(OPINION ARTICLE)
By
Anas Sani Anka
Managing Editor
________________________________________
The recent interview conducted by Zamfara former Governor Ahmad Sani Yariman Bakura has continue to generate mix reactions all over the social media especially his specific position that “government need to reconcile with the armed bandits terrorizing the North-West geo-political zone.
As usual of Sen. Yarima, he made the statement in such a way one will not understand where and to whom the message is falling.
Asking the government to enter into reconciliation with bandits is a “block statement” in my candid opinion and it needs to be broken to specifically respond to the question raised in the caption of this article.
Now people are left blindfolded as to who is to enter into reconciliation with the bandits, is this President Bola Ahmad Tinubu or Governor Dauda Lawal? This question need to be answered either by Sen. Yarima or anyone who understand the direction of the message.
He cited reference with the way the Nigerian government entered into same reconciliation with the militants from the Niger Delta region and also talk about the government being sincere in fulfilling the pledges made or to be made?
But to be candid the I complete did not concur with Sen. Yarima regarding the call for reconciliation with the bandits especially viewing from the experience of the past because of the following reasons:
First and foremost, the scenario of the Niger Delta is completely different from that of the North-West. The militants are known and they operate as network pursuing a common objective.
Their own is simply they are agitating for resource ownership base on the volume of wealth that the Nigerian government is generating and visa-vie the level of under-development that characterized the region.
The Niger Delta militants have genuine and well defined grievances and it is easier for the government to come in address such grievances to a minimum level.
Notwithstanding the Niger Delta reconciliation referred to in the interview by Sen. Yarima, the militant are still launching attacks on the major oil pipelines within the Niger Delta region and the statistics of their economic sabotage are verily available on the internet for the people to verify.
Again the Niger Delta militants do not majorly targeted the common person on the streets and had never had the history of attacking communities and villages and be murdering people baselessly.
Under this type of situation it is easy for the government of Nigeria to came up with a comprehensive amnesty template and implements it to help dowse tension in the Niger Delta region.
Again, the Governors of the region were indirectly supportive of the activities of the militant simply in order to gain more from the national cake and the problem was clearly left in the hand of the federal government to address.
And because of the level of literacy of the people the federal government under late Umar Yar’adua was simply able to come up with a contextual framework and action plan that led to the successful implementation of the amnesty programmes.
Now the question is can this peculiarity and picture painted as per Niger Delta militants referred to in the interview by Sen. Yarima be the same with the case of the North-West and armed bandits? The answer is capital “NO”.
First of all the bandits in the North-West operates without genuine and well clearly defined grievance. And besides not even the government can give a clear estimate of the number of bandits enclaves that exist between Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna state. Leadership of new bandits camps keep emerging without recourse to what differentiate their grievances and identity.
Added to this is the inhuman nature of their operation because the bandits operating in the North-West knew no one they attacked the government properties, including schools and students, they attacked the locals and also the innocent.
The bandits had tried to turn the entire banditry into an entrepreneurship hence politicians, traditional institutions, as well as uniform people are accused of having hands in it. One can fairly make reference to the MD. Abubakar led committee report for ease of reference.
The most complex part of the whole scenario about banditry in the North-West is that, even the government actors find it difficult to clearly define the nature of the problems at hand some will tell you it is banditry, some would say cattle rustling, and others would say terrorism.
Now with the pictures painted it is very clear that distinguished Sen. Yarima should have elaborate in a very clear term the dynamics of the banditry in Zamfara and what type of reconciliation he wanted the government to initiate.
I think stakeholders like Sen. Yarima should go beyond offering media solution but take lead in initiating the reconciliation move to be led either by the Federal or State as the case may be in Zamfara.
It is clear that previous reconciliation move had failed because the subsequent governments in Zamfara state in their own wisdom had failed to contextualize the peace move and that has been the concern we had been raising for long.
In my various articles especially the academic ones I have highlighted in a very clear picture why most of the peace initiatives entered into between the governments of Zamfara and bandits failed and we have suggestions on the best strategies to renew the initiative by making the move a contextual one.
So it is my candid advise to the Governor of Zamfara state Dauda Lawal to please stay away from entering into any peace deal with the bandits. He should be reminded that managing security challenges is an exclusive preserved of the government at the center.
This does not mean he should not offer support when the need arises but the most important thing he should emphasized on is to keep a watch at the security operatives and allow free flow of voices of those under bandits victimization.
He should revisit the opinion of Ahmad Abubakar Maradun that whenever people of Zamfara are killed he should broadcast it with lauder voice so that the government at the center and its agents should know that all is not well in Zamfara.
Hiding the scenario will not help matters and like I keep saying the Governor should not take ownership of the fight against banditry it is never his job he should allow the Federal government to do it and always be ready to render and offer support where the need arises.
He should also develop a working strategic security template that he think will best fit the fight against banditry and intimate the federal government to execute it at all cost.
Most important point is for the Governor of Zamfara state to remodel his socio-economic policies around reforms in job creation, poverty alleviation, skills acquisition, enhancing small and medium enterprises as well as agriculture.
The fact is that banditry is quite distinct with militancy and the way to solving them must never be the same.
