Though nobody wants to admit it openly, there is a determined effort by some people to undermine the general security of the nation and to set Nigeria back in its quest for national integration and progress, by needlessly exploiting the current security situation particularly in the North.
And though the actual motive for the recent trend of escalation of conflict in some parts of the North, especially of the nature of banditry and kidnappings may not be clear for the moment, what is clear however, is that for too long, enemies of Nigeria, both foreign and local, have worked strenuously to ensure that the country remains backward, divided, weak, confused and bewildered by myriads of challenges and problems.
The typology of these unrests, and the dimension that they have taken of recent, leave no one in doubt that there are underground forces that are driving them, aimed at rendering large swathes of Nigeria, beginning with the North, ungovernable, with powerful interests across some states fueling tensions by inciting the public to disobedience in order to achieve certain hidden objectives.
The general and pervasive insecurity currently being experienced across the Northern region and elsewhere in the country can conclusively be said to be part of a mega but clandestine plot spanning several years.
Other agitations and disturbances that have been ongoing ceaselessly since the coming to power of the Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2015, are, without doubt, aimed at rendering the country practically ungovernable, and ushering in of anarchy and instability thereby occasion a change of government by whatever means and tactics.
They are, more precisely, symptoms of the disquiet in the country that has been exacerbated by political opportunism and corruption that are now fighting back the system aiming to halt the war against corruption and reverse the populist tendencies of this government.
The hardships that have been building up since the early part of the Jonathan administration resulting from the massive looting of the treasury and downright theft of the national resources that have exacerbated the recession in the economy as from 2015compounded by the drastic fall in global oil prices have today been seized upon by the forces of reaction to embarrass the government and give it a bad name.
The targeting of President Buhari and singling him for attacks and irreverent treatment is aimed at causing a wider conflict possibly leading to civil war or general unrest that could possibly portend towards the breakup of the country or a change of government.
With the ultimate objectives of these self-service political forces not likely to be met through agitation, propaganda and clamour,resort is today being made to more violent means starting with instigation to uncoordinated, uncontrollable civil disobedience that could lead to more unrest by fanning the embers of public discontent into raging fires of carnage and destruction.
All the above scenarios were played out in 2018 and in 2019 to prevent a successful conduct of elections and the return of the Buhari government to power for the second time.
As buildup to the 2019 elections and soon thereafter, especially in the last few months, the nation began to witness the escalation of hitherto easily manageable challenges like the herdsmen and farmers clashes which have sporadically and intermittently been going on for time immemorial.
No matter from which prism one looks at it, the current spate of killings and widespread destruction are not isolated incidents but are linked to a grand design to destabilize the country, in particular, to bring the North and its people to their knees, by dividing them along artificial lines and creating avenues for violence resulting in heavy loss of lives and valuable resources.
It is important here to draw the attention of the nation that for entries, this land, north of the Niger, has been occupied and its treasures shared by its inhabitants.
From the highlands of Mambilla to the plains of Kagoro andKontagora, to the hills and valleys of Kotorkoshi and Shendam,farmers and herdsmen have called every space their home.
And like many communities across the world, the history of the North is replete with disputes and isolated incidents over land;but the fact that the people have for this long lived together and prospered, is a testimony to how far they have come in accommodating their differences and agitations.
There is today a growing population that comes with a growing demand from grazing and farming added to the effect of climate change and desertification in the far North.
These natural phenomena with roots in the short-sightedness of our leaders who destroyed the areas duly demarcated and gazetted well before independence in order to ensure convenience of herders, while allowing sufficient allocation for farmers, are among the known causes of the current stretch over space.
Today these occasional misunderstandings dating back more than five centuries, which were ordinarily resolved at the community level are being manipulated and used against the Nigerian state and the vast majority of the northern population.
The narratives are today being systematically changed towards assessing and judging the Buhari phenomenon against several incredible expectations and hopes; against fair standards of judgment, including the judgment from his political opponents, against developments and circumstances that no one knew the nation will confront, and even against the failures and abuses the nation is having to pay for from the previous administration.
History is being shamefully reviewed and rewritten to get gullible minds particularly in the North, to forget that prior to the elections of 2015, virtually the entire North was a battlefront, and the nation a hostage of Boko Haram and other criminalities. Today even the North East enjoys a vastly-improved security atmosphere, with Boko Haram pinned to enclaves.
Whereas fellow Nigerians living far away from the effects of Boko Haram/ISWAP may be tolerated if they downplay the significance of the Buhari administration’s successes against this murderous insurgency, those from the North understand what it means, and daily thank God that they had a change of government in 2015, because, without a doubt, the previous administration would have been routed completely by an insurgency that understood that weak political will and corruption had weakened the resolve resolve to fight it.
This conspiracy against Buhari is actively perpetrated with the connivance of some leaders from the North and accommodated by the condescension of those that present themselves as northern political and cultural leaders. It is also a situation that feeds, to a point, on the docile tolerance of the northern society.
Of course, because of the vested interests of certain multinational concerns in collusion with their agents entrenched deeply in top political positions who see the situation as a means to an end, careless Nigerian observers may fail to see the real efforts by government Toto control the activities of bandits and kidnappers in the North, and the assortments of criminal gangs across the country.
And as with any violent movement all over the world, the situation in the North and elsewhere in the country has inadvertently been hijacked, and is now being directed from within, and from without; in its current formation, it is a proxy war for outside powers who plan to balkanize Nigeria.
What is playing out is therefore, far more about the politics of corruption against prudity and of the preservation of foreign multinational monopoly of Nigeria’s economy than anything else.
The danger here is that a monster has been created which sooner or later, may go out of control of their political masters.
Hopefully, however, Nigerians, particularly, northerners, are highly intelligent and resourceful people and can put an immediate end to all of these happenings when their own status is on the line and their livelihood is at stake or threatened.
Abba writes from Kaduna.
