RingTrue BY Yemi Adebowale
t was heart-wrenching reading the accounts of how terrorists gang-rape and kill women in Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State. While reading, I struggled to hold back tears; tears for hundreds of violated, displaced and traumatised women, struggling to recover in camps away from their original aboard in Tsafe. These devastated women recounted their ordeals in a series of interview granted a national newspaper last Wednesday. I’m talking about our mothers, daughters and sisters being hauled, humiliated and desecrated by terrorists. For most of them, their tears may never dry because they have also lost husbands and children. Hundreds of people have been slaughtered, and hundreds of women and children displaced in weeks of unending attacks by the terrorists in several villages in Tsafe local government.
One of the displaced women, who simply identified herself as Hajara, picked up courage and declared: “They are gang raping us, and if any woman or lady dares to reject their sexual advances, she would be shot dead instantly. Several women were killed for not accepting their sexual demands. A woman was pulled out of her matrimonial home by the criminals. They had wanted to rape her but when she refused to go with them, they began to drag her until when one of them shot her dead despite her husband’s plea.”
A male IDP, who identified himself as Mustapha, recounted the harrowing story of how his granddaughter was shot dead for not submitting herself for a gang rape in a community called Bakin Manya in the same Tsafe local government: “When they shot her dead, they lurked around the community and attacked those who wanted to bury her. The funeral rite wasn’t held there. Her remains were taken to Tsafe for burial.”
Eight days ago, in multiple attacks in seven villages within and around Gusau Local Government Area of Zamfara, the terrorists abducted 33 women and girls. This was after they killed 10 people. The terrorists operated in the villages for almost 24 hours, unhindered. Those that escaped from the terrorists ran to Damba community inside Gusau, where an IDP camp has developed. Here, women (some pregnant) and children sleep on bare floor, with little food for survival.
How can this be happening in a country with a government? There are never repercussions for the actions of these terrorists. They are hardly arrested and put on trial. This is the level beloved Nigeria has degenerated in almost seven years of the Buhari government. Abductions and gang-raping of women and girls by terrorists take place virtually everywhere in the North-west and the North-east; that of Zamfara State is the most pathetic. There is hardly any local government safe for women and children in Zamfara State and other troubled states.
The most painful aspect of the attacks is that the masterminds are known to security agents and governors. In Zamfara, the story is the same, yet Governor Bello Matawalle and security agents are not taking concrete steps to end this madness. For example, the terrorist making lives of residents of Tsafe LG unbearable is Adamu Aleiro. Security agents know him. Matawalle knows him. This bastard has sacked many communities in Tsafe, raping, killing and maiming. Aleiro often extend his madness to Kaduna and Niger states. He is also the mastermind of persistent attacks on communities in Faskari Local Government Area of Katsina State. Recently Aleiro killed dozens of people in Kadisau, a community in Faskari.
Emboldened by the failure of security agents to tame them, the terrorists entered Gada in Bungudu LG of Zamfara State last Tuesday, killed the District Head, Umaru Danbawan Allah and razed his house. Many other residents were killed during the attack.
Matawalle paid huge sums to Aleiro in 2019 in the name of amnesty. This did not stop his heinous activities for a single day. The Zamfara State Governor simply provided him cash to acquire more guns. Matawalle has compounded the problem in this state by heaping money on Fulani militias in the name of amnesty. The day I gave up on Matawalle was when he said “most of the bandits take up arms due to the injustice to them by some members of the society.”
The Zamfara governor adds: “If you investigate what is happening, and what made them to take the laws into their hands, some of them, sometimes were cheated by the so-called vigilante groups. They normally go to their settlements and destroy property and take their animals. They did not have anyone to speak with, so sometimes, they go for revenge. When vigilante groups attack them, they go for reprisals. That is exactly what happened.”
That’s the kinked Matawalle justifying lawlessness by terrorists. It’s a big shame. Yes, Matawalle met Zamfara in a very bad situation in terms of security, but Zamfara deteriorated greatly under him. Instead of settling down to tackle the problem as the state’s Chief Security Officer, Matawalle is busy taking sides. The result is the blood of innocent people flowing freely daily here.
In a related issue, security agents have been persistently indicted in terror attacks across the country. The latest is the one from a group of elder statesmen in Zamfara State. They accused the security agents in the state of indiscriminately releasing arrested terrorists and their collaborators, describing it as one of the factors responsible for the escalation of the insecurity in the state.
The group raised the alarm after a meeting in Gusau. A former member of the National Assembly who represented Zamfara Central constituency, Senator Saidu Dansadau, spoke on behalf of the group: “The committee expresses its dismay and disappointment over indiscriminate release of criminals by the authorities who either arrest them or to whom the criminals are handed over when they are arrested by the military, vigilante group, or any other security organisation.
