A Very Dangerous Presidential Executive Order That Requires Urgent Review: By Sir Don Ubani; KSC, JP Onwunbuka of Asa.

A society that does not believe in application of flexibility, especially in circumstances that urgently demand it, will always stand the risk of running into troubled waters.

Government Policies are basically made to help a Government achieve its fundamental objectives of guaranteeing the safety of life and property of citizens and their general welfare. 

Any policy that does not advance the general interest and welfare of the citizenry is as inimical to the society as bad laws.

About May 22, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari signed an Executive Order removing, revoking and banishing all fire arms' certificates and licences on Shot Guns. The Order became effective on the 1st of June, 2019.

Granted there were purported threats posed by Niger Delta Militants, who had allegedly said they would declare Niger Delta Republic on the 1st of June, 2019, the President ought to have put many other factors into consideration before arriving at such an injurious decision.

Section 33 of even the flawed 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, as variously amended, states that it is a fundamental responsibility of the Federal Government to safeguard the lives and properties of Nigerian Citizens. Section 253 of the Criminal Code grants the Nigerian Citizen the Right to Self-Determination.

The above constitutional stipulation explains why there is the Nigerian Police Force and other Security Agencies funded by the Federal and State Governments, using the Tax Payers' Money.

Section 253 of the Criminal Code must have anticipated that, all being equal, Governments may not be able to provide enough security personnel that can provide all round security for the citizenry and, therefore, made legal provision for law-abiding citizens, who can afford it, to legitimately procure their own licenced arms for the sole purpose of their self defence.

Never in the history of Nigeria had insecurity been as bad as it is today under the APC Federal Government of President Muhammadu Buhari.

When the Party came into power in 2015, the security threat he met on ground was that of Boko Haram Islamist Insurgency, restricted to the North-East. The insurgency would have been crushed by the PDP Federal Government of President Goodluck Jonathan but Major General Muhammadu Buhari and his co-northern moslems had accused him of ethnic cleansing for killing the insurgents. That accusation must have demoralized him. After all, he is a human-being.

The former military dictator, who had boasted that if elected as President in 2015, Boko Haram insurgency would automatically become a thing of the past, now has a multiplicity of security threats weighing seriously down on the country.

It is on record that apart from the Boko Haram, fulani terrorists' herdsmen have emerged and are injuriously devastating the country in all parts. Fulani bandits are also taking a very serious toll on the corporate existence of Nigeria. Jihadists of Islamist West Africa are also on the prowl.

Nigeria, in all the Regions, have been turned into a blood bath of the terrorist fulani.

Before the May 2019 Executive Order was signed by President Buhari, there had been a wide-spread suspicion and fear that the President could be nursing the ambition of assisting his foreign fulani tribesmen, for whom he had thrown open the northern borders of Nigeria for unrestricted migration into the country, cheap access to unlawful land acquisition by forcefully and brutally displacing indigenous peoples of Nigeria from their ancestral lands and homes.

Of course, experiences in the Middle-Belt States of Benue, Plateau, Taraba and Southern Kaduna amply justify the suspicion and fear. Indigenous Hausa communities in Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi and Zaria have not been spared of extremity of fulani terrorism.

The story is the same in States such as Niger, Nasarawa and Kogi. South-East, South-South and South-West are under siege by the terrorist fulani herdsmen.

Nigeria had never been subjected to this avalanche of insecurity in her One Hundred And Seven Years of Existence! 

What is worse is that despite all the killings by the terrorist fulani herdsmen, the APC Federal Government makes no effort, whatsoever, to bring any of the perpetrators of these heinous crimes against humanity to book. This is why it has remained, not only difficult but impossible to convince any Nigerian of either Middle-Belt or Southern extraction that the APC Federal Government is not complicit.

With overwhelming incidents and cases of insecurity in Nigeria under the APC Federal Government, the need to review this very obnoxious Executive Order of 22nd June, 2019 has unquestionably arisen. If Nigerians are allowed to follow due process to obtain and licence guns for their self-defense, it would go a long way reducing their vulnerabilities in the hands of criminals who, in the face of the said Executive Order, are the only ones, even though illegally, that are in possession of guns with which they have continuosly wrecked havoc against Nigerians.

Mr President, Sir, except you have an ulterior motive, there is a compelling need for your Administration to review this Executive Order. Lawful citizens should not be deprived of their legitimate right of self defence.

Sir Don Ubani is a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy,  Abia State.