Femi Adesina is President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity. Just about the time of his present appointment in 2015, the former Editor-in-Chief of The Sun Newspaper and then President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors had described his boss as the new sheriff in town.
I want to believe that Mr. Adesina used the word ‘sheriff’ in a broad American context of what the Cambridge International Dictionary of English defines as “an official, sometimes elected, whose job is to be in charge of performing the orders of the law courts and making certain that the laws are obeyed within a particular COUNTY…”
If so, it may then mean that the presidential media aide was only putting the Nigerian electorate on notice that they had just voted into office a man who has no tolerance for corruption in whatever guise; one who would spare no felon irrespective of their social status; and somebody who would in no time hound criminals and criminality out of town.
Permit me to confess that I had, at the time of his statement, considered Adesina as being spot-on with his assessment of Buhari but only to the extent that he relied on the retired general’s pedigree as a no-nonsense Army officer and former military Head of State.
I like President Buhari, especially for some of his reported exploits as a young Army officer during the Nigerian Civil War. At least, he partook in the fight to keep this country united. I have also read about his doggedness in leading troops to chase some marauding Maitatsine jihadists out of the then Gongola State and right into neighbouring Chad Republic. I as well liked his military junta’s War Against Indiscipline (WAI) which, while it lasted, sought to rouse Nigerians from their ethical comatose. I equally admired his tenacious attempts at winning the electoral endorsement to occupy the Aso Rock Villa.
But as a civilian head of government and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, it is doubtful if Mr. President can comfortably wear the garb of a sheriff. This is because no true sheriff will allow the kind of wanton destruction of lives and property across his domain as is being witnessed currently; not even in war time. No sheriff remains nonplussed for so long without rebuking a lieutenant who chose to conduct proceedings from the relative comfort of a neighbouring state in flagrant disobedience of an order to immediately redeploy to a trouble spot.
Again, no sheriff tolerates bandits, more so, aliens who traverse his territory, openly brandishing AK-47 rifles and other assault weapons while robbing, raping and kidnapping innocent citizens. And above all, no one dares a sheriff in his county, of all places. But Katsina, home state of Adesina’s sheriff, has long been under siege by armed bandits and cattle rustlers.
In these frequent face-offs with terrorists and bandits, Nigerians expect their chief commander and his troops to endeavour to be on the offensive. The people are desperately longing for a respite. Already, many Nigerian households are beginning to lose interest in the almost daily apologies, regrets and reassurances by the Presidency, especially on the heels of avoidable massacres, abductions, rape and maiming of their loved ones.
The citizens have ceaselessly asked for the reshuffling of the nation’s security high echelon among other viable suggestions. The National Assembly, even as it is currently dominated by the President’s party men and other admirers, does not appear to be comfortable with the status quo and has also lent its voice to the call for a rejig of the nation’s security architecture. But all to no heed.
There was, indeed, a period when the anti-terror war turned heavily against Boko Haram, forcing the insurgents to resort mainly to the use of women and children as suicide bombers. Lai Mohammed, Nigeria’s information minister, had, at the time, boasted that Boko Haram was technically defeated and would soon surrender. But the jihadists wasted no time in reversing the order of proceedings.
In the lead-up to the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections, Buhari had campaigned mainly on the three planks of fighting corruption, healing Nigeria’s ailing economy and tackling insecurity. Honestly, going by his anti-corruption mantra alone, I had hoped that the WAI inventor and chief advocate would achieve an early success, to the extent that the ordinary Nigerians would start to display his portrait in their living rooms as a show of appreciation to a God-sent. But no.
Instead, we have a leader who is blaming the courts for being rather too slow in their justice dispensation and thereby causing unnecessary delays for a sheriff who has since positioned to play his role; just the same way that his latest setbacks on the security front are being blamed on America’s recent decision to halt any further arms sale to the country.
Economy wise, the country has reportedly relapsed into another recession barely three years after literally groping out of one. Of course, COVID-19 will naturally be the fall guy here. Or, what else can easily pass for a more cogent excuse?
Finally, it is seriously disturbing to observe that the three main monsters which Buhari vowed to destroy during his presidency are now standing menacingly before him and in the manner that seems to say, Bring It On, Mr. Sheriff! Unfortunately, Adesina’s man is beginning to look war weary already.
Whatever happened to late Major-General Tunde Idiagbon’s former boss and alter ego!

By: Ibelema Jumbo