Between Danjuma, Namadi and the Gospel of the self -defense, of H …

In a tête-à-tête with journalists last week, the Governor of the State of Jigawa, Urar Namadi, openly disagreed with the retired general Teofilo Danjuma, former head of the army staff and former defense minister, for his advice on the Nigerians, to defend ourselves against the citizens of Coconut Mercato.

Namadi said: “He (Danjuma) is a very elderly security person and should be respected. But if he says that citizens should be allowed to defend themselves, I think you are causing anarchy”. Ty Danjuma, of all people, being accused of causing anarchy?! How time changes things!

The weekend before, in a meeting organized in honor of his workers in Takum, in the state of Taraba, Danjuma told staff, partners and companies that work with him that citizens should not bend their arms and allow bands and terrorists to invade their communities.

“We cannot continue to sit down and look while bandits, terrorists and criminal gangs massacre our deselected people … Now it is very clear that the only government cannot protect us. We have to get up and defend ourselves, our families and our lands before these criminals have invaded the entire country,” he said.

Ty Danjuma, described as “a soldier soldier” by the former president Muhammadu Buhari, was a supporter not sorry for self -defense.

In October 2022, he made the same call to Wukari, in the state of Taraba, to the official presentation of the staff of the office at the Wukari Ku Uka, Manu Ali, where he complained that the Nigerians had taken his previous call in 2017 to defend their land from terrorists for the concession. And so, he appealed to Aku’s Uka “to unite us to be able to defend us effectively from the enemies of the country”.

Exactly seven years ago, at the ceremony of the inaugural convocation of the Taraba State University of Jalingo, the capital of the state, Danjuma said: “The useless murders, which is a target for the ethnic cleaning of the people of Taraba and Nigeria in general, must stop”, asked the people to “defend themselves and defend against the killers”.

“You have to get up to protect yourself from these people; if you depend on the armed forces to protect you, you will all die,” he said.

The presidency, the army that once headed and the Nigerian police scolded him on those statements. The Nigerian army established an Investigative Committee, to which he replied: “In 2017, when I invited the people to defend themselves, the army established a changing commission of investigation to investigate and said I was lying because there were no evidence”.

But what has changed between then and now?

According to a report by the Punch newspaper, 23 areas of the local government of Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi are under the control of the bandits. The farmers and residents abandoned their farms and their communities, while the unfortunate ones have been massacred, their women taken away.

The bandits appoint the leader of the community in many communities, with the residents who have reported homage and taxes.

In the state of the Niger, five local governments are inside the socket of the bandits. It is equally terrible to Katsina, where the communities were forced to negotiate with the bandits for relief by their attacks. In the Faskari area in the state of Katsina, 32 communities have been abandoned due to incessant attacks of bandits, according to a survey in the leadership newspapers.

The bandits can assault a marriage place and ask that the bride be delivered to them – a question that people obey quickly. Sometimes, they call a father to bring them his daughter or husband to deliver his wife or wives. Refusing to respect is dangerous, since no one can protect you from the consequences that can arise.

Who can, when the military barracks are not exempt from their attacks? From the plains of Sokoto to the Dunes of Borno, to the hills of Taraba, the terrorists in various forms dominate. Rejigh ten kilometers out of Maiduguri and you may never be seen again. Even today, the roads that connect the capital of Borno to other areas remain unused due to the risk of meeting them.

When examining all the besieged communities carefully, a common thread emerges: most of the inhabitants were docile, allowing in an embarrassed way to the predes to treat them as they satisfied. Instead of defending their lands, property, integrity and families by facing the brigands frontally, forcing them to return or dying in the process with wounds on the front, they turn the tail and run away-mullets of which they died from the wounds on the back.

I often mention two communities in the north-east who were at the top tip with Boko Haram and emerged victorious.

When Boko Haram attacked the city of alar in the state of Bauchi, instead of curling up, the residents fought courageously. Those with vehicles came across them, while others, despite having been affected, chased them until the last of them was sent to God for the final judgment.

The same occurred in Biu, in the state of Borno. The entire youth population came out to face Boko’s haramites when they invaded the city of Yamtar Ola until the remaining insurgents realized that it was safer to flee from the hilly city. For the insurgents, avoiding these two lands of the brave is the beginning of wisdom.

But who is Ty Danjuma that the governor Namadi is feeling that he does not bring anarchy to Nigeria? When Namadi was born on April 7, 1963, Danjuma was a second lieutenant and a platoon commander in a peace maintenance force of the United Nations in Sante, province of Katanga, in Congo. In 1966, when the governor was three years old, Danjuma not only his career, but also his life being at the forefront of the counterproup, nicknamed the “revenge of July”, who aimed to avenge the North, a region that Namadi now wanted to see the development.

Between 1967 and 1970, he fought to preserve the unit of Nigeria. You could accuse the Nigerians who have fought to preserve a united Nigeria of many things, but not of lack of patriotism – and in fact not to cause anarchy.

Former president Bohari, who fought in the Nigerian civil war under Danjuma, said that at a time when Danjuma could have been the head of state following the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed in a stroke abused in 1976, sacrificed for the country.

Unlike many generals who have benefited from the country’s housing, accumulating billions for themselves, Danjuma, through legitimate corporate companies, has used its profits for the benefit of the communities, including tertiary institutions.

Certainly, the apologies are expected from anyone who accuses a figure like General Ty Danjuma, as Governor Namadi did.

In an era in which the generals contribute to millions to pay the redemption for the release of one of theirs, what will become of us, ordinary mortals, if we do not get together and organize to defend ourselves?

■ Hassan Gimba, AniPr, is the CEO/publisher of Neptune Prime.

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