Jonathan’s discordant tunes on Nigeria’s security

President Goodluck Jonathan appears to be protecting those accused by his administration of sponsoring the Boko Haram sect and analysts say this amounts to playing politics with the nation’s security, Fisayo Falodi writes

President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration seems to have lost its direction as the administration appears to have shifted its major responsibility of protecting lives and property of the citizens to courting those it had previously accused of sponsoring the violent activities of the Boko Haram sect in the country.

The recent developments in the nation’s polity have given a bite to the belief that the Jonathan-led government needs to prioritise the protection of Nigerians and their property through collaboration with relevant stakeholders in order to root out the insurgents that are giving the citizens sleepless nights.

Analysts are wondering why the Jonathan’s administration suddenly relaxed its harsh criticism of the opposition as the brain behind the terrorist attack ravaging the North-Eastern part of the country, instead of ordering the arrest and prosecution of those his Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, had variously accused of promoting violence in the country for selfish political interests.

Maku had accused chieftains of the All Progressives Congress of sponsoring the Boko Haram violence in the country. The minister had said during the Bring Back Our Girls campaign in Abuja that the bulk of the nation’s resources was being spent on the states controlled by the APC. The protesters were mainly women’s group who think the Federal Government is not doing enough to rescue the over 200 secondary schoolgirls abducted by the Boko Haram terrorists in Chibok, Borno State.

The minister had alleged that the protesters were only shedding crocodile tears, adding that 90 per cent of them were members of the APC who were not genuinely moved by the circumstances surrounding the abduction of the girls.

He had said, “The entire money we are spending is to maintain security in states controlled by that party. So, why do you come back and start playing politics? We are busy spending money to maintain security in those states. What have they done about it?

“Ninety per cent of all insurgency is in the states controlled by that party; ninety per cent of those campaigning to bring back Chibok girls are members of that party.

“It’s because the media will look the other way. No, I think that honestly, if we want this country to grow, we must ask the relevant questions.

“The Chibok girls remain our number one priority. We will never sleep; we will not rest until God brings them out. We are the fire fighters; the Federal Government is a fire fighter.

“Why did they create this insurgency or the structure that led to it? You know where they came from but you are now blaming the fire fighter for the fire.”

Analysts, however, believed Maku was referring to the former Borno State governor, Alhaji Ali Modu-Sheriff, and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, who are critical of Jonathan’s administration, when he claimed that the APC created the structure that led to the insurgency in the country. They expected the Jonathan-led government to have ordered the arrest of the suspected Boko Haram’s backers as claimed by the minister.

The analysts are now wondering if Maku could still be harsh and ferocious in his criticism of APC as the backer of the Boko Haram sect since Sheriff, who had been fingered and quizzed twice by the Department of State Security for his alleged involvement in the activities of the terrorist group, has dumped the party for the Peoples Democratic Party, the platform on which Jonathan was elected President. Before Sheriff defected to the PDP, the former Borno State governor was more or less like an anathema to the party.

The Jonathan’s administration may have been shocked when the renowned Australian hostage and crisis negotiator, Stephen Davis, named its new friend, Sheriff, and former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika, as sponsors of the violent group.

Davis, who was said to have been hired by the President to secure the release of the over 200 girls abducted in their school in Chibok, spent four months in the troubled North-Eastern states and gathered from the sect’s commanders that the duo of the former Borno State governor and ex-Army chief were the Boko Haram’s backers.

Though Sheriff has threatened to sue the Australian negotiator and the APC for linking him with the violent group, commentators are of the view that the President should have explored every available lead to investigate the allegation raised against the former governor.

The allegation, according to President Jonathan’s body language, seems not to hold any water as he embarked on a journey with Sheriff to Ndjamena to attend a meeting with Chadian President Idris Deby.

Irked by the development, the APC and some civil society groups flayed the President for hobnobbing with a suspected terror backer.

The APC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, accused the President of “exhibiting a shocking act of indiscretion by hobnobbing with Sheriff who is not known to have been investigated and cleared of the allegation against him.”

The APC said, “This action by President Jonathan confirms what the APC has always believed: that he either knows more than he is willing to admit on the issue of those who are behind the Boko Haram insurgency or he is willing to sacrifice the battle against terrorism on the altar of political expediency.

“Either way, this action by the President is the height of indiscretion at best, or a palpable exhibition of callowness at worst.

“It also confirms our fears that Sheriff was planted as a mole in the APC by his friends in high places, who are jittery about the birth of the party and would do anything to destabilise it.”

The APC added that the President could not pretend not to be aware of a report sent home by Nigeria’s Defence Adviser in Ndjamena in 2011, detailing the suspicious activities of   Sheriff   and asking the Federal Government to investigate him.

The party, which seems to be embittered with the way Jonathan is handling the nation’s insecurity, claimed that it was apparent that the President smuggled Sheriff into his entourage as the official statement announcing the trip did not mention that the former governor would accompany him.

The APC believes that Nigerians would not have known of “this unholy alliance carried too far if not that the picture of the President, his host and the former governor surfaced via Twitter.”

It said the President should   explain what he knows about the allegations that Sheriff and a former Chief of Army Staff, Azubuike Ihejirika, were Boko Haram sponsors.

But the Special Adviser to the President on Media, Dr. Reuben Abati, denied the claim that Jonathan travelled to Chad with Sheriff.

Abati said in a statement that the former governor was never on the entourage of Jonathan to Chad, adding that APC lied by making references to the President’s trip.

He said, “Although Sheriff himself has already given the lie to that claim through his Media Adviser, the Presidency wishes to affirm, for the purpose of emphasis, that the former Borno State governor was not on President Jonathan’s delegation to Chad.

“In keeping with President Jonathan’s commitment to transparency and openness in the conduct of government business, names of the key members of his delegation were announced a day before his trip to Ndjamena.

“As can be easily verified from the complete list of members of the Presidential entourage to Chad which was also circulated on Sunday and never changed, Senator Sheriff’s name was not on it. The only other persons on the list were the President’s aides, security personnel and journalists.

“The APC and others who rushed to condemn President Jonathan for a non-existent indiscretion would have found, if they took the least trouble to double-check, that there was absolutely no factual basis for their accusation.

“The totally erroneous basis for that charge was the spurious claim that Senator Sheriff accompanied President Jonathan on his recent trip to Ndjamena as a member of his entourage.

“Those who associate with Senator Sheriff know that he has longstanding interests in Chad and often spends a lot of his time there. He happened to be in Ndjamena at the time of President Jonathan’s visit and joined other Nigerian residents of the Chadian capital in coming to the airport to welcome their President.”

A rights activist and lawyer, Mr. Morakinyo Ogele, said the Presidency might have denied that Sheriff accompanied Jonathan to Chad, but the former governor needed to have been properly investigated so as to stop heating up the polity with the allegation and counter-allegation on the sponsor of the Boko Haram terrorist group.

He said, “The Boko Haram issue is over politicised; the President needs to allow the security agents to properly investigate Sheriff and others allegedly linked with the terrorist group. The Presidency too needs to be investigated if it is confirmed that the former governor is actually the sponsor of Boko Haram.

“And for Sheriff to be gallivanting round the country with over 200 soldiers, it means the Presidency is pampering him.”

Abati’s denial may sound plausible, but the two questions analyst are asking are: Why did the Presidency relax its ferocious criticism of the opposition as the sponsor of the Boko Haram sect immediately Sheriff dumped the APC for the PDP and why has the Presidency not acted on the report by Australian negotiator it hired to secure the release of the abducted schoolgirls?