Governor Ortom, this thesis cannot fly (1)

Governor Samuel Ortom, you see even when you cry, right? At least people in the culture I come from believe that is the case. They mean that no matter how emotional we are, no matter how overwhelmed we are with challenges, we must not lose our sense of reason – that sense of good judgment. I have seen you as a man of reason, a man who, in the face of the violent attacks on the people of Benue State, only voices his concerns as any leader should. But you have crossed that line, now feeding in different territory and here I draw your attention to that.

In an interview you gave during your recent trip to the United States, you said that you had done a study. Based on this, you have expressed a point of view which, for me, has further blurred the conflicting narratives that some are offering regarding Nigeria's security challenges. Note that in any academic setting, a study includes a statement of the problem, objective, investigation conducted, results, analysis, and conclusion that can be generalized, sometimes up to a point. These elements of your thesis on the nation's security challenges as presented in the interview are fraught with internal inconsistencies and your analysis is too generalized. I will come back to it. First, I set the context for my submission.

Many prominent figures in Nigeria publicly express views that are more toxic than the worst toxin. Their points of view are so narrow that one wonders if they really mean what they say. One thing is certain, it is that they are sometimes blinded by a form of feeling. Some scholars, religious leaders and politicians fall into this category. Their views have negative implications for the nation; they cause considerable damage because some of our peoples take their word for law. So if we don't put under the microscope what they say, they will continue to tear the fabrics that hold people together, poison the minds of Nigerians against each other and destroy the nation.

For example, some say that as religious leaders they should not be held responsible for the misbehavior of the faithful. Nobody does. Yet one might ask: in publicly expressing such views, what then is the job of religious leaders who distance themselves from the very people their religion compels them to behave properly? Such religious leaders say something contrary to what the founder of their faith ordered. The founder of their faith says his duty is to people who don't behave properly, not those who do. These religious leaders are essentially saying that a main framework that all societies depend on to hold themselves together is no longer relevant in the case of Nigeria. To whom do we turn then to make the citizens behave? Opinions that are not well thought out thrive when no one questions them. Governor Ortom, your thesis to which I will return is the latest.

In this climate, we have also heard from academics reducing the entire security challenge we face to a single non-state actor. They say this non-state actor swears to take their land, so in their submissions the impression is given that every attack, especially in southern Nigeria, is caused by a non-state actor. This submission was made in a country where some of us had commented on the overall security issues we have faced since the start of Boko Haram and since killings were first reported on farmland involving herdsmen and farmers in the southern parts of Kaduna State.

Years ago, people in the southern sections of Kaduna and many parts of southern Nigeria spoke so loudly about what was happening on their farmlands. Locals spoke of encounters with herds that ate their crops but whose herdsmen escaped. We have heard of the occasional murder of a farm owner or a shepherd. This was long before it escalated into retaliatory attacks in the southern sections of Kaduna State in particular, and these have been widely reported. In your thesis, which I will reveal again, Governor Ortom, you claim that none of this ever happened.

As I often say, when the analysis of a problem is wrong, the proposed solution will be wrong. It's one of the reasons we are where we are in this nation. Governor Ortom, your claim rhymes with the opinions of some in southern Nigeria who are predisposed to place feelings above reason, imagination above reality. For example, we have followed the trajectory when incidents on farmland spilled over to shepherds accused of committing kidnappings. Meanwhile, in southern Nigeria, criminal elements among the local tribes reported criminal elements using shepherds to guard kidnapped people.

It should be noted that these local criminal elements are not mentioned in the stories when crimes occur. On the contrary, the other tribe was perpetually suspected. When people at a church in Owo, Ondo state were killed this year, there was a dramatic episode when an academic deduced that some members of the 'other tribe' were sending a message to take someone's "part of territory". However, the official investigation shows...