Mysterious survival of DSS impetuous gangsterism by Polycarp Onwubiko

The gristly accounts in the August 2 edition of The Nation of what could be described as ‘mysterious’ survival of the APC chieftain in Anambra state, Chief Ifeanyi Nwokoye, who was mercilessly beaten by the officials of the Department of State Services DSS, Awka,  Anambra state must have sent shock waves to well- meaning people in the country. The incident which took place at his May-Roses hotel Amawbia, Awka capital territory on 27 May 2015 was not what could have occasioned severe mortal injuries which had necessitated medical treatment in the overseas hospital.
Having returned from the medical treatment few days ago, Chief Nwokoye ruefully recounted the horrifying brazen and impetuous gangsterism by the operatives of the DSS, regretting that if the DPO whom he had called on phone had responded by sending his men to perform their legitimate duty of protecting him, he would not have suffered severe injuries which could have led to his untimely death or got blinded outright. He said that he would go back to the hospital to complete the remaining surgical operation in the eyes and left shoulder.
He decried a situation where the police could apparently be afraid of the operatives of the DSS who always create the impression that they are superior to the police.
According to the newspaper account of the outrage of people on the severity of the bodily harm on Chief Nwokoye, the APC chieftains in the state and even the national levels have passionately appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a committee to thrash out the matter ostensibly to send signals to the military, paramilitary police, air force, navy DSS etc. to desist from primitive assault on people which has been going unchallenged in the apparently accursed country.
However, the ultimate solution without groping in the dark any   to the brazen impunity and unabashed gangterism of the security agents in the country is a radical transformation of the country from the present pseudo and quasi federal practice to a truly fiscal federalism or a Re-federalization of the country which has been tottering on the brink of disintegration on account of un-abetting ethno-religious hatred, suspicion and hostility. It was the aberrant military regimes that brazenly basterdized the federal practice in vogue from 1960 when Nigeria secured political sovereignty ostensibly to favour the northern part of the country. Sadly, the succeeding civilian administrations were led by the northerners and their apologists who never wanted to go back the ideal federal system of governance.
President Buhari must bestir himself and face the stark reality on the imperative of restructuring the country by implementing the report and recommendations of the 2014 National Conference. According popular admonitions across the length and breath of the country, the solution of bad governance and pervasive corruption is to implement the report of the Confab. It is pertently deceptive for some vociferous elements from the north to canvass that the recommendations of the confab did not favour the north.
Afenifere  chieftain, Chief SeindeArogbofa speaking in the Sunday UNION  August 2, said:”even prominent northerners like the Emir of Ilorin, AlhajiSuleGambari, AlhajiTankoYakasi and former IGP, Mr Coomassie are in full support  for the implementation of the Confab report…President Buhari can’t conveniently gloss over 600 decisions made in the Confab.
 In his press interview, Mr TM Yerima of Taraba state said: “President Muhammadu Buhari should hit the ground running by signing into law the report of the last national conference…the report of the confab should be accorded top priority. The exercise was good eye opener as it addressed a wide range of issues and also identified the myriad of problems confronting the country by the people’s representatives from all the nooks and crannies of the country who had deliberated and itemized how those problems could be solved. It was indeed a perfect summit…The 492-member summit was able to come up with comprehensive suggestions that could take care of the imbalances in the country, as it provided solutions to the agitation of the south-east that was short-changed in the number of states in the zone as compared with others, it also came up with electoral reforms and so many far-reaching recommendations”.
In restructuring the polity, for instance, state police is a panacea for the seemingly intractable insecurity in the country. The federal government has been incapable of providing  the operational needs of the police and even the FRSC. Rather state governments have been spending their peoples money on the police which ought be. Due to ethnic hatred, police from the north posted to the south especially in Igbo speaking areas  are trigger-happy as they kill people anyhow and go scot-free as it would take a mere phone call from an Emir to set the police man free. It is only in the south that police is agile and seemingly proactive but in the north, they pretend to be weak, and do not shoot people recklessly.  Fulani herdsmen carry guns and kill and even sack whole communities in Benue states whom are refugees in a country that is not at war.
In the federal courts, appeal courts and Supreme court, northerners dominate as they conspire and push their people from state public service to the federal service, even falsifying ages and sundry records to the effect that one sees people who are above 70 years going by their faces and frame in the courts. While making a valedictory speech, an army officer did not know when he betrayed himself when he said that he spent 38 years in the service, even when the retirement age in the public service is 35.Who is fooling whom?
Akwa-Ibom state built a state- of-the-art prison since the federal government could not afford that, even to refurbish existing ones in dilapidating conditions, making the inmates to live like animals. The fact remains that no amount of police reforms that can bring about efficient and effective security architecture in Nigeria. No amount of platitudes on corruption can move the country forward; the leeway is true federalism which the confab has been a step but not a complete one. Again, no amount  tinkering and hypocritical posturing that  will bring about quality education in Nigeria unless education is removed from the concurrent legislative list with consequent abolition of JAMB, since no country in the world operates a single body for admission into institutions of higher learning. It is incontrovertible to asseverate that all the ethnic groups in Nigeria do not have the same aspiration for education and therefore the deliberate dragging down of the Igbos in the education aspiration of their children must stop. It bears re-stating that the change mantra of APC will amount to grand deception if the confab recommendations are dumped by the federal government.
MrOnwubiko is an author and public affairs commentator, AwkaAnambra state


Mr. Onwubiko is an author and public affairs analyst, [email protected], Awka Anambra State