Vice President Kashim Shettima has explained that military solutions cannot end insecurity and Insurgency in the country, especially in the north. Shettima stated this on Sunday, at the Kano Government House while responding to questions from newsmen.
The vice president disclosed, at another forum, that the President Bola Tinubu government would in the coming weeks unveil an initiative to address insurgency and poverty, among other challenges facing Nigerians, especially those living in the north.
Shettima’s comments came as the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), weekend, said 22 terrorists were killed across theatres of operations in the north, while 240 insurgents and their families surrendered to troops in the region within one week.
The troops also destroyed 22 illegal refining sites discovered in the Niger Delta within the same period.
Answering questions from journalists at the Kano Government House, Shettima said, “Unless we want to engage in an endless war of attrition, there cannot be a military solution to the crises in the North-west.”
He said Tinubu was determined to redefine the meaning and concept of modern governance, which would address the root causes of banditry and insurgency in the country.
Shettima stated, “The president is determined to redefine the meaning and concept of modern governance. And the crises we have in the North-west, further associated with poverty and social exclusion, is something that the president is determined to confront.
“In the coming weeks, he is coming up and is going to unveil the ‘Fulaku’ solution. Unless we want to engage in an endless war of attrition, there cannot be a military solution to the crises in the North-west. There has to be a kinetic and non-kinetic solution.
“President Bola Tinubu, in the next couple of weeks, will unveil the ‘Fulaku’ solution, which will address the grievances and the social exclusion of our Fulani cousins in the North-west. He was addressing the root causes of all the banditry and insurgency in the region,”
Shettima, who was accompanied by Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin to commiserate with the government and people of Kano State over the demise of elder statesman, Alhaji Abubakar Galadanci, noted, “The social exclusion is also something that the president is determined to frontally confront and in the coming weeks he is going to unveil the Fulaku solution.”
The vice president was received by Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf, before proceeding to the residence of the Emir of Bichi, HRH, Alhaji Nasiru Ado Bayero, where he commiserated with him on the passing away of the late Imam Galadanci, and expressed Tinubu’s condolences.
From the Emir of Bichi’s residence, the Shettima proceeded to the family compound of the late Alhaji Abubakar Imam Galadanci, where he was received by Professor Shehu Galadanci and Air Vice Marshal Nura Imam (rtd), on behalf of the extended family.
Meanwhile, a statement by the Directorate of Defence Media Operation (DDMO), said 67 terrorists, economic saboteurs, their informants and logistics suppliers were also apprehended within the period.
It stated that over 120 kidnapped civilians were rescued while caches of arms and ammunition were also intercepted across all theatres of operations in the country.
The statement said, “Due to the offensive by the troops against the Boko Haram/Islamic State of West Africa Province terrorists, a total of 240 terrorists and their families, comprising 24 adult males, 79 adult females and 134 children, surrendered at different locations within the theatre of operation with five AK47 rifles, 13 AK47 rifle magazines, 36 rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition, one dane gun, one hand grenade, amongst other item.”
The statement disclosed that within the week in review, troops recovered nine AK47 rifles, 20 AK47 rifle magazines, 104 rounds of 7.62mm special ammo, two dane guns and one hand grenade.
Others include 15 pairs of new slippers, three gallons of premium motor spirit, four cartons of dry fish, food stuff, clothing, three motorcycles, four bicycles and the sum of N15, 200.
It said troops also arrested 13 suspected criminals and rescued 117 kidnapped civilians, adding that all recovered items, arrested suspects and rescued civilians were handed over to the relevant authorities for further action while the arrested terrorists and surrendered Boko Haram/Islamic State of West Africa Province terrorists and members of their families were profiled and documented for further action.
Relatedly, troops of Operation Delta Safe uncovered and destroyed 22 illegal refining sites, 15 wooden boats, 34 storage tanks, 96 ovens and 16 dugout pits.
Troops equally recovered 367,200 litres of crude oil, 27,150 litres of Automotive Gas Oil, 220 assorted rounds of ammunition, six calibres of weapons, three vehicles and 10 motorcycles. They also nabbed 43 suspected criminals within the period.
The statement further revealed that a total of N202 million worth of petroleum products was denied to oil thieves within the period under review.
