Obasanjo's letter: Slam the 'Omniknoweth' writer, but act the message

- By Omogbolahan Babs

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC report in 2004, over 50,000 Nigerians lost their lives in the first four years of Obásanjó's administration. Facts are sacred! Social media was not pronounced then. We recall the killings under Obásanjó as a corollary of the introduction of Shariah laws in the north. We remember the #Odi killings. We equally are not oblivious of the #ZakiBiam massacre. We remember the many unaccounted killings that hallmarked Obásanjó's rulership. The Bola Ige, the Marshal Harry, the Alfred Rewane, the Suliat Adedeji of this world and many other deaths of prominent Nigerians all under Obásanjó's administration.

Yes! Obásanjó has every right to speak on the state of the nation. He, like every other Nigerian has equal stake in the entity called Nigeria. Obásanjó however has not said anything different from what other concerned Nigerians have raised. He has only reiterated the concerns of many. The hoopla about the insecurity today is because of perception. And it is as a result of this perception that children born in the 1990s who perhaps constitute the larger percentage of the social media users need to be schooled on history lest they are fed with distorted facts. Funnily, Obásanjó in his years of letter writing, from the days of Babangida, Abacha, Abdussalam, Yar'Adua, Goodluck and now to Buhari never wrote to himself while in power for 8 years!

Just like I responded to former vice president Atiku Abubakar on his Twitter handle, @atiku on the issue of the ubiquitous insecurity, the duo of Obásanjó and Atiku had all the opportunity in this whole wide world to prevent the ugly trend we face today. Having been ravaged by military interregnum for decades, his administration would have unbundled the security apparatus of the country. He would have given state and community policing prominence. But no. Rather, he alongside his vice, Atiku, would go on to build Bells University and American University of Nigeria respectively even as sitting president and vice president. They would prefer to build their empires than serve the nation. But the duo have the temerity to speak. Nigeria is a funny enclave.

Perception like I said, is a big PR idiosyncrasy that needs to be managed with utmost care and meticulosity. The Presidency and its media team have NOT faired well in this regard. The country's information management crew - National Orientation Agency (NOA), National Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) among others have either all been technologically indolent not to explore the social media to drive government policies or they are mentally lackadaisical. This whole Fulanization perception is being promoted by people like Obásanjó himself. Buhari on his part has allowed this to thrive with his 'I-don't-bloody-care' disposition. It has therefore lent more credence to the demonization and stigmatization of a whole ethnic nationality as criminals.

Obásanjó did not say anything knew. These ills have been with us for ages. They are now made more prominent because we have a Fulani man at the helm and his deafening silence gives more credibility to the suspicion in the public glare. We have said it time and time again, a centralized police cannot secure Nigeria. A Hausa man does not know the terrain of the Yorùbá land more than the locals. Neither does a Yorùbá man understand the topography of Igbo enclave more than their own. It is time to give state and community policing a shot. Armed robbers, assailants, arsonists and all other evil perpetrators now hide under the incognito of 'Fulani criminals' to execute their nefarious acts. Or when last did we hear of major robbery?

The fear that politicians might abuse state policing, especially state governors is not enough to allow the insecurity go on unchecked. When we get to the bridge, it is said how we cross it will not be a problem. 'Tí ó bá tó àsìkò àti su, fùrò á là' in Yorùbá parlance. The suggestion by Obásanjó for another national confab is misplaced. We have had about ten (10) of them. The APC in 2016 also went round the country in a similar agenda. Yours truly equally submitted a communique and even presented same in Abuja at a conference organized by the APC and attended by the party's ad-hoc committee on restructuring chairman, Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State. We must therefore look at how we can have abridged version of all these different conferences and come up with agreeable solutions, not wasting the scarce resources on another confab.

The Presidency should deal decisively with the security situation in the country, one of which is to address the issue of our porous borders (I will come up with a write up on this soon). Obásanjó's letter is not entirely bizarre. It is equally tilted to President Buhari's June 12 speech, paragraph 65k. A secured nation is a prosperous nation. Where there is implosion, there cannot be any meaningful development. Where occurs conflagration, no one is spared, not even the rulers. Ó dì gbà!

Omogbolahan Babs (ÒGBÉNI CZAR™) writes from Abuja