Inside Tinubu’s War Room, Thanks To Bayo Onanuga

By Ikeddy ISIGUZO—

AFTER weeks of commendations for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, despite his inaction regarding the escalating security situation, Senate President Obong Godswill Akpabio moved to introduce a vote of confidence from the Senate.

It was to be the icing on the cake of the President’s ineptitude and his obvious mismanagement of the terrorist attacks in Nigeria, after he had rejected external assistance to fight the terrorists who exploit religion and ethnicity as a pretext.

Akpabio, cocksure and sure-footed, ran into a huge storm in the Senate. How could a discussion of Nigeria’s insecurity begin with a request for a vote of confidence on the President? Senator Enyinnaya Harcourt Abaribe’s question unsettled Akpabio.

The Senate President belatedly acknowledged the question as if it meant anything to him. Who gave the orders for soldiers posted to Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, to be withdrawn moments before the abduction of its 24 students?

Has the Commander-in-Chief done anything about the suspect or culprit? Kebbi State Governor Nasir Idris first expressed his anger about the abduction. Acting on DSS intelligence, he had soldiers deployed to the school.

Ordinary Nigerians have also wondered about that aspect of the operations at Maga, which, from the silence from Abuja, appeared to be part of legitimate orders. The Governor got no answer to the sabotage that cost at least two lives—the school’s Vice-Principal and a security guard. When Senator Abaribe elevated the concern to the floor of the Senate, restraining himself from giving his anger free rein, Akpabio’s antenna picked up signals that the intended vote of confidence for the President, if it were to pass, would be diluted, doused in controversy.

Senator Henry Seriake Dickson had barely started when Akpabio cut him short. Dickson used “the other side” to describe those who supported the President without a critical view of the damage that insecurity was causing, well beyond the immediate locations of the attacks. Akpabio flared up.

“The other side,” he said, suggested that the Senate was divided. He claimed the Senate was one. Akpabio kept interrupting Dickson until he finally had Dickson’s microphone switched off. That is how Akpabio’s ‘one Senate’ works.

He knows what he wants to say and nearly how to say it. “The other side” referred to the members of the Senate from the majority or minority party, depending on who was speaking. Didn’t the Senate President know this? What was so important about a vote of confidence in the President, and for doing exactly what? Akpabio explained that his decision not to make planned trips to South Africa and Angola to attend to security issues at home was enough for the Senate to commend Tinubu.

Akpabio seemed upset that the discussions surrounding the security situation were delaying the delivery of the vote of confidence to the President, which he suggested could be time-sensitive. Senator Dickson issued an official statement after the rowdy Wednesday session.

“I stated that it is very clear that not only our democracy is under threat, but the nation itself is being diminished and threatened. I also disagreed with the approach and tone of the motion, and some of the comments from members of the majority party who, in my view, were unnecessarily political. This, I believed, did not match the seriousness of the issue. “At this point, the presiding officer did not allow me to conclude my comments. But what I was saying was that, yes, as I have said several times, the entire nation is under attack, and we must all unite to address this challenge.

However, I do not agree with the request in the motion, supported by most speakers from the majority party, that the President and the government should be commended. I disagree with it. “I believe that the President needs to be told the truth, and that those with access to him, particularly from the majority party and others, should tell the President the true situation of things.

The seriousness of the matter is such that there should be no sugarcoating or attempts to be politically correct, as that is, in my opinion, unnecessary. “As I said, we are the Senate of the Federal Republic with powers to exercise oversight over the President and the military, including the ministers and the security leaders. And that we must do.

That is our responsibility to the nation and the people of Nigeria who are presently under attack, displaced, traumatized, killed, and apprehensive. They are wondering what their leaders and their government is doing. In the prevailing circumstances, I expressed on the floor a strong objection to the motion of commendation because it is ill-timed, insensitive, and even provocative.

“It is not helpful to the image of the Senate as an institution or to the President whom it sought to commend. If things had been managed so well, we would not be where we are today. “How will the victims, the soldiers fighting, and the families of those killed feel?

