By Godwin Etakibuebu

WE laid the foundation of this topic earlier with the Holy Bible’s counsel on the need for acquisition of knowledge [Hosea 6:4 and Isaiah 5:13], which says people without knowledge shall perish. In evaluating the position of our own President Muhammadu Buhari vis-à-vis “the danger of not knowing” last week, l mentioned two events.

The first is the President’s statement in London on Wednesday, April 11, 2018, while meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury; Justin Welby, where he exonerated Nigerian’s Fulani Herdsmen from the killing of thousands of Nigerians across the country, mostly in Benue, Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa, Edo, Delta and Enugu states. Instead, he blamed the late Libyan leader; Muammar Gaddafi, as responsible for the killing taking place in Nigeria. We concluded last week that blaming Gaddafi seven years after the man died in his country for what is taking place in present-day Nigeria is evidence of “not knowing,” total “lack of knowledge” or “glorification of ignorance” on the subject matter.

The second is the President’s admission in Markudi, the Benue State capital, on Monday 12th of March, 2018, that he did not know that the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, did not carry out the order he  gave to him on January 9, 2018, to relocate to Benue State and remain there till solution to the genocide taking place there was settled. This genuine revelation of “not knowing” by the President is more embarrassing.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari

The President gave the order and went to bed, so it seemed, or worse still, he did not monitor his IGP on how effectively he was complying with the order given to him. Meanwhile, the IGP,  maybe, knows that his Commander-in-Chief lacked the instrumentality of monitoring him or believes that the C-in-C did not mean the order to be carried out, went to Benue State, spent a night, and returned to Abuja the next day.

He would have been back in Abuja on January 10, 2018, remained there till March 12, 2018, when the President made the revelation that “I did not know that the Inspector-General of Police did not obey my order” in Markudi. Though the President might have admitted “not knowing” with a level of sincerity; that does not remove from the shocking embarrassment of having a leader who lacks knowledge.

Let us come to synergize the relationship of both episodes of “not knowing” or “lack of knowledge” displayed by our President in the above captured scenarios and use them as perimeters of evaluating the danger such portend to the citizenry. Let us start with his claim that Muammar Gadaffi was responsible for invasion of Nigeria by Fulani killer herdsmen.

Yes, it is embarrassing because the President had earlier admitted at home that the killer herdsmen and those being killed “are brothers” when he received in audience delegates from Benue State at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. His Minister for Defence inadvertently admitted that the killer-herdsmen are Nigerians when he said that “the immediate cause of recent killing was the blockage of the herdsmen’s route for grazing.” The Inspector-General of Police corroborated this when he said that the “immediate cause of the killing was the anti-grazing laws of some states.” He was obviously referring to Benue and Taraba states’ anti-grazing laws.

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, admitted that the killer herdsmen are Nigerians. The group threatened during a World Press Conference in Abuja that “we will not obey the anti-grazing law of Benue State” when the latter’s State House of Assembly enacted that law, adding that it would “go to war.”

It is for these reasons and many others that the President’s claim that the late Muammar Gaddafi of Libya was behind the killings in Nigeria; a killing coordinately carried out by a well-organised and sophisticatedly-armed Fulani herdsmen, shall remain mockery of knowledge into eternity.

The second admission of the President of “not knowing” what his IGP did with his order, ordinarily ought to attract sympathy for the President, for some reasons. First amongst these reasons was the fact that he genuinely told us what happened. Another reason for sympathy should be by considering the President’s age and his fragile health. We can count thousands of reasons why the President need to be “judged mercifully” on this admission.

Yet, however, any way we look at this issue, our collective tomorrow as a people is at stake, the liberty of unborn generations is being compromised, the place of functionality for posterity is being endangered, as long as we have a leader who does not know for whatever reason.

So, as we draw the curtain on this topic, we need to do a thorough soul-searching or embark on proper voyage of discovery on what we actually want to do with ourselves now, what future are we charting, which place of identity in safe-landing are we preparing for our children; mostly those unborn, and finally, what place of judgment is posterity preparing for us, for having seen but lack the temerity to do the right thing.

If we have a leader that “does not know” and is not willing to know, for whatever reason or reasons, and if this person is unfortunately surrounded by “unknowing” sycophants; such a leader definitely would be lost at the end, but not without consigning his people to perpetual and permanent peril, penury and total annihilation.