THREE full months after the Benue killings, long after the
bereaved had buried their dead, mourned and cursed in sackcloth,
President Muhammadu Buhari finally deemed it fit to visit the
people of Benue State in commiseration for the New Year Day’s
killings. At least, 73 Nigerians were murdered in cold blood by
persons suspected to be armed herdsmen. The ethnic cleansing
committed by the murderous herdsmen was the gory welcome that
ushered the people of Benue into 2018. It was a brutal episode that
left the whole world worried about the dimension the murderous
campaign of the herdsmen of mostly Fulani origin had taken.
Already labelled one of the deadliest terrorist groups in the
world, the inhuman activities of the herdsmen across several
communities in the central states of Nigeria reached a new low with
the New Year’s killings. That this happened at peace time was
beyond comprehension. But what was more baffling was the apparent
shiftlessness of the Nigerian government in the face of the
helpless grieving of Samuel Ortom, the governor of Benue State.
The outrage across the country and the rest of the world would
force a tepid response from the Buhari administration. President
Muhammadu Buhari, exhibiting an aloofness that could only be
interpreted in only one way as a total lack of concern or interest
in the sordid affair did no more than issue an order to his
self-appointed lackey in the Police, the Inspector General himself,
Ibrahim Idris, to proceed to the troubled region to oversee the
restoration of peace. Following precedents during similar crises
situation in the past, that order was for the IGP to remain in
Benue until normalcy returned. We saw this during one of the many
onslaughts of Boko Haram in parts of the North-East.
Buhari simply ordered his military chiefs to relocate to the
North-East, taking the war to the insurgents. Even if he remains
home-bound, President Buhari has been trying to make a virtue of
his peculiar way offering leadership from behind, issuing orders to
surrogates who make what they will of the orders. In this instance,
Mr. Idris simply chose to ignore more or less the president’s
words. It should be said in fairness to him that he probably didn’t
see his action as one of disobedience of presidential order.
Rather, it reflected the mood of the times when the president
either genuinely didn’t know what to do or simply could not be
bothered about the loss of human in return for animal life. Long
story short, however, Mr. Idris made a show of leaving for Benue in
a reluctant move at obeying the president. But even before he made
the first move out of Abuja, he showed his partiality by declaring
the killings a result of communal clash between the affected
communities and the Fulani herders.
He offered his unsolicited piece of advice, one he has continued
to repeat like a deaf-mute wherever opportunity presents itself:
the enactment of the anti-open grazing law was the reason Fulani
militias were and have continued to wreak havoc in and around the
Benue confluence. This was at a time even the herders themselves
declared theirs was a punitive expedition into the Benue heartland,
an act of reprisal for the alleged killing and rustling of their
cows. The raw anger of Nigerians, not the least that of Samuel
Ortom, the governor, trailed Ibrahim Idris into Benue where he
somehow reported unwillingly.
But he ensured he did not spend even a night to say nothing of a
whole day in the state. Perhaps, his anger at the disapproving
words of Nigerians for his unsolicited remarks was such as would
not permit him to think clearly or stay long in Benue. He visited
some obvious locations like palace of traditional rulers and other
dignitaries and thereafter shook the dust of Benue off his
feet.
A lot was happening at the same time so nobody commented on the
fact that the IGP only spent some hours in Benue contrary to
Buhari’s order. Even if anyone had said anything, it would probably
be drowned in the hot words that were being spewed in the wake of
the killings. Such observation would have been written off as mere
propaganda.
Thus, Idris turned what was practically a temporary transfer to
Benue into a whistle stop irrespective of any woebegone killings.
But nothing came out of his visit and the killings in the central
states especially Benue and Taraba, have continued if not escalated
in spite of any presence of security personnel.
What the people and leaders of Benue continued to insist on was
the intervention of the president who nevertheless chose to lock
himself inside Aso Villa against all entreaties. His minders
offered countless spins for his behaviour but the man was unmoved.
Came March 12, 2018, three months after the fact of the multiple
murders, the president made his way to Benue in what many now see
as a move to soften the ground for the campaigns for next year’s
elections that are soon to begin.
It was during this round of trips that he, in a blaze of glory,
made a triumphant entry into Dapchi where school girls had only
recently been abducted. Talk of leaders who are too tone deaf to
know what constitutes inappropriate conduct. Only a short while
before this visit, the president converged with others in Kano at
an extravagant marriage ceremony of two governors’ children. But
Buhari had his time with community leaders in Benue.
And yes, it was during his meeting with them he learned of the
treacherous disobedience of his police chief. And Buhari said he
was surprised his order was flouted. Now he has summoned the IGP
and demanded a comprehensive report of his visit to Benue- three
months after.
Just how timely our dear president acts! If Buhari is surprised
at Idris, why are the rest of us not surprised by the president’s
belated request for a report he should have read and digested three
months ago? We know this has become the president’s slow coach
ways, his typical approach to governance- sit back and do nothing
in the name of delegating responsibility. He does nothing in time
and is never in earnest.
He gave his orders and literally went to sleep thereafter,
asking for no explanation and apparently expecting none. He has
issued orders and his body language would do the rest. Otherwise,
why did he not ask the IGP the outcome of his visit to Benue? What
has the president or his minders who never cease to read his famed
body language, relied on in their comments on the killings in Benue
and other parts of the country when there was no report whatsoever
from the chief police officer of the country?
vanguardngr
THREE full months after the Benue killings, long after the
bereaved had buried their dead, mourned and cursed in sackcloth,
President Muhammadu Buhari finally deemed it fit to visit the
people of Benue State in commiseration for the New Year Day’s
killings. At least, 73 Nigerians were
murdered in cold blood by persons suspected to be armed herdsmen.
