SECURITY FILE: KATSINA -GUNS EVERYWHERE – PEOPLE AND POWER Magazine

By Ben Okezie

Politically anointed candidate who eventually wins election as governor, usually turns out to be very powerful, not only financially but also politically, economically and socially, as well as in other areas, except in the spiritual sphere.

These further buttress the notion that a governor in Nigeria is like a demigod. So, if a governor sends an invitation to either an individual or a group, they would religiously heed the invitation with all seriousness. History is replete with records of political, religious, or military leaders who had led their troops to fierce battle and abandoned them to be massacred. It is the same with religious leaders whom their followers trusted and revered. An example is the Reverend Jim Jones, the founder of a San Francisco-based religious group known as “Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ.” According to record, he invited his followers on November 18, 1978, and promised them a utopia: “Divine principles. Total equality. A society where people own all things in common, where there is no rich or poor, where there are no races.”

Sequel to his promise, he urged them to drink a concoction that was later discovered to be poison, leading to the death of 900 innocent worshipers in a secluded jungle.

It was such tragedies that the Federal Government of Nigeria ought to avoid after hearing the official statement of Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari, calling on residents of the state to arm themselves and confront bandits because he thinks the security officials alone cannot tackle insecurity in the state. He was not done.

Masari opined that the number of security personnel was not enough to tackle the situation: It’s Islamically allowed for one to defend himself against attack. One must rise to defend himself, his family and assets. If you die while trying to defend yourself, you’ll be considered a martyr. It’s surprising how a bandit would own a gun while a good man trying to defend himself and his family don’t have one.”

As a governor, Masari is the political leader of Katsina State. This means that citizens of the state who voted for him do not only revere but also believe in him. After all, it is argued that, since religion is the opium of the people, politics can also be related in such a context. So it is agreed that politics is the opium of voters who go into a frenzy when their candidate is campaigning. No wonder he was instigating them to confront the ruthless bandits, being aware that they would become martyrs.

When the bandits were infiltrating Katsina and perpetrating all kinds of wickedness and evil and even extended these mayhem to all the North-West states, comprising Zamfara, Kaduna, Sokoto and Kebbi, did Nigerians not watch some of these same governors posing with the bandits and snapping photographs while another governor was reported to have travelled to an unknown venue to hold a meeting with them. Have they regretted their actions? So, Masari has suddenly realized that the existing manpower of security agencies in his state cannot cope with the avenging bandits, yet to provide arms and ammunition for security agents has been difficult. Surprisingly, the governor can afford to promise every family firearms, thereby littering Katsina State with guns. One, therefore, wonders from which purse the governor is going to get funds to buy guns for every man, and from which gun market. Severally, the governor has consistently argued that the strength of security agencies in the state was low. How can 10,000 armed policemen not be capable to flush out these bandits in Katsina State, yet just two thousand armed troops could face the terrorists in Afghanistan?

In a memo to the American President, both General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, said they had personally recommended that the United States maintain about 2,500 troops on the ground in Afghanistan. So, where did Masari get the idea that the combined strength of the Nigerian military and police, if well equipped and renumerated, was incapable of flushing the bandits out of just a state when 2,500 American troops were able to tackle terrorists in an entire count.

It is the consequences of his politicization of the security situation in the state that bothers many Nigerian observers. Should 10 million able-bodied men in the state acquire guns, many would become lawless and may be tempted, if they are unemployed, into crime. Arming an illiterate with guns is not only dangerous, it would later result in mayhem. Also, by this pronouncement, the governor is clearly telling the President that he has failed to secure his own state. Unfortunately, we have just a few months into campaign and election season. The question then arises: does Masari, a former legislator, actually mean well for his people? Like Reverend Jones who promised his followers a utopian kingdom, so is Masari promising those who voted for him free guns to protect themselves, probably without adequate training, despite the constitutional fact that he should use the tools of government, that is the police, to adequately provide security for the people of Katsina State.

It is even more surprising that the governor religiously reminded the people that “It’s Islamically allowed for one to defend himself against attack. One must rise to defend himself, his family and assets. If you die while trying to defend yourself, you’ll be considered a martyr.”

If it is the free security vote that the governor wants to freely spend as “security palliative,” then he has missed it. When was the last time the security situation in the state was tabled for discussion with all the security heads in the state as to warrant buying guns for everyone in the state? What prevents the governor from holding an emergency security meeting of retired senior security personnel to dissect the insecurity in the state and proffer solutions, after all, it is their state and such service is known as patriotism.

lf Nostradamus (the man who saw tomorrow) were to be a Katsina son, he would have advised Governor Masari that where he is venturing into is simply inviting calamity.

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SECURITY FILE wishes to congratulate the exemplary, humble, committed and dedicated police couple recently promoted as Commissioners of Police. Congratulations Compo Mr. and Mrs. Kehinde Longe. They are our police couple of the year 2022.