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When the news broke last Monday that President Muhammadu Buhari was billed to visit the troubled states of Taraba, Benue, Yobe, Zamfara and Rivers, many people cheered and jeered depending on the camp they belonged.
While those who mocked at the news situated their reason at the lateness of the journey, and the alleged uncharitable words used by Abuja which exacerbated the anger of people in some of the sates.
Those who flayed the belated visits pointed to the President’s love for parties and other ceremonies hosted by his party men even within the grief periods in the affected states.
For instance, penultimate Saturday, the President was in Kano for merriment when the daughter of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Kano State governor, got married to the son of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State.
Observers say that it was probably the rash of criticism after the Kano jamboree that pressured the President to make the visits.
Pundits believe that the sense in any condolence visit is when it is done when the wound is still fresh. They say empathy and visits lose their essence when they come several months after the dead has been buried and “forgotten”.
According to them, such visit would only open old wounds, making the bereaved family relapse into agony.
It was on this premise that the President’s journeys were not well received by many Nigerians.
Someone said it was possible that President Buhari wanted to re-enact the episode recorded in the Bible where Christ deliberately delayed his visit to Lazarus’ home when he was told there was a crisis and that his attention was needed urgently.
The Holy Book has it that by the time Christ got there, Lazarus, his friend, had clinically died and buried for days.
Although Martha, Lazarus’ sister, believed it was no longer necessary for Christ to visit since her brother was already buried, the incident that took place later convinced them all that Christ is never too late.
But that episode may be quite different from what is playing out in Nigeria, particularly as President Buhari has not at any time claimed sainthood or possesses the power to raise the dead like Christ did.
“If he thought that delaying his visit could produce anything worthwhile, he may have missed the mark,” Anthony Passa, an analyst, told BDSUNDAY.
“No matter the explanations the President may try to give, for his refusal to visit the troubled states in the thickest hour of their challenge, such may not be well received by any right-thinking member of our society,” Passa further observed.
Analysts allege that the President refused to listen to the cries of the Benue people, particularly the importunate supplications of Governor Samuel Ortom to Aso Rock Villa. Instead of being consoled, Ortom, who incidentally is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The governor was rather told to admonish his people to learn how to accommodate strangers.
The weeping and grieving Ortom became a bashing boy of some security chiefs who employed rough words against him.
While the state was burying 73 souls mowed down by heartless herdsmen, the who-is-who in APC were in Abuja endorsing the President for second term.
While delivering his moving address on the occasion of the launch of ‘Operation Cat Dance’, Governor Ortom had said: “After we lost over 73 innocent lives on 1st January, 2018 to herdsmen attacks, more lives were also lost in subsequent attacks after the burial. In Zamfara State, more than 40 people were also killed by Fulani herdsmen. This is besides the pockets of killings that have been going on in Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa, Kaduna and many other states across Nigeria. To say the least, we cannot afford to go on like this as a nation. It is for this reason that we welcome ‘Ayem Akpatuma’ and call on all participants in the exercise to see it as crucial in the restoration of the confidence of victims in the country.”
It is difficult to pinpoint the benefit of the ‘Operation Cat Dance’ launch on February 21, 2018 by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Bruatai, as wanton destruction of lives and property is still going on in Benue and other parts of the country.
Femi Adesina, senior special adviser to the President on media, said that there was nothing wrong with the decision of his principal to visit at this time since the presidency had earlier sent his condolence message to the state and victims’ families.
But an anonymous observer said: “The world has become a global village; Nigerians see what goes on in other climes; how for instance, heads of state and presidents of other countries identify with their grieving citizens in hours of turmoil and trial. Even Donald Trump, who is being regarded as a hard man, weeps with his grieving citizens during senseless attacks leading to loss of lives.”
Psychology of condolence
As earlier stated, condolences and messages are most appropriate and desirable when the wound is still fresh.
The visits and show of empathy continue till the burial and all through the mourning period, but after the individual must have been weaned of the heart break and grief; to go back to that episode amounts to dealing an unkindest cut.
And that seems to be the point many people hold against the President. Buhari could have used the momentous moment of the burial of the 73 slain innocent citizens in Benue to make a statement and to tell the people that he is solidly behind them. But he lost it.
Visits in campaign wrap?
When things are not done properly, even the most innocent actions are misconstrued.
Had President Buhari visited Benue State before now, no one would have accused him of playing the monkey with his touted second term ambition. This is a digital age and people read meaning in everything, particularly, leaders’ actions and inactions.
One of those who strongly believe that the visits are part of Buhari’s re-election agenda is Ayo Fayose, governor of Ekiti State.
In a statement by Lere Olayinka, his chief press secretary, Fayose said: “On January 9 and 12, this year, 88 victims of herdsmen were given mass burial in Taraba State. Also on January 11, 2018, another 73 person killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Benue State were buried in a mass grave in Makurdi, the state capital.
“Meaning that in Taraba and Benue States alone, 161 Nigerians were given mass burial within three days! This never caught the attention of our president. Rather, it was a visit to Nasarawa, a neighbouring state to Benue that was important to him.”
Governor Fayose also brought to the fore another apparent leadership gaffe by Abuja.
“While the entire nation, especially parents of the 110 abducted school girls in Dapchi, Yobe State, were still in anguish, Buhari went to Kano, last Saturday, to attend a social function, thus sparking negative reactions from Nigerians”, Fayose said.
Too many errors
The Holy Book talks about those who are “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Expressing sadness over the oft mistakes of the President, a public affairs analyst, who craved anonymity, said: “The President is always committing errors and despite frequent corrections, it appears he never learns his lessons. He goes back and forth into error. He is not always at places were his citizens are grieving; he prefers to be with those that rejoice and celebrate, but leaderships is not about celebration all the time, just as life itself.”
Visits, not enough
Some observers have expressed the pessimism that that the President’s visit may not be able to heal the wounds created by the dastardly acts of herdsmen and the poor handling of the crises by the Federal Government. They are of the opinion that the most honourable thing to do is for the President to come clean on the issue of herdsmen’s menace in the country.
Ayo Opadokun, a pro-democracy activist and former secretary of National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), who spoke with BDSUNDAY, said: “I never imagined that it will come in my life time that the Nigerian security and intelligence will fail abysmally and will pretentiously not to be able to deter herdsmen from killing and exterminating communities from their land and taking over their land and the Nigerian state has failed to be able stop it and stamp it out completely in spite of the loud promises made by President Buhari.”
According to Opadokun, “I even wonder why the Nigerian presidency has led itself to be so distrusted when his own minister of defence, his own interior (internal affairs) and the Inspector-General of Police claimed that the events in Taraba, Benue, Nasarawa and Adamawa were communal clashes. Ordinarily, if there is sense of justice, equity and fairness; in this age, if there was nothing behind it; if there was nothing more to it; if there were no personal interests residing in the Nigerian security and intelligence and the presidency, all those ones ought to have been retired immediately to assure Nigerians that we are still together.
“But come to think of it how will that happen when you have a Nigerian security council where the president who presides over is from Katsina; the director of state security is from Katsina, and you also now have the newly appointed director-general of National Intelligence Agency also from Katsina. With all these, how can other people from other parts of the country be assured that they are safe?”
Zebulon Agomuo