The ethnic cleansing committed by the murderous herdsmen was the
gory welcome that ushered the people of Benue into 2018. It was a
brutal episode that left the whole world worried about the
dimension the murderous campaign of the herdsmen of mostly Fulani
origin had taken.
Already labelled one of the deadliest terrorist groups in the
world, the inhuman activities of the herdsmen across several
communities in the central states of Nigeria reached a new low with
the New Year’s killings. That this happened at peace time was
beyond comprehension. But what was more baffling was the apparent
shiftlessness of the Nigerian government in the face of the
helpless grieving of Samuel Ortom, the governor of Benue State.
The outrage across the country and the rest of the world would
force a tepid response from the Buhari administration. President
Muhammadu Buhari, exhibiting an aloofness that could only be
interpreted in only one way as a total lack of concern or interest
in the sordid affair did no more than issue an order to his
self-appointed lackey in the Police, the Inspector General himself,
Ibrahim Idris, to proceed to the troubled region to oversee the
restoration of peace. Following precedents during similar crises
situation in the past, that order was for the IGP to remain in
Benue until normalcy returned. We saw this during one of the many
onslaughts of Boko Haram in parts of the North-East.
Buhari simply ordered his military chiefs to relocate to the
North-East, taking the war to the insurgents. Even if he remains
home-bound, President Buhari has been trying to make a virtue of
his peculiar way offering leadership from behind, issuing orders to
surrogates who make what they will of the orders. In this instance,
Mr. Idris simply chose to ignore more or less the president’s
words. It should be said in fairness to him that he probably didn’t
see his action as one of disobedience of presidential order.
Rather, it reflected the mood of the times when the president
either genuinely didn’t know what to do or simply could not be
bothered about the loss of human in return for animal life. Long
story short, however, Mr. Idris made a show of leaving for Benue in
a reluctant move at obeying the president. But even before he made
the first move out of Abuja, he showed his partiality by declaring
the killings a result of communal clash between the affected
communities and the Fulani herders.
He offered his unsolicited piece of advice, one he has continued
to repeat like a deaf-mute wherever opportunity presents itself:
the enactment of the anti-open grazing law was the reason Fulani
militias were and have continued to wreak havoc in and around the
Benue confluence. This was at a time even the herders themselves
declared theirs was a punitive expedition into the Benue heartland,
an act of reprisal for the alleged killing and rustling of their
cows. The raw anger of Nigerians, not the least that of Samuel
Ortom, the governor, trailed Ibrahim Idris into Benue where he
somehow reported unwillingly.
But he ensured he did not spend even a night to say nothing of a
whole day in the state. Perhaps, his anger at the disapproving
words of Nigerians for his unsolicited remarks was such as would
not permit him to think clearly or stay long in Benue. He visited
some obvious locations like palace of traditional rulers and other
dignitaries and thereafter shook the dust of Benue off his
feet.
A lot was happening at the same time so nobody commented on the
fact that the IGP only spent some hours in Benue contrary to
Buhari’s order. Even if anyone had said anything, it would probably
be drowned in the hot words that were being spewed in the wake of
the killings. Such observation would have been written off as mere
propaganda.
Thus, Idris turned what was practically a temporary transfer to
Benue into a whistle stop irrespective of any woebegone killings.
But nothing came out of his visit and the killings in the central
states especially Benue and Taraba, have continued if not escalated
in spite of any presence of security personnel.
What the people and leaders of Benue continued to insist on was
the intervention of the president who nevertheless chose to lock
himself inside Aso Villa against all entreaties. His minders
offered countless spins for his behaviour but the man was unmoved.
Came March 12, 2018, three months after the fact of the multiple
murders, the president made his way to Benue in what many now see
as a move to soften the ground for the campaigns for next year’s
elections that are soon to begin.
It was during this round of trips that he, in a blaze of glory,
made a triumphant entry into Dapchi where school girls had only
recently been abducted. Talk of leaders who are too tone deaf to
know what constitutes inappropriate conduct. Only a short while
before this visit, the president converged with others in Kano at
an extravagant marriage ceremony of two governors’ children. But
Buhari had his time with community leaders in Benue.
And yes, it was during his meeting with them he learned of the
treacherous disobedience of his police chief. And Buhari said he
was surprised his order was flouted. Now he has summoned the IGP
and demanded a comprehensive report of his visit to Benue- three
months after.
Just how timely our dear president acts! If Buhari is surprised
at Idris, why are the rest of us not surprised by the president’s
belated request for a report he should have read and digested three
months ago? We know this has become the president’s slow coach
ways, his typical approach to governance- sit back and do nothing
in the name of delegating responsibility. He does nothing in time
and is never in earnest.
He gave his orders and literally went to sleep thereafter,
asking for no explanation and apparently expecting none. He has
issued orders and his body language would do the rest. Otherwise,
why did he not ask the IGP the outcome of his visit to Benue? What
has the president or his minders who never cease to read his famed
body language, relied on in their comments on the killings in Benue
and other parts of the country when there was no report whatsoever
from the chief police officer of the country?
vanguardngr
Read more https://nairalaw.com/what-the-igps-flouting-of-buharis-order-says/