I was disappointed, surprised and embarrassed to hear the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) urging President Muhammadu Buhari and Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami, to reverse the suspension of the internet–telecommunication networks in Zamfara and Katsina states.
Are you (SERAP) not ashamed of yourselves? Were you there when the people of those areas were maimed, killed, massacred, burnt alive, etc. in their towns and villages? Are you aware of how the irrigation lands and seasonal farming were made impossible for years due to the bandits’ activities?
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Tell me, what solution did you offer from your end to bring a lasting solution to the banditry in the states? Did you ever assist those people in need who ran helter-skelter for their dear lives?
The present measures introduced and adopted by President Muhammadu Buhari appear to be good and in order. The president is using the best language the bandits, robbers and the kidnappers understand. (“shege ka fasa,” a Hausa proverb – meaning, only an unworthy son will decline the fight).
It has been established that the bandits and their accomplices have not been operating in isolation. They had loyalists, collaborators and other irresponsible people on their payroll assisting them to carry out those atrocities!
Couldn’t SERAP prove beyond reasonable doubt that they are not acting on behalf of their agents who carried out businesses and accessed their revenue? Wouldn’t the service providers already estimate the loss of billions of naira they would have during the shutdown?
SERAP should note that the issue of national security is the prerogative powers of President Muhammadu Buhari who has the right to stop by all means what affects the lives and property of Nigerians, as well as protect the territorial integrity of the country.
Negotiation and consultation processes have been employed and adopted with the bandits but all fell on deaf ears. Now, they are paying the price of peace no matter how many billions of naira would be lost in the process of crashing the bandits!
As the accountability apparatus of the people, I call upon SERAP to start counting the losses of those who died as well as the consequences experienced by the network providers with a view to telling the government how bad the economy would be at the end of the Zamfara/Katsina conflicts.
Abbati Dankanti lives in Gumel
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