With a list of six demands, Governor Babagana Zulum greeted a federal delegation that came to commiserate with Borno over Saturday’s slaughtering of over 43 farmers insisting on bringing back foreign mercenaries and employment of the State indigenes into security forces.
The previous Goodluck Jonathan administration utilised foreign mercenaries, including South Africans, against Boko Haram; mainly in the build-up to the 2015 general elections. The mercenaries are believed to have contributed to the successes the military recorded in the few weeks leading to the 2015 general election. The Buhari administration, however, jettisoned the use of mercenaries, promising to equip and empower the Nigerian military to defeat the insurgents.
On Saturday, rice farmers in Zabarmari community in Jere Local Government Area of Borno State.
On Monday, the federal government delegation was led by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who was accompanied by the Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari, the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno and other ministers.
Mr Lawan conveyed the sympathy of the federal government over the killings in Jere even as he reiterated the commitment of the Buhari administration to end the 11 years old insurgency.
But Mr Zulum seemed unimpressed with the depth of the federal government’s commitment towards ending the decade-old war.
The governor, therefore, made six key recommendations to the federal government to resolve the insurgency.
“One of our recommendations as possible solutions to end the insurgency is the immediate recruitment of our youths into military and paramilitary services to complement the efforts of the Nigerian forces,” he said.
“Our second recommendation is to engage the services of our immediate neighbours, especially the government of Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republic, in clearing the remnants of Boko Haram hiding in the shores of the Lake Chad.
“Our third recommendation is for him to engage the services of the mercenaries to clear the entire Sambisa forest.
“Our fourth recommendation is for him to provide the police and the military, with armed resistant armoured personnel carriers and other related equipment.
“We are also soliciting the support of the federal government to support the Borno state repatriation of our displaced persons currently residing in Cameroon and Niger Republic,” he said.
The governor also called on President Buhari to increase federal support for residents of Borno State.
The governor said though the insurgency had dragged on for 11 years, it was persistent because efforts have not been well coordinated.
He described Saturday’s killings and many others as avoidable occurrences if adequate support and infrastructure had been provided for the Northeast and military.
The governor said one of the major reasons the insurgency persisted was due to a lack of critical infrastructure like good roads in the region.
He said the federal government-owned ministry of works had not constructed or rehabilitated roads in the last 25 years “in Borno State and most parts of the North-east.”
“If the federal can fix the bad roads in Borno and the North-east, the insurgency would be reduced by 60 per cent,” he said.
Earlier the Senate President said his delegation was in the state to commiserate with the people over the gruesome and barbaric killing of the farmers.
He said the president was told that some other farmers in Zabarmari were yet to be accounted for at the time of the visit.
“No efforts will be spared, as the government will do anything and everything until we take the fight against insurgency to their enclaves.
“In this regard, the government will continue to provide resources to our armed forces and other security agencies and also intensify bilateral and multilateral operations with our neighbours, particularly to ensure that the insurgents have nowhere to fight when they are chased out of our country.”
The federal government delegation later paid a visit to the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Elkanemi, who also called for more support from the federal government.
Governor Zulum later led the delegation to the attacked community in Zabarmari where Mr Lawan and his co-visitors met and sympathised with the bereaved villagers.
The team of high level officials representing the Executive and Legislative arms of government deliver a message of condolence and solidarity with the government and people of Borno State following the recent Boko Haram killing of 43 farm workers.
The Senate President, Dr. Ahmed Lawan spoke for the team and the Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari representing President Muhammadu Buhari presented a joint message, on behalf of the President, the government and people of Nigeria to the Governor, the Shehu of Borno, and the bereaved Zabarmari community, describing the massacre of the farm workers as the worst form of “senseless, barbaric and gruesome murder,” according to a statement by his spokesman, Mr. Garba Shehu, who earlier in the day caused a stir when he suggested in a BBC interview that the farmers were to blame for their own death.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated the Presidency for blaming the slain farmers, adding that Shehu’s remarks smacks of support for insurgency.
In the presidential message, President Buhari expressed the condolences of the government and people of Nigeria and gave strong assurances of his continuous commitment to fighting insurgency and all forms of insecurity in Borno State and all over Nigeria.
The President committed himself to making more resources available to the military to prosecute the war, adding that he will “work closely with neighbouring countries on bilateral and multilateral levels to ensure that there is no hiding place for the terrorists.
“Nothing is more important than ensuring the security of lives and property of the people. Everything is secondary when security is at a stake.
“As we mourn the loss of our sons in Zabarmari, the Armed Forces have been given the marching order to take the fight to the insurgents, not on a one-off, but on a continuous basis until we root out the terrorists,” said the President.
President Buhari commended Governor Babagana Zulum for his leadership in running the affairs of the state.
At the palace of the Shehu of Borno, His Eminence Abubakar Umar Ibn Garbai, the traditional ruler described as “madness,” the gruesome killings and urged his subjects to pray and offer useful information to the security agencies.
He thanked President Buhari for his efforts in returning normalcy to the state.
“Before this administration came, all 27 local councils and the Emirs had migrated to Maiduguri. We had no power from the National Grid, Telephone services were discontinued and the airport was closed,” he said, commending the President for changing all that for the better.
The delegation was also in Zabarmari, Jere Local Government where the incident took place.
The local Imam, Alhaji Idris who responded on behalf of the community said they were touched by the President’s gesture, saying, “we are happy that the President is with us in our moment of grief. Tell him that we are very happy with him.”
Aside the Senate President and Chief of Staff to the President, the delegation included the House Majority Whip, Tahir Monguno, the Ministers of the Federal Capital Territory, Muhammed Musa Bello, Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, Agriculture (State), Mustapha Shehuri and Works and Housing (State), Engineer Abubakar Aliyu.
Others are National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (Rtd) and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
The PDP expressed alarm at what it termed “the reckless and bizarre attempt by the Buhari Presidency to rationalize the gruesome beheading of 43 innocent Nigerians by insurgents in Zabarmari, Borno state.”
It adds, in a statement, “The PDP is outraged by the Buhari Presidency’s claims that the farmers were killed because they failed to get clearance before going to their farms; a statement, which is also an admission that the Buhari administration has been overwhelmed by terrorists and can no longer guarantee our compatriots a normal life.
“Our party submits that it is weird, reprehensible and repulsive that the Buhari Presidency now seeks to turn itself into a mouthpiece of terrorists by this subtle attempt to rationalize the killing of innocent and hard working Nigerians.
“This unpatriotic stance smacks of support for acts of terrorism and mindless killing of our compatriots by a government whose Commander-in-Chief had promised Nigerians to lead the battle against insurgents from the front.
“Our party is forced to hold that attitudes such as the unpatriotic remark of the Buhari Presidency embolden insurgents in their ceaseless attacks in our country.
“Such also provides further insights into the escalation of acts of terrorism in our country in the last five years.
“It is indeed shocking that the Buhari Presidency has graduated from making bogus claims of having degraded terrorism to the embarrassing point of blaming unprotected and helpless Nigerians for falling victims of terrorist attacks. This, to say the least, is the height of leadership failure of the lazy, lethargic and incompetent Buhari administration.
“It is therefore insensitive for the Buhari Presidency to have shown this huge lack of empathy, which amounts to a spat on the grave of the slain as well as an unpardonable slap on the faces of the generality of mourning Nigerians.
“Perhaps this also informs why their party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has not deemed it fit to have a word of lamentation for the death nor consolation for the bereaved.
“Our party therefore calls on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately withdraw the offensive statement by his Presidency and apologize to Nigerians, particularly the people of Borno state.
“The PDP also restate our call to Mr. President to heed the demands by Nigerians to rejig our security architecture as well as replace his service chiefs with more competent hands in the interest of our nation.”
▪︎Additional reports by Premium Times
