Insecurity: Our refusal to speak truth from beginning worsened our situation – Northern elders

LNorthern elders have blamed the festering insecurity in the country, especially in the Northeast and North West geopolitical zones, on some leaders and elders of the region, who they said saw the danger in the beginning of the crisis, but refused to say the truth.

The northern elders said the attachment of religious and regional considerations in dealing with the crisis was the bane of progress in the war against insecurity, noting that such considerations led them to advise President Muhammadu Buhari against picking security chiefs outside the north.

This, according to them, weakened the zeal with which most handlers of the crisis were waging the war against terrorists, thus emboldening the adversaries.

The elders, under the aegis of Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace and Development, in a statement, yesterday, particularly traced the origin of heightened insecurity in the north to the appointments made by Buhari in the security circle with little consideration for professionalism and proven competence.

“As difficult as it is in speaking the truth, we feel constrained to admit that our quick resort to religious, ethnic and regional considerations led us to advise the President in wrong directions.

“The war against insecurity could have been a thing of the past if we had made good and informed decisions. We believe the complete consideration of our interest in making appointments into security agencies, among other things, led us to this present situation.

“Our decision resulted in deep drop in the pursuit of the war against terrorists, thus emboldened the adversaries on the other hand.

“Many lives and property have been lost and destroyed. Frontline troops were falling every day to a more determined group of insurgents and bandits, but our decision to remain quiet and not say the truth as things were happening, led us to this present situation,” the elders said in the statement.

But in the statement by the group’s National Coordinator, Goni Zana, the northern elders said the wrong advice from leaders and elders of the region to the President in making such decision was the greatest undoing.

To this end, they asked the President to henceforth stop adhering to advice from people of narrow interest and begin to take only decisions that are pro-Nigeria, with a view to correcting the many ills of his administration towards a better country.

To them, such decisions should be immediately reviewed, adding that the appointment of service chiefs in particular should reflect the various geopolitical zones, as well as appointments in other areas of national life.

This, they insisted, would, to a large extent, encourage patriotism and commitment of our forces and the citizens at large.

They added: “We wish to once again raise alarm over the deteriorating state of security in the north. We have been crying and will continue to cry until the situation gets better.

“We are losing it as a country and Mr. President needs to take extra steps before we are consumed, as the rate at which we are going now, if nothing is done within the shortest possible time, we may not have a country to call our own.

“The era of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is over. We cannot continue to dwell in the past; it’s time to move forward now.

“Mr. President must ignore every sectional, regional, tribal and religious sentiments and go for the best hands that can do this job of securing our country.

“As northern elders who are concerned about the peace, security and stability of our dear nation, we wish to appeal to those people of influence in the north who have access to the President to always speak the truth to him, especially in appointments or reforms in the security sectors and others, even if it does not favour our region and religion, provided such appointments will bring lasting peace and unify Nigeria.”

According to the elders: “The idea of always putting first religion and geopolitical sentiments without looking out for professionalism and competence is the reason why we are at this crossroad today.

“And until we put an end to these sentiments, we may be in for a serious problem. Our highly respected traditional and religious leaders must give Mr. President a pro-Nigeria advice and not personal advice.

“We are in this mess in the north today because some people refused to speak the truth.”

The northern elders tasked the President not to look back in correcting his mistakes in appointments into the security sector, saying various geopolitical zones should be involved in the management of the tensed security situation, insisting: “If we continue to make security appointments based on religious and ethnic sentiments, we won’t get it right.”

They, however, urged Nigerians to believe in their country and work for its betterment, “because we have just one country and nobody will build our nation for us.”

“We all have equal stake in the Nigerian project.”