Deji Elumoye and Ahmad Sorondinki
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Mr Vice President sir, may I disagree with you, as follows:
1. Let it be said that, no part of Nigeria was created, or its peoples born, richer than the other. The status attained by the peoples of those parts of Nigeria who appear richer than peoples in other parts of Nigeria of today, was achieved and not ascribed. Those peoples achieved their status by pulling themselves up by the bootstrap, thru taking advantage of the opportunities offered by that well-known and universally acknowledged engine of social mobility, education, to achieve their current station in life. Hence, when some groups, especially in northern Nigeria, who thumbed their noses at (relevant) educational provisions turn around to complain about their poor station in life, one begins to wonder what they are really talking about? E.g., the special intervention instituted (by way of nomadic schools provided by the generously funded Nomadic Education Commission) to address and improve the uptake of educational opportunities among nomadic Fulanis today stands largely unpatronised, deserted and vandalised; ditto for the Sangaya schools that President Jonathan so laboriously put together all over northern Nigeria. It is well proven that relevant education, when rightly applied, can serve to enhance skills and value addition; and thus improve the productivity of labour. Economist Tope Fasua has estimated that the cattle industry in Nigeria is valued in trillions of Naira; and there lies the irony of the Fulani herdsmen who are complaining about poverty, whilst sitting atop a loadstone of wealth, which they are unable to take advantage of, largely due to their knowledge deficit!
2. Notwithstanding how the different peoples in different parts of Nigeria may have fared in life, truth is that poverty still abound everywhere; and if all poor persons where to take up arms against the State, then there will be so much confusion and bloodshed that the State will be unable to provide the nomadic Fulani herdsmen the little accommodation she today provides them.
3. Furthermore, the poverty argument is rather dubious because the Fulani herdsmen involved in the insurgency all over Nigeria are apparently well armed and coordinated, the sort of organisation, coupled with resources, which poor peoples do not normally possess. However, if for argument sake, we grant that the Fulani insurgency is due to poverty, the truth we know about it is that, it was started by FOREIGNERS , and we were only recently again reminded of that by Representative Sani Yakubu (of the Tangaza/Gudu federal constituency) , who alerted us to the fact that foreign Jihadists from Libya, Mali and Niger were piggybacking on the exploits of Fulanis on ground and were collecting taxes at gun point from his constituents (see: “Jihadists from Niger, Mali, Libya taxing Nigerian farmers — Rep” by K. Omonobi, P. Duru, …, Vanguard News online, 13/07/2023 ; “Fulani herdsmen moving with guns are ‘foreign terrorists’ — Sultan”, by Premium Times Nigeria online, 12/09/2016). And the pivotal question is that, if indeed the Fulani insurgency was poverty-driven, why must Nigeria answer, or be responsible, for alleviating the “poverty” of foreigners?!
4. It is noteworthy that the poverty rationale, did not originally emanate from the “impoverished” Fulanis themselves, but from the Fulani (and northern) elites in an attempt to justify their co-ethnics dastardly acts. Excepting the occasional self-adulating social media posts and the often-chilling interviews granted in the conventional media, by some of the leaders of these bandit groups , we rarely hear from them and do not really know what they want.
5. It is self-evident that a person( or group) who is/ are untraceable, is / are unhelpable; and that is why, in societies with inclusive and welfarist governments, the possession of a fixed address is a sine qua non for receiving help from the authorities, as government must know where to find, and deliver help, to any needing groups or persons. Hence, peoples who live in forests, and are of no fixed abode, should not reasonably expect a government who has not adequately taken care of those who daily supplicate for help at their gates, and offices, to go looking for them in the forests, where they are not even sure they can find them. A people cannot by choice, justified as their way of life, isolate themselves from society, only to later turn around to complain about “social exclusion”. In any case, the “social exclusion” charge is one consistently made by nomadic groups, even in societies with elaborate welfare plans for her citizens; e.g., the Traveller (Gypsy) communities of Europe also often complain about “social exclusion” due to their nomadic “way of life”.
Finally, Mr VP should know that, an army who is on the ascendancy never surrenders or negotiates, and if it ever negotiates at all, it does so on its own terms and from a position of strength. Let us face it, these Fulani bandits and terrorists are on the ascendancy as, they have us by the jugular, because they command large tracts of our rich agricultural belt and have become a veritable threat to our food security; and this situation we have not been able to significantly change in the last 8 years. Hence, before we can start talking about “non-kinetic” options, we should first beat them blue and black on the battlefield, and then offer them a “face saving” but also castigatory way out. Whereas, those who are supposed to know ( like Zamfara-born NTA journalist Kadaria Ahmed ; former Governors of Kaduna and Katsina states, to mention but a few) have told us that these bandits and their abodes are known; whereas, Nigeria is not yet ae failed State, and our Government should hence ordinarily command the biggest brain and sharpest minds, have the deepest pockets, the widest reach and biggest guns, in the land; to such extent should we, with the political will, be able to defeat these bandits before calling for negotiations, on our own terms. And, anything short of this approach will be unhelpful, self-defeating and running around in circles; as the State must now necessarily assert herself.