DSS: Seiyefa Out, Bichi In!

By SOC Okenwa…

Early last month of August President Muhammadu Buhari was still on a ‘working’ vacation in London when the then Acting President VP Prof. Yemi Osinbajo abruptly yet shockingly sacked the then Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Lawal Daura. Immediately the revocation was made public Osinbajo proceeded to appoint the Bayelsa-born Matthew Seiyefa as the Acting DG of the state secret police. Many Nigerians at home and abroad had applauded the deposition of Daura, a haughty man seen in many quarters as ‘untouchable’. Daura had grown to become a ‘mini-President’ in the Buhari embattled presidency abusing his enormous powers with impunity.

What must have broken the camel’s back was Daura’s invasion of the National Assembly premises days prior with his hooded goons without any presidential clearance or directive to that effect. That fateful dreadful day was akin to the terrorism of the legislature by an executive accused of incompetence and nepotism. Though President Buhari was said to have approved the dismissal of Daura it was not known if he had sanctioned the elevation of Seiyefa.

Upon his return from London speculations were rife that the General was uncomfortable with the Bayelsa man because of his place of origin! Recently the President relieved Seiyefa of his appointment replacing him with a northerner from Kano state, Yusuf Magaji Bichi. Bichi is said to have retired from the service yet his services were sought to the detriment of those of the then incumbent.

President Buhari has been accused of many things, past and present, but the major one happens to be his sectional nepotic approach to national security issues. Almost all (except one) of the service security chiefs are northerners in a multi-religious multi-ethnic country like ours! There is no way any sane mortal could have defended this indefensible insensitive (if not unpatriotic) measure whose consequencies could expose the fragile nation further towards division and distrust. No Shehu Garba(ge) or ‘Liar’ Mohammed could have convinced us otherwise!

While the explosive general elections of next year could be said to have contributed to the controversial decision it remains to be seen what destabilising electoral role the Aso Rock Lord must have spelt out to Bichi. The Inspector-General of Police did ‘meritoriously’ well in Kano during the 2015 presidential poll delivering more than two million votes to the then opposition candidate now President Buhari. Today IGP Idris ‘transmits’ from Abuja to cities and towns across the federation!

Kano now seems to have become the home of political intrigues and characters! Buhari must have decided that the best way to honour or reward his military hero, the late General Sani Abacha, was by appointing his kinsmen into high offices or using his famous city-state as launching pad of his electoral fortunes. 2 million voters pro-Buhari (or so we are often told) reside in Kano and no opposition dare go there to challenge Buharism!

From all indications it has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt that Buhari is more of a “Fulani Republic President” than that of the Federal Republic of Nigeria he leads precariously. His much-vaunted patriotism has taken a battering in the court of public opinion. He promised security but more Nigerians had been killed in the last three years than any other epoch! He promised to revamp the economy but today poverty is more pronounced among Nigerians than ever before! Naira has taken a pounding never before witnessed!

He promised to fight corruption but statistics abroad indicated that corruption is more penetrating now than before! Though he has waged a war against graft fraught with propaganda we are not faring any better before the international community in terms of fiscal larceny or heist. While millions and billions had been reportedly recovered from looters we are yet to see high-profile raiders of the treasury jailed for playing Mobutu or Amin!

We could not agree more with the hardened position of southern and middle belt leaders. In a statement issued recently Chief Edwin Clark (South-south), Chief Ayo Adebanjo (South-west), Chief John Nwodo (South-east) and Dr. Bitrus Pogu had strongly denounced the replacement of Seiyefa with Bichi concluding soundly that ethnicity and religion rather than merit must have informed the presidential directive (which summarily dismissed Seiyefa and ‘uprooted’ Bichi from the obscurity of retirement unto power at the DSS).

Read also: 2019 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: Assessing the the possibility of electoral fraud

Just more than a month into the job Seiyefa had demonstrated his professionalism and professional capacity to lead the DSS. He had wanted to reform the notorious security outfit left behind by Daura but reactionary forces would not allow him to reposition the Service for more effective delivery of security needs of our people. With his retirement less than a year from now one cannot but wonder why there was an urgent need to recruit a fresh hand, no matter how competent, to head the Department instead of allowing the Southerner to continue till retirement.

President Buhari had shown himself long before now to be anti-Igbo in particular and anti-Southerners in general. Right from when he announced himself unto the national reckoning as the beneficiary of a treasonable coup d’etat against a democratically-elected government of Shehu Shagari decades ago he had never hidden his loathsomeness for anything that has to do with Christians or christianity.

Some months ago the General Overseer, Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo, had lampooned President Buhari for his deliberate inaction towards the Fulani terrorists masquerading as cattle herders. Armed with AK-47 automatic riffles with which they committed arson, mass killings and sacking of whole villages and neighbourhoods the fear of the Fulani cattle breeders has become the beginning of wisdom!

Faced with this murderous rampage the fiery man of God had lamented how the marauders valued cows more that human lives. He declared fearlessly that Nigeria could never become a Fulani Republic and anyone dreaming of islamising the country would be brought down by the power of God!

Buhari as a ‘leopard’ can never change his spot for whatever reason! As Head of State he was reported to have voted against a Nigerian of Igbo descent during the defunct OAU Summit in Addis Abeba in 1985. That sad event could have passed off as the first in history when a leader could have elected dictatorially to vote against the country or countryman he led! But Buhari pulled it off with despotic impunity!

The late Tanzanian President, Juluis Nyerere, was said to be lobbying for the ‘Biafran’, Dr Peter Onu, the then Acting Secretary-General of the OAU but Buhari preferred and voted for his Muslim Fulani kinsman from Niger Republic, Idi Oumarou, who later emerged as the substantive Secretary General to the detriment of the glorified Nigerian!

We hold, like Chief Clark and his fellow elders from our region, that Nigeria is no longer safe as a united country under the leadership od Muhammadu Buhari. Something different and better must therefore give next February.

 

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