Kidnappers, Boko Haram, Bandits – If I Am President Bola Tinubu
The President is elected as the chief executive officer of the Federation as well as the commander in chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Section 5 of the 1999 Constitution is clear when it provided that: “Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive powers of the Federation:(a) shall be vested in the President and may subject as aforesaid and to the provisions of any law made by the National Assembly, be exercised by him either directly or through the vice-president …”
Specifically, the Constitution provides the president with the power to make other appointments as he may find necessary for the administration of government business.
With special reference to the threats by kidnappers to kill the pupils kidnapped from a school in Kaduna on March 20 if the sum of 1 billion Naira ransom for the pupils are not paid, it is time for president Tinubu to call the bluff of these criminals.
First, as president I will immediately make the following orders:
1. Replace the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, with a proactive person, not necessarily a person with police or military background. I will immediately replace Ribadu with former Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike. Like or hate Wike, he has the mental and physical capacity to lead the fight against all acts of criminality, irrespective of where they operate from. Wike hates failure and does not accept excuses for failure to deliver on a task.
2. All GOCs must hand over their to the third persons in the hierarchy of reporting to them. This is without regard to their rank or length in service. At this time, Nigeria needs young, vibrant officers to lead the war against terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and the Boko Haram.
3. Immediate deployment of super Tucano jets should be put to use to search/locate the locations of the kidnappers of those pupils.
4. Officers of the Army, Air force and Navy should be combined to lead the search for the kidnapped pupils. This should be escalated across all areas of criminal activities across Nigeria. Also, focus should be extended to Benue and Plateau states.
5. A consortium of Nigeria’s top 3 insurance companies should be engaged by the Federal Government to provide a robust, holistic insurance package for all personnel of the armed forces and the police, whether they are actively involved in the war against non-state actors or not. The benefits of officers that die in the course of duty MUST be paid to their next of kin within 2 months of their death. The insured value for any officer must be at a minimum of N20m. Also injured officers should receive insurance payment not less than N5m albeit they are still in service. These payments should not be subjected to prejudice of their retirement benefits or gratuities.
6. The officers should be provided with every logistic that can ease their fight against these criminals.
Finally, about 10 months into office, as executive president, I would have visited officers in the field for as many as on 3 different occasions, in full military uniform as Commander-in-Chief, to boost the morale of our officers. The cardinal quality of a leader is leading from the front.
A manager that repetitively does the same task in the same way is bound to get the same results over and over, and shall continue to fail again and again. President Tinubu, it’s time to unusually think outside the box!
© Onorakpene Eviosekwofa
Email: leviose@yahoo.com
March 15, 2024