“We appeal to the law enforcement agencies in the state to, for the sake of God, have a paradigm shift from this indiscriminate release of criminals and resort to arraigning the criminals in the court of law because the meeting identified this indiscriminate and incessant release of criminals as one of the immediate causes of the escalation of criminality in the state.”
Surely, Dansadau and his colleagues know what they are talking about. Those in charge of security in Zamfara State have refused to respond to this grave allegation, meaning that it is real.
The federal government remains a big failure in terms of security for troubled Zamfara people and others in the distressed parts of North-west and North-east. Terrorists roam freely in hundreds and control territories while the government and security agencies continue with so much deceit laced with ineptitude. Security glitches under his government are ceaseless and consuming too many innocent lives. Clearly, the security and welfare of the people have never been on the priority list of this jaded federal government.
Most Nigerians Can’t Afford N340 Per Litre Petrol
The other day, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed was lamenting what she claimed was an average of N250 billion monthly subsidy on petrol and that the federal government could no longer sustain it. She said the costly monthly subsidy was making NNPC’s remittance almost zero to the federation. Government subsequently announced that the fuel subsidy regime would come to an end in the second quarter of this year. The finance minister added a legal angle, saying that the Petroleum Industry Act has a provision that all petroleum products must be deregulated.
The truth the supporters of subsidy removal are not facing is that if Nigeria’s economy is being properly managed, we would not be talking about fuel subsidy removal. Nigeria’s situation with leadership looks hopeless. Is it not depressing that one of the largest producers of crude oil in Africa is still struggling with refining the black gold? The federal government has no business trying to run refineries. A good government will create an enabling environment for the private sector to run refineries. We’ve had governments after governments in this country, and they have all failed to direct Nigeria’s economy in that direction. The masses of the people are paying heavily for these failings. Now, they want them to pay more.
Nigerians will have to pay around N340 per litre of petrol if the so-called subsidy is fully removed. They say the landing cost is around this figure. Now, let’s get it straight. NNPC is the sole importer of petrol. It does it through crude swap. The cost of shipping and duties are responsible for a large part of this landing cost. It is part of the so-called subsidy paid. This would have been avoided if Nigeria is refining locally.
Nigerians are also paying for the corruption and inefficiency of the NNPC, as the sole importer of petrol. The crude swap, through which it does this, is fraught with corruption and wastefulness. This opaque crude-for-fuel swap, now known as Direct Sale, Direct Purchase (DSDP) is clearly skewed against hapless Nigerians and incapable of delivering a fair and competitive petrol price to them. It must be stopped. For me, crude allocated to the NNPC for the swap should be sold and revenue paid into government’s purse. If the private players are the sole importers of petrol, without subsidy, the landing cost per litre will go down drastically.
Proponents of subsidy removal pretend to be unaware that 99 per cent of Nigerians lack the financial capacity for a N340 per litre petrol. They want this to happen in this same country, where the minimum wage is N30,000 monthly. Most employers of labour are not even paying. So many state and local governments are not paying this useless minimum wage. The personal economies of the masses of our people can’t support N340 per litre petrol. Nigeria’s economy is in a mess, with frightening unemployment rate. Companies are collapsing, with millions of people losing jobs. A N340 per litre petrol, with its multiplier effect, will destroy not only the poor, but also the middle class.
Subsidy removal proponents also talk about petrol being smuggled to neighbouring countries because it is cheaper here. So, Nigeria has to sell at a premium to discourage smuggling. This is a weird argument. Nigeria has thousands of Customs men manning these boundaries. These persistently fail to stop the smuggling of petroleum products; yet, these border defenders are still keeping their jobs. It means the leadership of this country has failed. Now, Nigerians must pay for this failure. Our people must pay for the ineptitude and corruption of our Customs men by buying petrol at N340 per litre.
The talk of paying N5000 transport allowance to the poorest to cushion the effect of the planned removal of subsidies on petrol is balderdash and inconsequential.
The long and the short of my Epistle is that the federal government should, for now, perish all plans to remove petrol subsidy. Conditions in this country are not ripe for this. There is so much pain; so much suffering in Nigeria. Suicide rate is on the rise because of this pain. Numerous Nigerians are walking corpses. Many go to bed without meals and wake up not sure of breakfast.
Fuel subsidy removal must be suspended until the Dangote refinery begins operation. A liter of petrol from Dangote refinery can never be anywhere near N340 per litre. With local refining, the additional costs of shipping, port charges and duties, will go off petroleum products.
For those saying the PIA makes it mandatory to remove subsidies on petroleum products, my message to them is very simple: The Constitution of Nigeria supersedes the PIA and clearly states that the security and welfare of the people shall be the priority of the state. Removal of subsidies will be a threat to the welfare of Nigerians. The federal government must respect the Constitution in this regard and perish plans to remove subsidies.
