6-11-2024.

I often sympathise with the Nigerian security heads because many of the later day chiefs see the forceful existence of the ruler of the country as their main, or even the only, assignment for being in the office. Hardly do many of them contemplate throwing in the towel when a catastrophic mishap happens during their time in office, unless they are fired or told to resign by the head of the government.

Some of the sit-tight security heads would even blame the victims for ‘allowing’ themselves to be victims in a situation that was not the making of the victims. Such unfortunate event happened in the recent past, where a minister refused to take responsibility for a mishap that claimed the lives of fifteen (15) job seekers who attended a very expensive interview called by an agency under his ministry. The minister blamed the deceased for their death. And that was the end of the matter. Even the illegal sums of money charged the applicants remained ‘eaten’ by the authorities.

In climes where strict adherence to the Constitution is considered a national assignment, security chiefs would tell the head of government to his eyes that ‘what he wants them to do is against the Constitution’, and the head of the government would instantly apologise to them and say something like ‘forget my request then gentlemen’. But it never happens in Nigeria, where almost everyone would want the chance to be invited to eat from the ‘national cake’. The offer is accepted, and eat they would, often with gusto, and insatiable appetite.

The usual suspects in this abuse of trust of Nigerians, and the power of the office, are the Department of State Security (DSS) and the Police Force (PF), whose later day heads consider the protection of the President as their only assignment.

But the present heads of these organisations should ask themselves the whereabouts of their ‘powerful’ predecessors NOW. Most of them are dead, and those still alive are mare statistics to the number of the population in the country. But the nation is even more vibrant today than it was yesterday, populated with millions of citizens who

go about their daily routine with no, or little, knowledge of the ‘powerful’ yesteryears people.

The head of the DSS should ask himself the whereabouts of Alhaji Lawal Rafindadi Katsina, who was the head of the (NSO), the parent organisation of what is today the Directorate of State Security (DSS), the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the Military Intelligence (MI). Alhaji Refindadi is no longer in this world, he is in his grave explaining his earthly deeds. Even after retirement, Alhaji Rafindadi remained both feared and respected by all, including the so called powerful people of that time.

The boss of the Police Force, on the other hand, would do well for his own sake to ask himself the whereabouts of the once powerful Alhaji Mohammed Dikko Yusuf better known as (MD Yusuf), or Ibrahim Coomassie , or Gambo Jimeta. These  ‘powerful’ IGPs are either dead or unimportant, and so unconsidered, in the nation’s scheme of things.

In case the IGP needs reminder, MD was a powerful Katsina prince, whose grandfather was the respected Emir Muhammadu Dikko, whose name the one time IGP was given. To boot, he was also the only presidential candidate who challenged the presidential aspiration of the military leader who, the South West media loved to refer to as ‘maximum’ ruler, because of his no-nonsense attitude, General Sani Abacha. Abacha wanted to do what Nigeria’s ‘MARADONA’, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, failed to do, transmute from military to civilian president.

And late IGP Ibrahim Coomassie was the Sardauna of Katsina Emirate and the Sardauna of Kasar Hausa of the Daura Emirate, two very important chieftaincy titles in the two emirates, thus the country at large.

Pathetic is when some of them are dragged by some future anti graft agencies to explain some of their activities to do with the taxpayers’s money, while they were in office calling the shots. But even without that, it is not exactly edifying to be sidelined in running the affairs of a nation that sycophancy once called you ‘indispensable’.

Good name, not great fortune, will open doors of opportunity every time for the children and great children that you must one day leave behind, whether you like it or not, because nothing remains constant but change itself.

If you forcefully stop the citizens from legally and legitimately complaining about the extreme poverty ravaging Nigeria because of the Tinubu led administration’s economic policies, ill prescribed by the World Bank under the command of the Western Hemisphere, which never hides its extreme dislike for Africa because of the black continent’s abundant God given mineral resources, found beneath its soil, under its waters and on its surface. This information was obtained from several secret meetings held in the capitals of three of the countries that support the constant retrogression of Africa. The countries are, of course, the US, its lap dog, the UK and the resourceless France.

Whether the president or the head of a security agency, you will not be on your ‘powerful’ seat for ever.  No amount of the arm-twisting tactics of the Police State will stop the inevitable . It is definitely in your interest to remember that.

You think that the day will never come when you will be asked by God to explain the many lives that vanished in your dark dungeons? Be assured that God never makes promises in vain, they come to pass, sooner or later.

May God never allow us to regret how we conducted our affairs while on this earth.

Malam Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.