that police orderlies were still all over the National Assembly escorting their principals. The ruling APC should not allow critics to begin to feel that when it comes to personal interest, their members are not likely to obey their national leader. APC Governors Forum should take the lead because whether or not the presidential orders would succeed is dependent on them who are now the majority of the governors. This is because the bulk of the police doing non-professional duties are attached to state governors.

As we learnt some years back, each state governor in Nigeria has attached to his office, no less than 200 police operatives. If APC governors on their own drop 150 of that figure in almost 30 states of the country, many more rural schools would be protected and less of cheap abductions of students would happen. The immediate implication of this is that the same Nigerians who had called on the international communities to come to their aid would change their posture. There is no better time than now to show to be a good member of the President’s party as well as a special friend of the President that many governors claim they are.

Until the Trump threat, the matter of the moment in politics in Nigeria was political defections of governors. This period of its recess gives the country a better political image of a nation focusing on governance rather than electioneering. Other governors who were yet to decamp should be encouraged to practice collaborative federalism where leaders cooperate and collaborate on policies without jumping ship and usurping the mandate of the electorate. It is not too easy from the above analysis to quickly identify those who are Tinubu’s friends, we can only enjoin any such friend not to allow political rascality to take a firm root in this era.

•Written By Tonie Iredia