“There are members of the National Assembly who spoke in support of this commendation but who cannot visit their communities or their Senatorial Districts because of insecurity and killings. There are members of the National Assembly whose Senatorial Districts are currently under the occupation of terrorists who run parallel governments and impose all manner of taxes on their constituents. How will their people feel?” part of Dickson’s statement read. “The deliberations and resolutions of the Senate must reflect the realities that may not be apparent to the President.

People should avoid hypocrisy: sycophancy, unnecessary blackmail, and eye service. “Mr. President must be told that the nation is at war, as we are losing our security personnel, our citizens, and our territories. Our reputation is being ridiculed, and our democracy and nation are endangered.

The times call for frankness, strong political will, and decisive leadership to act for the good of Nigeria. “I support the resolutions reached by the Senate to begin an inquiry into the circumstances under which the military personnel deployed in Kebbi were withdrawn, and on whose orders, as stated by the Governor.

I also support an investigation into the circumstances leading to the capture of General Uba and his subsequent killing by ISWAP, the way it happened, and how the Army handled the events and the management of his family,” Dickson added.

He suggested that the Commander-in-Chief and the Service Chiefs might be facing challenges the Senate should help address, rather than minimizing the seriousness of the insecurity with a vote of confidence.

For days last week, Bayo Onanuga, OON, CON, an aide and confidant of the President, spoke with the authority of his front-row position about Tinubu’s commitment to ending the terrorist attacks. The President, Onanuga said, was depressed.

This was possibly what Onanuga was referring to when he described that Security Council meeting picture in which Tinubu slouched in his seat. Presidential aides insist the President was in deep thought as he listened attentively to the briefing from his Service Chiefs. The public thinks he was sleeping. Various versions of the picture have been reproduced to confirm the public’s position. Onanuga was also on television to explain why our military cannot attack the terrorists.

“They arrive in large numbers, fully armed, and overwhelm the personnel we have on the ground,” he said. He has joined those who claim that the security agencies know “where all the bandits are.”

He suggests that the terrorists will not be attacked because they are using their victims and civilians as shields. The solution, then, must be to negotiate with them, as Sheikh Ahmad Gumi confidently states, while also warning that the terrorists should be “included in the budget.”

At various times, Gumi has been firm in his demand that the government pay the terrorists and establish a sort of amnesty program for them. We are learning the distinction between “rescue” and “release,” a difference emphasized by the terrorists.

They claim they were the ones who “released” the 24 Kebbi schoolgirls and the 38 Kwara worshippers, emphasizing that “they were not rescued.” How did the victims in both cases regain their freedom? Onanuga mumbled an explanation on television.

“The security agents contacted the bandits and persuaded them to release those people unharmed, and finally, on Sunday, they were able to secure their safe release. “They know the risk. If they keep those people there and refuse to release them, the next thing will be for the government to embark on kinetic action and attack their base,” Onanuga said.

“Why would 12 teenagers go to the farm and just leave themselves vulnerable?” he questioned, referring to another incident and implying that movements should be with the approval of security agencies. Are these the same security agencies that demobilize moments before attacks? “They want to do maximum damage, maximum embarrassment to the military and the police,” Onanuga told Nigerians.

More vexing is Tinubu’s attitude towards the war on terrorists, as evidenced by his emergency measures. Are we to wait for the proposed new recruitments to be concluded before we hit the terrorists? Will more boots counter obvious intelligence leaks, as seen in Brigadier-General Musa Uba’s death and the abduction of the Kebbi schoolgirls?

From the President’s ‘war room,’ Onanuga conveys the belief that the “maximum damage, maximum embarrassment” these attacks cause are “to the military and the police,” rather than to the President, the Commander-in-Chief, or Nigeria.

The President’s ineptitude in managing insecurity crises is steeped in the importance he attaches to winning the 2027 election. His excuses for not attacking the terrorists are driven by fears that he would be branded as anti-North and against religious fundamentalists.

Our laws are clear about what to do with criminals, based on their crimes. Terrorists should be dealt with as the criminals that they are, according to the law, not their region or religion. Tinubu’s re-election is not as important as “the security and welfare of the people,” which, according to Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution, “is the primary purpose of government.” Tinubu needs to snap out of his selfishness and protect Nigeria and Nigerians.

ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues