This week, President Muhammadu Buhari, basking in the euphoria of his victory at the presidential poll, hosted some prominent traditional rulers in the country at the State House in Abuja.
Of course, before and after their visit, the president welcomed many other people and groups at the Presidential Villa who visited to congratulate him on his reelection.
Expectedly, going to the “Next Level,” the president appeals to the monarchs to augment government’s effort to prevent perpetration of criminal activities in their domains.
This role, of course, is not new to the monarchs who, in some cases, used by security agents to nip crisis in the bud. Agreed, different areas use different traditional methods to control crime and maintain security and these ways are culturally relative.
This, to a great extent, has to deal with pattern of organisation and belief system of the people. When people are bound together by strong cohesive bounds of community consciousness, well tribal transaction, rate of crime can be reduced significantly.
No doubt, prevention and control of criminal behaviour in Nigerian communities have their roots in kinship, extended family and traditional institutional system. Thus, traditional institutions are seen as source of strength and consolation, and essential for moral education, moral endeavour and moral achievement and prevention of crimes.
Unfortunately, in recent times, traditional rulers tend to abdicate their traditional responsibilities of ensuring peaceful, cohesive society and prevention and punishment of crime and delve into murky waters of politics.
This development, no doubt, has to a reasonable degree, dent the reputation and image of the traditional institutions and cause disrespect and disobedience to traditional rulers in many areas.
Yet, the monarchs can hardly, under this circumstance, be blamed for delving into politics. After all, they represent ethnic groups whose members are, in most cases, manipulated by political elite to believe they are suppressed by other ethnic groups.
Of course, in some situations, traditional rulers are used to mobilise support for the political elite, especially during elections, and, in the process, undermine their positions as royal fathers to all.
That the traditional rulers are appointed into their stool by the politicians also does not help in maintaining neutral status by monarchs as they are often expected to the biddings of their political pay masters.
Thus, while the president may have cause to plead with the monarchs to play a vital role of maintaining peace and ensuring security in their domains, it’ll be good to adopt measures to insulate traditional institutions from the firm grip and influence and politicians.
Of course, where it’s possible, the monarchs themselves must refuse to get influenced by politicians and endeavour, at all times, to remain neutral for it is only under such situation that they can discharge their functions, especially the one which the president appeals to them to carry out.
Truly speaking, the president’s appeal could not have come at a better time than now when insecurity has covered everywhere. Involving the royal fathers has become necessary in view of the knowledge they have of their localities.
They, according to the president, “know all the families who harbour criminals and you know those who produce respectable individuals.” And, yes, the monarchs do and this is the time for them to show they do by supporting government to consolidate its achievements in fighting crimes.
In the words of the president, “now, like before, no government can serve creditably without your support.” Therefore, the government will always, as it’s the right thing to do, count on the support of the monarchs and others to fight crimes because the government alone cannot win this fight.
Happily, during the monarchs’ visit to the president, the Sultan of Sokoto and Co-Chairman of the Council, Dr Saad Abubakar, called on all Nigerians to accept the presidential election result as the will of God and pledged the support of his colleagues for the government’s cardinal objectives of fighting corruption, containing insecurity, sanitising the governance machinery, entrenching discipline, hard work and peaceful co-existence amongst the citizenry.
No disappointment in his last lap?
Following his anticipated victory at the poll, President Muhammadu Buhari said he’ll work harder to consolidate on providing security, improving the economy, creating jobs, fighting corruption, building and upgrading infrastructure.
The president said this at the State House in Abuja this week when he received the leadership of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) on a courtesy visit.
He said: “I will try and work even harder than I have done. I assure you that I will not let you down. I pray that my best will be good enough.”
Of course, the president, many Nigerians believe, is a leader with a difference and always means what he says and says what he means. Still, without vowing to continue working for the people, it must be said that leaders must, at all times, seek to serve the whole people, not just the ones they agree with or find to be like them.
Those who truly answer the name of leaders must serve the whole community because it is only by doing so that they tend to have a better understanding of who they truly are.
The president, who thanked members of the ACF for their consistent and dogged support, said he remained appreciative of their goodwill. That goodwill, however, must not be misplaced because Nigerians voted for change and improvement in their conditions of living during the last presidential election.
Arising from that, the belief of every Nigerian is that the change must result in good governance, different from the corrupt and clueless one perpetrated by the past governments.
Here are some of the areas Nigerians would want the president to concentrate his energies on to ensure he delivers on good governance. For Nigerians and, indeed, the international community, the problem of insecurity ravaging the country remains one of the biggest challenges that the president would have to contain with, if he must have anything to call achievements.
Having inherited a country plagued with security problems, citizens do not seem to have patience with the president’s approaches to handling the problems after his first four years in office.
The president and his All Progressives Congress (APC) had during campaigns prior to his assumption of office promised to tackle insecurity, especially the Boko Haram insurgency, but it appears that the president has plenty to do yet in tackling the security challenges in the country.
In the area of the economy, it pays little or nothing to say that the common man has never had it so difficult than now. The president is, therefore, expected to make life easier for the masses through economic policies and palliative measures.
As the president is expected to announce his cabinet members soon, he had earlier disclosed that this time, he would bring on board people of integrity, upright and of high moral standing. This, many believe, could delay the appointment of ministers and the setting up of his new cabinet as the president is said to be looking for the kind of people that he can work with to realise the objectives of his administration in this last lap.
However, there are opinions that people that would be appointed to the cabinet may be his contemporary, some of who he had worked with before.
Although the appointment of members of his cabinet is expected to be soon, probably on or before May 29, his previous appointments into key positions had generated a lot of controversies as many Nigerians, particularly the South-east, say the appointments favour the North and that the principle of Federal Character was not reflected.
True or false, this impression held by some people regarding the manner of appointment by the president must change. Nigerians must all, regardless of where they come from, see the president in this his last term as the president of Nigeria and for Nigerians.
Of course, like the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the ACF Malam Adamu Fika said, Nigerians also pray that those organs of government charged with the responsibility of implementing projects intended to develop the country will double their efforts to ensure that the projects are executed fully, to their logical conclusion, and within reasonable time.
