A Silver Lining: And Where We Are Getting It Right

USSIJU MEDANER 

Before I begin my piece for this week, I consider it necessary to comment on the highest level of the absence of patriotism that we witnessed with the expression of free speech credited to David, popularly called Davido these things. It is unbelievable that we could get to the point where we would be free of restraints, especially as a popular figure, to humiliate our own country because we are opposed to the government in power. The same man (Davido) is a sworn opposition to the ruling party. His contributions to many, if not most, opposition campaigns to defeat the ruling APC across the states of the federation are well documented. However, I recognise his freedom of association. Still, it is unpatriotic, more precisely, lack of nationalism, to publicly condemn your country as such freedom is inimical to the nation’s development.

Why wouldn’t you see an American talking down to their country? They may have conflicts with government policies within and struggle around, but Americans would stand their ground to defend their country against all odds anywhere and anytime. However, Nigeria is passing through difficult times due to several stringent policies. But how does one of us find it easy, convenient, and amusing to tell the whole world that his country is in shambles and that no one should think or plan to visit or invest there? It is absurd and unbelievable. It is an unrestrained opinion taken too far by a public figure who ought to have a pool of knowledgeable people around to regularly educate him on matters of public governance and policies and not surrender himself to uninformed circles and, worst still, a torrent of emotions to reach conclusions on critical national issues.

Nonetheless, some notable good things are still happening in Nigeria. Agencies and functionaries are performing wonderfully well. For instance, we are gradually pushing the war against all frontal and hidden insecurity bedevilling the nation as the framework of our security system has effectively changed. That could be a rallying point for some encouragement and praise for the country, only if we are interested in seeing the good things happening to us, and all our hands must be on deck because security is everybody’s business

The once-unknown National Lottery Trust Fund has grown to become a beacon of Succour to so many across the country. By stepping out of its constitutional central role, the fund has, in the last year, if not more, expanded its social responsibility service to many people, sectors and areas of need in the country. We should be seeing and applauding these things while we continue to constructively criticise the government at all levels to bring the best out of them. But we are not doing that. Equally, the NYSC, the Customs Service, and the Refugee Commission are blazing with irrefutable achievements. The Defense Headquarters and the Office of the NSA are there improving the performance of their mandates.

The consistency and magnitude of Nigeria Customs’ efforts to crack down on petroleum product smuggling in the country are worthy of our recognition and support. In the last few weeks, Operation Whirlwind of the command has successfully combated fuel smuggling and recorded the seizure of PMS worth N153.157.560 Million. Also, the National Coordinator, HK Ejibunu, and his South West commander, MI Bello, of Operation Whirlwind successfully led an operation to seize 30,255 litres of PMS valued at about N32.2 million in the South West Zone. The consistency of these responses should gladden our hearts as Nigerians and represent the changes we desperately want to see.

The National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, has recently become a transformative agency. The NYSC Administration has recorded numerous landmark achievements that show that desired changes are possible if we persist in doing the right thing. We are now seeing a new definition of national unity and integration. The scheme, more than ever, has rejigged the trust of Nigerians in its capacity to impact all spheres of our national systems using the strength of the Nigerian youths. We increasingly impact healthcare delivery, rural infrastructure, mass literacy education, and sports activities. The new increase in the monthly allowance of serving Corps members has also increased the morale of the participants, as well as the years-long lifting of the bans that restricted postings to specific organisations. This sector of our system deserves some praise.

No individual or political party has a monopoly on the capacity to perform as fully expected by the people; every citizen, in and out of government, must contribute as much as possible to the country’s development. The opposition must constructively criticise the ruling Administration, providing positive inputs and prescriptions that could potentially yield solutions to the country’s myriad challenges. After all, no opposition would prefer to take over a nation already bastardised. That said, we must all work to see the good of the country.

We just received the news of the country’s improved national GDP, symbolising a gradual positive movement of the national economy despite the complex reforms of the moment. We also received the good news of the commencement of the operation of the Port Harcourt refinery, which has been undergoing maintenance work with uncertainty for years. We should praise these achievements while pushing the various ministries, agencies and the concerned governments to do more.

Now, let’s move on to the main points for the week—a perspective of what led us to where we are today. Decades ago, the trajectory of our national development began to change in a dismal direction; that is, we started seeing alterations that spiralled into significant deterioration. While we were losing manufacturing capacity at a speed that would forever remain a national menace in our history, we also started losing the safety necessary for our people to go about their daily and regular businesses. As we know it now, the era of insecurity has come upon us. Boko Haram and banditry began and suddenly spread from the Northeast, and nowhere was safe again in the country. The sanctity of life and the safety of property have become alien to our system, and we cannot, honestly, conclude that the menace is over entirely.

