By Festus Adedayo
Ondo State was in the news for the bad reason last week. A gale of killings, kidnapping and demand for ransom swept through the Akure North and South local governments of the state. Armed assailants were said to have stormed Aba Alajido, Aba Sunday, Aba Pastor, and Ademekun communites of the Akure North Local Government Area. By the time the flakes had settled, deaths, caked blood and destruction dotted the landscape, with weeping, wailing and gnashing of the teeth as the victims and their families’ companions. From 20 villagers allegedly killed, fourteen bodies were said to have been recovered.
This bad news had hardly subsided when on Tuesday, same last week, nine surveyors were also said to have been kidnapped. Reports said they had been working at a site in my village in Ilu-Abo, Akure North Local Government Area of the state. After the abduction of the surveyors, their abductors were said to have made a demand of the sum of N100m to secure their release. This led to protests by individuals, market women and organizations which called on the governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, to face the business of protecting the people which is central to the mandate given him by the people. Earlier, on January 31, along the Benin-Owo-Akure road at the Ifon area of Ose Local Government Area of the state, seven travelers from Akwa Ibom State were abducted by bandits in a commercial bus.
In Nigeria of today, the sad reality is that. no state is totally immune from violence, banditry and insecurity. In virtually all components of Nigeria, countrymen sleep with one eye closed, making the security situation a national affliction that cannot be tackled with rhetoric. With these in mind, no one can totally harangue Ondo State and its authorities for the deluge of violence that aims at the state’s jugular. However, there is a lot to be bothered about when government’s response or lack thereof is tame and perceived to be a reflection of incompetence.
Yes, I am aware that governments in the Third World, try to de-numericize figures of casualties. So, if 20 people, for instance, suffer casualty in a disaster, governments keep the figure down to a tolerable numeral. The mind behind this, especially in Nigeria, is that actual figures could attract national bile towards the government. But, I have hardly seen where governments look at the face of their people and tell brazen lies.
The first indication of tame leadership response to the Ondo State insecurity came from government’s response. Just like Goodluck Jonathan did when the news of the kidnap of the Chibok girls got to him, responding with unbelief that it ever happened, the Ondo State government lived in denial of the calamity for almost 48 hours. Feelers from within it said government believed that the killing took place outside of Ondo State and its political enemies were merely weaponizing the killings by claiming it happened in the state. Their conviction was that this was done for the purpose of embarrassing the state government. Jonathan, I am sure, is yet to recover from the effect of this. When a Chief Security Officer of a state shows this level of absence, it is obvious the state is done for.
Thus, while addressing women protesters on behalf of the governor, the Special Adviser on Union Matters and Special Duties, Mr Bola Taiwo, gave the indication that mental rigour was lacking in the Alagbaka Government House. Taiwo’s response to the kidnapping of the surveyors was to blame them for getting themselves kidnapped. Their specific sin, the adviser said, was that they went to the site without security protection.
“We shall speak with your leaders if they have reported the incident to the police. If they have not, they should go there and report, that’s when the government would act. Nowadays, surveyors going to the site should go with police escorts. If they do, no gunmen would abduct them. No one can kidnap anyone without internal collaborators,” Taiwo said. He also told the women to return to Ilu-Abo and pursue their demand for the release of the surveyors. “You shall now go back to Ilu-Abo and cry out that those who abducted the surveyors should release them. No Hausa or Fulani man can come to Ilu-Abo and kidnap without the connivance of one of the natives. It is your people that kidnapped the nine surveyors. We will meet with your leaders and discuss with them,” he said magisterially.The same adviser was on a radio station to continue this doggerel verses which incensed the people of the state.
In saner clime, after that statement, Taiwo should be history in government. When a government hires an adviser who speaks this vacuously and leashlessly, then you need not look further as to why there is paucity of rigour and vision in the activities of the government. The appointive authority should be blamed.
However, the good news is that Governor Aiyedatiwa has sworn to do the needful. At a press conference thereafter, he talked about procuring drones to fight the bandits who seem to have convoked on the state. God bless the soul of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu. He led the establishment of the Amotekun security network in the southwest and ensured that his state reflected the frown of Yorubaland against invaders of whatever extraction. Now that Aiyedatiwa has the knife, can he face the smoke, pull out his chestnut from the fire and govern Ondo State? It will be a calamity if Ondo State perceives that it has an accidental governor. While you need small luck to become a governor, plenty brain is needed to administer it.
•Dr Adedayo is a lawyer, social critic and columnist.
