The price of speaking up, the tragedy of silence

It has been a little over a week, as of this writing, when General T.Y. Danjuma spoke his mind about our dire security situation and urged the people not to rely on the military to defend them any more because they have been compromised in more ways than one. Instead they should take appropriate steps to defend themselves. The General brushed his head against the hornet’s nest and the stinging came fast and furious.

The lingering chorus for and against from various perspectives have been overwhelming. But Danjuma is experienced enough about what happens to those who choose not to keep quiet when they see things going wrong to expect anything but applause from everyone, especially those who believe that societal interests are best served when we see no wrong, hear no wrong and speak no wrong in how we are ruled. His blunt but responsible speaking is his badge of personal integrity. His latest outing does not soil it or impugn his integrity as a patriot.

It is now almost impossible to dig through the layers of the mostly emotional reactions to his statement to get at the truth of what he said and why he found it necessary to say it at this time and in an area being pounded by insecurity and the consequent wanton killings of fellow Nigerians by fellow Nigerians. The reckless have accused him of promoting anarchy in the land. Of course, when people are encouraged to ignore the channels of security provided by the government for loss of confidence and take it upon themselves to defend themselves, society would be turned into a jungle where the strongest would maul the weakest.

Was this Danjuma’s intention? Given his antecedents, it would be grossly unfair to pin a badge of the anarchist on him. The badge just does not fit. Danjuma, like the rest of us, is obviously frustrated by the insecurity in the land and what appears like the ineptitude of the Nigerian state and its security agencies to arrest the situation and make all of us safe. It takes a man like him to say what he said. I am sure that but for the fear of responding to an invitation from the security forces, not a few of us would make a similar statement. Good a thing, only the courageous speaks truth to power. To put it another way, he said what we knew but were afraid to say.

I picked up these two points from the general’s statement. One, it is an indictment of the Nigerian state. Security is the number one constitutional assignment for our governments at federal and state levels because without it, everything else is a puff of the wind. The inability of the state to do well by its citizens gives rise to anarchy for the simple reason that when the people are pushed to the wall by criminal elements, they have nowhere to turn but to face their oppressors with whatever weapons come in handy for them. The path to anarchy cuts through the lack of will on the part of the state; not through the indictment of the government, no matter how blunt or trenchant the opinion of an individual might be.

Boko Haram has been with us since 2009. It has waxed stronger all these years despite the huge financial and materiel resources spent on defeating them through our security agencies. It just makes you both angry and helpless that the Nigerian state, with all its military muscle, cannot bring a band of insurgents to their knees. The people in the theatres of Boko Haram operations in the northeast, are but sitting ducks. Danjuma, like the rest of us, believes that the Nigerian state has the capacity to win this war but perhaps the will to decisively do so is lacking. Should a man like Danjuma watch all these with his lips firmly padlocked? Not on your life.

The murderous activities of the Fulani herdsmen constitute horrendous security challenges for us and our governments. Taraba, Benue, Kogi and Nasarawa states bear the greatest brunt of the herdsmen killings. They choose when and where to strike and then disappear. All we do is wail - until they strike again. Is it right for the rest of us to accept this as normal in our land and keep quiet in the face of our comprehensive dissatisfaction with government response to their freedom to roam and kill? Should these killings not worry General Danjuma and the rest of us?

Two, the statement was an implied warning to the Nigerian state and its security agencies to take the security challenges more seriously and in a way and manner that wins the people’s trust and confidence in them otherwise the nation might reach a point we pray it should not. If the people do not trust the security agencies and if the people believe, rightly or wrongly, that they too are their problems, defeating the bad people becomes more difficult. Those who feel the heat of Boko Haram and the herdsmen do have reasons to believe that the security agencies are less protective of them than they should be.

I am willing to bet that when the dust settles on Danjuma’s statement and sober heads begin to honestly dissect it, they would come to one inescapable conclusion, namely, that there is a price to pay by an individual for speaking up but there is a tragedy for the Nigerian state and the people when we choose to make silence a virtue when a situation such as this clearly makes it a vice. It is not out of disloyalty for an individual to speak his mind on what he believes is going wrong or even indict the Nigerian state. Our news media are full of abundant evidence that it is not in our character as Nigerians to fear to speak truth to power. A government of the people must be of the people and must make the people feel that their lives matter.

I know of no nation that places a premium on silence as a virtue. Speaking up is part of the freedom that we enjoy in a democracy. I can see no evidence that the Buhari administration is intolerant of views; at least, not openly so. We help the government by speaking up and pointing out what is going wrong. But we deceive the government into deceiving itself when we padlock our lips and let it feel that under its watch, nothing spoil.

Thank you, General Danjuma.