du Buhari sent his heartfelt condolences to the government and people of Sri Lanka. Anyone reading about the president’s response to the mindless carnage in Sri Lanka would be pardoned to think that killings on such a scale are alien to Nigerians. The truth, however, is that it has become normal to read, if not witness, mass killings involving hundreds of innocent Nigerians quite frequently.
But the chaotic situation in the North-West is a pointer to the weakness of official response to growing insecurity in Nigeria. At one point in Zamfara, the governor, Abdulazeez Yari, threw up his hands in the air in abject resignation. The man who once reportedly relocated to Abuja in fear for his own life and, perhaps, the near-total collapse of governance in his state, said he was no longer the chief security officer of his state.
President Buhari it was who came into office promising to rid Nigeria of insecurity. That was a cardinal aspect of his campaign programme in 2015 and in the months that led to the 2019 elections. But Buhari apparently made this promise and thereafter went to sleep – or went about finding a solution to his own health issues that consumed so much of his first term in office.
A decentralised structure that puts security in the hands of people familiar with their respective communities and states is the right way to go. No question!