By Kazeem Akintunde
There has been no love lost between Bello Matawalle, former Governor of Zamfara state, who is presently the Minister of State for Defence in the administration of President Bola Tinubu, and the man who took over from him, Dauda Lawal.
To those who may not know the nitty-gritty of their tiff, which many may attribute to their different political orientations as they both belong to two different political parties – Matawalle is a chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC), while Lawal is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and they both got elected on the platforms of their respective parties – the duo’s deep-seated hate for each other is not a hidden thing. They are determined to wreck each other politically in order to gain total control of the state.
Although they could be said to be of the same generation age-wise, the present Governor is older than his predecessor with a clear four-year difference. However, enmity between the duo is rubbing off negatively on the young state.
In Nigeria, where politics is local, both politicians are pointing accusing fingers at each other as the big masquerade behind bandits and terrorists who are having a field day in Zamfara State. Just few days ago, Lawal announced that he has evidence that linked his predecessor to bandits’ activities in the state and that those sensitive information have been passed to President Tinubu as well as the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu. He promised to make his findings public soon. He alleged that Matawalle is in bed with many of the bandits operating in the state as their sponsor, and that he even lodged some of them inside the government house in Gusau when he was the Chief Executive of the state.
Matawalle has also alleged that Lawal was the ring leader coordinating activities for bandits in the state and dared him to swear with the Qur’an if he is not one of the leaders of bandits in the state. He defended himself by saying that he accommodated some of the bandits in the government house when he was the Governor in good faith so that the bandits would lay down their arms in order to restore peace and stability to the state.
With such weighty allegations flying around, it is now a clear case of ‘no smoke without fire’, an indication that many of our leaders are sponsoring and benefitting from banditry in their states. We still have a long way to go in our quest to defeat banditry and terrorism that has held on to the soul of the country for the last 15 years.
It was former military Head of State, Sani Abacha, who once stated that if insurgency lasted for more than 24 hours, senior government officials are involved. Nigeria’s war against banditry and insurgency has lasted for more than a decade and we do not need any soothsayer to tell us that our leaders are involved.
The last time I was in Gusau in 2017, there was relative peace but indigenes watched their backs and hardly ventured out of their homes after the evening prayers. Even as at that time, there was nothing much one could point at as a landmark achievement for a state that was created on October 1, 1996, and shares boundaries with Sokoto, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger States and Niger Republic.
Since its creation, Zamfara State has been governed by one military administrator and four Governors, with Lawal being the fifth. Jubril Yakubu, who was appointed military administrator when the state was created, handed over the reins of government to Sani Yarima, who was in charge for eight years. His landmark ‘achievement’ was the introduction of Sharia law in the state. According to him, that was what his people wanted. Education, good health care service, motorable roads and infrastructural development were not on the priority list of those in Zamfara. Expectedly, Sharia law in a multi-religious nation like Nigeria soon became a minus for Yerima.
He left the government house in Gusau for the National Assembly in Abuja, following his election as a Senator representing Zamfara West. With the Senate more like a retirement home, Yerima found comfort in the bosom of a 14-year-old Egyptian girl who became his wife.
But the Sharia law he introduced in Zamfara state soon divided the country along religious lines, as many Christians kicked against it. That did not stop many Northern States from introducing Sharia law in their states.
The then President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, who did not know how to handle the matter rightly termed it ‘political shariah’, but allowed the northern states to have their way.
With a huge land size of 39, 761 square kilometers and a population of 5.8 million inhabitants going by 2022 estimates, the state began attracting mainly the undesirables due to it thick forest and the presence of gold and other solid minerals such as Copper, Iron ore, Tantalite and Manganese in its bowel. But the gold field in Zamfara was the main attraction for many illegal miners who swarmed on the state like bees. While they employ the locals, paying them peanuts to dig out the raw gold, the field’s proximity to Niger Republic ensures that illegal arms and ammunitions are not in short supply. Again, the thick forest provided ready-made home for many undesirables. That was what laid the foundation for banditry and terrorism that the state has been battling till date.
Soon enough, war lords emerge to provide security cover for the illegal miners. But after learning the ropes, many of the war lords chased away the foreign miners and took over their field. However, they soon discovered an easier way to make money – through kidnapping and banditry, than digging for gold. Why wait and agonize in search of gold when you can easily kidnap people and demand for ransom?
Now, Zamfara State is essentially a crime scene with a quarter of its territory effectively in the hands of bandits and terrorists. Farming, which was the main occupation of most people in the state has been negatively impacted as farmers can no longer tend to their farms in peace without the fear of being kidnapped or killed. In some local communities, they now pay protection fees to bandits and share proceeds of their farm with terrorists during harvest.
Yet, a former Governor and the present Chief Executive of the state are engaged in a show of shame, accusing one another of being involved in banditry.
In spite of the sordid tales coming from the duo, Tinubu sits comfortably inside his Aso Rock Villa, believing that nothing is amiss. Now that Lawal has revealed that he has provided evidence linking the former Governor to bandits, hopefully, Tinubu and the National Security Adviser will act on it. However, Nigerian have lost so much hope in their leaders that most suspect that the matter will most likely be swept under the rug. Will Lawal be ready to swear with the Holy Qur’an that he is not a bandit kingpin in the state?
A human rights activist in the state, Abubakar Dahiru, has filed a suit at a Federal High Court in Abuja, seeking to compel the Federal Government to investigate the alleged link between Matawalle and sponsorship of banditry in the state.
Cited as 1st to 3rd defendants in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1434/2024, which was brought before the court by a Zamfara state-based human rights activist, Abubakar Dahiru, are; President Bola Tinubu, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, as well as the Inspector General of Police.
Specifically, the plaintiff, through his counsel, Mr. Ojonimi Apeh, is praying the court to declare that “the 1st Defendant (Tinubu) herein must give directions to the 3rd Defendant (IGP) to investigate the activities of bandits and kidnappers in Zamfara state and in particular the allegations surrounding the Minister of State for Defence, Hon. Bello Matawalle about banditry and kidnapping in Zamfara state to secure and/or restore public safety in Zamfara state.”
Jolted by the Court case, the Defence headquarters last week, issued a statement to the effect that both Matawalle and Lawal are being investigated and that those behind banditry would be brought to book. I wish them luck.
In all the roforofo fight between the duo, the peace and progress of the state may remain a mirage as Lawal would now be pre-occupied with the task of bringing Matawalle down rather than steering the affairs of state. Already, several groups in the region are calling on President Tinubu to drop Matawalle from his cabinet. Lawal on the other hand, enjoys immunity as a sitting Governor and it may be difficult to get him out of office. While the two gladiators fight it out, the peace and progress of the state suffers.
Our security agents should be commended as they are doing their best in tackling crime and criminality in several parts of the country up north but they have to be more decisive in rooting out the terrorists out of our land.
Even with victory on the battle field, we may still not win the war if we continue to pay scant attention to education and poverty eradication that is ravaging the North. For as long as many see education as unimportant and harmful in their lives (Boko Haram, which literarily means ‘Books are forbidden’), we will still have a long way to go in changing the orientation of many of our northern compatriots.
A complete reform of the education sector in the North, tailored to their peculiar needs that would incorporate Qur’anic education should be on the to-do list of their leaders in order to quickly tackle the out-of-school menace which we are told affects more than 10 million youths. If we continue to dilly-dally with education in the North, we are simply playing ludo with the future of Nigerian youths in particular, and the nation in general.
This is because those untrained youths would continue to be ready tools in the hands of leaders who, due to their selfish interests, turn them into political thugs, bandits and terrorists in their own land.
See you next week.
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