"State of emergency rule cannot remove Governors"

Abdullahi Bego is Special Adviser on Press Affairs and Information to Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State. In this interview with newsmen in Damaturu, he discusses what the Yobe State Government is doing to help restore peace, and responded to comments credited to retired General Bamaiyi on emergency rule. Excerpts:

Since the last extension of emergency rule, there has been an escalation of Boko Haram attacks in the affected states. What’s your take on this?
Well, we have opposed the latest extension of emergency rule after having supported it the very first time it was declared back in May 2013. Instead, we had asked for a change in strategy with special emphasis on three planks: Robust equipment and technology support for the military, improved intelligence gathering and capability to penetrate digital communications of insurgents and terrorists and a more robust engagement with the civilian populations of the affected states to further mobilize them on behalf of peace and security.
It is sad that as we speak the hard working military troops and other security agents on the ground in the affected states do not have all the requisite kits and gear they need to subdue the insurgents. Remember that ours is a military which has done wonders in many troubled spots around the world; and they helped to restore peace in places like Liberia and Sierra Leone. They could do even better here at home. I agree that what we face here in the country is an asymmetric warfare. The insurgents do not have known addresses.
Still, there were plenty of missed opportunities when we could have routed and defeated them and brought their senseless violence to an end. I know you guys in the press have followed all the key happenings here in our region. Since the time the civilian population in Damaturu and our other major towns started to use their mobile phones to report to the security agents about the presence of any suspected criminals or insurgents in town, almost all of the insurgents and criminals left town to the bushes fearing the people would expose them. The same thing happened in Borno State with the emergence of ‘civilian JTF’. That was when we started hearing that the insurgents have moved to and are operating from Sambisa Forest.

Now, that’s a known address! Sambisa Forest is a known address. I am not a security expert but I believe strongly that as asymmetric as the current war with Boko Haram is, the very fact that they have been narrowed to a location – Sambisa Forest – where the civilian population close by is not nearly as concentrated means that we have plenty of opportunity to devise more effective strategies to deal with them. I still hope our security forces can deal decisively with them going forward. But, as we have seen, Boko Haram has continued to undertake their ruthless and senseless campaign of violence. Very recently, about 24 of our security forces were sadly killed in Buni Yadi in an encounter with terrorists.
The federal government should do everything it takes to provide any and every piece of hardware and support to the security forces which would help bring this madness to an end.
General Bamaiyi and Niger Delta elder Mr. Edwin Clark have both asked for the sacking of the affected state governors because of the deteriorating security situation....
Mr. Edwin Clark is an ethnic champion who always seems to see things from a narrow, parochial perspective. I wonder if he reads the newspapers or watch TV at all. If he does, he would have formed a better image of the sorry security situation in the country, not just in the northeast alone.
But let’s address the elephant in the room, which is that Mr. Clark wrongly thinks that all this carnage going on happens because some people want to stop Jonathan from contesting in 2015. This is the worst, narrowest view of events that I have heard so far. Mr. Jonathan was voted into office in 2011 by Nigerians, not just by people from the Niger Delta. He is a Nigerian president, not an Ijaw leader like Mr. Clark. Boko Haram started during the Obasanjo era and started to worsen during late President Yar’adua. So, what’s the point Mr. Clark is trying to make?
I think Mr. Clark is simply trying to create a façade.
Bamaiyi’s reference to the time of former President Obasanjo is also ill-informed not just on the questionable legal basis of Obasanjo’s action but also because the situations in Ekiti and Plateau States at the time and Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States now are completely different. To say that emergency rule was declared because the governors of the Northeast states have failed is to suggest that the control of the armed forces and police and other security and intelligence agencies is in the hands of the governors and not the president or the federal government. It is amazing that a retired army general would equate emergency rule declaration in our three states with failure of the affected governors.
Well, for emphasis, I want to state that our governors have not failed. In Yobe State for instance, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam has used every available platform to remind and call on people to support security agents and to remain vigilant in their localities and to pray for peace.
He has also provided thousands of our youth and women with direct employment and employment opportunities to help channel their energies to productive use. And the Yobe State Government continues to spend heavily to provide for the security forces on the ground.
It is the same with the governors of Borno and Adamawa States. They are also doing their part and their best and it is my considered opinion that anyone who truly knows the issues should commend and not disparage these governors.
What are your main challenges in the state now?
We have to provide social services and we are providing to our people and we will continue to provide going forward.
For example, we have made remarkable progress linking our communities with roads. We have drilled thousands of boreholes and sunk thousands of wells to provide clean and potable drinking water.