While our people are killed in their numbers regularly, farmers across the most significant in most northern states were forced out of their farmlands. Thus, the era of food insecurity began to creep in gradually until the fuel subsidy removal policy finally precipitated the problem and many more that have been building up long before now. Rather than having the appropriate responses that alter the projection and restore normalcy, we deteriorated further, watching as Boko Haram gave birth to banditry and kidnapping to consume a significant part of the country alongside herders-farmers conflicts.

Gradually, we kept losing our farming capacity because, beyond the security rhetoric, we were not doing much to counter the forces of insurgency and banditry that were already the new order of the day and ravaging the very nerve of the country. The reality, as a consequence, is that there is no way we would not be crushed with food insecurity, especially given that there was no equal response with respect to ensuring farming is protected in the affected parts of the country. There couldn’t have been any other outcome to the farmers across the country’s inability to go to their farms because of insecurity or their harvest being hijacked by forces beyond their powers; food insecurity is a consequence that is bound to come upon us.

While the form of insecurity mentioned above was destroying our capacity to grow food for Nigeria across the northern states, the southern states saw another form of insecurity: increasing and untamed oil vandalism and theft at an increasing magnitude that threatened the nation’s wealth.

Since 1999, government actions have been evident regarding increased investment in national defence spending. Budgetary allocation to the sector stood at N33,832,000,000 in 1999 and significantly increased as the security threats increased to N1,647,780,328,365. But primarily during this era, it was unfortunate that the successive governments were playing to the gallery in responding to the growing insecurity for reasons we cannot tell. Our results were little to no progress in the fight against insecurity. Nonetheless, even after that, the seriousness of the Buhari administration was only able to reduce to some extent, the hit the citizens and the country were receiving from the menace. The expectation of an outright end to the menace continues to remain a mirage as new sects (Lakurawa) and formats of various forms of insecurity attacks are being released in some sections of the country.

The Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration has, however, continued to do its best, and here we are; no matter how a section of pundits may choose to deny the downturn in insecurity in the country, it is evident that we have begun to see substantial decimation of, or better still, response to the insecurity forces across the northern states. Federal troops reportedly have been successfully repelling the hostile actors. Boko Haram has become relatively weak because they can no longer afford to wreak havoc on the country as they were freely doing before, as they are forced to result in “gorilla ambush attacks”. We all recall how they boldly and boastfully operated on social media in the past. The bandits are packing up as their operations become less complex compared to what we witnessed some months ago.

These modest achievements concerning national security began with the change of guard and the emergence of the current National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu and the man at the Helm of Defence Headquarters, Lt. Gen. C G Musa. It appears that we have returned to the table and asked the right questions. What do we have to do? Where are we starting from? And what were we not doing right? And now, we have seen some severe synergy and collaborationtions with communities and alliances with the people that have proved decisive in the nation’s counter-terrorism fight and the onslaught against banditry nationwide.

While the North has been ravaged by banditry and insurgency, the South has fallen to oil bunkering and theft, dealing considerable blows to the national wealth daily. At a point, the oil sabotage incidents were getting out of hand. According to NNPC, between the 24th and 30th of August 2024, a total of 188 incidents of oil theft were recorded across several locations in the Niger Delta from different incident sources, and over 90 illegal refinery sites were identified across the region. That is horrific for a country struggling to survive already. In 2022, we lost about $700 million monthly to oil theft. We lost 619.7 million barrels, valued at N16.3 trillion, to crude oil theft from 2005 to 2021 and have been forced only in 2023 to spend N136 billion on security, repairs, and maintenance of vandalised infrastructure.

It was that bad as it became apparent that we could not afford to continue along that path of economic sabotage, regardless of the sophistication of the saboteurs against the country. As expected, and in line with the sworn onslaught against all forms of insecurity in the country, we have seen the National Security Adviser’s collaboration with the security forces and paramilitary, especially the Nigeria Customs Service, yielding results across the southern states with a daily decimation of illegal refineries, seizures of smuggled petroleum products on their way out of the country and mass arrest of perpetrators of these acts of sabotage.

We may not have won the battle outrightly, but it is obvious that we are not where we were some years ago, not even six months ago. The trajectory is changing, and we see some positive outlooks in some sections of the country. Hopefully, we will get closer to the end of the tunnel. However, the truth remains that these working agencies and parastatals deserve commendations and support from all citizens to continue their excellent work. Or are we going to throw out the baby with the bathwater? Are we going to discredit the working sectors because some areas are not what we expect them to be?

GOD BLESS THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA!