Expectedly, since the news of the arrest of the Yoruba Nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho broke on Monday and the story about the federal government’s move to extradite him to Nigeria from Benin Republic keeps filtering in, many groups and individuals have questioned government’s recent hounding of separatist agitators while bandits, herdsmen and militias that have been terrorising the country keep getting away with their atrocities.
In a statement entitled ‘The reported arrest of Yoruba Nation crusader: Pursuing the shadow, not the substance’, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, said “The same government that is suddenly effective in the cases of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho had never been able to capture kidnappers, bandits and Boko Haram that are daily ravaging us, turning Nigeria into a sprawling field of human carnage.
“They take ransom. Innocent school children are paid for. Where is the same government when kidnappers are demanding that the parents of kidnapped children should now be feeding them in their kidnap dens?”
Several Yoruba groups, the Middle Belt Forum, the Pan Niger Delta Forum, the Ohaneze Ndigbo and many others have also taken a swipe at the federal government over Igboho’s arrest and the apparent lopsidedness in the handling of insecurity challenges facing the country for decades now and other national issues.
Often, we have heard people in government assure and reassure the citizens that measures were being taken to address the security challenges which have claimed many lives and made many refugees in their own land. Yet, there is no evidence of such efforts.
At other times, they create the impression that the bandits, kidnappers and the insurgents in certain parts of the country are faceless even when some governors from that zone are seen taking pictures with them and Sheikh Ahmed Gumi, the self-appointed mediator between bandits and the federal government visits their abodes at will.
Meanwhile, the same government that seems helpless in tackling these problems in the North shows the stuff it is made of whenever a similar or even less severe situation arise in another part of the country. We are all witnesses to how the Nigerian security forces quelled the recent uprising in the South Eastern part of the country, killing and arresting battle-hardened members of the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the military wing of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
So, while some insurgents in one part of the country who have made the country a living hell for many people are handled with kids’ gloves, some other criminals and freedom fighters from other parts of the country are fished out both within and outside the country and dealt with. If that is not hypocrisy, I don’t know what else to term it.
However, while we oppose the hypocrisy and lopsidedness of the government in addressing security concerns in the country, we should not engage in the same hypocritical act by failing to condemn anti-constitutional deeds irrespective of whether we share the same faith, origin or political inclination with the perpetrators or not.
Some of these non-state actors apparently have spewed certain rhetoric that were capable of threatening the peace of their states, regions and the nation at large. They might be seen as freedom fighters by many people but in the eyes of the government they are a threat because some their words and actions were not in conformity with the law of the land. Is it within the rights of any citizen who feels marginalized or aggrieved to make any demand? Of course, the answer is right. But shouldn’t such demands be made in line with the constitution of the country?
The same way we want President Muhammadu Buhari and the security forces to uphold the constitution in addressing banditry and insurgency should be the same way we fight to ensure that the government prosecutes its job with the non-state actors who have employed non-constitutional means in pursuing their demands.
As alluded earlier, the reason why some people are demanding that Nnamdi Kanu, Sunday Igboho and the likes should be set free is very clear. We have a government that has shown every form of nepotism, abuse of the rule of law and is not adequately upholding its mandate of welfare and the security of the Nigerian State but if we continue to allow everything go, then the nation will be doomed.
 It’s just like Sheikh Gumi and the likes demanding that the bandits, after all the disservice, mayhem and chaos wreacked on the Nigerian state and the citizenry should be handsomely rewarded by being incorporated into the country’s security system, and be placed on salaries as a way of ending kidnapping in the country; or granting amnesty to some criminals under the toga of Niger Delta Militants.
In my opinion, such a fence-mending attitude cannot bring the desired lasting solution to the problems. Crime should be treated as crime. It is tantamount to hypocrisy to say that someone who has acted against the dictates of the constitution under any guise should not have his day in court. What we should rather be canvassing for is that the court process should be free, fair, transparent and swift.
Some people have always maintained that Nigeria has capable hands in the military, the police and other security agencies to deal with the serious security situation that has been our lot in the country for decades now, if only the powers that be are ready, willing and determined to do so. And the arrest of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu in Kenya and Igboho has indeed laid credence to such insinuation.
We hope to see the same energy put in also in getting those who are within the walls of the country terrorising the nation to face the music as well. Most importantly, we need to get to the root causes of the separatists’ agitations across the country and address them sincerely and objectively. Because if we think that by getting Kanu and Igboho out of the way, the agitations will end, we might be deceiving ourselves. 

By: Calista Ezeaku