These killings have gone too far Mr President

On the morning of 25 June, Nigerians woke up to the sad news of another massacre, this time in three different local government areas of Plateau state. The affected local government areas include; Barkin Ladi, Mangu and Riyom Local Government Areas of Plateau state. In a statement on Sunday evening, the police admitted “that 86 people were killed in the attacks, six people injured, fifty (50) houses burnt, fifteen (15) motorcycles burnt down; two (2) motor vehicles burnt down.”

But an eye witness to the killings and a resident of the affected local government claims that as many as 120 people were killed in the attacks, which was said to have lasted several hours from 1.00 pm in the afternoon to 8.00 pm in the evening. All throughout the attacks, which eye witnesses have blamed on herdsmen, the security agencies failed to intervene despite Plateau state being known to have a high level of   security presence due to its history of communal violence.

The first question that easily comes to mind is where were the security agencies when up to 86 defenceless Nigerians were being killed in cold blood on a hot afternoon? How is it possible that a group of armed people could go around three different local government areas, killing Nigerians without any of the security agencies intervening? Instead, a day after the attacks, the police goes into the bush to pick up the dead of a massacre that they should have stopped from happening. What has happened to our intelligence services that they could not see this coming? Planning a massacre is not spontaneous?

As the ritual goes, President Buhari has issued the usual regrets about the killings and also issued the usual assurance that “no efforts will be spared to bring the perpetrators to justice, and prevent a recurrence / reprisal attacks.” And that “The President and the entire Federal Government stand with the Government and people of Plateau at this sad time.”

It is important that Mr President knows that the dead do not care about “assurance.” What they needed was protection from untimely and painful death. The President should sit back a little and imagine how his fellow unarmed Nigerians who may have even voted for him in the last elections were hunted like animals and killed like animals. He should sit back and imagine the number of children that were hunted and killed in the presence of their parents and guardians and then the parents themselves killed.

Then he should ask himself, where were the security men that he deployed to protect these people as ‘Commander in Chief” of Nigeria’s armed forces? No amount of assurance is good enough for those who are dead. No amount of presidential regrets is good enough for those who woke up this morning without their loved ones, many of whom were bread winners in their families.

President Buhari has failed and continue to fail in his responsibility to protect Nigerians. And this is mainly because he has failed to hold the security agencies accountable for these killings, which are becoming endless. Not one head of a security agency has lost his job because of these killings. Instead, the heads of the security agencies have been made secure in their incompetency. Even when the Inspector-General of Police had the audacity to disobey presidential orders to move to Benue, he was never punished. He moved on to disobey summons from the National Assembly and remain secure in his position.

The heads of the army have been rewarded with extension of their tenures despite the insecurity in the country. Not even the quarrel among the security agencies, which have left them operating in silos, to the detriment of the country’s overall security architecture, has moved the president to act. The president has shown a high level of disinterest in getting the security architecture of the country to work for Nigerians. The country is paying a high price for this disinterest.

Now it is not clear how many more killings will wake up Mr President from his slumber. Where is the fabled General Buhari who was supposed to end the country’s insecurity nightmares, Nigerians are asking? The killing of a single Nigerian is painful. But the killing of 86 in a single day is nightmare that should wake up our president.

Once more, as we have said before, if the president cannot handle the responsibility of protecting Nigerians, he should do the honourable thing and resign from his position. In a situation like this, he should not even be seen talking about a second term.

We know these killings did not start today. But then President Buhari was voted in to stop them from ever happening again. And yes, three years is enough to have stopped these killings in the magnitude that they are happening. Even more disheartening is the fact that there seems to be no clear strategy to ensure that these killings stop. The president has to take a second look at the security architecture of the country. Should the state governors be given more control over the security agencies in their states? He must also take a look at those he has given direct responsibility to improve the security situation in the country and ask if they are doing their job?

The president would be measured by his legacy at the end of the day. Right now the legacy on security is looking very RED with the blood of the hundreds of Nigerians dead today who should not be. And security was supposed to be one of President Buhari’s strongest points. Sadly, the record does not say so.