The blaming of Buhari can never stop killings, in my village Ogep-Osokom it was not the blaming of Gov Ayade that stopped cultism that almost turned my community into a refugee camp.
What stopped cultism in my village was when everyone accepted to die to preserve the few that will remain. At any sound of gunshot the whole villagers will wake up and run to where the gun shot came from. Gov Ayade did nothing about the insecurity situation then; even a police DPO was shot sometime by the cultist as many young boys were also killed. What changed the narrative was the commitment by the locals and all people of Ogep-Osokom
What stopped and cultism and killings that was mostly masterminded by a man who is today an appointee of CRS Government was the cooperation of stakeholders and locals and not the blaming of the Governor. Everyone was united to end the accelerated insecurity. The youths, the women, the village heads, the elderly and everybody accepted to die to save the remnants that will survive the war.
As an Ogep son, I did not keep quiet, I spoke and called the CRS Government to call her political thug to order. I payed a price for making such a call on facebook and it ended me with my 117 days incarceration in a trial for terrorism and cybercrime. The trial is still ongoing, I won’t say more because the matter is still in Court.
Nigeria is fast becoming a theatre of war and many people are pretending it is still business as usual. Some are using blame game strategy for the politics of 2023. Unfortunately with the way things are, there may not be 2023 elections if the situations escalates unchecked. God forbid it degenerates to a situation that criminals and murderers will now rule us.
For ethnic reasons when Niger Delta militancy raised its demonic head some Niger Delta Stakeholders saw it as an agitation for control of resources and clapped for the criminals because the targets were foreigners. But the criminality snowballed into a point locals began to taste the full brunt of violence. Thank God for the tenacity and sagacity of Late President Ya’Adua, it would have been worse.
Then came the Boko Haram menace, some religious bigots of the Muslim extraction justified their activities. Today the same highly placed persons are now refugees and can’t visit their communities.
The issue of farmers/headers crisis sprung up, and a tribe’s right to graze cow was defended. Cows were given a higher place to farming and human lives. Today the criminals have been emboldened into bandits terrorising even those that spoke in acquiescence of their nefarious activities.
The South East today is not spared. The Biafrans are on rampage killing security agents, freeing prisoners, burning police stations. They are so emboldened as to rob the residence of Enugu State Governor and killing security agents. Governors, police formations, military are now attacked and people still think it is business as usual. Some Christian leaders speak in support of Biafra and justify the carnage because some Muslims once supported Boko Haram.
Security is every man’s business not only the business of Buhari. Unless the President, the Governors, the Senators, the Houses of Assembly (National and States), the Local Government Administrators, elites and the the common man rise up with sincerity to fight insecurity, we may keep blaming Buhari until Nigeria is no more.
Every part of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria is engulfed in insecurity showing signs of war with Nigeria becoming a failed State yet some opportunists play politics with our sensibilities while the gullible masses clap for them.
Joseph Odok, PhD Esq writes from Calabar, Cross River State.
