“Any insurgency that lasts more than 24 hours, a government official has a hand in it” – the vile dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha.
“Finally, Mr. President has moved out of his comfort zone in the Presidential villa…”
“That is not true! The president has moved on a countless number of occasions from the villa. He is not a recluse like his predecessor. I have even lost count of how many occasions he has travelled to France and London in just two years. That is not to talk of his incessant visits to Lagos…”
“That is not what I mean! I am not talking about medical tourism or visits to see one’s doctors camouflaged as state visit. We are used to that by now. And by the way, why should the president not touch home? Is he a prisoner?
“So you don’t know that presidents are prisoners? Even governors are! They see and hear only what the court jesters and praise-singers milling around them want them to hear. They never can put their ears to the ground. Their eyes, too, no dey see road again, as they say”
“Pity! But that is not what I am talking about right now. What I mean is that Mr. President has finally decided to see things for himself…“
“Where?”
“Benue state, of course! Nigeria’s own Kosovo and Kigali! The havoc the Yankees wrecked on Cambodia and Vietnam is a child’s play compared to what is happening in these modern times in Benue”
“Okay. That is what you meant. Even then, they will only allow the president see what they want him to see. Government officials are something else. Unfortunately, the leaders are the ones who carry the can and bear the brunt”
“Thank God this president is smart. They will be unable to pull the wool over his eyes!”
“Believe me, they still will! No leader can ever be too smart for civil servants; especially in a mindlessly corrupt society like ours”
“You may be right, but my major concern are those military guys. How will they justify the gaping hole they have bored into the country’s coffers if the president is allowed to see the havoc that rag-tag insurgents and terrorists have wrecked on the country, right under the nose of how-many-stars Generals?”
“Bread-and-butter Generals… “
“No! Stop it! Don’t call them that! War is not a child’s play; any war for that matter. Will you go to the battlefield and teach them how best to do the fighting…”
“Why should I? I am not trained for that! Besides, I am contributing my own quota to national development in my own chosen career”
“See yourself! Talk-talk General! You did not even consider the challenges that confront those gallant soldiers of ours on the battle field…”
“I read of some of them like obsolete and malfunctioning equipment; even a total lack of arms and ammunition. But this is a funny country! How dare you send soldiers to the battlefield and deny them the requisite arms and ammunition?”
“It is corruption walking naked in the village square. Some people feed fat on the insecurity walloping the country. It is the pot of soup of people spread across the entire spectrum of civil servants, military officers, the soldiers themselves, traditional rulers, and even the citizens that are at the receiving end of the insurgency…”
“Heartless and wicked people! Blood money! But can’t the government fish them out and punish them?“
“That is, if the government itself is not complicit in the whole thing! Have you forgotten what Sani Abacha said?”
“The dictator?“
“Yes! It takes a thief to trace the foot marks of another thief on a rock. Abacha said if insurgency persists for more than one day, then, a government official has a hand in it”
“And this one has persisted for years…”
“Exactly! Meaning that more than a single government official is involved. It is a huge racket from top to bottom. The war effort is compromised right from the inside”
“And that will be tragic because our people say if the death that is inside the home does not kill, the one coming from outside cannot”
“That must be what the Bible means when it says a man’s enemies are the members of his own house…”
“Exactly! But you don’t even need to travel that far. The recent very embarrassing blow that Ukraine dealt Russia right inside Russia was said to have been aided by the fact that the superpower-nation was compromised right from inside”
“You are right! It is the same fate that Iran suffered lately at the hands of the Israelis. Enemies within are very potent indeed…”
“They determine whether you succeed or fail…”
“Then the starting point should be to fish them out and take them out…”