By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Any time I hear President Muhammadu Buhari and his courtiers gloat over their purported success in national security, I remember Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale The Emperor’s New Clothes.
“Many years ago, there was an emperor who was so very fond of new clothes,” wrote the 19th century Danish author.
It is a fairy tale of an emperor taken in by the antics of con-artists claiming to have the ability to weave a cloth that is only visible to the intelligent.
Of course, no one can see the cloth because there is none; and yet, no one would admit it because – for self-preservation and political correctness – the emperor’s toadies bought the lie until the day he paraded naked through the streets.
No one in the city would admit that they did not see the emperor’s new clothes until a child, in his innocence, exclaimed: “But he (emperor) hasn’t got anything on.”
Thereafter, the people found their voice and one person whispered to another what the child said until the whole town cried out, “But he hasn’t got anything on.”
The most instructive part of the classic tale is that though the emperor quivered because he suspected that the people were right, he, nevertheless, continued with his naked parade, with the flatterers still holding high an imaginary train that never was, because “the procession must go on.”
Like the emperor in Andersen’s classic tale, Buhari has been swindled on insecurity. Or he is swindling himself if truly he believes the debilitating insecurity in the land is the same security he promised in 2015.
It will be a tragedy if Buhari does not know that Nigeria has never been more insecure than it is presently under his watch.
If he knows and yet pretends not to, then Nigerians should never accord him the privilege of marching on, like the naked emperor, with this ghoulish procession of falsehood. I am glad that youths from his home state of Katsina are leading this charge.
On June 9, armed bandits invaded Katsina, killed over 40 civilians, raped many women and abducted dozens of youths and children.
Yet, in his “Democracy Day” broadcast on June 12, Buhari made claims that were patently false.
“Ending insurgency, banditry and other forms of criminality across the nation is being accorded appropriate priorities and the men and women of the Armed Forces of Nigeria have considerably downgraded such threats across all geo-political zones,” he claimed.
“All the local governments that were taken over by the Boko Haram insurgents in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa have long been recovered and are now occupied by indigenes of these areas that were hitherto forced to seek a living in areas far from their ancestral homes.”
Buhari blamed nationwide COVID-19 restrictions for the “recent sporadic incidents with tragic loss of lives in Katsina and Borno states.” That excuse is disingenuous.
And like the innocent child who insisted that the emperor was, indeed, naked, Katsina youths on Tuesday rebuked the president who they accused of living a lie.
The youths stormed Katsina Government House with an unambiguous message to the president and Governor Aminu Masari: “Buhari and Masari resign if you cannot protect us.”
Masari, contrite, seems to have realised the mess inept leadership, including his and Buhari’s, has plunged Nigeria into.
“I don’t know what to tell them. I cannot look at them in the face because we have failed to protect them, contrary to our pledge to ensure the security of lives and property throughout the state.
“I never expected the behaviour and the attitude of people living in the forests – the bandits – which is worse than that of animals,” Masari moaned.
But, unlike Masari, Buhari continues to live in a bubble.
In the June 12 broadcast, he doubled down, claiming that “the total collapse of the economies of these areas, which constituted a threat to our food security, has also been reversed with the gradual recovery of farming and other economic activities.”
Katsina youths demur.
On June 11, the leadership of the Nigerian Youth Congress (NYC), Katsina State chapter, had announced that it would rather protest on June 12 than celebrate.
A statement jointly signed by state Chairman, Aliyu Idris Zakari, and National Director of Sports and Social Development, Aminu Ubale Funtua, accused Buhari of callous abdication of responsibility to the people.
“We are in the rainy season but we cannot even visit our farms not to talk of planting crops. There are no weekly markets in some of the affected areas. Enough is enough,” the youths said, telling Buhari to either tame the monster of insecurity or do the needful – throw in the towel and resign.
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Zone A, also waded into the matter.
“Enough is enough; save the lives of our dear people of Faskari, Dandume, Sabuwa, Batasri and other affected areas. What we want is government’s intervention to stop the killing of innocent people in our dear state, Katsina.
“The number of orphans and refugees is always increasing and our political office holders have left us alone to face the bandits,” wrote NANS Zone A Assistant Secretary-General, Abubakar Bature.
On Tuesday June 16, the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) also joined in exposing how naked Buhari is on insecurity when they protested the killings and wanton destruction of properties by gunmen in Katsina.
CNG Convener, Jamilu Charanci, said the protest was meant to express dissatisfaction over government’s failure to deliver on its primary responsibility of protecting lives and properties and defend the territorial integrity of Nigeria.
CNG Board of Trustees Chairman, Nastura Sharif, said the protest will hold across the North to demand improved security and an end to the killings, kidnapping and wanton destruction of properties in the region.
He also said the peaceful protest was a renewed call on Buhari to sack the service chiefs “because their hold onto power has degenerated to more bloodbaths and security breaches across the North.”
But rather than heed this patriotic call, the Presidency threatened the group even as it claimed, falsely, that no government had done more to entrench the tenets of democracy and freedom of speech in Nigeria than the Buhari administration.
And a day later, the same government that claims to have done more to entrench democracy and freedom of speech in Nigeria than any other arrested Sharif for daring to expose the emperor’s nakedness in a protest adjudged by all as peaceful.
There is no doubt that Buhari is embarrassed by this protest, coming from Katsina youths, who cannot be accused, unlike Igbo youths for instance, of visceral animosity.
But clamping down on peaceful protesters is no solution to this national existential crisis.
So, why would the president persist in self-deceit? For how long will he continue to be in denial?
It can only be because just like the emperor, who decided to continue with the procession even after realising he had been conned, Buhari would rather the country burns than admit he has failed as president.
The good thing is that the people already know the truth, which is, in providing security for Nigerians, President Muhammadu Buhari is, sadly, an unmitigated disaster.