Three Months without Pay in Imo State
It seems dark days are back in Imo State; those gloomy days when civil servants work without salaries for months. Governor Hope Uzodinma has not given the civil servants any hope in the last three months. Those in departments and agencies have three months backlog of unpaid salaries. Workers in agencies like the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) and Imo State University are gasping for breath. Civil servants in the ministries are still waiting for April salaries. A senior editor with the IBC, Mrs. Ottih Vivian, recently picked up courage to expose the Uzodinma no-salary trauma, but was suspended by the governor. Her letter was thought-provoking. Vivian, a nursing mother, wrote about her pain and starvation brought about by unpaid salaries. She also wrote about her colleagues that had fallen sick without money for medicals. Uzodinma has continued to pummel these workers in the name of doing one useless and unending staff audit. Must people die because a staff audit is ongoing? Today, I challenge Uzodinma to rise and clear all outstanding salaries. The pain in Imo, a civil servant state, is becoming unbearable. Uzodinma should show some human feelings.
I was bemused by the Presidency’s recent announcement that “a major proactive operation” by Special Forces against bandits in Katsina State would soon commence. According to the statement, a planning team has been dispatched to the state, with the mandate to select targets and make preparations for the launch of an “unprecedented operation.” Haba! We are now at a stage where planned major military operations against terrorists are made public. What a country! Now that the bandits know that the Special Force is coming for their heads, I guess they will simply fold their arms and wait for them. That’s what this federal government is telling us. The global standard is for military operations to be discreetly carried out. This type of announcement shows unseriousness on the part of all those behind it. It was simply showboating. The statement also unconsciously advertises that the military had all along failed to approach this war against bandits seriously.
The situation in Katsina State, which happens to be our President’s state, is pathetic. President Buhari and Governor Aminu Masari persistently fail the people. The bandits are roaming freely in virtually all the local governments in Katsina, killing at will. Hundreds have lost their lives in the last five years. Masari has persistently been taking sides. This is why his hopeless amnesty programme for bandits is not working. I will never forget the killings by Fulani militias in Tsauwa and Dankar villages of Batsari Local Government Area on February 14. Thirty people were slaughtered here, with several houses razed and animals burnt. The reaction of Masari, from the comfort of his office, was to say that the Fulanis simply retaliated. This governor pretends to be unaware that those who kill innocent human beings are as guilty as those who retaliate.
Bandits are also ravaging Sokoto, Zamfara, Niger and Kaduna and the killings will persist for a very long time if political leaders and security agents continue to act in support of the warring factions. This is the crux of the matter. What is happening in these states is war between Fulani herders and Hausa farmers, over grazing land. The bandits are Fulani militias. They fight for the herders that want unfettered access to farm lands. Herders often call the militias when they suffer casualties. The Hausa farmers in Zamfara and Katsina also have their militias called Yan Sakai. They retaliate for Hausa farmers when their farm lands are destroyed and farmers killed. I remember Masari saying he had banned Yan Sakai in Katsina State. But he is yet to ban the equally violent Fulani militias.
It is one big mess compounded by politicians and security agents that have refused to act dispassionately. This is why hundreds of lives have been consumed by this disaster. The states mentioned hitherto experienced very tiny crisis between the herders and farmers, prior to Buhari’s emergence as President. But immediately he became President, the Fulani herders were emboldened, because “our brother is now in charge,” and the drive for unencumbered access to farm lands assumed a frightening dimension. Of course, security agents also became partisan. That was why bandits attacked Kajera and Magazawa villages in Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State last Tuesday, unhindered, killing five people. Security agents refused to respond appropriately.
A lawmaker in the Katsina State House of Assembly, Mustapha Jibiya, was apt, when he said the “irresponsibility and insensitivity” of relevant stakeholders was responsible for growing insecurity in the State. The lawmaker said both the federal and Katsina State governments have failed to provide security for citizens, and that his constituents now prefer to call on security forces in Niger republic for help: “My constituents are quick to seek the assistance of the Nigerien troops immediately they are under attack. They feel at home with them and this is because the Nigerien troops will swiftly come to their rescue. It is unfortunate that our people are being killed, yet Mr. President and Governor of Katsina State have remained docile. They have refused to tackle the insecurity conundrum in our dear state headlong. What is wrong with this kind of leadership? After Maiduguri, Kastina is the next slaughter slab in the country.”
I guess that was why Senator Ibrahim Gobir, (APC Sokoto East) said the Nigerian military was no longer capable of saving his people from bandits. Gobir reiterated that his people now rely on the soldiers from Niger Republic to ward off the attacks of bandits whenever the hoodlums struck: “There is no protection for my people in the Sokoto East Senatorial District because of the incessant attacks of the bandits. At least 300 people have either been killed or kidnapped in the last three months. We now rely on the Nigerien Army that is helping us since our Nigerian soldiers have abandoned us.
“When we call the Nigerian Army, whose personnel are a few kilometres away, we won’t get an instant response but the Nigerien soldiers, who are about five kilometers away, will quickly move in and ward off the intruders. At the moment, the Nigerians in Sokoto East are relocating to Niger Republic because they are no longer safe in Nigeria.”