Zamfara killings: Memo to Kadaria Ahmed (Opinion)

By Charles Ogbu.

Dear Kadaria,

I just watched a video clip of your #March4Zamfara. First, I must commend you for calling attention to the deteriorating security situation in Zamfara state. What is happening in that state and most states in Nigeria proves that our country is currently being led by a President and Commander-In-Chief whose rank as a General in the Army ought to be investigated. Our silence over it is nothing short of a moral tragedy.

But there is a part I don’t understand in that video clip of yours. And that is the part where, while being interviewed, you described the Zamfara State governor, Abdulaziz Yari as “The most useless governor in the history of Nigeria” (your exact word) for failing to curtail kidnapping and banditry in the state.

Forgive my ignorance, dear Kadaria but between a President and Commander-In-Chief who controls the entire security agencies and a State governor who has no control over his own police commissioner, who better deserve that tag of “The most useless leader in the history of Nigeria” with regards to the Zamfara Security problem?????

In case you’ve forgotten, Madam, in 2016 when the Fulani herdsmen complained that thieves were rustling their cows in that same Zamfara, it was not governor Yari that acted to stop cattle rustling. It was President Muhammad Buhari who donned a military uniform for the very first time since leaving power in 1985 to launch a special military task force against CATTLE RUSTLING.

In case, you’ve forgotten again, during the reign of President Goodluck Jonathan, each time Boko Haram struck in the Northeast, it was always President Jonathan you, Kadaria Ahmed, blamed for not using his power as commander-in-chief to stop the activities of the terrorists. You never for once blamed any governor of the affected state. Not once.

So, what has changed??

Why are you suddenly shifting the burden of securing Nigerians from the President and commander in Chief who controls all the security agencies to a state governor whose personal security can be withdrawn by the President???

This is double standard on your part, dear Kadaria.

May I remind you that as a journalist, you are in a contract with the Nigerian people and part of your obligation in the said contract includes informing, educating and entertaining the public in a way that is completely devoid of your personal prejudices and biases. You can support your favorite politicians. It is no crime. It is not even unethical. What is unacceptable is you using the platform offered you by the Journalism profession to twist news and information with a view to misinforming the people just so you can protect your favorite politicians like you just did in the video clip under review.

And sadly, dear Kadaria, this is not the first time you are using your official position as a journalist to ‘afflict the already afflicted masses while comforting the already comfortable Politicians’.

In the course of the debate for the just ended 2019 Poll, you had the opportunity of grilling the President on the security situation in the entire country but you chose not to even when security of lives and property is the number one duty of any government.

In Kaduna state where a man, Mallam Nasir Elrufai, married to your sister, is the governor, you have never spoken out against the mindless killing of the Southern Kaduna people by Fulani terrorists herdsmen neither have you ever condemned the one-sided arrests your brother-in-law governor is carrying out against the people of Southern Kaduna. Even when the governor publicly admitted paying the killer herdsmen, you didn’t say a word in condemnation. As I type this, the people of Southern Kaduna no longer sleep in their homes. Yet, in your video clip where you mentioned states with security challenges, you conveniently omitted Kaduna state.

Why??

Do their lives not matter?

Quite frankly, dear Kadaria, people like yourself make the Nigerian media look like a ‘Cash-And-Carry’ affair instead of the fourth Estate of Realm the Constitution recognised the Press as.

There should be a time when we show loyalty to our friends and favorite politicians but there must never be a time when we do that at the expense of truth, integrity and fairness to both man and God.

May peace be with you, Madam Kadaria.