Tackling insecurity; the Zamfara example
We have consistently argued that Nigerian state governors are not powerless in mobilizing their environment to ensure peace. The last one year and more have been horrible for residents of Zamfara State. Killings, raids and burning down of towns and villages became the order of the day.
If only the leaders of the state preceding the present ones had applied their minds to the real issues, violence would not have escalated to the point of war. Nigeria had to deploy fighter jets to try to stifle warring factions of devilish bandits. The crisis in Zamfara had a period it was minor and manageable, but leadership failed at the time.
For us, the present Zamfara governor, Bello Mattawale has demonstrated our stand about security management at the state level in clear and straight forward manner. After becoming governor he immediately set out to solve the problem by initiating community-level social integration strategy to resolve the conflict. He probably took permission from President Muhammadu Buhari to initiate dialogue with bandits.
Today, the story is different. Unlike the immediate past governor who out of exasperation or plain incapacity “resigned” as chief security officer of the state and called for state police, he obviously did not know or have a solution to the conflict.
To make matters worse, residents of the state often criticised him for being an absentee governor. He almost always lived in Abuja. It is only fair, communal clashes can only be resolved by a community dependent governor.
Mattawalle took the initiative to do something different from the booming of guns and jets. Before the terror of bandits went berserk, Zamfara State was a sleepy and peaceful place of farmers and herders.
The conflict no doubt led to the collapse of both social and economic activities in the state.
The banditry also created serious division between herdsmen and Yan’sakai, who are mostly Hausa.
The Fulani, who were termed to be bandits restrained themselves from attending weekly markets across the geographical area known as Zamfara for fear of attack.
The unfortunate development however forced Fulani to confine themselves to the forest, without having any interaction with the inhabitants of urban towns, where they used to engage in business activities.
Apart from the Fulani herders, even women who used to hawk milk developed trepidation in having free interaction with the people in the urban areas for fear of Yan’sakai.
Something was to change. The Sharo cultural festival demonstrates the test of endurance and bravery in a most dramatic way. It is celebrated by the Fulfude speaking nomads, commonly called the Fulani and found along the northern parts of the countries that make up West Africa, spreading from Nigeria to Senegal.
It is a major event usually held twice a year within the settlements and eagerly anticipated by participants and audience alike, both national and international. The main attraction is the raw display of endurance.
The first of this festival happens in the dry-season during the guinea corn harvest and the second, during the Muslim festival of Eid-el-kabir.
It is commonly held in an open place, like a market square, and for a week, commencing with several forms of entertainment as well as the maidens dance, performance by minstrels and tricksters. The high point is of course the flogging sequence.
The governor has reintroduced these cultural practices which are the essence of the people. These are practices that help encourage social interaction and evolution. Before then, he engaged with the various warring factions and reached a truce and like magic, guns stopped to boom. Traditional rulers who were collaborating with bandits were removed, among other peace building initiatives.
Peace has returned to the state. Zamfara which was seen as another outpost of Boko Haram is now peaceful. This is a lesson to other governors that they have a lot of powers to ensure that their states are peaceful and prosperous. It is not until governors have state police will they be able to bring peace to their people.
Today, there are still security challenges in Kaduna and Katsina States. Katsina is trying to adopt or expand the same strategy. We wish them well. Kaduna appear recalcitrant. Although, security agencies have helped in taming the intensity of the crisis there. Other governors should look for avenues to ensure their states are welcoming for economic investments. While state police is bad, is it not states that can pay workers salaries that can fund the police?