By Rogers Edor Ochela
For the umpteenth time, Ali AbareAbubakar was at his incendiary best when he decided to stir the hornet’s nest with his write-up titled: “Jonathan’s planned visit to Nasarawa: Dancing on the graves of slain operatives”. Abubakarwent ahead to dress the national leader of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan, in a borrowed robe of an uncaring leader.
The author would have been a bit circumspect in accusing the president nay PDP, at least considering the current volatile nature of the state because that write up amounted to pouring gasoline to the conflagration currently raging in the state.
Quoting former Governor AbdullahiAdamu’s allegation that the Federal Government is behind the incessant communal crises rocking the state is preposterous and shows where his own accusation encapsulated in that article under reference is coming from. It is simply the voice of Jacob, but the hands are obviously that of Esau.
That the Ombatse group has been having a field day unleashing mayhem on the state is an indication of Governor Tanko Al-Makura’s inability to handle the situation as the Chief Security Officer of the state. So, accusing the presidency of insensitivity to the happenings in the state and refusing to act on the recommendations of the Justice Gbadeyan Commission of Inquiry is neither here nor there. It is akin to giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it. And the reasons for my conclusion are not far-fetched.
The legal adviser of the Ombatse group, Mr. Zachary ZamaniAllumaga, while testifying before the commission alleged that the governor was a financier of the group. This is a weighty allegation and may have been responsible for the allegations that the report of the commission has been tampered with. So, how are we sure that Senator Solomon Ewuga, Hon. Harun Joseph Kigbu and Nathaniel Agyo Mesa are not victims of high wire politicking in the state?
The point must also be stressed and orchestrated that the crises gradually swallowing Nasarawa state up would have been nipped in the bud if the governor had lived up to his responsibilities. If the governor as chief security officer of the state is helpless in the face of the rampaging Ombatse militia, why blame the president?
According to reliable sources, when the crisis was at a manageable level; following an attack on Alago ethnic community, the legal representative of Eggon Cultural and Development Association, Barrister S.A Ayiwulu, allegedly filed a petition to Governor Al-Makura; State Police Commissioner; Director SSS; Emir of Lafia, HRH Isa Mustapha Agwai 1, and other security agencies in the state calling for a concerted action to nip the crisis in the bud. The petition was allegedly ignored by the governor and the security agencies, a development that conspired with the governor’s alleged procrastination to assent to resolutions on security matters passed by the State House of Assembly to fester the crisis. So, why not call a spade a spade instead of calling it a shovel?
In the same vein, if the governor had dealt decisively with the high profile personalities implicated by the panel he set up to probe the Alakio crisis, probably the state would have been spared the avoidable agony it is currently experiencing. In the light of this unfolding saga, Abubakar’s red-herring is akin to the action of unruly football fans, who because their team is losing a game would tell them not to miss the leg, even if they miss the ball.
For the writer to conclude that “Jonathan will come to Nasarawa not to bring succor to the widows and children of the murdered security operatives, or even order immediate prosecution of all those indicted but to fraternize with the alleged killers and to dance on the graves of the slain operatives as well as hundred others killed by the Ombatse’’, is to gloss over the reality of the situation on ground.
The truth is that the government is working round the clock to compensate the widows of the slain operatives; this is in addition to the payments made to the widows by the DSS and Police Headquarters last year as compensation after the tragic incidence. He and his sponsors should leave the president alone and ponder on how to navigate their way out of the doom that is starring them in the face as 2015 approaches.
I think the problem of the current rulers of Nasarawa State is the fact that the ground under their seat is caving in following its dismal performance and the high profile personalities that are daily deserting its tattered camp in droves for the PDP. It is on this premise that Nigerians should view their decision to vent their spleen on President Jonathan as simply a case of transferred aggression. How sad!
Ochela wrote from Abuja