From John Silas, Lagos
Idris Shuaibu, Managing Consultant, Time-Line Consult Limited, a Peace Ambassador and renowned Politician, has cried out to the Federal Government, local and international communities to come to the assistance of Kaduna State over the deteriorating security situation in the state.
Idris who made the plea in his office in Lagos recently disclosed that about seven local governments in the state are affected by serious security challenges.
“So Kaduna State needs assistance from the Federal Government, Kaduna State needs the assistance of the Inspector General of Police, Kaduna State needs the assistance of the Director General of the SSS, Kaduna State needs the assistance of the Army and the Airforce, so that we will be able to go to our farms, so that we will be able to do our businesses. So many people have lost their lives, so many people have lost their means of livelihood, so many people have lost their businesses, so many people are languishing in the hospitals arising from injuries sustained either from the merciless beaten when they were kidnapped by these bandits, or when they came raiding and attacking the villages.”
Idris asserted that Kaduna State needs more than palliatives, and therefore advocated a marshal plan to tackle the menace. “We need a bit of marshal plan of action, we need a rescue, we need much more than palliatives, we need assistance from Nigeria, we need assistance from well-meaning Nigerians, our able men and women need to come to the assistance of Kaduna State indigenes, because the masses, our parents, younger brothers, our sisters, our grandparents, are living in hunger, they are living in fear, they are living in abject poverty, not because they are lazy but because of the circumstances we have found ourselves. I have a farmland, over 2000 hectares, I planted mango trees, cashew nuts, oranges, papayas, avocado pea, name it, today, I am spending six years without having to visit the place, I constructed two art dam. I used to plant watermelon annually that I brought to Lagos, I take to Port-Harcourt, but today, I used to have 27 to 30 staff, now I have just one, imagine if I don’t have another source of livelihood, I would have been on the ground now. We need assistance, Kaduna State desperately needs assistance from the international community and national community,” Idris pleaded.
He commended the appointment of the new Chief of Army Staff who he said did well when he was the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division of the Nigerian Army but said the problem is not yet over as seven local governments of Kaduna State are affected by insecurity. “We are happy with the appointment of the Chief of Army Staff, a gentleman, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, as GOC he did fairly well in battling the banditry, but have we gotten to the root of the matter, no. and the challenges are enormous.”
Idris advocated what he called ‘Elite National Consensus’ and called on those aiding and abetting insecurity to stop the inimical activities. “Sometimes we just point accusing fingers to government. What are we doing to help in this? Within the rank and file of the citizens there are informants, within the rank and file of the citizens there are goalkeepers, who are keeping the loots of these bandits or their cohorts in the military or the police. Now going back to my suggestion of an elite national consensus, what am I doing that is inimical to Nigeria, I need to tell myself a bitter truth to stop it. About seven local governments in my state Kaduna are having serious security challenge, they are mostly affected by this banditry. If you go to the other parts of Kaduna, the Southern Zaria, or what we now call Southern Kaduna, yes we call it southern Kaduna now, but originally they were called southern Zaria, part of the Zaria Emirate, whether we like it or not, we don’t want to rewrite history. Jaba, Zongu, Kachia, Kafanchan, and a number of others are also having that challenge. Kaduna State desperately needs assistance from the international community and national community.”
On what intelligence agencies are doing to nib this on the bud he said, “You are asking the wrong person. I am not a member of the security personnel or the SSS, but you need to visit Kaduna and have a feel of what is happening. There are locations in the bushes where some of these criminals have camped themselves, when they kidnap people, they don’t keep them in the city, they are in the bush holding them in chain, I am sure you have heard about these people, also they get supplies, where are they getting them, they buy their food, where do they buy their essential items? So they come into town and even when they kidnap people they kidnap on the strength of prior information, informants among us, and back to my argument, the national self- interest that we need to develop, why should I be an informant providing information about this or that so that when they kidnap, they give me my cut, so why should I be a police man or a DSS that will be suppressing such a report?
On his governorship aspiration in Kaduna State, he said, “The Nigerian situation, and the Nigerian political system, do not appear to favour people like me. So when you realize that you are fighting a lost battle, you retreat, it may not necessarily be surrendering, you retreat, and then you also have to learn to choose the battle you want to fight and when to fight that battle. Sometimes when you interrogate, you research, decipher the challenges, and tell yourself, maybe this battle I don’t need to fight it now, may be much later. So that is the situation.”
