The cacophony of voices in the last two months from activists, a section of the media and the opposition, lampooning President Muhammadu Buhari over rights abuses is one of the year ending spectacles, which is likely to shape Nigeria in 2020.
The government had been virtually forced to respect the rule of law, which the opposition claimed had been consistently violated by President Buhari, an ex-Army General.
The opposition was particularly irked with continued detention of the publisher of Sahara Reporters, 48-year-old Omoyele Sowore, who was also the presidential candidate in the February 2019 general elections, who organised a national revolution.
Despite perfecting his bail conditions, the government refused to release Sowore until overwhelming pressure earned him freedom.
In the same vein, the 65-year-old former National Security Advisers (NSA), who had been in detention since 2015 against the orders of court for alleged misapplication of the $2.1 billion money meant for the acquisition of arms and ammunition to tackle the menace of Boko Haram insurgents in the north-east of the country.
However, the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), a faction of Shiite Islamic sect, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and his wife Ameena are still in detention. They were arrested in 2015 after the sect had a violent brush with the army in Zaria, in Kaduna state, which resulted in the death of more than 300 sect members.
The government said on December 23, 2019 that the 66-year-old Islamic leader could not be released because his case fell within the jurisdiction of the Kaduna state that is prosecuting him for culpable homicide.
The high handedness of the government in the cases cited above caused a national newspaper, the Punch, to issue a new editorial policy, which adds the prefix of Major General to the name of Buhari because of the alleged human rights abuses by the government, which he is leading.
Reacting to the new policy of the newspaper, Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the President, argued that the newspaper could insult the President and go home to sleep, peacefully, “because of the prevalence of the freedom of the press and of expression’’.
“Rather than being pejorative, addressing President Buhari by his military rank is another testimony to free speech and freedom of the press, which this administration (or regime, if anyone prefers: it is a matter of semantics) has pledged to uphold and preserve,” he said.
Mr. Josiah Adebayo, a journalist, said with this singular battle against Buhari, 2020 is likely to herald more respect to judicial pronouncements.
The re-election of Buhari in the February presidential election signified a movement to the “next level’’ in the pursuit of anti-corruption, security and economic growth agenda as the nation rolls to 2020.
The war against corruption in 2019 saw the jailing of ex-Abia state governor and a supporter of Buhari, Orji Uzor Kalu. He was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for corruption. Two other ex-governors are already serving various prison terms.
The year also saw the resignation of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mr. Walter Onnoghen, who was convicted by Code of Conduct Tribunal for corruption.
According to Nigeria’s Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami, 22 other ex-governors and many lawmakers and high profile politicians are either being prosecuted or investigated. They have date with 2020.
The year ending 1999 had also been that of agony for many people in parts of Nigeria. Violent crimes peaked in the area. Deaths in herders–farmers’ clashes; banditry and kidnapping peaked and many people displaced.
The embarrassing situation forced the federal government to get approval of the National Assembly to spent $1 billion to procure arms and expanded the police force with additional 10,000 personnel.
As the year rolls to an end, resurgence of Boko Haram in northeast backed by Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) has intensified, but the army has continued to deny potency of the terrorists.
As part of its efforts to improve national security, the Nigerian Army has recruited 5,000 soldiers.
The Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin, on October 19, 2019, assured Nigerians that the military would not rest until the country is safe from the threats of Boko Haram terrorists, armed bandits, kidnappers and other criminal elements.
He also gave an assurance that 2020 will be a turning point and that the security challenges would eliminated as the military was working hard to finally defeat the insurgents.
Another major policy that peculated not just in Nigeria, but its neighbours is the August 20, 2019 closure of borders with Cameroon, Niger, Chad and Niger.
Re-opening of the borders is still not in sight as the nation reports that there had been no substantial compliance with ECOWAS protocol on free trade by the concerned countries.
The closure of the land borders took Nigeria’s neighbours by surprise, although Buhari had consistently warned that Nigeria would wield the stick if those countries did not comply with the guidelines prescribed by ECOWAS.
The government accused those countries of turning Nigeria into a dumping ground for imported goods as well as haven for criminals, a situation that is crippling the growth of local industries and production.
Nigeria has reported that since the closure of borders, there had been a drastic reduction in the influx of small arms, banditry and kidnapping. Also smuggling of petroleum products out of Nigeria and food into Nigeria had been curtailed.
Significantly, the influx of food, especially rice, had been stopped, forcing Nigeria to drive its economic diversification programme.
The 1999 Christmas is one in decades when Nigerians had to cope with the consumption of rice produced locally. Many notable Nigerians have gone into rice production in a drive to make the nation a major rice producer and exporter instead of a net importer.
In spite of the outcry by a section of Nigeria over the pains caused by the closure, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Mr. Hameed Ali, said that “the pains are temporary”.
According to him, the situation will stabilise with better times ahead and ruled out the re-opening of the borders early in 2020 as being speculated.
In his Christmas message on December 24, 2019, Buhari called on all those whose “actions are opposed to what the season represents, especially, insurgents, terrorists, armed robbers, kidnappers and economic saboteurs, to retrace their steps and join people of goodwill and common humanity’’.
Looking ahead to 2020, he warned: “If they fail to heed this call, they will meet their end as the armed forces, security and law-enforcement agencies are poised now to confront and defeat them.’’
“While it is gladdening to note that incidents of violence and conflicts have reduced drastically owing to the several operations embarked on by our security agencies, we must not let our guards down,’’ he said.
Buhari, who signed on December 17, 2019, the US$34 billion budget for 2020, reiterated his promise to be committed to the actualization of “our vision of a bright and prosperous future for all Nigerians”.
“2020 is the ‘Next Level’ year for the fight against corruption, insecurity and spur economic growth through diversification,” he insists.
MM/GIK/APA